SE5 AI is pathetic

Devnullicus · #1 October 15th, 2006, 03:21 PM

I decided to see just how badly the SE5 AI needed work by going on an all-out crusade to crush them. No mercy, no quarter. This was in the demo, but from what I hear, SE5 Release 1.0 is the same.

Well, it took me 93 turns (most of which was spent just finding them since they rarely expanded out of their home systems!). None of them even came close to putting up a fight. They were absolutely pathetic.

Hmmm, guess I'll be busy modding if I want an even halfway interesting game

I really hope the first patch and some of the early mods improve this...a LOT.

ttomm46 · #2 October 15th, 2006, 03:28 PM

That's enough for me to hold off buying for awhile..

AAshbery76 · #3 October 15th, 2006, 03:54 PM

My view is MM didn't have time to work on the A.I.There are a ton of missing features still to be linked up.

Tim_Ward · #4 October 15th, 2006, 04:04 PM

It's better to leave out features and work on the AI, in my opinion. There's no point in a strategy game where you can win with any strategy.

Sure, it can be fixed with mods. How many people that buy the game will come online and download mods?

Elsemeravin · #5 October 15th, 2006, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Tim_Ward said:
How many people that buy the game will come online and download mods?

99% of the clever ones ?

Noble713 · #6 October 15th, 2006, 04:39 PM

The ones capable enough to realize the AI sucks are also probably capable enough to download mods to fix it.

Devnullicus · #7 October 15th, 2006, 05:26 PM

The sad thing is that the game itself has SO MUCH potential! This game can be so much better than SE IV - the engine is pretty damn cool overall.

But it's the lack of polish and the lack of time spent on the AI that might kill this game in the market.

Sure, mods will be created to fix a lot of these problems (I plan on beginning work on one as soon as I can get ahold of a freakin' copy of the !##$&@# game). Sure, Aaron will fix a lot of the UI and engine annoyances over the next few months.

But probably 75% of the customers will never see any of that. They'll buy the game off the shelf, play it a couple times and get bored with the pathetic AI or get annoyed with the klunky UI annoyances..and they'll toss the game on their shelf, never to be played again.

That's the part I find sad.

AAshbery76 · #8 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 · #9 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 · #10 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.)