5 replies to this topic

[kjwilk91]

I figured I would say hello you you all. I've been cheaking the website and these forums once or maybe twice a day looking for updates and progress with 3.0. I figured I would join the forums. You guys are doing an awesome job at keeping an old classic alive. Kudos! I play mostly just skirmish but am not very good. Once again good job dev's! I appreciate the work you are putting into this!

[Zenothist]

Hello kjwilk91, welcome to the forums.

We're glad you like the mod! We hope to have an update somewhere in April. Well, if you're not too good at skirmish, maybe you'd like to give some feedback on the AI. We'd love to hear your opinion on it.

[kjwilk91]

The AI is great. I'm usually having to build a lot of guardian AI to stop Soviet blimps right off the bat. I'm not sure how much control you guys have on how they attack, when, and what units but there's always the same pattern. Dogs, tanks with flack tracks followed by foot units, then airships with some airstrikes aiming at my tanks if there are any left. If possible maybe they can somehow mixup what units attack? I never see flack troopers attack (I dont use them to attack so I guess I can see why not.) I play the bloody games gametype alot and enjoy that most. I'm use to the game so I know what to expect from easy AI, medium, and hard. I really like how you pumped up their agression vs Westwoods standard difficulties. When I blow up a bridge I rarely see the AI try to repair them (it does happen but vary rarely.) As for naval warfare they are very difficult. It's fun. They only seem to use subs, sleds, and destroyers, with the occasional anti aircraft unit. I would only really suggest (if possible) make AI units, lets use desolators as the example, plant and create a radioactive area. I never see that and like stated they seem to use the same basic units, regardless of nationality. If you would like any feedback about anything broad or specific I check these forums at least once a day (don't typically play everyday though) so I can give an average users experince. I've dabbled around in the missions again and am really liking what you guys are doing there! Kudos Mental Omega team.

[lovalmidas]

Well, the functionality of the AI has a lot to offer. The AI in MO is much more active because of the adjustments to the rules files and a much more comprehensive list of teams given to the AI. But in its current state it is still very limited. Imagine the desolator planting rad in his own base! It is possible to do this with individual maps with waypoints, but to do that without them (which many maps don't use or use for their own purpose) may require something beyond the scope of the current game engine. I don't know about Ares though.

Maybe a "Gather near Enemy" > "Deploy" script can work a fair bit, if the desos manage to get in there in the first place. Hope it won't end up killing its allies instead. I can give it a go, but then I do singleplayer missions which is rather different.

The AI only seem smart in the early game. The AI still attacks with limited degree of smartness after I have got my counters up. For example they would still send in lots of troops when I have a sniper in my base. I could have prevented such 'dumbness' by telling the AI to create infantry teams only when I have zero snipers and zero seals, but under current settings, that would override the current prerequisite (e.g. to create the team when the enemy own a war factory). Hopefully Ares have something to enhance this.^^

But in MO, I can agree that they are tougher because they are more active. Well, it is just like vanilla AI on steroids and with new combos. It's nothing really new, but the new combos are decent, and sometimes great. ^^

I can also agree with kjwilk91 that country specials get built far more occasionally than the basic ones, because the country specials still form a relatively small portion of the aimd.ini file (better than the vanilla RA2/YR, but still small). If the entries of each country special can form more than 20% of the basic entries with greater weightage (the more the better, well, they are specials), then the AI will surely use them rather regularly if they work well against the enemy.

I also notice that after sometime, some of the AI will stop producing units altogether, even if the harvesters are still collecting ore for them. I wonder why.

Oh, if Ares allows it, I'd really appreciate some basic microing by the AI. Attack, scatter, attack, scatter, rinse, repeat. Or maybe focus fire (after that first target, I know it focuses fire on its first target) can be good enough. I have managed to see a pair of AI magnetrons juggling a rhino and getting past it without getting hurt (the mags were in hunt mode). The only micro it is good that is getting infantry out of squish-zone, but that's about it. This can actually help reduce the need of having the AI out-produce by so much and filling its base with a sea of tanks.

All in all, it is wonderful that Mental Omega will still exist for a long time. ^^ I can't envision the true omega to this epic because there isn't really any end. ^^ Honestly will the Epsilon die out because Yuri is killed in the last mission? They didn't before the campaign, and I believe they wouldn't.

[Zenothist]

The economy in 3.0 has been improved greatly to ensure players don't run out of money after only 10 minutes of game play. Even on the lowest starting funds setting.

[Graion Dilach]

Pssh, Zeno, that got nerfed back to 15 min.