You must be proud Smokeskin, I know I would be, if I could beat their Insane A.I
I myself have started with the original Command & Conquer, back in around 1996 I believe, on the PlayStation version, I knew absolutely nothing of RTS'es back then, in fact I didn't even knew what genre it was and how I should have called that type of game. But all I knew is that I freakin' loved the cut-scenes, and the game itself of course. Gotta remember those Obelisks, no one liked to see even a single one of those on the field.
And just like you I wouldn't bother loosing my time with this game nor the actual series without this A.I modification (under its gaming form that is, because there are tons of books for the WH40K fluff to nourish my imagination with). It's amazing how a single community mod can really make the difference between keeping the game and playing it, or returning it for refund or selling it to an individual. I will be honest here, I barely played this game online since I bought DoW. I could perhaps count the number of games I've played, with strangers, at around fifteen, or no more than twenty or so, in a period of just a little more than three years. With friends, I played about the same number, and when I played with them it was for testing purposes with this modification back then when we mostly all experienced desync issues.
I gained most of my experience thanks to this A.I, or else... a beginner could beat me in a heart beat.
What I've learned with this A.I in particular (which doesn't apply with the vanilla one) is that you must not give it any tactically important territory. My strategies, so far, have been used on almost all of the games I played (it some times depend on the maps of course, but rarely depends on anything else than that). What I do is to get two or three T1 light infantry (or as I call them "scouts", simply), of course sending them to two or three LP's (or Relic is any, and/or CP if any), and then as early as I can to set up a minimal amount of defenses at the LP which is the nearest to the enemy's base, with mines and turrets.
The early harassing of this A.I is both its advantage and its disadvantage. With a player like me, using my tactics, they will sadly harass into my turrets and mines, which results in their death, most of the times (when they don't retreat, or when they just don't have time to because the damage coming from three turrets all firing at you is too great), and that in turn forces them to replace and/or reinforce their lost troops or entire squads. That means less requisition than they should have had. Some times this strategy fails, yes, but I must say that it occurs only rarely, only when I myself do a mistake, and not because the A.I suddenly found a better strategy to counter mine. If I played in any other ways I would probably get owned each and every single times.
With a player playing more (or too much) defensively, this A.I is a real threat. As soon as it gains enough territory, pretty much any factions under this A.I's control turns into a green wave of Orks coming at you non stop. Trying to gain the lost territory back, or trying to gain any non-controlled territory from the start is a real pain with this A.I. They won't stop coming at you, except for the often too brief moments you have to repair your damaged base when they decide to stop for a period to gather more troops to give you the final blow.
I can do with Harder with this A.I, it's "ok", but my winning and loosing ratio not so curiously changes from green to orange I'd say. If I played on Insane... I don't think that any of my strategies (and I don't have many) would work at all. If I played on Insane, I, and many others would have to play like you do Smokeskin, by barely looking at the base, which is one of the big down sides of not being an A.I ourselves and not seeing the whole map like the A.I does. They know where everything is, but we don't, they order commands to all troops at once if necessary, but that we can't do it. With shortcuts however, with key bindings, and a very offensive play, it has to work indeed.
My biggest nightmare with this A.I (and that's dating from as early as I can remember with Dark Crusade) is when I play against the Necrons. I hate them. If you want to discourage me from playing against you online, or against your A.I, outside of testing purposes, tell me that you or the A.I will be Necrons, and it will suffice. I absolutely despise that faction, and I don't even like to play as them either. They are cold... silent, depressingly indifferent, with the virtual confidence of their programs slowly and surely walking without a hurry towards their prey, knowing they will win... I can't stand it, I just can't.
Edited by Zenoth, 23 March 2008 - 02:54 AM.
2P_BATTLE_MARSHES.2008_03_22.16_41_44.rar 122.36KB
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