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I'll start by saying I'm not a hardcore SMAC player. I played a few games of SMAC when I got the game, then I got the expansion and played that a couple of times, and recently came back to the game having not played it for 3 or 4 years.
Coming back to the game, I played as the Gaians on Transcend difficulty, with a mix of classical and SMACX factions. I had a pretty indifferent starting position, boxed in on three sides and caught in the crossfire between the aliens, and I made lots of mistakes, so the first 100 years were quite hard - by the time the borders firmed up, on virtually every indicator I was bottom of the pile.
But then from about 2120 onwards it felt like the game was going to let me win. The Spartans who'd been breathing down my neck started getting ground down - once I'd taken a couple of bases they made little serious attempt to counterattack, and by the time I got aircraft it was basically all over for them. I made contact with the other two factions and I managed to trade my way up to a decent tech position. I signed pacts with all the humans, and got most of them to fight the Usurpers, who have now been pushed back to their little starting island. And all the while Morgan (the most powerful human by far) was just gifting me masses of tech, right up to the point where I used that tech to bribe my way to planetary governor (stealing the post off Morgan) and get to third place in the rankings.
I'm far from in control in this game, but I can just feel that the AI is sliding rapidly downhill relative to me. The once immensely powerful Caretakers attacked me, but their idea of an attack seems to be chucking missiles at units which cost me 10 minerals to build, and they don't even try to follow up with ground forces; also I have the support of virtually all the human factions, who are doing a good job of building up my airforce. The Morganites are still miles ahead of me and they built most of the SPs before I even had the tech for them, but their country is overcrowded and not all that big, while my conquests have given me loads of expansion room.
When I think about it, most of my games went this way - first 100 years can be a challenge, but by the time the Fusion Revolution comes about, the AI starts stagnating. Does anyone know a way of keeping the AI competitive in the middle and late stages of the game? For example, I'd love to see a good space war, but I've never seen the AI build a single satellite.
Coming back to the game, I played as the Gaians on Transcend difficulty, with a mix of classical and SMACX factions. I had a pretty indifferent starting position, boxed in on three sides and caught in the crossfire between the aliens, and I made lots of mistakes, so the first 100 years were quite hard - by the time the borders firmed up, on virtually every indicator I was bottom of the pile.
But then from about 2120 onwards it felt like the game was going to let me win. The Spartans who'd been breathing down my neck started getting ground down - once I'd taken a couple of bases they made little serious attempt to counterattack, and by the time I got aircraft it was basically all over for them. I made contact with the other two factions and I managed to trade my way up to a decent tech position. I signed pacts with all the humans, and got most of them to fight the Usurpers, who have now been pushed back to their little starting island. And all the while Morgan (the most powerful human by far) was just gifting me masses of tech, right up to the point where I used that tech to bribe my way to planetary governor (stealing the post off Morgan) and get to third place in the rankings.
I'm far from in control in this game, but I can just feel that the AI is sliding rapidly downhill relative to me. The once immensely powerful Caretakers attacked me, but their idea of an attack seems to be chucking missiles at units which cost me 10 minerals to build, and they don't even try to follow up with ground forces; also I have the support of virtually all the human factions, who are doing a good job of building up my airforce. The Morganites are still miles ahead of me and they built most of the SPs before I even had the tech for them, but their country is overcrowded and not all that big, while my conquests have given me loads of expansion room.
When I think about it, most of my games went this way - first 100 years can be a challenge, but by the time the Fusion Revolution comes about, the AI starts stagnating. Does anyone know a way of keeping the AI competitive in the middle and late stages of the game? For example, I'd love to see a good space war, but I've never seen the AI build a single satellite.
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