Bamdorf

Join Date 03/2008

+46

Beta 6 AI Feedback

A graph is worth a thousand words, but I will try to condense my remarks.

I have gotten about 200 turns into an immense game, and it seems time to say something about how the AI is doing and about the faction graph.

I am playing as Iconian immense, on normal, with 19 major opponents and some minors. I have seen about 30% of the galaxy I guess so far. I am not using any tricks (like getting constructors from pragmatic and upgrading to colony) and I have not purchased any buildings or ships outright.

My situation is shown in the graph. As you can see I haven't met 10 of my major opponents yet.

Comments:

1. The graph is gorgeous. Nice job! Being able to click and get different time periods is inspired.

2. It might be nice to be able to toggle the display of particular faction(s) by clicking their name. If that was supposed to be already in, I am not making it work.

3. I know I am an experienced player but I am no pro, and like I say, not using any "tricks". But I have large beam and missile ships and they have...garbage scows. This situation has been typical for me throughout EA, though it was much easier before, no doubt. I know new players struggle with the complexity of things, but they should look and this and say, hey, that dirtball can do that, so can I, better even!

OK, I realize I should bump up the difficulty. I am thinking I can play faster and with less stress and have a better chance to get to situations that give a chance to find bugs. Like the black screen on invasion I have ticketed and reported. That's by far the biggest thing I have seen so far. That's my excuse and I sticking to it. Mostly B6 is great, and runs so cool (literally, cpu temp) and efficiently(memory). I also realize half my opponents are custom and may not be the best possible opponents. But look....the Bankers, a custom group, are putting up the best fight so far. Well, for a few more turns they are! Hahahaha! Re: custom factions --- is it fun or what to crush aliens called The Central Bankers?!! Yeehaw!!!

On the plus side the AI are doing a much better job negotiating, and I really like that you can't see all their techs and ships for 20 turns after a deal (and that all the deals are neatly listed for you). Frankly I don't think you should be able to see AI info unless you actually encounter one of their ships or spy on them. Well, spying is latter, I get it.

In summary, I think they have been working very hard on kicking the AI in the rear to get going, and it shows...but they need to kick harder. Or maybe in a more sensitive spot.

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Larsenex

Join Date 04/2009

+212

Nice! I 'restarted' an Immense map as well. I am playing 'Uncommon habitable' and 'rare' on extreme with occasional on all other settings. Galaxy is 'loose clusters and Immense.

I think the 2nd lowest setting 'uncommon' on number of planets appearing is slightly too many. I have about 30 colonies now and it seems too many. On rare at 100 turns in I had 11 colonies which is a bit too few for this size galaxy. I think on Uncommon at 100 turns in about 15-18 feels better. This is of course a personal taste, many Elites/ & Founders prefer TONS of planets which is just fine

Thanks for fixing Pirates! I can now take out a small fleet with my Flagship.

Minors have swung back in the 'Im doing nothing Pendulum'. I did like they made constructors and mined resources but now they are only building a few small ships and nothing else. Also they have nearly nothing to offer. However this is a minor issue and can be looked at via metrics later.

I love the graph as well. What is the invasion bug? I have not invaded anyone yet. I race to get the signature buildings 'tech, economic, manufacture capitals first then work on warfare.

I really like the Thulium archive. It gives me the option to make extra research focused planets which I rename 'Research Prime (has tech capital), Research Alpha (has temple of Enlightenment), and Research Beta and Ceta, (Both get Thulium archives).

No crashes. No glitches, No hangs. My only annoyance is when I use mouse wheel to scroll out it 'bounces' back too close sometimes. I am not sure if this is a driver issue or a settings issue but I sometimes have to scroll several times to get it to pan out, perhaps a hot key to do this would help?

Great stuff Bamdorf! I see you playing about the same time I am as well!

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The invasion bug is that when you invade and get the initial invasion screen, when you hit the "invade" buttom...black screen of death.

About 60% of the time. So I recommend a save just before you invade the first few times in case you have it, to make it easier to document.

I agree about no freezes (none for about a month at least) no crashes (except the invasion thing) and generally very smooth play.

And so many nice little things put in, too many to list.

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Quoting Bamdorf,

reply 2

The invasion bug is that when you invade and get the initial invasion screen, when you hit the "invade" buttom...black screen of death.

About 60% of the time. So I recommend a save just before you invade the first few times in case you have it, to make it easier to document.

I agree about no freezes (none for about a month at least) no crashes (except the invasion thing) and generally very smooth play.

And so many nice little things put in, too many to list.

And now I have an Angry Joe Faction (or should it be Angry Joe Army????). That is Too Cool!!

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