Wouldn’t you agree it’s cheating if the game doesn’t provide you with UI features that the AI has easy access to?
The AI can send 8 armies from distant cities to converge on a target city at the same turn.
I can’t easily do that, as a human. Therefore, I didn’t really lose. The AI cheated.
Grr. I'm so ticked off. I know how it did it. But it didn't deserve to win.
This is similar to the ancient proverb, "Skill is when I kill you, cheating is when you kill me."
I call hacks!
The thing is, where are MY really point? Where are MY army groups?
I hope people rise up with me and complain when beta 2 hits.
That said, giving players extra tools to plan and coordinate their turns? That's good.
Plus, don't we learn more from defeats? Thanks to that, we (the players) may get better UI stuff to play with.
Just make sure beta 2 has that AI. I am tired of killing retarded people.
You can make the UI changes for beta 3.
What? you can't do this? I've done it dozens of times....
this
In fairness, I can solve complex optimization problems involving millions of operations just by glancing at the screen. The computer can't do that.
I happen to be an expert at stopping a large force from attacking my territory. I will build outposts between my cities and theirs. Those outpost will only serve to allow me to cast strategic spells as they move in on me. I doubt your AI will be able to make decisions about whether or not to stop their armies and wait for Tremors to wear off. If they leave units behind I can pick them off with my mounted armies. If they wait and only move forward after the spell is gone, I can better fortify and pick off the outlying camps. If they make it to my first city I will defend it for as long as I can and then raze the SOB. I will continue scorched earth until they reach my capital. Then I will use raise mountains to buy some time and regroup. I will be healing in a city and they will be stuck in the wild. As soon as I heal, down comes the mountain and I let the final battle be fought in my most powerful city.
Then I counterattack and capture everything. I will have some really high level units by then. I may lose up to three cities, but I'll have their whole nation and two capitals.
I'm not sure that I would risk a scorched earth policy ... just depends on the situation. You can't guarantee to capture their cities just because you defeated their main force. You still have to worry about monsters and other factions (where your own cities are concerned) ... and they will still be building units most likely.
Best to kill their main force, then re-capture old cities, and then push forward after training some militia (in non-conquered cities, to spread out to re-captured cities)
Something to consider is that even after you kill their champions, they will re-appear in their cities ... able to cast spells if nothing else.
If you don't use scorched earth, there is a possibility that said champions will re-appear in your old cities ... where you have the opportunity to RE-KILL them for additional injuries
On the other hand, I would very likely raze my opponent's cities, if they prove a tough fight.
I scorch the earth to prevent them from healing when I use my city to do so. I am assuming this force is smart enough to do so. I am also assuming that in this scenario I have weaker or less units. Letting those cities survive would also mean those heroes you mentioned could come back to the fight in the final stage when I let the mountain down. I plan on assassinating most of their heroes and sending them all the way back to Capitarland. We Tarth will have levels more experience from this defense and will be able to overpower their weakened heroes. If the AI was really going to threaten my cities, I would just wall in my territory as I did in WoM. The only opening would lead to Capitarland. That is what I will call it when I rule it.
Can't wait to play you in MP Tasunke. I wonder how that would play out.
*Folds Hands*
You don't need rally points to do this. You just need to look at unit movement capabilities and distance (plus hindering terrain). Didn't you make a post complaining about how modern gamers want stuff spoon fed to them, like, yesterday?
Or not. Not after playing AI Wars and realizing that having competitive AIs sometimes mean reinforcing what AIs can do well and humans can't (to compensate for what humans can do well and AIs can't).
Point - why wouldn't you code some sort of feature where it always leaves 1 unit in a city and sends any surplus to a target spot? Eg a modified select all/send. I'd only do it if you are trying to think out of the box and come up with features that players would enjoy. Oh wait, you already thought of what would be good for players? Hmm... halfway there.
And side note - why should we need to complain? You found a problem. Now code a logical fix that would make you happy. It will make us happy as well! There has to be some sort of formula that you could implement that would work. And it would be far superior to anything in any other TBS games. So - make it happen. It's actually a selling point that other companies would likely follow.
MAKE THE NEW STANDARD, BRAD!
Forum QQ posts about how difficult Brad the AI would be a good thing.
[edit] I think more forum QQ posts about how difficult Brad made the AI would be a good thing. Now, if normal is too hard for the casual gamer, fine, tune it down but please ensure the harder difficulties make me want to come here and cry like a baby.
Derek has to make the change though. Frogboy just complained about the issue.
Anyway, just to reiterate - how great would a feature like what Brad highlighted be in ANY TBS? There's a lot of logic to be considered, but I'd love something like that in elemental as much as civ5, as much as any other TBS I've ever played. Of course I want to send my SAFE military units somewhere that they'd be useful. Can't think of any game that has done that for me in the TBS variety. I'd be super excited if elemental was the one!
edit - direct answer to the op - no, I don't think its cheating. I am fully able to do the same thing if I take my time. If you want to compensate for the human factor, make the AI "forget" about sending some troops from a city. I'd rather see the magic I suggested implemented, though.
I could beat it. I;ll work on my Sun Tzu skills. My keyboard is covered in moss and the tV is in 3D. Time to call the doctor...
Why not let the AI do some thing we can't. We can do some things it can't, like load and try again. Oh, wait. Maybe the AI tries to do that too -- is what what is going on when the game crashes? Are the unloadable save games the AI's calculated counter to my make-it-didn't-happen cheat ?
Great news! Congrats on making it happen! I think this is a big deal. A major milestone in the AI development.
I look forward to the excitement of fending off coordinated assualts!
Galciv let us do this. I am glad it will make an appearance in FE.
Brad stop hyping up the AI. You'll only be disappointed when Beta 2 rolls around and we all obliterate it.
Give us rally points and "time to destination" on the overlay path then. It's features that should be in anyway.
Yeah. PS: All un-avatar-ed Stardockians are now X-Files style aliens.
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