Lo, as a new player (and now proud owner! (via Impulse)) of AI War i so far am in awe at all the ship types and complexities of the AI (My first game at dif 6 has me for the first time witness an really bad-ass ai interaction (Starship Bomber + Counter Spies) (I Love AI WAR ;P)
So far i only have 1 real suggestion all relating to what the ai does (or does not)
- The AI needs to get a strategy class and finally start decent invasions of frontline planets, ESPECIALLY when you destroyed all gates in a 3 hop radius, using assets from defense fleets (and really using them aka, removed from those planets). And heres the knacker, these invasions, they need to be super friggin bad ass events. Have the ai use EMP missile attacks and jump in after detonation with 500+ Ships with the clear goal to dig in - let the AI have mobile invasion builders or a "core mother ship" which can plant new command center and defenses in a radius around it.
- And 2ndly, the AI needs to be taught what a beachhead is, and use it properly. Even if you manage to beat the invasion in time with your big fleet. The AI should get the ability to reinforce from nearby hops unless you manage to destroy the "Warp-Hook" that prevents you from using that warp hole yourself. So the AI basically should
1 - Start Invasions with the chance of it happening at ANY planet that is connected with up to 3 hops to a ai planet (But not "skip" player owned planets) so always limited to frontline worlds
2 - If they fail, dig in (maybe have invasion fortresses for that?)
3 - Blockade that warp hole until you fight back
4 - Constantly be allowed to have reinforcements jump in from up to 3 hops away - 5 minute counter each time, every time up to 3% of all defense fleets in a 3 hop radius until defense fleets have been weakened to about 50% of previous strength (that should be a pretty big wave every 5 minutes ,p)
5 - failed invasions by the AI gives YOU the ability to counter invade because reinforcements everywhere are now much lower.
Before you say this is not cool, i want to emphasize something, so far (dif 6) i have not seen the need ever to use a missile, an invasion of that magnitude would warrant a nuke, and finally give a reason to actually use them (And full sized mine fields) without caring for the tiny increase in progression (if you destroy the gates all around you, you don't care about the waves or progression anyway)
As anyone who has fought dif 6 probably agrees, once you are up and running the first cause of action is snipe the AV factories and labs, and knowledge raid. The reason you can do that is that there is no real threat by the AI once gates are gone. So what if waves and reinforcements have tech 3 now.. you'll only ever see it happening when you slack of at one planet that you just capped with your 2000 ship fleet (and 200~ MKIV's) - What the AI needs to do is fight back with a super sized invasion. One that *can* match your 2000 ships easily if you expand too fast without capping all the planets around you. (or if you have 5 IV planets in a 3 hop range ,p)
The reason i am making this suggestion, is that there is no incentive to FORCE the player to colonize planets continously (and give the ai the ability to recap those frontline worlds and maybe even rebuild , but this time a IV World.
The AI is atm like a block of cheese - every time the player takes a world - the cheese becomes smaller without ever growing back. - What i am missing from this otherwise extremely interesting ai is an actually ability to rebound and kick my arse not just with the waves but with full sized (non-regular) invasions the kind the player does with his 2000 ship fleet
Aye
(Weird first post, i know ;p)
Edit: I just noticed the Pre-Release Patches (i didn't realize one can download those ;p) But the cross planet attacks are not the same as my suggestion, what i mean is a actual invasion with the AI GOAL to capture and build up a frontline Core World
Well, curious what the opinions about that are - probably the first thing coming is "play at dif 10 ,p"
