Hot posts in thread: How well do you think this game follows the "easy to learn, hard to master" formula?
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There have been other games where the developers had some top players in the community make really good ship designs.
Stardrive 2 comes to mind right away. Sometimes mods can also be integrated into the main game (Gal Civ 2 did that). -
In any case though, it's far too early to judge what the final game AI will be. All of the game's features and ship components haven't even been implemented yet. -
I think that there needs to be a bunch of pre-made ships from the team.
Study what make the best combination of components, then make them and have the AI choose them.- Helpful x 1
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Strategically, the AI on the harder levels is doing well but will do better. In detail, the AI knows how to expand, exploit resources, establish bases and seems to have a good grasp of the balance needed between "civilian" production and "military" production. During war, it is also good offensively but slightly less so on defense. Here, expect the inclusion of defenses and Starbases to aid the AI simply by their inherent capabilities. Another boost the AI will receive on the strategic level will be when its ability to actually "see" you is enhanced, that is coming in due time.
Tactically, the AI needs help. It is here where the AI can be given a tremendous upgrade without the need to resort to cheats. This however needs to be clarified further or rather broken down into two parts.
In actual combat, the AI will need to learn a few things. Maneuver could be upgraded as well as how the AI targets opposing forces. It needs to learn what to hit first, when to concentrate firepower, when to direct it at multiple targets and when to not blindly charge ahead into certain destruction. Where I find the AI excellent in tactical combat, is in knowing when to cut its losses and retreat, I hope that is retained.
The other area that will help the AI in tactical combat is ship design. The AI does build ships well and I have often noticed that its designs incorporate upgraded technology, however, the AI does not as yet use modifications. In other words it will not install heavy mount or auto-fire weapons etc. This puts the AI at a huge disadvantage against most players but expect it to be addressed as Adam himself has acknowledged it.
Obviously there is more that can be done and I am in no position to write about every nuance involved, but even teaching the AI how to build better fleets could help as well as insuring that it can react to your forces. In other words if you favor missiles and fighters, I would like to see the AI start favoring PD weapons. If you go with few but larger ships, it could counter with more but smaller ships raining down a hail of missiles at you.
For me then, I constantly remind myself that there are very good reasons why ISG is described as a Pre-Alpha, there is a lot of work to be done still. I would then say that whatever I write today may not hold true shortly and that the possibility that the AI will be able to face off against a player such as you or I and win is very much real.
Once we know that the Devs have completed their work in this area we will be in a much better position to analyze the capabilities of the AI and the need for further enhancements or mods.
In summary then, I would suggest that the AI is doing well at the strategic level, (could be better) but poorly at the tactical and will need substantial improvement there.- Agree x 1
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I think the biggest area that will need some work then is difficulty at the hardest setting. Perhaps there is a way to mod the game for a better AI and then to incorporate that mod eventually into the main game to make it tougher.
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Interesting questions @CrazyElf
Before I share my opinion on this, note that I have moved this thread to the general forums. While the VIPs may be in a better position to answer these questions, there are enough non-VIP players of the game that may have something useful to contribute.
Now let me address the questions you pose, keep in mind that this is just my perspective, both current as a veteran of ISG, and also as it was many months ago when I first tried the game.
Anyway my respected crewmate, my opinion is colored by my expertise in the game and I replied more to give your excellent questions some momentum, I would love to hear what anyone else has to say on the subject(s)- Helpful x 2
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This isn't strictly meant to be a feedback thread based on my experiences, but rather an attempt to build up feedback on what is considered the ideal in a 4X game, which is easy to learn, but hard to master. I'm not sure where else to post this since only VIPs are really in a position to give this type of feedback, but it's worth opening up a thread somewhere about this.
- How well do you think ISG currently follows the goal of easy to learn?
- Would you consider the game accessible to someone relatively new at 4X gaming?
- Do you think this game has an easy UI to use?
- What about the hard to master part? Do you think that at higher difficulty levels, there are challenges?
- Helpful x 2