slow research - epic games: also affects majors?

[misterprimus]

Does slowest research (epic games) slow down the AI as well, or is it just a handicap on the human player?

[Madeofmeat]

I'm certain it affects AI. I recently played a game on a Seth planet (no water). Around turn 180 some of the AI armies started evaporating from food shortages. Their water deposits had run out but they hadn't developed the tech to make water yet.

[misterprimus]

ORIGINAL: Madeofmeat

I'm certain it affects AI. I recently played a game on a Seth planet (no water). Around turn 180 some of the AI armies started evaporating from food shortages. Their water deposits had run out but they hadn't developed the tech to make water yet.

I see. I was looking for someone with experience on harsh planets against AI. Would you say AI suffers more or less than the player from harsh worlds, like moon / planetoid / seth?

[Madeofmeat]

AIs play hyper-aggressive and will blitz the whole planet early on if resources permit. Making a harsher planet slows them down a bit, and I find that easier. But that could just be my play style, I'd rather tech turtle than match the AI's level of aggression.

That game with Seth + slowest tech is an extreme example. That's the only time I've seen the AIs completely collapse under their own weight. I customized that planet to be something like 40%+ mountains with low pre-apocalypse population and few settled zones, to prevent AIs from snowballing. It worked too well.

[zgrssd]

ORIGINAL: misterprimus

ORIGINAL: Madeofmeat

I'm certain it affects AI. I recently played a game on a Seth planet (no water). Around turn 180 some of the AI armies started evaporating from food shortages. Their water deposits had run out but they hadn't developed the tech to make water yet.

I see. I was looking for someone with experience on harsh planets against AI. Would you say AI suffers more or less than the player from harsh worlds, like moon / planetoid / seth?

There is one important rule about game AI: They can not plan ahead.

There are plenty of actions that:
a) require so little planning of a human, you might not even be aware you just planned
b) require so much planning of a AI, it literally can not do it.
There is a reason AI are given so many bonuses and reduced rules.

So anything that would require planing to overcome, will delay them massively.

[misterprimus]

ORIGINAL: Madeofmeat

AIs play hyper-aggressive and will blitz the whole planet early on if resources permit. Making a harsher planet slows them down a bit, and I find that easier. But that could just be my play style, I'd rather tech turtle than match the AI's level of aggression.

That game with Seth + slowest tech is an extreme example. That's the only time I've seen the AIs completely collapse under their own weight. I customized that planet to be something like 40%+ mountains with low pre-apocalypse population and few settled zones, to prevent AIs from snowballing. It worked too well.

I'm playing on Planetoid, which has similar restrictions. How did you maintain positive cashflow in midgame?

[eddieballgame]

You can monitor your 'tech level' (& much more) vs the other majors via the 'Rep/Regimes' tab.