rather comical AI antics

[gwgardner]

Alright, now I hope the developers of this game are listening, or I'm going to regret plopping down my $40 for this game. I knew from reading this forum that the game is a work in progress, but I took a flyer on it because 1) I'm desperate for a WWII game at this scale, and 2) I thought what the heck, I'll support this new developer.

So I've been playing around with the game, not really serious about playing it through yet, getting a feel for how things work. It's early Jan., '40, and I have German forces deploying in the West after defeating Poland. I actually had kept my forces back from the Maginot line like 3 hexes, till I had enough deployed to really make a good front line. Suddenly, out plops the Brittish Expeditionary force, an entire corps, advancing two hexes out in front of Maginot all by itself. So next turn I simply surround it completely, hammer it with some air attacks, then destroy it. What a laugh!

So my point is, please, developers, you have to do something with this AI. Otherwise many like me, who prefer solo games, will stay away in droves. I hope that at some point, after another patch or two, I and others will be able to recommend the game. Please don't do like the Muzzy Lane 'Making History' developers, who simply wrote off solo players, doing nothing about that game's woefull AI, and leaving it out there only for multi-players.

[Dennistoun]

Yes, I had that too! I thought "where the flippin' heck did that come from!!?!" Anyway, I've laid it aside and gone back to FoF after laying THAT down for 8 months and finding that I am appreciating it more.

[Mickrocks201]

[font="Arial"]It is also fun watching the AI play the Germans on the Russian front... just when they start getting you on the ropes, they all of a sudden retreat around their cities and all you need to do is run a few mech units to the coast to cut em off from main supply.

Has anyone found the AI to be anything other than just plain pathetic?[/font]

[Mike Dubost]

ORIGINAL: mickrocks

[font="Arial"]It is also fun watching the AI play the Germans on the Russian front... just when they start getting you on the ropes, they all of a sudden retreat around their cities and all you need to do is run a few mech units to the coast to cut em off from main supply.

Has anyone found the AI to be anything other than just plain pathetic?[/font]

The AI does a good job running the initial Soviet defense against the Germans. It lauches powerful counterattacks in the winter that have the Germans sweating big time.

Then, it falls apart. It continues to build up islands of units around cities, even when they are clearly about to be cut off from Main Supply Sources, and does not form lines that could be used to stop the issolation, nor does it know when to give up the frontier cities and form a new line farther back.

[Mickrocks201]

ORIGINAL: gwgardner

Please don't do like the Muzzy Lane 'Making History' developers, who simply wrote off solo players, doing nothing about that game's woefull AI, and leaving it out there only for multi-players.

[font="Arial"]
Lets face it. For this game to have any staying power in the market the AI needs to be address seriously. The game is perfectly suited for solo play as far as the mechanics and complexity level go, all that is really missing to produce hours and hours of entertainment is a challenging AI.

I even tried to play with some house rules to not take advantage of stupid AI moves unless I had no choice, hoping that given a chance the AI will come around and do something worthwhile, but it never seemed to be able to come up with anything challenging.

I know it is quite a commitment on the developers to figure out how to create a moderately effective AI. Pride in product should be a powerful incentive. But personally, unless I see a real attempt at improvement in the AI soon, this game is not worth the disk space it occupies. I am not interested in PBEM as it is a much too drawn out process and find it difficult to find the time or coordination with a buddy for face to face. [/font]

[herra]

I was very upset to see the quality of this game compared to it's price tag, which cost me £27!! I hope you are working to correct the AI as it is a joke and I feel ripped off.
Everything else I can live with, but matrix should have had some kind of quality control as this product is not even close to finished. Lesson learned.

Please at least can we not have tons of units named "new units" everywhere and limit the number of units we can build so we don't have whole coutries filled to the brim with counters so no one can move!

[comrade]

I would like you all to know that we're aware of all of this bad AI stuff and working on it. We're sorry if anybody feels upset about the weak AI - we'll do our best to improve the AI as much as possible. See my post in this thread. tm.asp?m=1921386