What are AI 8, 9 and 10 like?

[Haagenti]

What I've seen from AI-7 (and read on this board) is that it is a fair opponent. I don't see it really beating me once I get to five planets or so in a safe configuration, but stalemates are possible. I use AI-7 with everything on it except the Astrotrains as they annoy me too much.

I have no experience with the lower levels.

What I've seen from AI-10 is Swift Death That Cannot Be Defeated.

Normally I would try out more options, but it takes a couple of hours just to get a game really started, so I thought I'd ask around.

Is AI-8 doable? Or should I use AI-7 with the Harder AIs instead?
And if someone thinks AI-8 can be done, how about AI-9?

[darke]

I'd suggest trying AI7 with the harder AI types and AI combinations first, or alternately start picking planets that start off with you very vulnerable such as 6+ wormholes. Often getting 5 planets is an uphill battle in such circumstances.

I rambled on about various fiddling you can do in a forum post and it got put into the wiki here: http://arcengames.com/communitywiki/index.php?title=All_About_Tweaking_The_Difficulty_Level

In my not so humble opinion, the Technologist type AI's are cheaters, so I haven't really bothered playing against them other then once or twice out of curiosity. However of the rest, some combinations of Teleport Turtle and Special Forces Captain are particularly brutal. I would imagine a pair of Special Forces Captains would also be an interesting challenge.

The main issue with AI8 is it seems to not be played much, so is probably considerably more brutal then it was previously with the changes to make AI7 a lot smarter. (It also looks like it's much tougher to start too. Just started a game on a six planet world, and every planet adjacent was either IV (two), or had two to three starships (four), rather different then the usual break down. )

[CautiousChaos]

I've been playing on 6 and then went to 7 and got my space hat handed to me.  It seemed like a pretty big difference so I would suspect that the following difficulties may scale the same.  I seem to recall X4000 (or maybe not) saying that once you get past 7 it scales almost logarithmically.

-cc

[darke]

It's actually not so much of a massive jump like between 6 and 7, relatively speaking. That's when the last of the AI tactics boosts kick in from memory. The current AI8 I'm playing is only about 150% to 200% of AI7.

If you're having problems getting established in your home world on AI7, or just having problems getting anywhere, crank up the handicap on the start game page for yourself to +70% (this particular number is just to stop late-game research happening too quickly, rounding and all ), and try starting a game like that. If you can get a foothold, then expand at that level, you can try shifting it down by 20% next game, and so on.

Another thing, is essentially a cheap and nasty trick to getting started with as minimal finesse as possible. Essentially don't worry about any wormhole defenses at the beginning, nor about putting any harvesters on your resource points. Just build another few space docks until you've got at least one per wormhole, or minimum of four, then set each one to be on free attack, dumping your troops between each wormhole and your base. Rather close to the wormhole, but not too close. Set each one on repeat, and have it build one of each of your troops. Toss a couple of MLRS near your space docks/command station, then un-pause the game and wait.

Basically most of the enemies will fly straight towards your docks/command center. They'll fly through however many guys you've got, usually not many at the start, all your other ships not near the wormhole the enemies are flying out will converge on them, and essentially the guys will be nibbled to pieces; the MLRS turrets are backup in case things like bombers (with a little more shielding) manage to make it through.

Once you've got enough forces near each wormhole, move them closer, keep them on free-attack, and build a tractor turret or two near each wormhole. Once you've got that in place, pause your space docks, use the resources building up to finally build your harvesters/etc, then start the game from there.

Takes about 20-30 minutes to pull this off normally and really flattens your resource gains at the start of the game, so it might cause problems later on. On the other hand it's still the only reliable method I have for starting on a 5+ wormhole world when I've got a Special Forces Commander AI or two running around.

[ZarahNeander]

Thats a sound advice, Darke, which I've learned the hard way...

Harvesters usually don't shot back && building harvesters that are killed 2 min. later is a waste. Turrets can't move && the AI is smart enough to simply ignore turrets && go for the stuff that hurts. I don't rely on traktors in the beginning anymore, if 60 gatlings swarm your HW && 20 are bound by traktors, 40 gatlings is more than enough to kill you if you doesn't have enough ships (also learned the hard way).

I deploy my ships however directly over my command station/space docks complex. The AI has to fly towards them, due to the lack of other targets, I have max. impact on minimal room && my one and only engineer doesn't waste its time crawling around (though thats usually later).

I also use this defense on heavily raided systems: I cramp everything in a corner, go nuts on turrets there, ignore harvesters && wormhole defense. 40 turrets in a small area have a higher impact than 4x10 turrets at wormholes.

In short in the beginning I want two things: ships and ships.

And yes, it causes problems later, but hey! I'm still alive..

kind regards...Pia Kraft

[Haagenti]

Thanks for the answer. I started a AI-7 game versus Special Forces Commander and Teleport Turtle. Three neighbours, one with no resources and the other two have Special Force bases under Forcefield. Took me an hour to build enough bombers to take down my first planet.

Behind these three planets I have a choice between two LVL3 planets each with 7 SF bases. I can see that this is going to be fun. To quote from the movie 300: "Then we fill fight in the shade".

[darke]

Thanks for the answer. I started a AI-7 game versus Special Forces Commander and Teleport Turtle. Three neighbours, one with no resources and the other two have Special Force bases under Forcefield. Took me an hour to build enough bombers to take down my first planet.

Behind these three planets I have a choice between two LVL3 planets each with 7 SF bases. I can see that this is going to be fun. To quote from the movie 300: "Then we fill fight in the shade".

Don't bother with going against two Special Forces Captains at the moment though, they're a little harder at the start then a Special Forces + Easier/Medium AI, but the endgame (more then 75% of the map explored) seems to be more tedious and repetitive then actually hard (you really do have to clear out every SF base in adjacent systems...). But then again, I still haven't managed to find an advanced factory yet.