AI expansionism & tech rate vs diff level

[Master Marcus]

to all of the testers having played/playing a pre-release copy of the game, like DanQ, JonahFalcon and other selected individuals, I want to know if you can share some information about the AI behavior ( and why not the ships and battle management, not much discussed yet in the previews...). Is the AI NOT cheating on default setting ( normal ), or is it a bit ??? At hard, is it cheating like in Civ III??? Are the AI empires expanding much faster than the human player all conditions being equal ?? Does a AI declares war on you too much often and suddenly, out of a whim ? Can YOU, or can the AI achieve a significant tech lead or is this well balanced?? How is the global balancing for...only 3 diff levels???

Are you really at disadvantage when NOT being an Orion Senate member? By HOW MUCH is your room for expansion really open next to a starting near the center? Well, enough of my questions for now.......I just can't wait for the game...

[kalbear]

There are 4 difficulty levels.

[leiavoia]

since MOO3 is very data-obscure, it's hard to say, but it would appear that the AI does not "cheat" as such. perhaps on impossible, but certainly not on the other levels that i have observed.

[patrickjb53]

The best way to avoid the AI cheating is to play MP.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by patrickjb53
The best way to avoid the AI cheating is to play MP.

Then you get to deal with cheating humans instead.

[viciouscycle]

Originally posted by Stuie


Then you get to deal with cheating humans instead.

Sad but true.

[Daz]

How exactly do you cheat on MP?

[Cedayon]

People will find ways. They always do.

It'll be a matter of finding the right people for MP games...

[Master Marcus]

Originally posted by Daz


How exactly do you cheat on MP?

We are hijacking the thread, but this is important.
Stuie and viciouscycle are right: this is the sad reality of MP playing; that's why I still prefer a good SP with a decent AI. There's a lot of crackpots out there; they are skilled, they have the knowledge of coding, modding, altering the rules of a game, in some games they can hack your CD key. High profiles FPS and action games like UT 2003 are simply unplayable on MP servers because of the cheats - cheat protection, even fixed later on, seems to never catch on. It's another debate.

I'm more interested about MoO3's AI...

[viciouscycle]

@Master Marcus: Excellent reply.

I only play MP with friends because I hate running into strangers who think it's fun to win by hacking a game. It is already hard enough to find people who are willing to spend a whole day gaming with you and won't run off if something comes up or they are losing.

That's also why I am very interested in a game's AI.

[Daz]

I never play MP. I like it when the AI is intelligent though thats not often the case. It is somewhat understandable cause the AI simply cannot correctly answer all the possible situations that occur.

What I dont like is have a dumb AI for the sake of it not cheating. Id rather have it cheat and be competetive than be easy beatable on impossible.

[Grumbold]

Having multiplayer mode where people can hop in and out of the game is a definite advantage, especially if it turns out that the AI can do a passable job of running an empire if the human opponent bails when he loses his first planet.

[Main_Brain]

MP only in LAN then?

[Main_Brain]

Ahh Seems you all saw the Wisdom in my Words and decided to sink away in shame.

[Grumbold]

From the news items, 11 Feb:

Nate Birkholz has posted some odds and ends on MacGamer (MG) regarding the Macintosh port of Master of Orion III in recent days. Developed by MacSoft, this IG representative confirmed that like its PC parent the port will use GameSpy Arcade as its in-game multiplayer browser. This will allow for cross-platform games over the Internet.