All strategy games are easy on the fair level if you know what you're doing. Play Masochistic or higher, the AI looks a lot smarter when it actually has enough resources to compete.

admittedly the AI could be allot more potent if it escorted it's transports with powerful fleets, provided it has plenty of other fleets around. Otherwise the logistics penalty for a transport in a fleet would be a serious weakness.

Make sure to check the "Force Max CPU" option. The AI performes much better with that set. If you have a dual core machine, it's a free feature. Otherwise, you'll just have a bit more time between turns.

Also, I've seen plenty of aggressive AIs (the drath in particular are fantastic at causing chaos), and I've been the victim of an absolutely brutal surprise attack by the Yor, where they decided to move about 20 fleets right into the middle of my fortifications prior to declaring war. Subtle? No. Effective? Yes.

Interestingly enough, I never noticed if the AI is escorting transports are not... my own strategy is not to escort them, and just keep them safe with speed and proximity to my war fleets. All those times that the AI sticks those crappy, entirely useless escorts alongside their transports, I wonder what the rational is, as they really aren't worth the trouble, unless I was attacking with similarily gimped ships.

I play on PAINFUL and set all the races to WARY with me at the start and play on medium map, common habitable planets, occassional planets per star and abundant stars, occassional anomolies. If you want a challenging and fair game this one will do it. You might be lucky to get 4-10 planets most, depends on your start area and what initial techs you take. I play a custom build and I still find the AI very challenging. Also use the enhanced CPU feature turned on.

You can't just play ONE or TWO games and automatically determine the AI suks. EVERY game is different and unique to that game and map and races. No two games are alike and the AI doesn't play the same way in every game. So, once you've played like 100 games then come back and tell us the AI suks cause of such n such.

Hey I can play 100 games. Why can't you?   

Hi!

And life.

BR,  Iztok

In any game the AI will "look smart" if it gets massive bonuses, thats not anything new.

The post placed by Livonya at the start of this thread just about sums up his opinion of the AI quite well.....

Link to other thread

...not much different to what Orion66 has noted here.

BTW - I am often humbled when people post in English and then write that it is not their native language. Humbled in the context of me being soooo lazy in not bothering to have any other linguistic skills, and not being particularly good in the only one that I do use....!!!!

It was gratifying that Brad had noted in the above linked thread that there are aspects of the AI that will be addressed, I wish him the best of luck.

It is invaluable for the progression of this game that people like the Orion and Livonya continue to give Brad challenges to keep tweaking to make it even better.

Funny how he only plays on "INTELLIGENT" and whines.

I think the AI would benefit if it incorporated the concept of an offensive task force. That is, it doesn't need to escort its transports, it just needs to make sure they end their turn on the same tile as a friendly battle fleet.

A possible composition for an offensive task force:

- 1 to 4 full-logistics battle fleets (enough to certainly defeat at least two full-logistics enemy fleets).

- 3 to 8 high-speed interceptors

- 12-20,0000 troops formed into maximum-logistics transport fleets

- 1 fast sensor ship

- 3 normal-speed sensor ships

- 1 constructors and 1 additional interceptor if distance to target planet exceeds fleet range.


Once formed, the task force moves as a single stack toward the target planet. The transports do not need specific escorts, because the entire fleet is an escort.

Each turn, the fast sensor ship moves first. It uses half it's movement in 'explore' mode. It uses the rest of it's movement to reform with the task force at the end of the turn.

Once the sensor ship has moved, the interceptors decide if there are any unarmed or very lightly armed targets within a single turn's movement. The interceptors will take out such targets of opportunity, but their main goal is to stick with the task force.

If there are some heavily-armed targets within 1 turn's movement of the taskforce, the battle fleets may engage them, provided that they will win and that this diversion won't delay their arrival at the target planet by more than 1 turn (moving directly away from your intended path would delay you 2 turns). This particular task force is for taking planets, so they don't chase anything they can't reach in one turn.

In any case, the battle fleets move and the transports and sensors end their turn on the same square as the battle fleets.

Upon arrival at the target planet, the battle fleets destroy any orbiting craft, then transports invade in maximum-logistics fleets. Battle fleets and transports attack from the same square.

Once the planet is captured, the task force detaches an interceptor and a normal-speed sensor ship to guard the planet. It may also detach a single combat fleet to guard the area, if the next planet is more than 10 or 12 squares away.

Once the fleet runs out of transports or its combat fleets are too depleted, it switches to guarding it's new aquisitions until a reinforcement task force of replacement combat ships, interceptors, sensors and loaded transports arrives.

It's not a subtle or creative strategy, but it will be hard to stop them from taking some of your planets unless you can take out the combat fleets.The AI's current strategy of using individual combat fleets to establish space superiority then sending transport takes a long time and is vulnerable to a low-powered but fairly agile fleet taking out the transports, whether escorted or not. The alternative practice of including a transport in a full-on combat fleet weakens the combat fleet, and a single transport is often not enough to take a planet.

That doesnt neccesary means the AI is good since the AI in other games are pretty dreadful. The AI in this game got some pretty huge holes, specially in managing its fleets during war.

If the devs somehow could fix those deficencies then the AI would be a really good opponent since it already is pretty good at economy/research. But for now, the only way I would lose a war against an AI is if he outnumbers me atleast two to one. And defeating someone when you has half military you have is not excactly a great achievment.