Well ... I s*ck at RTS games, mostly being a turn-based-strategy player. I purchased the game (in fact, my dad's credit card did!) as an impulse buy (pun intended), and I went through the tutorials.
As it is, the game seems overwhelming for RTS newbies. I'm stuck with having to play against TWO A.I.s, which are certainly better than me (although I can customize the gamesetup options to dumb down the challenge).
My point is : why do I have to fight TWO of them ?! Why can't I have the option to have only one adversary ?
Hi Sorceresss,
I see your point, but I think there is a misunderstanding here -- you are thinking of the AI like you would a human opponent, or an AI in another RTS game. The AI in this game is asymmetrical, meaning that it does not play like you. There are always two AIs against you, whether there is one player or eight, and the difficulty of the AI scales to not only how many players there are, but also what difficulty level you put the game on. If you play with them on difficulty level 1, the AIs will only be lightly defended and will hardly ever attack you.
If that's still not enough, you can give yourself a handicap (up to 300%) which will give you a resource boost by the amount you specify. Also, you can put on the "1/2 Enemy Waves" AI modifier if you want even fewer AI waves coming against you.
I certainly don't expect everyone to be an RTS expert who plays this game; the fact that there are always two AIs has more to do with the story, and to provide variety on the planets that are out in the galaxy, more than anything else. Even if there was only one AI, it wouldn't change anything for you because the AI players get all of the planets that don't belong to you at the start. This game is meant to simulate more of a David vs. Goliath sort of scenario than other RTS games tend to, but on the easy difficulty level you should have no trouble taking down Goliath. Let me know if any of that doesn't make sense, but if you play on the difficulty 1 you should do fine, there's no reason to stress out.
Potentially, if it makes a big difference to you, I could do something like make a "No Attack" AI Modifier that lets you play without ever having to worry about getting attacked. Let me know what you think. UPDATE: Thinking about this some more, this seems like a cool AI Modifier to add, even if it turns out you don't need it. This will be part of the 1.004 release when it comes out in a couple of days.
Also, to stimulate single-player skirmishes (for those of us who don't have the time to get involved into MP games), why not do as most 21th-century RTS games do : allow the setup option of putting in as many "comps" as desired AND allow the human player to have a comp as ally ?
This is not a traditional RTS game in that sense. It is co-operative
only (in multiplayer), as it states in the tutorial screen. There are a vast number of games out there that let you play skirmishes, but this is the only one that has the sort of scenarios and co-op options that we have. We wanted to focus on what makes our game unique, and as
our article on co-op gaming notes, this lets us do things with the AI that could not be done in the context of a symmetrical, traditional RTS game. There are a bajillion other RTS games out there that are largely focused on pvp play and AI that simulates pvp play, and we wanted something completely different (this genre gets pretty stale when it doesn't innovate).
As an RTS "n00b", I would learn better that way : less pressure & stress. As it is now, you force me to fight TWO A.I. adversaries, with no ally whatsoever (in single-player skirmishes).
I'm aware that you won't be able to quickly modify your code to integrate such options, but I recommend that you expand the game-setup options to offer more flexibility and difficulty-management.
At the moment, your very limited ME vs TWO-comps setup discourages me from getting into a campaign : I feel overwhelmed by the odds. If I play at Sins of a Solar Empire, I can have as many A.I. allies as I wish, and as few A.I. adversaries as I want -- to have a relaxed game.
Not all of us are hyper-competitive RTS "pros". Why would you restrict your market appeal ?
Try out the AI options I suggested above, you should find it very easy. The main disconnect here -- which is understandable -- is that you are approaching this as if it was another version of Sins of a Solar Empire or another RTS game like that. When in reality, aside from the basic controls and mechanics, AI War doesn't have much in common with those. Let me know if you still have concerns.
Thanks for playing!
