TDM is really cool

[geoschmo]

I know it's late in the game to be bringing this up, but honestly I haven't played all that many TDM mod games. I don't play against the AI much at all. But we are using the latest TDM version for the War of the Five houses game and it's so cool getting messages from AI players that aren't the typical stock speech files. There have been a couple times I've actually forgotten for a few minutes that I'm dealing with computer players.

Actually losing the occasional battle is frustrating but in a nice way. And the Ai doesn't send a continuous stream of ships to impale themselves upon my minefields. What's that about?

But the best thing is getting messages that actually sound like they the way real people talk in these games. It really helps with the immersive quality. Maybe after playing for a while I'll start to here repeats and it will lose it's flavor, but right now I am thouroughly enjoying myself.

Geoschmo

[Mephisto]

Thank you!

[Kamog]

I find that it's quite challenging to play against TDM opponents. Especially the Tessellates, they have wiped me out on many occasions.

[Hunpecked]

Kamog, could you go into more detail about how the Tessellate managed to prevail? Did you min-max your own race? Handicap yourself some way? Were the game settings unusual in some way that favored the AI? What was the bonus setting for the AIs? Did the Tessellate prevail early or late in the game?

I ask because I'm playing a game against 5 TDM AIs and so far the Tessellate have caused me less trouble than, say, the Aquilaeians or the Narn. They're building large fleets (up to 97 ships so far) of tough ships (some shields, lots of crystalline armor), but the vast majority are planet killers (armed with napalm) useful only as target practice for my PPBs and APBs.

In the game settings I eliminated mine tech (the AIs aren't very sophisticated about mines), set AI bonus to low (2X?), and used the expensive tech option (I like a slower path through the tech tree). Some AIs seem to cope well with pricey tech (the Narn in particular), but I'm wondering if that's handicapping the Tessellate AI disproportionately. I did min-max my race (human), but didn't take any racial tech areas.

[Slick]

The Tessellate are formidable if you give them the typical AI hard difficulty setting and a bonus. They use crystallurgy and deeply religious advanced traits to make some really powerful ships. They use the Talisman with Shield Depleters and Shard Cannons and are hard to hit with their Crystal Armor. Basically the Talisman makes them always hit, the shield depleters quickly strip your shields and the Shard Cannon (armor skipping) starts hitting internals really quickly. If they are encountered early and/or not allowed to develop to the higher techs, they aren't nearly so bad. They also are very adept (for an AI) at using Stellar Manipulation and planet capturing. They won the latest AI Deathmatch.

[Hunpecked]

Thanks, Slick. I guess the Tessellate are just late bloomers. As of turn 105, I haven't seen them with shield depleters, shard cannon, or Talisman, or even a ship larger than a cruiser. With most of their empire still intact, however, perhaps they can still catch up before it's too late.

[Atrocities]

TDM rocks... it is the AI standard that sets the bar that the rest of us often steal from.

[atari_eric]

Let's hope the same (or similar) authors can cook us up more formidable foes for SE:V!

[Hunpecked]

Let's hope they don't have to!

[Renegade 13]

TDM = Tampa Gamer, Daynarr, Mephisto. They're all in the Beta for SE5. Perhaps they'll work on the AI during the testing and their tweaks will make it into the retail version.