How hard is hardest AI?

[Rikimaru]

Thinking of coming back to try it. I finished a medium game vs all AI and did quite well.
Wondering if I bump it up to max difficulty, am I to be crushed and steamrolled and ejected out into space at turn 10, or is this one doable?

I'd appreciate telling me your own experiences with it.

Wanting to know if they cheat stupidly hard or is the AI psychic too. That's always a turn off.
Thanks in advance

Final Edit: For those wondering, it's easily doable.
I had a bad first go but my second attempt, I did it! Got the achievement. Did it with my custom faction (A Vaulters style science/big expensive fleets/black thumb)

I realised killing scouts in your territory pisses factions off. I guess I should've realised earlier, but they seem to do it to me just fine.
Anyway, I went from getting ganged up on to being in an alliance with 4 factions while the others stayed divided.

[Elitewrecker PT]

I haven't played Endless yet, but the second hardest isn't particularly hard, and my father has beaten Endless without even bothering too much with battle tactics and proper ship designs, system pop micromanagement, luxury boosts, etc, so...
Clearly you don't need to be a minmaxer to beat the ridiculous cheats the AI gets with each difficulty.

[i-Jinx]

"Hard" difficulty sets the AI to be as aggressive as it can get. Every higher difficulty than that just bestows bonuses and penalties. (Yawwwn)

If you want to put more "I" into AI behaviour, try the "Better AI Empires" mod. It does make opponents play smarter, at a cost. Some features are stupified, some ships are less configurable, and some buildables are nerfed/boosted in unrealistic ways.

All the same, I prefer it to vanilla.

[ZumZoom]

It's not hard. Especially if you make/get into alliances with other AI. But even without that I have zero problems with endless difficulty, despite not being very good in other similar games.

[Rikimaru]

Awesome. Thanks for the replies. I think I'll give it a go

[Singularity's Marauder]

Depends on who you are playing against and how you play.
Playing against Endless AI is about containment.
Within several tens of turns an AI can swarm a big chunk of the galaxy with colonies that develop too quickly and inflict too little penalty.
But if you manage to contain it, it becomes just as weak as any other difficulty.
Except for the fact that it has broken population growth which makes invasions annoying due to constant drafting...
And the broken industry makes it dish out a lot of garbage ships that you can kill, but there are always more to come.
It's bad...
It's not fun...
It's dumb.
If you feel like coming back even though you experienced everything, play another race, try changing the game's rules a little, like making minorities harder and more numerous. Try out new strategies. Read a little...
Maybe even consider playing something else.
Sticking to one game can be...
Very boring.

[DarkSoldier]

If you're just hunting the achievement, you can cheese it the way I did: turn all victories off except Wonder and play Riftborn in a huge galaxy against one opponent. The size of the galaxy should keep you apart long enough to get to the final tech tiers without getting steamrolled.

By the time you get to building the Obelisks, you should have also unlocked the Stasis Singularity. The game shows you where they're being built, so you can drop a Stasis on the system. A civ can only build one Obelisk at a time, so their progress gets halted for ten turns.

[Velorace]

Originally posted by Randomized Randomizer:

Depends on who you are playing against and how you play.
Playing against Endless AI is about containment.
Within several tens of turns an AI can swarm a big chunk of the galaxy with colonies that develop too quickly and inflict too little penalty.
But if you manage to contain it, it becomes just as weak as any other difficulty.
Except for the fact that it has broken population growth which makes invasions annoying due to constant drafting...
And the broken industry makes it dish out a lot of garbage ships that you can kill, but there are always more to come.
It's bad...
It's not fun...
It's dumb.
If you feel like coming back even though you experienced everything, play another race, try changing the game's rules a little, like making minorities harder and more numerous. Try out new strategies. Read a little...
Maybe even consider playing something else.
Sticking to one game can be...
Very boring.

=)

[Velorace]

Originally posted by Velorace:

Originally posted by Randomized Randomizer:

Depends on who you are playing against and how you play.
Playing against Endless AI is about containment.
Within several tens of turns an AI can swarm a big chunk of the galaxy with colonies that develop too quickly and inflict too little penalty.
But if you manage to contain it, it becomes just as weak as any other difficulty.
Except for the fact that it has broken population growth which makes invasions annoying due to constant drafting...
And the broken industry makes it dish out a lot of garbage ships that you can kill, but there are always more to come.
It's bad...
It's not fun...
It's dumb.
If you feel like coming back even though you experienced everything, play another race, try changing the game's rules a little, like making minorities harder and more numerous. Try out new strategies. Read a little...
Maybe even consider playing something else.
Sticking to one game can be...
Very boring.

=)

That's why Multiplayer in endless space 2 could come quite in Handy... my friend.

I still have to make my project on that...

[Velorace]

The games I played on multiplayer...

Surely werent like that...

[Jozsefirst]

Originally posted by ZumZoom:

It's not hard. Especially if you make/get into alliances with other AI. But even without that I have zero problems with endless difficulty, despite not being very good in other similar games.

Other... AI?
Is that you Mark?

[Rikimaru]

Turn 130 and everyone's declared war with me in the space of 10 turns - doom stacks on my borders - RIP

[Velorace]

Originally posted by Rikimaru:

Turn 130 and everyone's declared war with me in the space of 10 turns - doom stacks on my borders - RIP :hunted:

They are easy, Rikimaru.

Nothing that compares to a human player... =)

[Velorace]

Originally posted by Rikimaru:

Turn 130 and everyone's declared war with me in the space of 10 turns - doom stacks on my borders - RIP :hunted:

You should play against humans, not bots...

[Velorace]

Originally posted by Rikimaru:

Turn 130 and everyone's declared war with me in the space of 10 turns - doom stacks on my borders - RIP :hunted:

Play against a human. Taste it for real. =)

[Rikimaru]

Originally posted by Velorace:

Originally posted by Rikimaru:

Turn 130 and everyone's declared war with me in the space of 10 turns - doom stacks on my borders - RIP

Play against a human. Taste it for real. =)

Hell no haha you'll be waiting ages for me to finish my turn! - I like to listen to podcast / album while I play. Introvert solo player to the end