Split AI difficulty

[Vinraith]

So I know there's a significant difference between, say, an 8/7.6 game and a 7.6/8 game. That's because the first AI is used to determine a number of things. I'm having a hard time, however, finding out just what those things are, so I'm hoping someone can help me out. Searching the wiki has turned up the difference in calculated wave sizes (which is a big deal), but I haven't found anything else. I know (or at least, thought I knew) that there was more to it. Anyone?

[keith.lamothe]

It's one of those things where "if you have to ask, you can't afford it"   I have no idea what all the implications are, it would take hours just to analyze them.  So if it's a question of "I really don't want to play at diff X, but is X/Y ok?" then the answer is probably No.

In general things that are obviously player-specific, like how big their waves are or how big their reinforcements are or whatever, use just that one player's Diff.  If you're not sure about a mechanic there's probably a log for it that will show you the computation.  If there's no log and you're curious let me know.

But a lot of stuff refers to either the first player's diff or simply the higher of the two.

It's a useful thing if you want to play with one AI that's a harder type and want to nerf it, but for instance playing against a 7/10 game is probably still going to be harder than an 8/8, or even a 9/9.

[Vinraith]

I see. We've been playing at 7.6/8 and I'm trying to get a sense of how big the jump would be to 8/8, basically.

[keith.lamothe]

Ohh, gotcha.  Yea, going up from Y/X to X/X shouldn't be bad at all when they're so close together.  Honestly you might want to just go to 8.3/8.3 or even 8.6/8.6 unless you're already being pushed close to your limit.  It depends on how averse you are to learning your limitations the hard way

[Vinraith]

Well, at least a little caution is probably in order since we're also moving from 7.010 -> 7.017 so the salvage stuff will be new to us. Whether that's actually a difficulty increase in and of itself I don't know, but we're obviously going to have to be more careful about fleet wipes!

[keith.lamothe]

Hmm, yea, though salvage is actually pretty nice to the player, in terms of net change.  I mean, don't do any merc fleet wipes if you value your life, but even playing very casualty-heavy (to me, younglings are projectiles, and planets are targets) the reprisals weren't doing much to me on 8.6 recently.

Anyway, whatever you prefer, of course.  But split-difficulty between two adjacent steps is probably not necessary during the ramp-up.

[Vinraith]

Hmm, yea, though salvage is actually pretty nice to the player, in terms of net change.  I mean, don't do any merc fleet wipes if you value your life, but even playing very casualty-heavy (to me, younglings are projectiles, and planets are targets) the reprisals weren't doing much to me on 8.6 recently.

Anyway, whatever you prefer, of course.  But split-difficulty between two adjacent steps is probably not necessary during the ramp-up.

Thanks for the advice, this is all pretty encouraging. I think we'll probably update, bump it to 8/8, and see what happens...

[Kahuna]

It depends on how averse you are to learning your limitations the hard way

That's the best way to learn. Put yourself to your limit and when you die.. analyze why you died and how you could prevent it. You will be on 10/10 difficulty in a month.

[Draco18s]

It depends on how averse you are to learning your limitations the hard way

That's the best way to learn. Put yourself to your limit and when you die.. analyze why you died and how you could prevent it. You will be on 10/10 difficulty in a month.

My uncle once told me he'd get me driving lessons at this one place that teaches race car driving.

One of the exercises is to spin out the car.  Then push the car right up to that limit and hold it and learn what it feels like when the car is on the very edge of spinning out.  Allows you to take corners at higher speeds than most people are comfortable with.  He demonstrated once, we got to an off ramp and let the car in front of him take the strait away at highway speeds.  Then he caught up half way through the corner simply by Not Slowing Down.

So be careful and learn your limits.