Ail wrote:
You should have played 1.0.23. It was insanely hard when the AI still had their old bonusses ontop of the improvements.



The bankrupcy-issue-circumstances are really easy to understand.



1. AI builds a lot of ships so it barely has a balanced economy.

2. AI researches new Fleet-Size-Limit.

3. Due to the sudden maintainance-rise the AI can't pay for it's ships anymore. But instead of turning more worlds to build Ind=>Dust, it just increases Taxes and continues making more ships.

4. Taxes are increased to a level, where the Approval drops below 20%, which means Revolts and no Production anymore.

5. Pretty much Game Over for the AI.



Occassionaly they get out of this state if someone wrecks their ships. But they most likely are way to far behind to have any chance of competing anymore.



This is mostly a "normal and below"-difficulty level-problem, as the AI-Boni on higher stages kinda prevent it from happening.

Thanks for the explanation. I was wondering why my opponents on normal are so incredibly weak while relatively strong in fleet size.

Good to know that increasing the difficulty helps^^

Shivetya wrote:
Fleet maintenance costs need to be fixed. You should be penalized for researching the techs to increase fleet size, if anything those need to reduce fleet costs. I think the maintenance costs of ships needs to be increased only for those ships outside of your influence area. This in turn would make the new Automaton ability worthwhile

I agree, especially with anything that takes advantage of influence and how it is used in game.

Fleet maintenance costs need to be fixed. You should be penalized for researching the techs to increase fleet size, if anything those need to reduce fleet costs. I think the maintenance costs of ships needs to be increased only for those ships outside of your influence area. This in turn would make the new Automaton ability worthwhile

You should have played 1.0.23. It was insanely hard when the AI still had their old bonusses ontop of the improvements.



The bankrupcy-issue-circumstances are really easy to understand.



1. AI builds a lot of ships so it barely has a balanced economy.

2. AI researches new Fleet-Size-Limit.

3. Due to the sudden maintainance-rise the AI can't pay for it's ships anymore. But instead of turning more worlds to build Ind=>Dust, it just increases Taxes and continues making more ships.

4. Taxes are increased to a level, where the Approval drops below 20%, which means Revolts and no Production anymore.

5. Pretty much Game Over for the AI.



Occassionaly they get out of this state if someone wrecks their ships. But they most likely are way to far behind to have any chance of competing anymore.



This is mostly a "normal and below"-difficulty level-problem, as the AI-Boni on higher stages kinda prevent it from happening.

n18991c wrote:
You have my sympathy, but sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles: you feel you've improved, you start a new game on a more challenging difficulty level, you feel it's actually going alright and you'll probably end up winning this, and then the sh*t just blows up in your face and everything falls apart... welcome to the real world

Haha true.



RE:OP - Yeah what Fenrakk101 said is accurate, it was intentional and in addition to the better use of tonnage, and diplomacy, ship design as well as adapting to enemy designs is much better. It'll probably get even a little harder once the 'AI going bankrupt under some circumstances' bug is resolved. I like the added challenge, made it feel like a new\more-full game 1.24+.

Well, the AI still values technology, but has now a different appraisal of said techs. As far as I know, it now compares the tech you want to give them to the best tech in terms of research points it has, itself.



That way it won't be satisfied with loads of lowleveltechs, anymore. Just the best for the AI.

You have my sympathy, but sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles: you feel you've improved, you start a new game on a more challenging difficulty level, you feel it's actually going alright and you'll probably end up winning this, and then the sh*t just blows up in your face and everything falls apart... welcome to the real world

Troodon wrote:
I guess this says something about my skill...... (and I have been playing for well over a month now...)



sigh.

I often make the mistake of believing I should be playing at Normal level.

I guess this says something about my skill...... (and I have been playing for well over a month now...)



sigh.

Yes, this was intentional. The AI was overhauled in the new update. They allocate their tonnage better and their ability to make fair trades was revamped. Multiplayer should still be pretty similar, but the AI is much better, and that's a good thing.