If it took two weeks to beat the AI on unfair, then I'd say there's a strong argument to leave it as is.

-HM

The (very soon) upcoming patch 1.04 is projected to fix the locked-teams-unlocked-upon-reload bug.

Like the previous poster mentioned, it is a bug.

That's not required What I meant is if you saw anything specific (like in your case that the AI kept sending light frigates to get slaughtered by your LRMs), and you thought "Well, maybe it should prioritize researching/building a ship type that's more effective against LRMs (like carriers or heavy cruisers)"

That's all that's needed. If I had to guess, since you were playing a small map I imagine the AI also didn't have much of an opportunity to get its economy up, either. The AI is generally more balanced than a lot of players, it doesn't "rush" techs, and as such a player can get certain ship types or "key" techs that the AI doesn't know how to properly deal with if you don't give it much time.

1v1 AI will always be more limited, though I know Ironclad is working on improving what they can. Something that Blair revealed in a recent podcast is that the AI already uses the majority of processing power, and they have advanced stuff they don't know how to optimize and keep it playable, so it's waiting on the side until they figure out how to integrate it.

LRMs are kind of stupid strong right now considering their tech level, cost and versatility. A Sova rush can be difficult for even a decent human player to counter if they are not expecting it (it makes me scared to do a Progenitor Mothership, since a Radiance with Detonate Anti-Matter is needed to make sure it can't cause you trouble). TEC is currently the strongest faction, with their brutal early game and killer economy. And finally, you're a human and capable of thought and actual strategy, while the AI lacks the innate problem solving abilities of a human being.

Put all these together, and it isn't surprising that you can beat the AI on a small map with these tactics.

For more of a challenge, I would move away from TEC, Vasari can be better although Returning Armada steamrolls the AI, Advent can be challenging to play as since Cobalts hold up well against many of Advent's units due to their strange Long Range Frigate and weak Disciples. Going for multiple AI's and larger maps where the AI can get it's game rolling might also help.

study the players.. emulate their behavior in the ai.. for example, allow the ai to buy metals or crystals when it needs them, or right off the bat.. make an ai option for zerg rush option, where it builds a couple of scouts to find you, then a cap and a bunch of lrms to rush with..
Make a non rush ai that develops many/all of the caps, then sends them out in teams, or all in one armada.. have the ai use the train crews option after all the neutral stars are taken and it is apparent that xp is gonna be harder to get..
Instead of all platform defense, make it sometimes use hangar defense, phase space inhibitors, and overlapping repair stations
Have the ai evaluate the map to find chokepoints and then fortify the heck out of them.
Put a bravery variable into the ai so that it'll range from fight to the death, all the way down to flee at 20% damaged
stop the ai from cheating.. when I set a structure to scuttle, it is amazing that the ai stops attacking it and then goes on to it's next target, so I cheat back, and then cancel the scuttle
have the ai evaluate positional data on the defense platforms, not just the number of them, or greatly increase defense platform range so they can almost hit anywhere in the gravity well (reduce effectiveness for range perhaps?)
Figure out which structures currently don't get targeted for whatever reasons and give them some weight.. like frigate factories, pirate/neutral gun platforms, etc.

ok, there's my constructive criticism for what it is worth

Don't hold Sins to an unfair standard. There is no AI in ANY RTS game that can defeat a veteran player who knows what he's doing. If one AI isn't hard enough for you, play against two. If that's not hard enough for you, play against nine.

They should at least give us the option to set the AI handicap or something. I'd rather face one powerful computer than an army of weak ones.

A good solution would be to make the AI scripts modable... they did it in kohan II and some player released extremely brutal Ai's.

If anything, the AI is too predictable. It rarely builds the right ships for the situation, and rarely, if ever uses them correctly. About the only thing it does well is retreat quickly when it's out gunned.

The AI needs to get out of the "I built me a Capital Ship, and now I'm OK to rule the Galaxy" mentality. It needs to stop spamming single units, especially 2nd Gen heavy frigates. I had a game where the the AI had 2 CapShips, A couple frigates and a boat load of carrier frigates. I decimated his fighters... he went oops, and then was no more. If he had had a few more Caps, some LRMs or equivalent, it would have been a much bigger fight, and with some good targeting, he may have won the day. I have YET to see an AI amass a quality fleet.

This, IMHO, is the number one priority change that needs to be addressed for the AI.

T

I doubt we'll get access to AI scripting. That's sort of an aside to the "Improving AI" discussion, though, let's try to keep on topic

Even though a veteran player will always be able to beat the AI, doen't mean that things can't be done to make it more challenging, so keep stuff coming