SE5 AI is pathetic

AAshbery76 · #1 October 15th, 2006, 05:30 PM

Blame the publishers SF,who yet again released a game unfinished.3+ months more development time was needed.

Yimboli · #2 October 15th, 2006, 05:38 PM

who's surprised?

*doesn't raise hand*

pardon the cynicism, it just seems like the general trend for space empires is to leave AI programming to the modders, who aren't even on the payroll.

as an aside, based on the demo I've also decided not to buy, and instead lay off computer games entirely for a while. I'll still be lurking though =P

jowe01 · #3 October 15th, 2006, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Yimboli said:
who's surprised?

*doesn't raise hand*

pardon the cynicism, it just seems like the general trend for space empires is to leave AI programming to the modders, who aren't even on the payroll.

I am afraid, I have to second that. As much as I hail Aaron for tweaking the mechanics of SE4 until they were really good and essentially bug-free, as much it was painfully clear that he had also deliberately accepted releasing SE4 at a point in time where it was little more than a bug-riddled, early beta version. In terms of AI, it was even worse: not even today are the SE4 AIs capable of following through on their attacks or "remembering" even the most basic pitfalls (like odds in which they have already lost a dozen times before, etc.)

Elsemeravin · #4 October 15th, 2006, 06:16 PM

On the other side, the sooner the game is publicly released, the sooner I can work on my mod, which should then be completed by the time Aaron fix most issues.

If released in 3 months, I can only start in 3 months, and not proposed the mod when the game is finally "finished" (bug-free).

The marketing should however start big advertising not now but in 3 months, and then only fans of the series might buy the game now, however still buggy, and the newcomers will only hear about it in 3 months and buy a game "bug-free" and with several interesting mods tweaking it.

Baron Munchausen · #5 October 15th, 2006, 09:20 PM

The patch will help quite a bit. The AI is not 'comatose' anymore in the latest patch. It'll never be real competition for an experienced human, of course. But at least it will be doing something after the patch.

Phoenix-D · #6 October 15th, 2006, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Baron Munchausen said:
The patch will help quite a bit. The AI is not 'comatose' anymore in the latest patch. It'll never be real competition for an experienced human, of course. But at least it will be doing something after the patch.

What in the patch helped the AI? I didn't see anything in the notes.

Baron Munchausen · #7 October 16th, 2006, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Phoenix-D said:

Quote:

Baron Munchausen said:
The patch will help quite a bit. The AI is not 'comatose' anymore in the latest patch. It'll never be real competition for an experienced human, of course. But at least it will be doing something after the patch.

What in the patch helped the AI? I didn't see anything in the notes.

Well, he never has put everything in the history file. I can't say what may have changed since I don't know the scripting language but I started a new game a couple days ago and the AI is much more active than I have ever seen it. The .CSF files are dated Oct 9th, so things in there have been changed very recently. There are actual fleets moving around. They block warp points after my scouts come through. Until recently they were actually ahead of me in certain technologies. Since I play with 'see all scores' enabled I can see how fast the AI empires are growing, too. They are expanding at a better rate than I can remember seeing before.

Fyron · #8 October 15th, 2006, 10:08 PM

AAshbery76 said:
Blame the publishers SF,who yet again released a game unfinished.3+ months more development time was needed.

If Aaron hadn't done the exact same thing with Starfury and SE4 before this, I might be inclined to agree...

AstralWanderer · #9 October 15th, 2006, 11:40 PM

I'd agree that the AI in SEIV was dire as well to start with. The problem is that AI can only really be worked on when the game engine/rules are essentially set in stone - if the game balance isn't there yet (necessitating further changes) then clearly the AI is going to be some way behind.

On the other hand, how many posters here would be happy to see the release delayed for a few more months to allow for better tuning of the AI, given that modders (*salutes*) likely have more time to do a better job?

LordAxel · #10 October 16th, 2006, 12:37 AM

The game will be slightly hurt as well bc its not in the big super stores(best buy ,cc). The game is far more buggy than i expected. My feel on alot of the broken components is dont include them until they work. The worst thing is they should have NEVER EVER released this game with the state the multiplayer is in. Either that or the AI has to be good at release or what are you releasing