A grumble about the AI

[D4everman]

I've always been impressed by the way that SMAC and SMACX doesn't rely on blatant AI cheats...but they do happen and man, it pisses me off. I know the AI can't really match human cunning, so there has to some allowances, but dudes....this was ridiculous.

I'm playing a new game (I usually start several different games at once so if I get bored with onew I can play the other for awhile and switch back) As the UoP I find myself alone but near the monsoon jungle. My opponents are the Believers, the Cult, the Gaians, the Drones, the Hive and Aki. My first move is to go for Secrets of the Human Brain and get the free tech, so I can try and out tech everyone else. Within a few years I discover Social Psych...the FIRST breakthrough on planet. A few turns later I get SotHB and begine building the HGP in a base that had a very high mineral count for the start of the game (9). Five turns later I get the message that Aki has built the HGP. HUH?

Now, its bad enough that the believers where building the Weather Paradigm and the Virtual World also... (I was too, in other bases but I knew they might beat me to one of them) but How in the name of Fungus could Aki not only make the needed discoveries but then beat me to it? Yeah, it can happen, but man, I swear the AI just said "Screw it!" and gave it her.

Too add insult to injury University Base had a drone riot so I nerve stapled them. Then I got the message that I was being sanctioned! By who? I haven't MET ANYONE yet. I should be able to eat puppies for breakfast and kill millions for kicks and the other factions...who don't yet know I exist...would be none the wiser!

Anyone else got any compaable grumbles? I'll get over it...its only a game...but after a bad day in the office that really popped my cork.

D4

PS...by the way it was Thinker level

[death_head]

What probably happened with Aki in that scenario was that she was only one turn away from discovering the tech herself, and she probably had a better base than you.

As far as the sanctioning, I have never had that happen to me, but I agree with you completely. That is stupid, and it's not even put in there to give the AI an edge.

[Cybergod]

Oh yeah? What about seeing HUMONGOUS numbers of missile needlejets come and wipe your a** of the place of Monsoon Jungle? OK, I got wiser later on and actually built interceptors in respectable numbers (pull those SOBs down to the ground ), but still... Also in another game, where I had war with Yang, I infultrated him and found out that he was supporting 23 units for FREE in just one of his bases!!!

I wish Firaxis came up with smarter AI and not just give them ridiculous advantages .

[death_head]

23 units for free!?

Have you considered the possibility of clean reactors?

Who knows, I tend to not engage in heavy probe activity so I can't affirm or deny that statement.

[Docfeelgood]

I use the game edit and my games turn out play worthy.

[Blake]

My main gripe is probably the faction grouping on transcend difficulty, for some reason you usually get dropped right next to atleast one warmonger, and sometimes several.

An "average distance between factions" option woulda been nice.

[Avenoct]

What's with this guy? -->

At first I thought it was blood spurting outta his ear, but that made no sense....now I think of him as 'Red Sperm Head'.

Anyways, just a tidbit on the SP business..I have noticed that sometimes the AI's initiating of an SP is not announced. I suspect this is because the AI starts working on say, the Merchant Exchange and then discovers Planetary Networks and switches to working on the Virtual World.

I don't consider this an AI cheat at all, just a fuddlement of the point of announcing that they are working on a project in the first place. I mean, ya can't say on the one hand 'Why don't they ignore my nerve stapler?' and on the other hand expect to hear all the latest AI gossip out of the ether.

I like to think about some of these things in Smac and other games as Rumors being spread by the countless little workers you can't see...makes for a storyline of sorts: "Say, Where's Joe today Marty?" "I dunno, but I heard he was working intel over by the Human Hive...odd that he's missing our Rover mini-worm-golf game???".."Well I Heard that Yang is Nerve Stapling his own people! I hope the guys upstairs do something about that.." Yadda Yadda.

Personally I feel like the AI 'Cheats' are pretty well defined but it's still a great feeling when the AI SEEMS to be thinking b/c of those cheats. On the other hand, when you have no chance to outsmart it because it's churning out Needlejets for 12 minerals or somesuch, it gets dammed annoying.

What I hate is that I can get a billion crawlers crawling all the FOPs, be running FM and using specialists, and then look over at Miriams paltriness and see she's about to get 2 more SP's b/c her mineral requirements seem like: HGP: 25 minerals VW: 35 minerals...and so on. I just wish the AI had to go through Crawler Hell and actually need production, but it doesn't b/c it can't, and that's too bad.

-Smack

[death_head]

And where exactly would the fun be if you weren't getting blown to pieces all the time?

Oh wait, it would be there...D'OH!

This guy rules

[Cybergod]

Originally posted by death_head
23 units for free!?

Have you considered the possibility of clean reactors?

Who knows, I tend to not engage in heavy probe activity so I can't affirm or deny that statement.

Yang was nowhere near that tech at the time, he was still beginning to research Neural Grafting and I've checked his Security Nexus to see whether there were Clean Reactors - none detected ...

The mistery continues

::X-files theme::

[death_head]

The mistery stops

:ause X-Files theme::

The mystery continues

::resume X-Files theme::

[John Paul Jones]

Originally posted by Smack
What's with this guy? -->

At first I thought it was blood spurting outta his ear, but that made no sense....now I think of him as 'Red Sperm Head'.

He's pounding his fist in rage lol , or maybe hes over exerted himself watching pr0n

[Blake]

I dunno, but the tool tip says "I said do it!"

23 units supported in one base, is it possible yang was running Police State and Power, for the magical >+3 support, allowing base size units supported free, so if it was a size 23 base then they would all be free, perfectly legally... presumably some are probes, and possibly some are mindworms in fungus...

Basically, if it was a size 14 base, and the other 9 units were probes or mindworms then it could just be possible. *shrug* or it could be blatant cheating. Or it could be units showing up as supported in the wrong base (I've seen weirder).

[D4everman]

If you want to talk about an obvious AI cheat, try the unlimited range conventional missiles the AI's seem to love tossing at you. I had one game where Lal seemingly had an endless supply of them in one base and chucked 'em clear across the globe at me. It drove me mad, until I built the space elvevator, dropped half a dozen tanks in on him and wiped him out. (I would have accepted his surrender but the missile thing really ticked me off)

D4

[Blake]

I thought the missile bug was patched?

The single most annoying AI cheat would have to be the ability to see any and all cloaked/hidden units, because it removes an entire element of gameplay from the singleplayer experience.

[death_head]

The AI can see cloaked and hidden units. It will seek and destroy your hidden units, but it will not attack a cloaked unit, even though it knows where it is.