Dantac wrote:
I love Total War series because of its historical recreation and overall gameplay. Empire Total War has been my favorite because it features naval combat and global aspects.
...but sadly the company that makes Total War series suffers from a chronic case of incompetence that makes what could have been one of the best strategy games of all times into merely a mediocre and hype-marketed product.
Just the fact that they cannot code an AI properly ...and that every total war game actively cheats nonstop is a killer. You can see these cheating in any of the games of the series by reducing the enemy to just one region, slaying his armies and just watch how in a couple of turns they recruit massive armies..when their one region has all their economic assets destroyed and with zero output. Players have cracked the game's code and learned the AI does not pay upkeep for buildings or units, receives roughly 5x the income per turn based on the player's own faction income (meaning their own regions and economic forces do not apply to AI).
If that was not enough, the AI troops receive 10x the morale bonuses yours do (notice they fight to the last man hardly routing compared to yours?), the AI omnisciently knows your orders to your troops (order guns to fire on one of their units and the instant you click the attack... long before the cannons are even loaded to fire, the AI reacts to move out of the way) and AI troop stamina status does not degrade troop stat bonuses as it does your own troops (if your troops are winded their attack and charge bonuses are cut in half..the AI retains full bonuses).
While mods can fix lots of issues, the AI itself is not something modders can alter that much since its a core game feature. Darthmod's Empire Total War mod makes the game into a truly wonderful game...but the AI still cheats like a mofo and you still end up with the same meat-grinding gameplay.
My new favorite historical game is Mount and Blade series. While it is not as 'deep' or developed as Total War series, it is insanely fun and brings the game into a completely different perspective. Fighting from 1st person perspective and commanding your army from such view is incredible.
There's really nothing that can be done about the AI; EVERY strategy game has AI that, at some point, must "cheat" to retain difficulty.
AI simply isnt advanced enough yet to at all contend with actual, thinking players in such a way that'd allow it to put up anything more than just a mild challenge, if that. So, strategy games give the AI boosted stats or resources or something to balance it out, because the challenge vanishes otherwise. It differs from one game to the next as to how OBVIOUS or not this is during the game. Really good designers can hide it well, making it appear that the AI is acting smart when in reality it's still dumber than a sack of hammers. Or you get games like the recent Xcom, where the difficulty doesnt come from smart AI, but instead comes from units you dont have with stats that are typically greater than yours, and abilities you cannot use. AI cheating as a result is most noticable in strategy games where both sides have access to the same sorts of units.
Of course, there's differing levels of AI, depending on the developer. The best I've encountered have been from very specific indie developers, particularly one that I've worked with before somewhat recently. With the larger games by bigger publishers, I cant think of anything that truly stands out. Though, that's not saying all that much, since "major" strategy games arent very common lately.
31 Jan 2015, 1:38 pm
