Hard AI receiving unfair credit boost?

I do belive that is intentional,

I have played a few hard AI (not more than a couple on the same map at one time) and allways found them to have much better income than I could ever have. I played one massive 4 star map over the course of a couple of days and found the hard AI I defeated "early" (realitive to rest of the campaign) still ranked 2nd in fleet size and credit income (I barely edged him out by a few thousand credits). They are still defeatable its just thats what makes them hard.

On your other note, I had the AI do that a couple of times to myself. I noticed the AI seems to enjoy "camping" at some worlds.

Ya I found the same thing.  Plus Vasari Ra does not work nor Advent Cap upgrades or TEC Nova.. gun, etc.. After months of waiting Nobody debugged this version.

Ya I found the same thing.  Plus Vasari Ra does not work nor Advent Cap upgrades or TEC Nova.. gun, etc.. After months of waiting Nobody debugged this version.

Hard AI gets a credit boost, I think it is 15 for the HW vs 10 for a normal.  Unfair gets 20 for the HW.  I think those are the numbers, but bottom line, YES, they get a credit boost to make them harder.  Play the normal AI if you don't want this.

No clue what you are talking about.  RA works differently now, it is in the patch notes, but you click on the phase gate and click on the "RA" button to summon ships.  It has a cost associated just now. I have used RA a few times in 1.1 already.

Novaliths work fine, I have both used them and had them used on me.  I haven't personally tried Advent Cap upgrades, but I'm not aware of any problem from the people I know who play Advent.

I don't even think AI is too hard on "unfair" but if you look at the name, wouldn't you think the AI gets a boost somehow?

The only thing I've really noticed is that they never build the super weapon. I've intentionally dragged out a game on "unfair" for a couple hours longer than I could have and they never did.

yeah, I'm not sure what is meant by the Advent cap upgrades

But is the AI as challenging? I remember destroying any opposition without much difficulty on normal settings, and even hard settings  was doable, now I get my ass kicked all the time on hard.

In other words, are you saying that the only difference between normal, hard and unfair is the credit they receive from their planets? No difference in AI coding?

I have noticed a difference, specifically in my mod, that the AI will only build my 6th Capital ship on hard and unfair and never get to it in the other two settings. It also seems they are more aggressive in the higher diffs. I have no problem matching them, though.

But, the AI coding should be fixed for the super weapons, that would actually make it waaaay harder.

I also find the 1.1 AI to be more challenging (especially on hard & unfair).  Partly, because the game is more balanced now.  But they also improved the AI, altho I can't point to any specific examples offhand. 

I do believe that the only difference between hard and unfair is the degree of the income and resource boost.  But there must be other AI improvement between normal and hard, because prior to version 1.03, hard didn't receive an income boost.

Normal gets 1.5 times our credits, metal & crystal income (1.5X).  So a 50% boost.
Unfair gets 2 times, or double of each (2X). Or, a 100% boost.

the hard ai still sucks

I don't play the AI enough to be able to tell if they do anything smarter at higher difficulty levels.  I have noticed improvements in 1.1 overall over older builds.

I understand if the Unfair AI gets "unfair" advantages, but I'm kind'a disapointed that Hard gets a cheat  :/

For those of you who pwn the Normal AI and who are seeking a greater challenge, I'd also like to cordially recommend the online multiplayer component of the game where you can play against real human opponents, have real human teammates, and make online Sins friends.

<----- Unofficial cheerleader for Sins online multiplayer.

^^ well, I've considered joining  the online community, but I,m the kind of guy that likes long, epic battles with max fleet size and hates rushes. A map usually last 5-8 hours for me. So... MP doesn't really interest me:P

So I just finished a battle royale with all AIs on "Unfair" and here is the end game resource breakdown:

I am the red line and those are my vanquished foes.

The resource breakdown through the game just tells how you are doing at that moment, not whether an AI is getting additional credits.  We have no way of knowing if one player is doing better with the same number of planets or if they are doing better with extra planets.

That said, the only part of the graph that has any meaning to compare yourself to an AI is the very start where you see if they are making more money when you all have only 1 Homeworld.  We can't really tell that from your screenshot, it looks like you all start the same, but it is hard to see that detail in a 5 hour game.

I would say that if there is a boost it's not that big.

And since they don't keep the boost over time, at the hardest difficulties, I wouldn't call it too unfair

Eviliron, load up that game, and look at the incomes "from" Planet/Asteroids graphs (the 3rd one down, on Credit, Metal & Crystal).  They will show a totally different picture, which include the income boosts. And it shows total accumulated income.  Infact, if you can, post those pictures here too.  The very first readings here are very revealing.

The income rate graphs (the 1rst or top ones) DON'T reflect the income boost!  They don't reflect the cheats. (The income rate graphs for hard and unfair are before the boost, and are actually inaccurate!)

The income from graphs DO! 

It only matters in the 1'st hour of play, after that the insane AI blows his income on stupied stuff. If you survive untill then you have won pretty much /cry WTB an AI with an iq higher than ants.

Doesn't look too much better for the AI, credits I will give you

But I'd rather have metal/crystal

Eviliron, Thx.  I assume you were so far ahead in Metal & Crystal; because you went out and grabbed all the Neutral extractors.  Something that the AI is sorely deficient in doing. 

Let me guess: you were playing Vasari, and made a bunch of extra scouts at the beginning?  Which map?

Comparing the two Credits graphs is what exposes the cheat (and the inaccuracy).  Its impossible for the leading credit income 'rate' to not eventually have the greatest income 'from'.  (PS. Again, compare very first readings also.)

@sagewon

not that this really makes them any harder

After playing awhile with friends vs ai in 2v2v2v2v2 locked team matches, I've come to the conclusion (though I may be wrong at this) that in a locked team, one ai will expand briefly and then focus on nothing but resource and money production and hand it off to the agressive partner to rapidly expand it's fleet.  I may be completly wrong about this, but it's been my observation, that taking out the resourcing companion cripples the agressive partner.