This AI is awesome.

[liq3]

This is a thread about how awesome the AI is. Lets share stories about it here. I'll start.

Alright, I'm playing a game with PhonSiE. I'm assaulting the AI's planet, got a beach head set up, taken out the gate/comm station and I'm bringing in a colony ship. I start building my comm station, all is going well. Then I notice 2 Mark III Force Fields coming my way.

I laugh. I'm thinking "What are 2 puny force fields gonna do?". Boy was I wrong.

So, the force-fields slowly make their way to my comm station. I have no where near enough forces to kill them. Now, get this. They drive over my Comm Station... AND THEN THEY BRING IN ATTACKING UNITS. I was like "OMFG". The AI provided a shield for it's small amount of units (only like 6!) to kill my comm station. I was flabbergasted. Not only that, but they were blocking the wormhole, so I couldn't even retreat!

THEN while I was trying to get out, IT SENT A WAVE AT MY HOME STATION. I can't remember, but I think it may have even killed it.

This AI is just amazing.

[Revenantus]

Here's a screenshot from a game involving liq3, PhonSiE, Fiskbit, and myself. This is towards the end of a defense of PhonSiE's homeworld against a 5000 strong AI invasion force - we succeeded. Never have I had a much fun with an RTS as this game.

When Fiskbit asked me if I could test multiplayer with him earlier, I didn't expect to be up until 5 am. Totally worth it.

[Fiskbit]

Awesome, liq3. Did it intentionally block the wormhole, or was that a side effect of going at the command station? I'd love to see this as an actual tactic, if it only happened by chance.

Great story. I agree that it's been acting very clever in recently prereleases. Definitely impressive.

[liq3]

Awesome, liq3. Did it intentionally block the wormhole, or was that a side effect of going at the command station? I'd love to see this as an actual tactic, if it only happened by chance.

Great story. I agree that it's been acting very clever in recently prereleases. Definitely impressive.

I think it was a side effect of going at the command station, since I put them right next to wormholes.

[Fiskbit]

Rev and I took screenshots of the same thing within a minute of each other. I'm pretty amused by this. I also took one with the combat lines, since I thought it looked pretty epic.

[PhonSiE]

I admit that this is the most fun I've had in any RTS game.

The AI is so dynamic that I could not predict what it was going to do next at almost any given time.  I think I attempted to build a base on the planet below me almost ten times.  When I thought I had it pretty well defended against maybe 1000 ships, there appeared a warning of a wave of over 5000 ships would present itself on this same planet.  No one could believe it.  While I watched this huge wave of ships came out of those wormholes, I knew I was done for.  The base I built on this planet was gone really quickly, because a majority of the wave were bombers.  Then they went for my home planet.  I was sure that I was going to die.  Somehow my allies managed to reach me in time with enough ships to counter the AI.  

The bombers reduced all my force fields to nothing, but for some reason they retreated when they could have easily annihilated me.  The other thing I noticed is that the ai mindlessly got stuck attacking harvester exo-shields with space planes and cruisers, which would take practically hours to destroy.  That also helped keep me alive.  Other than those two things, I think the AI is simply amazing and something I've never seen before.

Thanks for the game everyone.

[x4000]

Hey PhonSiE, welcome to the forums!

I'm glad you guys are having such a great time, this is a really cool thread. 

I won't hijack it with discussions of potential future enhancements, but some of those changes such as reactions to force fields and how the AI prioritizes finishing off human players are still something I'm experimenting with a bit.  I'm overall happy with how it's working now, but there are a few key behaviorlets that I'm missing.  It's very difficult to "train" an emergent AI, so sometimes I have to read between the lines of the behaviorlets I've designed to see how they might combine into some behavior like the AI running away at a stupid time.  I'm just pleased it doesn't do that sort of thing more, haha, that's usually the problem with highly emergent AI systems.

Anyway, thanks for the thread, this is a real morale-booster.   I think this is a cool one to sticky.  Anyway, other than this I'll stay out of this thread and we can discuss AI improvements and such at more length in the suggestions forum.

[liq3]

Hey PhonSiE, welcome to the forums!

I'm glad you guys are having such a great time, this is a really cool thread. 

I won't hijack it with discussions of potential future enhancements, but some of those changes such as reactions to force fields and how the AI prioritizes finishing off human players are still something I'm experimenting with a bit.  I'm overall happy with how it's working now, but there are a few key behaviorlets that I'm missing.  It's very difficult to "train" an emergent AI, so sometimes I have to read between the lines of the behaviorlets I've designed to see how they might combine into some behavior like the AI running away at a stupid time.  I'm just pleased it doesn't do that sort of thing more, haha, that's usually the problem with highly emergent AI systems.

Anyway, thanks for the thread, this is a real morale-booster.   I think this is a cool one to sticky.  Anyway, other than this I'll stay out of this thread and we can discuss AI improvements and such at more length in the suggestions forum.

Cool, my thread got stickied. 

Well, too add to the morale boost, this is easily the best AI I've played in ANY RTS. I can remember a few others that come close, but they mostly played too perfectly, or too robotic.

Hrm, I must think of something cool the AI has done... Hrm.

Oh. This isn't that cool, but I remember one game where I loaded a save, and all of a sudden 700 ships came from an adjacent planet to take out a bunch of turrets I had parasited on one of the homeworlds. I was like "omg wtf o.O!" when that happened.

[Echo35]

Well, too add to the morale boost, this is easily the best AI I've played in ANY RTS. I can remember a few others that come close, but they mostly played too perfectly, or too robotic.

Yes. Yes it is. Even playing with Random AI, I'm starting to be able to tell which AI I'm playing, simply because they're all so unique and have such specific play styles, and all very well done. Just as long as X uses it to make video games and doesn't work for a robotics lab or anything, the human race is safe  

[Mavvvy]

This game is stocked with so much quality, and value for money its unreal.

Plus I'm convinced the ai in my game has become sentient and has taken over my computer as the clock on my bottom right had corner has turned into a Defcon meter. Skynet anyone?

[Revenantus]

Plus I'm convinced the ai in my game has become sentient and has taken over my computer as the clock on my bottom right had corner has turned into a Defcon meter. Skynet anyone?

That's why the AI specifically can't use missiles. It's less of a design feature and more of a UN mandate - you can't be too careful.

Great to hear that you're enjoying the game!

[Echo35]

This game is stocked with so much quality, and value for money its unreal.

Plus I'm convinced the ai in my game has become sentient and has taken over my computer as the clock on my bottom right had corner has turned into a Defcon meter. Skynet anyone?

Well see, my Hard Drive is formatted with NTFS, so all we have to do is hold out until the year 60056 and then the date range will run out and we'll be safe!

[ldlework]

I think the thing that affects the most about this AI is retaliation. Near the end-game CBWhiz and I were shoring up our assets to prepare to establish a beachhead on the planets adjacent to the AI home-worlds. We were consolidating our our forces and making sure all of our defenses were beefed up. We noticed that a few planets were mounting massive fleets on their planets but were otherwise docile. We figured this wouldn't last long and so to stifle any future problems these bulky planets might cause us while we were focusing on the enemy home-planets we decided to Post Raid the planets to prevent them from becoming any larger. The enemy planet had about 3500 Mark III units and an assortment of others. I generated a Cap-fleet of about 2k myself and sent them in, way-pointing the Posts, then way-pointing the wormhole. It was to be a quick raid and it was...

That is until the last Guard Post was destroyed and my fleet started to head back to our planets.... And the AI's units were following us. The massive AI fleet followed me - destroying each of our planets on the way all the way to my homeplanet where I successfully fended off the remains of the pursuing fleet. When my home-planet was finally cleared all I could think was a mix of "Holy fraking raptor jesus!" and "Oops!"


The AI's are vindictive heartless bastards. Prod with care.

[x4000]

The AI's are vindictive heartless bastards. Prod with care.

[darke]

The AI's are vindictive heartless bastards. Prod with care.

Personally I normally prod with Nukes or Lightning Missiles. What is this "care" weapon you are talking about?

On the other hand, taking out both a command center and gate on a planet full of ships with a lightning missile is great fun if you've worked out how to defend against the waves.