Minimizing Micromanagement

[x4000]

This topic at the wiki is filled to the brim with various advice about streamlining your play experience, some of which can give you a serious tactical or strategic advantage.

Partly this is a response to this negative review and a few others which complain that we don't do anything to minimize micromanagement, but also this was something that I've been wanting to put up in one place for a while.  Basically all the tips and tricks for how to streamline stuff, some of which is in the tutorials, some of which in various video, some of which is in the controls documentation, and some of which was previously just discover-as-you-go.

Now it's all aggregated in one place, at least everything I could think of, which is a nice place to point new players to for the list of tips, and reviewers to if they want to accuse us of false advertising (we say what we mean, and stand behind it).

In the interest of serving new players, though, what is this list missing?  This was everything I could think of that fit under that sort of tips list, but I'm sure I missed at least several things, if not a whole boatload.  Thoughts?

[snow2.0]

Come on, heads up.

The reviewer doesn't even manage to write a proper introduction to the game.
Neither does he give any explanation of HOW things that the game promises did not work out for him.


His review is very much like the first one on metacritic

Howie G. gave it a 3:
Maybe I'm a complete idiot or something but I can't wrap my brain around this game. I've played for many hours and the instant I leave my home system I get obliterated every time by the AI even on the easiest setting. Seriously. I can't even dent them as if the game is bugged or something and they walk over me like I've got my head stuffed in a baboon's backside... Most of the time I can barely comprehend what's going on and the sheer amount of management required to even get the ball rolling is overwhelming. Keeping track of what's going on in just one system is difficult and if I had ever succeeded in capturing another my overtaxed (and admittedly tiny) brain would probably have exploded... I don't really like this game much. Way way to much to keep (and lose) track of.

A valid personal experience with the game and perfectly unusable as feedback.

[HellishFiend]

Well, this game is definitely not for the... "strategically impaired"...

Playing on a proper difficulty takes a good amount of strategic ability. And who knows, maybe you come out even smarter on the other side. 

I'd love to hear what a historic strategist like Sun Tzu would have to say after a playthrough.

[RCIX]

I'd love to hear what a historic strategist like Sun Tzu would have to say after a playthrough.

He would coin a new proverb:
"He who learns to exploit and keep it secret will live to fight another day."

[Ozymandiaz]

Imo, this reviewer was a very poor one. Not very objective, relying only on initial expereince of the game, and it seems as he went into it with an already determined outcome.

The only thing he got right was: "AI War: Fleet Command has been out for quite a while and a glance at Metacritic shows that it has reviewed very well. This worries me on a personal level because it suggests that there's something here I'm just not getting."

He might be right, he just don't get it. He seems to be living in a world of generic simple minded RTS that follow only mainstream formula.

Many new games published focusing all too much on the fansy patns graphic presentation, loosing all focus on the gameplay that makes a game good. I never understood how anyone can think that fansy 3D can replace good gameplay! Give me a 2D game with superior gameplay any day!

I don't get his beef with the music either, I like the music in AI War, but I guess thats up to taste. This is normal for music, but him stateing that it just sucks seems very amateurish for a review, imo .

AI War is different, very different. AI War is the only real RTS that the AI can challenge me in, and still offers a nice coop feature with other players for even more fun. And its focus on strategy is also good, that stops the run of the mill gameplay with just caputuring all one can. I.e in SupCom capturing most fo teh resource points is importetnt to produce more stuff quicker. In AI war (as you all know of course) it will seal you doom.

I should point out, I like games like Civ4 as well, but I really only play Civ4 against other human players as the AI is so 'meh' in thoose games, and the fact that its more fun to play against my friends in that kind of game, its built for player versus player, and does so in a good way I think.


As for the list, seems to cover the needed things.  Nice one! .

[jordot42]

     Thanks for the new wiki entry.  I learned some new things from it (mostly the hotkey stuff).
     As to reviews, some will like the game and some won't.  On gametrailers.com about 2 months ago, I read people's comments on this game.  I must admit I laughed heartily when I read what they said, but I think that site caters to the younger videogame crowd.  You know, the people who respond to the latest 3D graphics and a not-too-cerebral experience.  "What!?  I can't see the brain-matter and intestines of the ship crews when their vessels explode?  This game sucks man!"
     I equate this game to an advanced version of chess.  Every planet is a new board situation where you have to manuever your pieces to accomplish a short-term objective toward the ultimate goal of "checkmating" the AI.  The incredible amount of ways you can do so is the main thing that keeps me hooked (along with the sound effects and watching the AI blow up!).
     

[x4000]

Thanks, guys.  Whoops, this really wasn't meant to become a reviewer-bashing time.  I didn't agree with that reviewers conclusions (especially about the music, which he was really rough on), but he was pretty fairminded at the end about saying this was just his opinion, and noting that it had been reviewed well elsewhere.  Bad reviews happen, and most are not so fairminded as to call their opinion anything less than The One Truth About This Game, so that's pretty cool of this guy.

And, yeah, I think it mainly just was not a fit.  If you jump into Descent: Journeys in the Dark expecting Hero Quest, you're going to be upset.  The fact that he felt AI War was so incredibly less accessible than anything he'd played before tells me right there he's not been playing the games that are typically the best feeders for AI War players.  But, so it goes.

My main goal with this post was really to see if there was anything I was missing that new players might need, but sounds like people think I have that covered pretty well.  I was fairly annoyed at the review mainly because it basically said that we lie in our marketing blurbs, which is something I am fastidious about not doing, so hence my linking to it.  But I'm not exactly wallowing in despair or anything, AI War is quite past the point where it needs any one reviewer to validate it.  40th best-reviewed PC game on MetaCritic for 2009, including all the giant AAA games with, you know, budgets?  Yeah, the occasional bad review doesn't really get me down after that, because I know the game is not for everyone -- but being called a liar does bother me.

[Lancefighter]

, including all the giant AAA games with, you know, budgets? 

I would rather agree, while he says AI war is bad, he never actually gives reasons; He makes claims, but has no credibility.

Honestly it sounds to me like he just had no clue what he was doing. perhaps he shouldve been playing on 7/7...

[Buttons840]

Good stuff.

Will be an excellent source of authority when I make my case that rally posts should be free.

[HellishFiend]

Good stuff.

Will be an excellent source of authority when I make my case that rally posts should be free.

You wont get any argument from me. Sometimes I think X just likes having a -250 knowledge handicap.  

[Buttons840]

Perhaps we should swallow our pride and enable cheats for a few extra knowledge; aka free rally posts?  (Who will ever know?  And why do we care what others think about our performance in a single player game?)

A modification of the save file would also work.  (Although I'm not familiar with their complexity.)

[x4000]

In 3.039:

-Rally posts no longer cost knowledge.

[Lancefighter]

While we are at it, this whole knowledge thing adds unnecessary micromanagement.. wouldnt it be simpler if you just had everything researched from the start?

[jordot42]

     

While we are at it, this whole knowledge thing adds unnecessary micromanagement.. wouldnt it be simpler if you just had everything researched from the start?

     Yeah, and while you're at it, having to do anything is too microintensive.  Why don't you have a 1 button, "I win" option that instantly destroys every AI ship?  You can set it to loop every second (after all, you shouldn't have to go through the trouble of repeatedly activating the power). 
     Or if that's too much work, why not just have someone else play the game for you?  No management at all!  HAHAHA!!!

[Black]

     

While we are at it, this whole knowledge thing adds unnecessary micromanagement.. wouldnt it be simpler if you just had everything researched from the start?

     Yeah, and while you're at it, having to do anything is too microintensive.  Why don't you have a 1 button, "I win" option that instantly destroys every AI ship?  You can set it to loop every second (after all, you shouldn't have to go through the trouble of repeatedly activating the power). 
     Or if that's too much work, why not just have someone else play the game for you?  No management at all!  HAHAHA!!!

Even though you are being facetious, this is a legitimate point to consider.

There is a relationship between tactical depth and potential for micromanagement. To remove all micromanagement is to remove all tactics. Giving the player tactical options gives them more micromanagement. One has to distinguish between trivial micro and genuinely tactical micro. Rally posts mitigate trivial micro to a degree.

To be honest, I don't believe there is that much micro in the game at all, trivial or otherwise. I have played many RTS in my day at all levels of skill. I have dealt with the tedium of trivial micro and the technical demands of tactical micro at all parts of the spectrum.

80% of the interesting decisions I make in this game don't have any micro involved.