Feedback on AI re-balancing

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My results of testing:

1--> I think the AI has an algorithm for what cap ship it tries to build,
possibly based on DPS and abilities.  I say this because every race that
has a good colonizer seems to be doing better, but the Roms in particular
went downhill.

Dom: Dominion got harder as opponent.  Likely due to the fact that the
Leviathan is an unfair ship.  Even at only 75 supply, this ship can take
down just about anything for quite a while - I fought one with a Rom
Colonizer of same level AND a new Rom station - the Leviathan took down
shields on both before it was destroyed, and if I haven't repeatedly sent
my cap ship running behind the space station it wouldn't have worked
(prolly would have taken out both).  In addition, the extra push to build
ships made him tougher because churning out galors and scythes will put you
on your heels quickly.

Fed: Feds got harder as opponent, which is good since they were by far the
weakest opponent before today.  The increased push for ships had them
churning out Excelsiors and Constellations quickly, which is even more
potent than the Dominion push.  Sometimes it takes them a while to decide
to build the Ambassador, but I noted once where a computer ally sat around
while I took 3 systems, then all of a sudden started cranking out ships
left and right and took 3 systems before I managed to take a 4th.

Klingons: Klingons remained hard, perhaps the hardest, simply due to the
strength of their colonizer cap ship (AI almost never builds other cap
ships).  With the station/cap ship disabling beam weapon available right
off the bat, it's almost impossible to stop one of these things, and if
someone makes two of them and leaves them in a battlegroup, they can run
the map unchallenged.  I consider this to be a significant balance problem,
since human players will use the same tactic.  Recommend making this
ability only accessible at higher levels, having levels itself, or
restricting it to anti-station only (no ships).

Romulans: Roms were among the worst races for the AI before, and they're
much, much worse now.  The AI takes forever to decide to build a colonizer
cap ship, and by then anyone across from it (even other AI races) has got a
solid head start.  The AI doesn't seem to want to move through the
ship-building tech-tree like the other races, b/c I routinely see it
building nothing but the puny starting ships.  I have no idea why this is.
 Of all the "station-disabling" abilities, theirs is the worst b/c it
doesn't do appreciable damage, and it has a very short disable/cooldown
ratio.  If I had to guess, I'd say this may be because the slot assignment:
maybe the AI decides the price to pay for those utility cruisers isn't
worth it.  The Rommies need some serious love, even if you discount the AI
problems though.  You will get your clock cleaned unless you manage to
unlock the H'Veik warbird and spam it, since it's the rommies' only
strength right now (its HP/SP and DPS vs. supply make it probably the best
heavy cruiser in the game right now or maybe a close second behind the
intrepid).  The Sparrowhawk and killerhawk are not terrible deals, but
they're little more than target practice if you're fighting a fleet with a
Klingon or Dominion colonizer cap ship.

Haven't tried the borg.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by thomas.s...@gmail.com on 26 Jan 2010 at 2:13

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Borg - Way too powerful early in the game.  My queen's diamond was able to run 
the
board almost single-handedly.  I had some help from a unicomlex module I build
thinking the station deploy ability was done (guess it isn't yet), and the 
unicomplex
was able to take out a lvl 2 Ambassador class while never losing any HP (regen 
faster
than it took damage).

I was even blowing up stations w/ my Queen's diamond and a handful of medium 
ships
like the assimilator and diamond (like, the Queen, the unicomplex, and three 
other
ships)  There's no way that should be happening.

The regen is just too fast, and the Queen's Diamond does too much damage.  Make 
those
upgrades unlocked later in borg play or something.  Also, all ships besides the
scout, coffin, planet colonizer, and Queen's Diamond need to require research.

Original comment by thomas.s...@gmail.com on 26 Jan 2010 at 2:55

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agreed on brog redid the research trees to make it easier on the ai 
now the ai builds ships as it should in my testing. But suspect you are right 
on the 
algorithm for the caps

Original comment by jtaylor...@gmail.com on 26 Jan 2010 at 5:02

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Original comment by jtaylor...@gmail.com on 27 Jan 2010 at 3:02

• Changed state: Done