Ai Ics!!!

[Zeiter]

Go AI, Go! Wow, I actually got the AI to ICS for once. I mean, look at this! A perfect 2-on-the-diagonal spacing ICS layout! And look at what AI Morgan is building! In this game, he's actually about 7 or 8 techs ahead of me! He's got most of the ICS SPs, like the PTS, and the WP. And not only Morgan is doing well, but all of the AI are doing well. Yang's got the HGP, and is spreading over Asia like a virus. Miriam displayed an impressive land grab (you can see on the map how she rushed to plant CPs to block Yang's encroachment.). I don't even know how Santiago is doing, but she's first in the powercharts. All I did was give some of the AI jungle, 3 CPs, 3 scouts, and 1 former to start out with. I also made them all have build priorities, took down the agressiveness a little, and made them focus on formers and colony pods. I'm also using the modified alpha.txt that I posted in the creation forum, where there aren't any crawlers, pop booming, or any other generally exploitative stuff.

I've been expanding as rapidly as possible (I'm Lal) and they are still keeping up with me as far as total number of bases go, not to mention population, where they are dominating me at the moment. I'm gonna have to probe rape Morgan here in a little while (although it's going to be expensive. Probe teams now cost like 8 rows with this alpha.txt mod). I'm really not sure if I'm going to prevail in this game, which is a really unusual and exciting feeling to have. Anyway, here's ICS-ing AI Morgan for ya:

[binTravkin]

AI does ICSing quite often - take Huge Planet map and put Yang in the Monsoon - what you've got is at least a 2x2ICS, but sometimes even 1x1 and the ICS is quite regular - all the cities whose radius is made up completely by jungle are put in mathematically precise grid..

That's the way AI exploits Jungle!

[#endgame]

So inspiring...

I love it!

[Lord Nword]

Wow... that certainly looks good...

But I still have no clue what ICS means...

[Chaos Theory]

Infinite City Sprawl

[livid imp]

I like that map, got a link to it?

[Zeiter]

Here you go. I threw in a map of part of Europe too.

[Lord Nword]

Ok question, ICS, IMO, i'm guilty of it myself *shrug*

Is there a limit of 256 bases? I've heard this once, and not confirmed it myself

[smacksim]

The question has always been: 'How to get the AI to ICS without jungle?' but it's good to see that even Morgan is willing to have a go in the xenobannana forest.

Let us know how the game goes Zeiter.

[Zeiter]

It's MY 2204, and I'm still lagging waaaay behind. I amassed about 7 or 8 probes and managed to probe about 10 techs off Morgan, although I lost all of my probes in the process (I was probing the same base over and over, and the security interlocks got them). Pretty expensive, really, as each probe team was like 70 minerals, but it was worth it. So, I'm now at tech parity, but I'm still way behind in other areas. Morgan has several size 11 bases, which I expect will blossom to size 13 pretty soon (he just got the AV). He's got several 20+ min bases, vs. my 8 min bases, so until I get some boreholes in place, there's no way I'm going to snag any SPs.

So, I'm in vendetta with Morgan and Miriam, (barely holding on to my frontier bases at the moment, trying to get impact rovers out there ASAP.). Pact with Zak (running knowledge) and in a shaky treaty with Yang, who has spread to 21 bases so far. Here's the SP chart. As you can see, I don't have any. Even worse, I'm guessing Morgan is going to get the HSA (he's researching PSA right now, and I know he can complete it faster than Zak). So, no more probing there pretty soon.

[Whoha]

The AI isn't falling into the trap of building 20 units per base?

[Zeiter]

Amazingly, no. At least, not until they get into a war. I put their priorities as build, so they've been just expanding and building facilities so far. Although once they get into a war, they immediately switch to building military units in most of their bases, but then they immediately send those units off to fight instead of just sitting around (for the most part).

[Mead]

Are you going to allow yourself to use 'chop n' drop'?

If you are then you should be able to conquer Morgan, and the rest, very quickly once you get choppers.

Mead

[Zeiter]

Well, I'll try, but with the alpha.txt I'm using, AAA units get a 150% bonus vs. air attacks, choppers cost like 3 times as much, and they only have a movement of 6, so I'm think it's going to be a little harder than that.

[Whoha]

D-Wave and blink though. If choppers come later then both of those will probably be available.