How difficult is this game?

[Serious Goose]

I am on the verge of buying the game, but I'm concerned that the AI might be lacking. I'm a huge fan of grand strategy paradox games, but their main drawback is usually pretty bad AI. What have you guys experienced in terms of AI difficulty/quality?

[Ogami]

Well i am playing on normal difficulty and started with the first scenario, where you only own a few worlds (around 10) and just begin to grow into being an empire.
200 turns later (biggest map) i own around 120 worlds (of 700).
I also own the biggest fleet in the galaxy and won about 99% of my battles so far, so my initial thoughts are the game is a bit too easy on the military front. At least on normal difficulty.
The civilized alien factions seem really passive and when they attack its often very suicidal.
For example , sending 50 ships against a world with full planetary defense installations and a 200 ship guard fleet.
The uncivilized faction like the Hive or the Parasites send much larger fleets but their ships are so bad that you can easily win battles that outnumber you 3-4 times to 1.
But the military side is only a part of the game, the interesting part is managing your court and trying to keep everything from blowing up on the internal political front.
Also there is a developing storyline about some interdimensional enemies preparing to invade in the future.
But for the current product i would say Paradox enemy AI is clearly better.
BUT, and this is a big BUT, this is a one man project and the developer is very active and listens to the community.
He also plans multiple updates in the future and some DLC down the line.
At the moment, i still would recommend this game if you like space 4x in general and are interested in a game that does some things differently then the majority.
I think its worth the asking price if you like the genre.

[Chris Koźmik]

Do you ask about AI or difficulty?

Note that in this game AI is asymmetric, so for example The Hive is a mindless race which breeds & sends tons of ships at averyone around without any tactics or planning. Similarly Parasites, Pirates, and tro a degree rebels (inside fighting for leadership). As for civilized races they do things partially emotionally (like attack you when they feel insulted) and you can manipulate them diplomatically. Therefore, AI does not have degerated cases (the game does not break when AI is stupid, actually some races were designed to be uncoordinated and chaotic) and does not affect difficulty that much. It simply plays by different rules...

As for difficulty I plan to rebalance it during the first 3 months, I think at the moment of writing it might be too low for advanced players, especially after early game.
Note: you can adjust the difficulty drastically if you are into modding, just check "data/balance.ini". Anyway, I will be focusing on late game difficulty in future versions.

[Colt Rivers]

The asymmetric AI was the reason I bought this game. I think making an AI play on the same terms as a human will always be an unsatisfying experience (check out AI War, which is another great game with asymmettric AI).

As for the difficulty, I'll chime in when I played a game on normal.

I'm really enjopying the game so far, Chris. It's streamlined, yet deep and eliminates pretty much everything I disliked about 4x games. Will write a review one of these days.

[Wipeout]

If the game was any harder casual players wouldn't play it

[Shad]

Difficulty 6 should be your starting point, if you are experienced with 4X. 7-8 if you want extra challenge.

Note that in all scenarios except the first, the dimensional invasion is a major threat. I had a 300 world empire (on diff 6) simply rolling over enemies, and then actually had to fight for survival, when dimesionals came.

[Chris Koźmik]

Originally posted by Spectrum Disorder:

If the game was any harder casual players wouldn't play it

That's why there are 9 difficulty levels :)
1-3 are intended for casuals, 4-6 for average/decent players, 7-8 for very good players and 9 almost impossible (at least that's the plan :D)

[solops1]

Please keep this thread updated as you work on the AI. I think it is something that most people interested in the game want to know about. Also, Do the various AI add behaviors at increasing difficulties? What do increasing difficulty levels do?

[Chris Koźmik]

Difficulty level affects many things (sometimes smaller ones like how many edict and budget changes are allowed per era) but most important is the strength of aliens. For example (v1.08) civilized races are 8 times stronger in difficulty 9 than in dificulty 4.

Yes, sometimes difficulty level might add AI behaviour (in v1.07 alien armadas can start at difficulty 5+ only).

Overall, the intention is that low difficulties are very easy and high difficulties are very hard :) So, everyone can play according to his/her skill.