Easy difficulty still seems pretty hard.

[pbhj]

Have tried the different AIs - qbot and aegisbot - but only on the "easy" level.

I'm an adult with a modicum of experience with RTS games but the bot thrashes me quite solidly (ie beats me easily) every time.

The bot appears to have used resources far beyond those I'm able to gather even if I only created women. So they then attack me with a massive hoard of soldiers and armoury. Like I have 80 people and they have 240, and siege engines (eg [hovering!] elephants) and fortresses and such.

Seems to me that on "easy" I should be able to win by now having played about 40 games of 0ad ... so perhaps I'm more inept than I imagine or maybe the bots are simply too strong? I don't expect it to be a walk over but I'd imagine that even relatively inexperienced players should be able to win on "easy".

Regards and thanks for a great game that so far is giving lots of enjoyment.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Hi there. I would use your females primarily for food gathering. Use your men for mining (stone and metal).

Others could probably give you some pointers if you posted a Youtube video of your exploits. Possible?

[LordGood]

Turtle tactics are still very powerful in this game against the AI, especially against Athenians, Carthaginians, and Mauryans, since they don't build siege weapons

Building towers and garrisoning soldiers will hold back a strong assault if they lack siege weaponry. Palisades will help keep cavalry away from your women and such

[greenknight32]

I've won a lot of games with turtle tactics, but you have to be very efficient. Not the easiest way.

Try building 10 archers and rushing them across the map. Don't get within range of the enemy Civic Center, attack their gatherers and farmers.

[FeXoR]

Hi pbhj

I think you are right that the game should have an AI that is in fact easy, meaning:

- Not attacking at all

- Only occupying mapArea/numberOfPlayers/2 of the map

...so every newcomer could win a game (though it still may need some time because the first attacks might be repelled by the AI).

That way players can test their tactics and learn to play against an opponent (in opposite to a sandbox game).

I don't have trouble beating the AIs but it would be a shame to frustrate and loose players because the game is to hard.

(And I'm sure your not the only one having trouble to beat the AIs, pbhj)

That is not meant as a criticism of the AIs in general - strong AIs are as vital for strong players so the game doesn't become boring.

(And from the code perspective much harder to realize)

Note, however, that the game is in Alpha stage.

At this stage developing as strong as possible non-cheating AIs should be the main goal IMO.

Making AIs easier later (and stronger by cheating) is simple then.

Edited November 9, 2013 by FeXoR

[Mythos_Ruler]

FeXoR, we have the "Sandbox" difficulty for this.

[FeXoR]

FeXoR, we have the "Sandbox" difficulty for this.

A Sandbox difficulty game with an overwhelming AI (for some players) seams quite strange to me.

I'd say just remove the "max(0.5, ...)" bracket from 0ad/binaries/data/mods/public/simulation/helpers/InitGame.js line 22

cmpPlayer.SetGatherRateMultiplier(+Math.max(0.5,(+settings.PlayerData[i].AIDiff+1)/3.0));    // Sandbox: 50%, easy: 66%, Medium: 100%, hard: 133%, very hard: 166%

so it only has 33% in Sandbox difficulty (at least, and the code is shorter anyway ^^).

[Mythos_Ruler]

A Sandbox difficulty game with an overwhelming AI (for some players) seams quite strange to me.

I don't understand what you're saying here. pbhj is having difficulty defeating the AI on 'easy.' It is likely he will not have such difficult defeating the AI on 'sandbox' difficulty. It seems like that's the difficulty he should start at and work his way up.

[FeXoR]

I don't understand what you're saying here. pbhj is having difficulty defeating the AI on 'easy.' It is likely he will not have such difficult defeating the AI on 'sandbox' difficulty. It seems like that's the difficulty he should start at and work his way up.

Oh, sorry, Mythos, I was on the wrong track.

I failed to follow the most basic concept of sane behavior: Detect, conclude, act.

[Pureon]

Don't worry about it FeXoR

What we can conclude from this topic is that the 'easy' AI could be made even easier, while the 'Very Hard' AI is made more difficult (which is what wraitii is doing by improving Aegis).

[Lion.Kanzen]

with new Town bell Button and some tips and Tricks can be more easy. you guys know how i can capture video without FPS down?

I love make videos with Adobe Premiere.(some topic off).

[EqUalIzEr4217]

I am now newcomer to RTS either. But I have always used cheats to have a more relaxing gameplay. It's just funner to me that way. I am no Pro in any since, therefore I am easily overwhelmed. I don't really have a strategy other than to gather resources as fast as possible, and create a strong defense as fast as possible. But this is not easy for me, the AI is definitely way to hard for being on very easy. Guess that's what I get for cheating the AI all those years. I look forward to Aegis as you call it being updated. I really like the game thus far, just wish it were easier to win. Can't wait for Campaign to be finished.

[Sundiata]

2 hours ago, EqUalIzEr4217 said:

I am now newcomer to RTS either. But I have always used cheats to have a more relaxing gameplay. It's just funner to me that way. I am no Pro in any since, therefore I am easily overwhelmed. I don't really have a strategy other than to gather resources as fast as possible, and create a strong defense as fast as possible. But this is not easy for me, the AI is definitely way to hard for being on very easy. Guess that's what I get for cheating the AI all those years. I look forward to Aegis as you call it being updated. I really like the game thus far, just wish it were easier to win. Can't wait for Campaign to be finished.

Since Alpha 23 this should be less of an issue. In the match setup, go to AI configuration and set the AI behavior to defensive.