AI strengths and weaknesses??

[blinking_spirit]

I'm almost sure this topic has been discussed to some length, but as a newbie (to apolyton, not SMAC) it is not the easiest thing to search for. That is of course I'm simply not doing it the incorrect way

I wanted to know from your experiences what the AI strengths and weaknesses are, as well as which faction the AI plays best with (and the worst).

I've been going through a phase of how sharp an AI is in games (my referral here is primarily turn-based games) and I wanted to know from others what they thought of SMAC's AI.

Your comments are greatly appreciated

[Jamski]

The AI in SMAC is not the smartest, shall we say *giggles*

It attacks very predicatably, often sending one unit at a time against a strong point. It rarely hurries SPs, making them very easy for the player to get, and it can't use crawlers at all. On top of that it builds loads of units and doesn't use them, eating up support costs for no reason.

And that's just for starters.

-Jam

[CEO Aaron]

The AI is almost all weaknesses. It overbuilds military units and does nothing with them, drives colonies into the middle of nowhere and parks them, and just generally acts as a speed bump between you and victory.

The factions that the AI uses best are those which operate well with good support. Miriam, Yang, Spartans are all more troublesome than the others.

In short, the AI is mediocre on a war footing, and completely hopeless at developing its economy.

Suffice to say that SMAX is too complex a game for the AI to be able to even remotely compete with a human on even terms. It is possible to stack odds in the AI's favor, at which point the AI raises from inept to barely adequate.

[Googlie]

The best experience is to play multiplayer with other human players (either networked play, or play by e-mail)

Next best is to try some of the single player set-up games, where the AI has been tweaked thru the scenario editor to give it better strategy and tactics - you'll find a few of varying difficulty level here

[SynthetGod8]

the AI also doesn't know how to effectively use jets, except as an annoyance. Or transports.
And they're just as likely to blow up their own just-captured base with a Buster (and take some of their own cities with it) as they are to hit your capitol.

[johndmuller]

blinking_spirit, Welcome to Apolyton.

The major strength of the AI is that it will play the game with you; it knows the rules and if your computer is reasonably up to date, it will not keep you waiting for it to take its turns. The faction leaders have pretty strong personalities, and you may get to feel like you personally know them- generally in a less than best-friends fashion, however.

If you are not yet playing at the transcend level, you can always improve the relative competitiveness of the AI by playing a couple of levels higher than you're used to. You can also handicap yourself by refraining from using choppers, crawlers, SP's, etc - untill you find a good balance. There are various challenges, such as the One City Challenge, that are also entertaining and informative.

Personally, I find Yang to be the faction that is played the best by the AI, but at one time or another, there are moments of brilliance displayed by any of the factions, if things happen to play into their strengths - but losing to the AI is generally considered something embarassing (although it probably happens more than most of us would want to admit).

[blinking_spirit]

Thanks all.
I've found these forums incredibly useful and detailed. I've only starting tapping into SMAC real potential and I can't believe it has taken me so many years to realise this.

PS Thanks Googlie for the site for scenarios

[Dis]

I find the AI a very tough and worthy adversary.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Dissident
I find the AI a very tough and worthy adversary.

Don't forget honorable.

[Santiago_Claus]

The AI's strength is in its coordination of ground attacks against your bases.

I've watched the AI's patterns of behavior: it spreads its forces out, hides them in fungus, and stages them with 1 square of "open ground" between rovers and the base they'll be attacking. Of course it's possible I simply thought I observed that because of the overwhelming numbers involved -- if there's an Impact Rover behind every bush it's not so much a sign of a wise AI as a prolific one.

Coincidence or not, though, if you haven't planted sensors and you don't have air the AI will make you pay for your sloppiness.

Once you gain air units the AI falls off. It uses air power itself, too, of course, but not nearly as effectively as experienced players use it.

The AI's biggest weakness is terraforming. AI's infrastructure building in general is threadbare and haphazard. The AI is excellent at expanding but poor at leveraging it.

edit:
Gotta second johndmuller on the issue of "personality" -- the prose for the diplomacy AI really helps suspend disbelief, so that I don't feel like I'm talking to a state machine but rather to a head-of-state. Does a computer program pass the Turing Test if one refers to it as "that trigger-happy bastard Lal"?

[Flubber]

To me the biggest weakness of the AI is its inability to see the bigger picture-- it seems to think tactically and not strategically. My simple example is that the AI will NEVER sacrifice units against near impossible odds as a human will do. So the AI can have 80 missile needlejets in range but seems to never attack that lone 1<8>1 garrison since the odds would be unfavorable. A human player doesn't care and sacrifices 3, 4 or 5 units just to kill one for attaining the greater objective of capturing the base.

Its odd, since the AI's behavior in attacking is DIRECTLY contrary to its behavior in what it builds. Even with 80 missile needlejets attacking nothing and shuttling around, the AI will STILL be building more

[DilithiumDad]

Terraforming is a big weakness.

Game settings to boost AI:

1. Transcend (obviously), with XP patch so they get facility maintenance bonus

2. Dense clouds --this helps the AI a lot.

3. Low water. AI can't use transports well and opeates best on land.

4. Spoils of war. This seldom helps you, but it helps aggressive AI factions keep up in tech.

5. Map is critical. Use a resource rich map like Ultimate Builder's Map for more challenging AI.

[Chaos Theory]

On some maps, lots of land is a liability for the AI. In particular, if there is a long land route to the Monsoon Jungle, the AI will send colony pods there, even if they'll be in transit for 100 years. Mini jungles (on the Ultimate Builder's Map) should solve this, but other solutions are to isolate the MJ on an island, or delete it entirely.

[Jamski]

This is because the AI is obsessed with nutrients. Let the AI place your workers, look how the AI terraforms, look at the AI base placement. They are nut mad.

-Jam

[Googlie]

Could be some slight program changes from the original smac v.1, as Firaxis did solicit feedback and "learned" (??) of the ICS strategy humans use. My guess is that they made arty less of a priority build for the AI (they admitted to such) and made it better able to keep up in pop growth

IMO, It's taken to the extreme in Civ3

G.