"Generally accepted" improvements?

[Littiz]

By visiting these forums I've noticed of course how players edit and change/improve their games.

Some changes are just that, modifications that make the game a bit different in some aspects.
But some, heck, sound like plain improvements that imply "no taste", so to speak.
I mean, things that make the AI behave a little smarter, build more efficient and powerful units, that sort of things.

So, I was wondering: has anyone collected some basic improvements that would "always" go fine with an -otherwise- standard installation of the game?

I'm still not much of an expert to go and try such kind of modifications myself

[Lazerus]

Dense clouds is probably the only one using "standard" game options; the better stuff you need to use the scenario editor, though these are still actually standard options really as they're not altering tech trees and such making the game different.

Using scenario editor - giving the AI sats, some terraforming, more colony pods and indepedant formers, maybe tweak their actual faction to give a free facility such as tree farm. Editing strategies to make them focus on building colony pods and formers and to focus on building rather then wasting all their minerals on recon rovers for aggression.

Breaking away from standard options you can alter the tech tree to make things like missiles really cheap and lower down the tech tree which the AI like to build.

[binTravkin]

But some, heck, sound like plain improvements that imply "no taste", so to speak.
I mean, things that make the AI behave a little smarter, build more efficient and powerful units, that sort of things.

If I understand you correctly, you dislike beefed-up AI.
Although I could agree that simply adding quantity is not very aesthetic I most point out that many players find un-beefed AI so weak they have no fun whatsoever on beating them in SP and in MP they only serve as early source of tech and a few more bases.
Also note that there are ways to tweak AI's intelligence..

[Littiz]

Thanx for your replies, first of all

Dense clouds is probably the only one using "standard" game options;

Uhm, more rain and faster growth rate for the AI, right?

Using scenario editor - giving the AI sats, some terraforming, more colony pods and indepedant formers, maybe tweak their actual faction to give a free facility such as tree farm. Editing strategies to make them focus on building colony pods and formers and to focus on building rather then wasting all their minerals on recon rovers for aggression.

This is interesting, but I understand you'll have to do such modifications for every game, right?

What I was searching for would actually be some sort of a "mod" collecting generally appreciated modifications (like a modified alpha.txt defining more kinds of units for the AI, various bonuses, stuff like that), because I haven't the skills to modify the game myself.

If I understand you correctly, you dislike beefed-up AI.
Although I could agree that simply adding quantity is not very aesthetic I most point out that many players find un-beefed AI so weak they have no fun whatsoever on beating them in SP and in MP they only serve as early source of tech and a few more bases.

Actually beefing would be fine for me, if you experienced players can point to some "standard" adjustments to improve the game.
But I'm also interested in those tweaks for the AI's smartness, of course

[binTravkin]

What I was searching for would actually be some sort of a "mod" collecting generally appreciated modifications (like a modified alpha.txt defining more kinds of units for the AI, various bonuses, stuff like that), because I haven't the skills to modify the game myself.

Actually beefing would be fine for me, if you experienced players can point to some "standard" adjustments to improve the game.
But I'm also interested in those tweaks for the AI's smartness, of course

Please go to this thread and ask your question, like:
'how do I beef up the AI?'
'how do I tweak Apha(x).txt to make AI better'
'how do I make AI "smarter"'

But read the first post before you post.

[Littiz]

Thanx, but I was really looking for quick and ready improvements, without need of understanding the mechanics and applying hacks myself...
As you may notice by my low posts frequency, I really have just the time for a "quick" session with Alpha now and then, so for now I'll stick to gaming when possible
In time, I figure I'll learn some tricks without too much of an effort...

[binTravkin]

Use challenge scenarios.
There's one topped right at the moment (January challenge).
You can also ask Darsnan, Googlie and Chaos Theory to send you some of their past works (there are many and they're really challenging).