Obake
12th May 05, 10:37 PM
Given the apparant desire to be more interested in winning ASAP rather than enjoying all aspects of the game, I've never really bothered with the MP side of the game unless it's with friends. Not to mention I'm stuck with 56k since I prefer staying away from city life as much as possible.
As a result, I spend a heck of a lot more time playing skirmish mode against the 'puter. It's nowhere near the challenge, but at least I know that there's a chance I may run into an Avatar or a BT every once in a while.
Point being I'm fairly conversant with the capabilities of the AI. I know what to expect on Easy, on Medium, on Hard and so on. After downloading the patch overnight I was looking forward to trying it out this evening, especially after all the outstanding reviews that everyone has put up about it............ :muffy:
I immediately noticed that something was not as I had expected it would be. Now, I'll usually play on Hard or worse so I decided to start out from there. Obviously I wanted to see how I'd fare against the Defiler's now so I set up a 1x1 SM v Chaos game.
I'm not the fastest builder in the world, and quite frankly my rushing sucks, which I'm glad for. Never underestimate the advantage of being bad at something! At any rate, with only two Scout squads I managed to cap 3/4th's of the SP's before even seeing a Cultist Squad. By that time I'd also built an SM squad, my FC and had a second SM squad on the way.
Usually by the time I've built 2 SM squads and my FC, I'm dealing with the AI's leader trying to get into my base. Not so any longer. Figuring it was an aberration, I sat around for a bit, tech'ed up to Tier 2 and threw out a couple of Whirlwinds along with a couple more SM squads. By the time all of that was done, I had only run into maybe 3 CSM squads and another Cultist. Figuring that the AI was going turtle, I moved in for the kill. I was quite suprised to find nothing more than a couple more CSM squads, a Raptor squad and 3 or 4 Heretics. All that the AI had built was the Temple and the Armory. No power generators, and only one of the SP's they had capped had been upgraded.
Now, my initial thought was that I had just capped too many SP's too quickly. I had the sinking feeling that this was not the case though, as NONE of those points were contested in any way by the AI. That was the unusual part. The AI tends to build and throw.
I tried things in reverse and took Chaos myself against SM's. Unfortunately it was the exact same thing. I barely was able to get a single Defiler built before it was game over and the SM's were trashed. I think I had 4-5 CSM squads, and two Cultists with NO armor.
Tried the same with Orks and Eldar as well and kept seeing the same thing. Nothing more than variations on a theme. I'm not sure exactly what got changed in the AI routines, but playing on Hard under 1.3 feels a lot like playing on Easy under 1.0.
I've yet to try Very Hard or Insane, but in all honesty, I'm expecting more of the same. I'll update as I work through it.
My guess is that not a lot of people posting here will have seen this as MP is all the rage, but for those who don't MP on a regular basis, this can be rather significant.
Played a few skirmish games on Harder and also on Insane.
I'm still getting owned by the AI on Insane, but Harder seems to be spot on for my skill level. Given that, it looks like the AI has been set back a grade when you're playing against it. In other words, if you've been playing on Standard, you'll need to bump yourself up to Hard to get the same challenge. If played on Harder, you'll need to go to Insane.
If you were already playing on Insane and beating multiple AI armies on a regular basis, then you suck! (jk) Regardless, no lovin for those of you who were...... not that you'd care, you're probably already at 1800 with 200 games under your belt since the patch was released anyway. :jaw:
As a result, I spend a heck of a lot more time playing skirmish mode against the 'puter. It's nowhere near the challenge, but at least I know that there's a chance I may run into an Avatar or a BT every once in a while.
Point being I'm fairly conversant with the capabilities of the AI. I know what to expect on Easy, on Medium, on Hard and so on. After downloading the patch overnight I was looking forward to trying it out this evening, especially after all the outstanding reviews that everyone has put up about it............ :muffy:
I immediately noticed that something was not as I had expected it would be. Now, I'll usually play on Hard or worse so I decided to start out from there. Obviously I wanted to see how I'd fare against the Defiler's now so I set up a 1x1 SM v Chaos game.
I'm not the fastest builder in the world, and quite frankly my rushing sucks, which I'm glad for. Never underestimate the advantage of being bad at something! At any rate, with only two Scout squads I managed to cap 3/4th's of the SP's before even seeing a Cultist Squad. By that time I'd also built an SM squad, my FC and had a second SM squad on the way.
Usually by the time I've built 2 SM squads and my FC, I'm dealing with the AI's leader trying to get into my base. Not so any longer. Figuring it was an aberration, I sat around for a bit, tech'ed up to Tier 2 and threw out a couple of Whirlwinds along with a couple more SM squads. By the time all of that was done, I had only run into maybe 3 CSM squads and another Cultist. Figuring that the AI was going turtle, I moved in for the kill. I was quite suprised to find nothing more than a couple more CSM squads, a Raptor squad and 3 or 4 Heretics. All that the AI had built was the Temple and the Armory. No power generators, and only one of the SP's they had capped had been upgraded.
Now, my initial thought was that I had just capped too many SP's too quickly. I had the sinking feeling that this was not the case though, as NONE of those points were contested in any way by the AI. That was the unusual part. The AI tends to build and throw.
I tried things in reverse and took Chaos myself against SM's. Unfortunately it was the exact same thing. I barely was able to get a single Defiler built before it was game over and the SM's were trashed. I think I had 4-5 CSM squads, and two Cultists with NO armor.
Tried the same with Orks and Eldar as well and kept seeing the same thing. Nothing more than variations on a theme. I'm not sure exactly what got changed in the AI routines, but playing on Hard under 1.3 feels a lot like playing on Easy under 1.0.
I've yet to try Very Hard or Insane, but in all honesty, I'm expecting more of the same. I'll update as I work through it.
My guess is that not a lot of people posting here will have seen this as MP is all the rage, but for those who don't MP on a regular basis, this can be rather significant.
Played a few skirmish games on Harder and also on Insane.
I'm still getting owned by the AI on Insane, but Harder seems to be spot on for my skill level. Given that, it looks like the AI has been set back a grade when you're playing against it. In other words, if you've been playing on Standard, you'll need to bump yourself up to Hard to get the same challenge. If played on Harder, you'll need to go to Insane.
If you were already playing on Insane and beating multiple AI armies on a regular basis, then you suck! (jk) Regardless, no lovin for those of you who were...... not that you'd care, you're probably already at 1800 with 200 games under your belt since the patch was released anyway. :jaw: