AI Difficulty

from StarControl Forums

One thing I like about Stardock is that they are averse to having their AI cheat. I hope this mantra continues in SCR.

Background:

In SC1 and SC2, AI piloted ships would do the same amount of damage and consume the same amount of energy as normal ships. The AI setting increased the pilot skill. The ace AI became very skilled at using the secondary ability. For example, an Ace Supox knew how to strafe in between an opponent's firing angles, and an Ace Druuge was great at long range deflection shooting.

 

Wishlist: 

  • I want to see SCR retain the scaling pilot skill. The AI pilots need to be as good as a human as humanly possible.
  • SC2 had 3 levels of piloting, but Fred admitted to having to tone down some of the pilots because they were too good. If that arises in playtesting of SCR, I would recommend having a fourth "Insane" pilot setting that doesn't have anything crippled.
  • For the single player campaign, let us unlock the improved AI pilots for our ships.
  • Expose the AI framework to modders to allow them to tweak the AI behavior. This will let modders create ships that behave like the original SC1/SC2 ships.
  • Allow AI vs AI battles. This is how I learned how to pilot ships most efficiently in SC2.

 

7,102 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

    • For the single player campaign, let us unlock the improved AI pilots for our ships.

 

 

Onboard with you until here.  Are you meaning something along the lines of 'beat the normal ai to unlock the next difficulty' or having some of our player-character ships be piloted by the ai?  I like the first one but I don't see the 2nd option as having a place in SC (or games for that mater, I don't like self-resolving battles.)

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

Quoting Alverez, reply 1

Onboard with you until here.  Are you meaning something along the lines of 'beat the normal ai to unlock the next difficulty' or having some of our player-character ships be piloted by the ai?  I like the first one but I don't see the 2nd option as having a place in SC (or games for that mater, I don't like self-resolving battles.)

I was talking about optionally letting the AI pilot your ships in combat. There are some Founders that do not like combat, and this would be one way to help them not have to participate in it.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

Ah, I get you.  I personally hate letting the game play itself. I like everything else you wrote out though.

Reply #4 from StarControl Forums Top

I'd like to see SD introduce foes with pilots of varying degrees of skill, all starting from the same baseline, but individually ranging from a newb to an elite, ie ship captains with varying experience.  Unless you were the Mycon or Chmmr, it doesn't make sense that all your pilots were the same.  Maybe some inexperienced pilots would just simply flee after taking a single hit.  Or you'd encounter the more veteran pilots guarding points of interest or on battlefronts.

 

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Reply #6 from StarControl Forums Top

I believe the AI should adjust based off previous interactions and player ship level. Combat should be a constant challenge without being overwhelming. The same trick shouldn't work on every encounter of the same alien group. They should adjust attacks based on how many times they get beaten by the player. This keeps the player on his/her toes and prevents exploits from being used constantly.