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Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / factors limiting AI military buildup?

« on: August 15, 2015, 08:09:15 AM »

I wondered what limits the AI military buildup. On hard difficulty the AI gets a factor 15 cr income multiplier, but that is not as helpful as it seems. The AI usually builds up huge cash reserves, although it - at least it seems to me that way - could spend more money on more troops and ships. Unit Cap doesn't seem to be the limiting factor here, as raising its Population boni doesn't change its behavior. Then I thought, it might be building capacity, but there are few limits in building capacity for lower tier units, and furthermore, if left to its own devices, the AI seems to reach a plateau after a few dozen weeks, where it doesn't increase its overall military strength anymore.
So, what is the limiting factor here? Or, am I wrong in any of my assumptions?

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Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Re: Imperial Civil War vs Awakening of The Rebellion?

« on: August 11, 2015, 10:59:35 AM »

[...]  With the limited income and very high ship costs, even the AI on hard doesn't build a whole lot of ships, and so once you've set up your good couple of battles that take out their ISDs/VSDs (only a handful of each), you've got nothing but mop up for the rest of the game unless you just sit back for a while doing nothing.  The AI simply will not end up massing a fleet again that you need to worry about.  This'll happen in ICW and RaW, but not as early and not to the same extent - by the time it happens in these, it feels earned, whereas in AotR I felt like I'd just gotten my fleet together and was ready to rumble when I realized there was nothing to rumble with.

I share the sentiment: When you have won a major space battle and destroyed its major shipyard, AotR's AI is pretty much beaten. This is rather disappointing. However, it is only half of the story, as it doesn't mean that AotR's AI is weaker than ICW's: If you take a look at the respective DifficultyAdjustments.xml files, you will see that in ICW the AI gets very much higher boni (meaning, it gets more credits, can build faster, and its weapons do more damage) than in AotR, but acts in no way smarter. Next, I will try an AotR game with the ICW adjustments.

But hey, what do you guys think of this mod compared to ICW? Comment below (And please, no bias... )

Nevertheless, both mods are great in their own way!
I like the way you have to look after your heroes in ICW. And then there are all these very polished major and minor factions! And the scale and balancing of space battles, the era system, and the gfx design.
On the other hand, AotR has  very neat gfx, too. And, in AotR there are a lot of interesting events and missions. Furthermore, planet management is very sophisticated with all the different ground and space buildings and tech upgrades. And, land battles are a lot of fun as there are very different ground units and an infantery that can become very dangerous if handled right.

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