Noob: AI Quality?

[Erithtotl]

Hi,

I just became aware of this game because of the writeup on RPS and it appearing on Steam.

I've played pretty much every major space 4x game. I'm highly intrigued by everything I've read about this.

I'm mostly concerned about AI. I've noticed often that the more feature-heavy 4x games become, the more the AI struggles with the complexity.

Since I don't own the earlier expansions I'll be dropping $49 for this.

I don't want to buy a fabulous sandbox to discover the other kids in the box can't build a basic sand castle.

So what are the general opinions of the AI? how does it hold up over longer games? Do people tend to play a lot of house rules to avoid dominating? Are the higher difficulty levels just cheats or does the AI actually play better?

Thanks!

[Haree78]

There is no other game out there that the AI has to do so much and handles it so well, period.
Will you be able to beat/exploit the AI with experience? Of course, but that's where the difficulty levels and different starting conditions come in.

DW is so sandbox it is about finding the level you enjoy, that includes how much you automate, what difficulty you have it on, what AI empires you have and how much of a head start you give them.

I still lose occasionally and don't feel cheated because playing at higher difficulty levels doesn't feel wrong like in some games.

You will lose your first games on Normal difficulty, although I'm sure there are exceptions, if people say they beat their first game, ask them how much they automated.

[Raap]

The higher difficulties are just cheats. Normal is without cheats. I'd recommend at least Hard, once you know what you're doing; the AI does need that slight boost to be able to play optimally, since it'll sometimes struggle a bit trying to balance troops/fleet maintenance and cashflow if it has no bonuses.

As for the AI itself, it wasn't much to brag about before this last expansion. Judging by the games I've had up to now, it's noticeably better than it was. It's never going to be perfect in a game of this scale, but the latest expansion has introduced a much-needed challenge to the game. Highly customizable starting conditions allow you to create more of a challenge once you feel you've mastered it.

[mikeCK]

If you want a real challenges without AI cheats, create a game where your AI opponents are given a higher tech level and a more mature empire. You will be playing catch-up and it's tough

[FingNewGuy]

ORIGINAL: Erithtotl

Hi,

I just became aware of this game because of the writeup on RPS and it appearing on Steam.

I've played pretty much every major space 4x game. I'm highly intrigued by everything I've read about this.

I'm mostly concerned about AI. I've noticed often that the more feature-heavy 4x games become, the more the AI struggles with the complexity.

Since I don't own the earlier expansions I'll be dropping $49 for this.

I don't want to buy a fabulous sandbox to discover the other kids in the box can't build a basic sand castle.

So what are the general opinions of the AI? how does it hold up over longer games? Do people tend to play a lot of house rules to avoid dominating? Are the higher difficulty levels just cheats or does the AI actually play better?

Thanks!

Do yourself a favor: get the game! [:)]

[hewwo]

hmmm well I just lost my first universe game, and that hadn't happened to me in a long time with the last expansion!

[Gelatinous Cube]

Its pretty good. Not only is the AI decent in enemy Empires, but its also pretty decent in your own Empire if you don't fee like micro-managing. The biggest deficiency is in Ship Design, but since I don't particularly care for Ship design and the enemy AI is just as wasteful in its designs it kind of works out.

[Antarian]

Ive never seen a better AI. Where the AI fails in this game is the empires doing very well do not work hard enough to get their victory conditions, and do not try to stop you hard enough to prevent you from getting yours.

Once you are close to your conditions, it's fairly easy (especially with Military type conditions) to organize a series of lightning raids and invasions and take the game, even if 3 or 4 other AI empires could easily crush you in an all out war. That's ok though, I always have to win (but don't always, in this game, which is refreshing)

[Spacecadet]

Considering that the AI is controlling literally thousands of ships Empire, managing the Economy, Diplomacy, and so forth per Empire - it's pretty darn good.

There can always be tweaks, but that's not likely to happen until DW2, and it will be a fair amount of work at that.

DW:U is a good game, and with the expanded Modding it will get even better with Community support.