Exremely frustrating experiencie 1 vs 3 AI

[sergarcar]

Again,
the game mechanics is absolutelly broken, it's a very frustrating experience to play games against 2 or 3 colonies, disabling some AI tricky options but you don't have any option because enemies take over the entirely maps and they coordinate attacks against you because the stupid AI mechanic implemented is ONMISCIENT.

I try to relax playing with small black ants vs 2 or 3 termites colonies medium and with no tricky behaviour for them, but it's always and impossible mission. If you play at low levels than medium or agrresive swith turned to low, the game is almost easy as stupid. There's in my oppinión no middle term that puts the player against a defiant task with possibilities to win on this type of games, repeat, using medium (i don't try hard or higher difficulty levels, are useless for me seeing how the games works in medium difficulty... and how broken is).

For devps, ¿have you try to win any game against 2 or 3 enemy colonies?
The tricky AI is frustrating at unknow levels. Every time you try to get any resource from the map and go out of your anthill, all enemy colonies are absolutelly aware what you are doing, and that triggers several coordinated attacks, no matter how far the enemy anthill is, OMNISCIENT AI brokes this game and all the fun, in this conditions it's almost impossible to growth enough to win.

Play the game, and you will realize what i am telling,
Thanks.

[sharkosaurus]

not sure what you expected, its three different colonies all in a united effort to kill you that take advantage of the same full map vision that you also have. they have you outnumbered 3 to 1 and no ant colony is gonna beat that, also did you just ignore everything the game has and go straight for freeplay? because i'm pretty sure anyone that has spent some time in the campaign can probably figure out the game was made primarily for singleplayer

[The Grand Mugwump]

You'll probably enjoy the game more if you stop putting a stick in your own bicycle wheel. Maybe try fighting against 1 AI or making it a free for all battle? Taking on overwhelming odds is something we're supposed to do with our gene thief ants after building them up in story mode.

And yes, the AI will actually move their soldiers to where our pheromone markers are when they launch raids. I've tested it, and I've been able to move enemy soldiers around the map by moving my pheromone markers around. It's pretty annoying, and it can also be funny with some creativity and a big enough predator.

[Chill Canuk]

I'm with you Sergarcar! I love this game but I find myself just replaying the story missions over and over cause they work for me but it's getting boring. I've tried the freeplay and, same as you, it's either way too easy or way too hard. Usually 2 colonies are dead by the time I get to attacking. I hear you Shark too, in real life there's no way 1 vs 3 would win. Mugwump, you're right we could change the options till it's something playable. However, I see the point in voicing what you want too. If everyone says 5.2 and 5.3 are too hard, guess what, change happens. This is the experience I want in freeplay - Me Vs 3. Whether we all attack each other or they only attack me doesn't matter. I build up my colony. I take occasional attacks from my enemies, nothing too harsh unless I'm playing real, real bad. I fight over some resources on the map, win some/lose some. Eventually I'm strong enough and start knocking em' out one by one. Repeat with a little variance each time I play but I win 90-100% of the time. The AI will have to be programmed to adjust to my level and basically let me win without me knowing and I'm thinking it was a challenge. Maybe this exists already but I can't tweak the settings the right way, please let me know if you know how. I feel like that experience should be standard in freeplay.

[The Grand Mugwump]

Skirmish doesn't give many options, but at the top of the screen there's another option, free play. One of my favorite things to do is to mess with the environment settings. It becomes a lot more exciting when I'm fighting off enemy ants and nest invading predators.

I don't know about 5.2 and 5.3. I thought they were pretty easy. You just need to spam level 1 matabele soldiers with some medics so you can harvest termites faster. More matabele = more resources per raid = more matabele = dead driver ants.

The termite workers shine most when upgraded. A level 3 worker can harvest 45 resources and a level 3 nest tender worker increases our food generated by 50%, which is insane. The termite economy is absolutely insane when we upgrade both of our workers, and then they can sustain an incredible amount of soldiers to defend themselves. Just don't put your soldiers in the same pheromone group as your workers. They are super bad at harvesting and just get in the workers' way.

I also recommend going into settings, going to the ... tab and turning on advanced build menu tooltips. There is so much information that is extremely useful to have (like the termite worker harvesting speed) that is hidden from the player with that setting turned off by default. It's almost mandatory to turn it on by the time we reach leafcutters, otherwise we'll make bad decisions regarding our economy and never know.

[Chill Canuk]

I will try what you say Mug. 5.2 and 5.3 on easy and medium were a lot harder before they tweaked the settings. You're right it's doable now. I will try advanced build but I don't find it a good thing to have 'so much info' and choices. I just want the experience I stated as standard, people can tweak from there. If I can find the right settings under advanced then I'm happy too. I'm not telling the Dev's they gotta do this or other players they gotta play my way, just a wish.

[The Grand Mugwump]

I really do recommend turning on advanced build menu tooltips. It makes it much easier to see which ants are worth upgrading and which ones aren't. They all are eventually, but the variation in the return for the cost is MASSIVE for different ants.

Take the leafcutter major soldiers for example. Upgrading them from 1 to 2 does almost nothing, and then upgrading them to 3 literally doubles their health and damage stats. And the basic tooltips SAY NOTHING about this. Just knowing that lets me focus on getting a few leafcutter major soldier brood tiles to level 3 first, which drastically increases their performance, rather than trying to get all of them to 2 first, which is a lot of spent food for almost no improvement.

[sergarcar]

Yes, to all the people that give me reason, basically, someone tells that too, the game is too easy or impossible, and you have to play with configs, behaviours, etc... until you can get a satisfactory experience in skirmish mode, or free mode 1 vs 2...3...

But the AI is broken in this scenarios, the AI doesn't adatp to player, it generates huge armies and crush with no mercy or reasons, and is very very frustrating how tricky the AI is.

A review on the code should be done to allow player to win on this types of matchs, with suffering of course, but able to win, almost occasionally. This option is almost impossible now.

[sergarcar]

And also, to all the people saying I am not playing correctly, no misters, I am a game developer and a programmer with decades of experience. When I speak about AI behaviour, I am absolutely aware how you code that, and what you have to done to fix it.

For example, the AI Code lacks a lot of "IF " conditions taking in consideration the player status.

And all the Omniscient AI should be away of this game to make it more real.

[The Grand Mugwump]

I figure if the AI is destroying you, that means it's doing its job pretty effectively. Ants aren't well known for showing mercy to their enemies.

[sergarcar]

Originally posted by The Grand Mugwump:

I figure if the AI is destroying you, that means it's doing its job pretty effectively. Ants aren't well known for showing mercy to their enemies.

What are you talking about? This is a game man!!!

The AI is not well programmed, too easy or impossible, and is a tricky AI omniscient ruinning what should be dare games against 2 or 3 anthills.

What are you speaking about ? If you dont know about something, dont speak or give arguments.

[Chill Canuk]

I'm with you Sergarcar. I too want a reactive enemy to my status. I too don't want others telling me how to play. These are just wishes, reality different.