Been awhile, AI any better?

[Summon3r]

Steam tells me i havent played since july 2021, any improvements to how the AI plays or is still atrocious?

[Geki]

Try StarNet AI mod.

[corisai]

July 2021? So 3.1.x experience at best?

Yes, vanilla AI was upgraded A LOT since it. Previously AI mods were almost mandatory - now they're used by most hardcore players, as vanilla AI pretty capable to fight back on A/GA difficulties. It still avoid strict specialization (but it's actually a good thing as player could exploit it A LOT).

Actually now many new players struggle against AI.

[Summon3r]

Originally posted by Geki:

Try StarNet AI mod.

i used to to use starnet, sadly from what i remember it didnt actually improve the ai it just gave them piles of stuff

[Summon3r]

Originally posted by corisai:

July 2021? So 3.1.x experience at best?

Yes, vanilla AI was upgraded A LOT since it. Previously AI mods were almost mandatory - now they're used by most hardcore players, as vanilla AI pretty capable to fight back on A/GA difficulties. It still avoid strict specialization (but it's actually a good thing as player could exploit it A LOT).

Actually now many new players struggle against AI.

this is welcome news i may have to give it a try again, hopefully fleets dont sit around doing nothing and allowing you to steam roll them or the dreaded perma wars of old.....

[corisai]

Originally posted by Summon3r:

hopefully fleets dont sit around doing nothing and allowing you to steam roll them

They still do it you're outclassing AI brutally: like having 3M fleet against their 300k. In more extreme cases AI still trying to fight back.

But x100 crisis is a nice addition too :) How to get: pick x25 strength and select "all" types of crisis. First will be x25, second x50, last x100. Good luck if they're a Contingency

Originally posted by Summon3r:

or the dreaded perma wars of old.....

Colossus / being a Genocidal is a solution. You could also play "genocidal-in-disguise" via Fear in the Dark origin.

[yuzhonglu]

AI's gotten better. Starnet and Startech doesn't work well anymore.

[Segovax]

AI is a lot better. I find it very difficult to compete with the AI on default settings in a huge galaxy on Admiral or Grand Admiral.

[corisai]

Originally posted by Segovax:

I find it very difficult to compete with the AI on default settings in a huge galaxy on Admiral or Grand Admiral.

I find out the most exciting experience by playing Scaling A/GA with earlier then default Mid-Game (2250 +/- depending on how powerful or not is your build).

Due to pops snowballing non-scalling A/GA is indeed too rough and require playing most OP builds & getting some luck in starting position.

[Segovax]

Originally posted by corisai:

Originally posted by Segovax:

I find it very difficult to compete with the AI on default settings in a huge galaxy on Admiral or Grand Admiral.

I find out the most exciting experience by playing Scaling A/GA with earlier then default Mid-Game (2250 +/- depending on how powerful or not is your build).

Due to pops snowballing non-scalling A/GA is indeed too rough and require playing most OP builds & getting some luck in starting position.

Yeah. I straight up can't deal with GA non-scaling, that's true.

[Azor]

Originally posted by Summon3r:

Originally posted by Geki:

Try StarNet AI mod.

i used to to use starnet, sadly from what i remember it didnt actually improve the ai it just gave them piles of stuff

If you thought Statnet improved AI was "given stuff" then you'd think the same of current vanilla AI LOL. That is (or was, now that Starnet is in a bad state) a common misconception about Starnet when in reality it was simply more aligned with the meta (eg by never using clerks and by priotizing techinicians)

However, I can't recommend Starnet AI in its current state because there its been on life support since Russia-Ukraine so its updates have been lackluster to the point where it performs worse than vanilla in mid to late game.

As for the current state of vanilla, it is fine enough for at least early to mid game. If you know what you are doing you wiill still outscale the AI mid (2300) to late game (2400). But do give it some difficulty bonuses because vanilla AI still LOVES clerks, literally the worst job in the game, and difficulty bonuses are the only thing making them work for AI, as AI bonuses for trade value are larger than resource output bonuses.

So play vanilla in at least commodore difficulty without scaling, or GA with scaling.

[Summon3r]

thx folks this seems like relatively good news, ill be firing up a new game shortly... are there any must have mods these days? would be nice to just vanilla it but you know..