rich12545

Or maybe not. How does the ai determine if to build a warship? And, if so, which one?

Seems like ai ship production is too heavy on battleships and too light on others.

Is it possible to setup a building or unit that requires food or oil or money to build? Is it possible to setup a tech improvement that requires different resources? What does production under cost mean? Number of turns?

I would like to print the manual. Problem is the html manual that is available outside the game isn't complete and the manual that is available inside the game can't be copied/pasted. Would it be possible to somehow make the complete manual that is in the game, including the units and tech tree, available? Print friendly with a white background?

I mean whatever the map designer setup. For example, the world map is wrap l-r. That's it. You play on the map without being able to change basic map options. Other options would be amount/placement of cities and resources plus whatever else I can't think of offhand. It's the actual map. Then you can add the ruleset, players, etc and the game will place them on the map as if it was random.

Thought you might be interested, I went back and updated my comments on the gaming forum where we had been discussing EoS and also on the Empire Deluxe forum with my new positive opinion of the game ai.

1. What is pangea? 2. How about, in addition to random, you can choose a premade map, use the map options (like wrap etc) and use the rest of the new game options to start a game? This would allow a lot of flexibility with pre-made maps and make them easier to use.

Re #1. I am surprised at the detail. Very nice. Re#2. As I mentioned in my email it looks like the ai was very much improved in the last couple of updates so I went ahead and got the release edition. I see the random info on the front page.

One idea for mech inf is to provide the transport. Like trucks. And then IFV. Regular inf can then use them. No need for a separate inf unit. imo.

How does an ai player determine when to declare war? Either on the human or on another ai player. In the release game, have you put the different variables for a random scenario on the front page?

I've been messing with this a bit more and think it might be a bug in the game. Or just the demo. Everything works except resigning, saving the game, and then looking at that old game.

Over the last several days I've been involved in a discussion about EoS in another gaming forum. Some of the comments have been positive and some negative. Other than price, which many consider too much for a game like this, the negative comments have been about the ai. So improving the ai will get more sales imo. Also people were comparing EoS negatively to Civ. I pointed out that this wasn't a proper comparison, it should be compared to Empire Deluxe. I also posted about the current sale. Problem is most people nowadays are used to glitzy and/or complex games for that amount of money. Probably not many people even know about Empire anymore. I've also been posting about EoS on the Empire Deluxe forum for more than a year. Mostly positive but I just haven't been able to say a lot of positive things about the ai. Some of my feelings about an Empire ai go back to my experience with Empire Enhanced. Out of the box the ai sucks. Over the last five years I've spent countless hours with the unit database and the the script to make it better and have come out with several "solo" mods. I'm not a modder and don't really want to go through anything like that again so, and I'm sorry to keep harping on it, but I see a huge potential in EoS and the ai is probably the most important thing that needs improving imo.

Just wondering if you're doing anything with the ai as we have been discussing in the other thread? Or with the bug where the units get stuck in coastal areas?

Another bug is the coastal movement. I started a new game last night, moved a TR with a couple of AR to another island, and the AR couldn't navigate from the TR to the city. This happens sporadically with different units. In the game I sent you I had it was with a TR and you mentioned a problem with an ai artillery unit.

Brit, I paid close attention, maybe I'm just getting old and losing it, but I couldn't figure out what you're working on. Wondering if it relates to our discussion about improving the ai?

In any case, I like your suggestions.

I really like that the ai has an actual decision making process to determine what to build. Maybe refining that in the early game (first 50-75 turns) would solve the slow expansion problem. Another idea is to allow setting the number of start cities per player. So, for example, the human can start with three while all ai players start with four each. This would offset the ai not being as smart as a human.

Couple of things. Why was an artillery unit trying to capture a city? Shouldn't that be for infantry and armor only? Artillery is a support unit. In your two games that you ran, by turn 60, were the ai players building warships by then? I had a situation in this game I sent you where a transport got stuck on the coast near a friendly city. I went there to pick up an armor. I had to set a waypoint perpendicular to the coastline to get it to move. So it seems there might be a movement problem along coasts. One of the most difficult things to program in games like this is production choices for the ai. In an island game, artillery is pretty much a waste except maybe (later in the game) in a city for defense. The ai needs TR, IN and AR. Plus a few aircraft for exploring. Then, at a point, needs to start building warships. That point would be difficult to program. If by turn 60 the ai has about 65-75% of what a human has (in cities and warships), that's ok. Because the human can play against 4-5 ai and have a good game. I also think that in a game like this, playing only against the ai, all players should start at war with each other. This business of getting all those messages because you cross a border, in a game like this against ai only, doesn't make much sense and it is only irritating.

There's already a way to end the endgame tedium. 70% of population.

Brit, I just resigned on that game I sent you to get the stats, turn 72 against one elite ai player. I had 35% 157.7 population, the ai had 7% 31.9 population. The ai was 20% of my total. I think an elite player should be at least 75%. It will never be as good as a human but for elite I think 75% is reasonable to expect.

This is interesting. I meant area captured, not explored, my poor wording. In these examples the territories are much closer to each other than in the demo game I played. I sent you the save on turn 72 so you can compare. So it's difficult to compare this with the demo because of the different setups. It looks like maybe you can get a better game with fewer but larger islands. Please take a look at the save I sent you and comment. Maybe the ai isn't made for that kind of game and will work well in different setups but that's not available on the demo.

You didn't make this clear so I'll make a couple of assumptions. Correct me if I'm wrong. 1. There are three elite ai players, no human. 2. What your picture shows is all of the explored territory by all three ai players. If those two are correct then I think, no, that's not very good early expansion. I'm on turn 72 in my demo game against one elite player. I have maybe 75% of the territory. I've only come across one ai ship, a transport, which I sunk. I have several warships including destroyers, subs, cruisers and a battleship. I would expect an elite ai player to have at least 75% of what I have and it's not even close. But if it was then I could play on a larger map against 4-5 elite ai players and have a good game.

I'm in the end game and sorry it doesn't look good. Still some shroud so I don't know exactly how many islands the elite ai has but not many. And although I already have several warships I have not come across one from the ai. I'll finish the game most of the way (later) and send you the save so you can see.

I just started a new game last night and, depending on playing time, will finish tonight or tomorrow and will post results.

The ability to bring up the order of battle.