I am wondering what some of you out there do to increase difficulty in AI for rebellion. Lately I've been reducing reb ship costs and increasing their character stats, but that doesn't make it too much harder. Are there any ways of having the enemy side win over planets faster as well? I find that they will only take over only 2-10 additional planets before I have conquered the remaining core sectors. I believe there was a few posts about this before the forums went down a while ago, but they are gone now.

We were discussing this not so long ago in Gaming Stories under the topic 'Getting the AI to play as the Empire well,' which sort of addressed the problem of the game's AI basically not exactly being a devious fiend. I can see exactly where your comming from. As the Alliance, the AI tends to mass the rebel fleet and a fair amount of characters in the Sesswenna..or what ever it's called..sector at the start of the game. One very simple way of giving the rebels lots of support is to try the following options:

 

1. The Empire starts the game with two or three systems under military occupation. Simply pull out you troops there. Most of the sector will subsequently throw their lot in with the rebellion. If you lok at popular opinion for the majority of neutral systems in the Core their support leans just that bit to the Alliance.

 

2.Behave like a complete and utter Imperial fiend. IE: Take your glorious Imperial ships to systems supporting the insignificant rebellion and bomb them to kingdom come. The more you destroy facilities, the more public support will go over to the rebellion through out the sector.

 

3.Adjust minor things like allowing the rebels to build things the Nebulon-frigate, Assault frigate and Mon Calamari Cruiser from game start. Give the rebel HQ six ship yards.

 

4.Finally, play 'turtle' upto about day 600 to 800, depending on the galactic situation.

 

My apologies if you've done all the above already!

Another thing is to allow the rebel scum all advanced facilities from the begining of the game while denying the Empire the right to them at all. I tend to allow the rebels and Imperials advanced shipyards from day one but deny the rebels all other advanced options. This doesn't make the game harder for me; I just hate the rebels. - Grand Moff Conway

Another thing is to allow the rebel scum all advanced facilities from the begining of the game while denying the Empire the right to them at all. I tend to allow the rebels and Imperials advanced shipyards from day one but deny the rebels all other advanced options. This doesn't make the game harder for me; I just hate the rebels. - Grand Moff Conway

 

A man after my own heart! Isn't it satisfying watching a Mon Cal fishboat explode after a salvo from a couple of ISDs?

Untimely, I love watching all rebels being destroyed. I enjoy crushing the rebel scum and conquering their planets. GM Conway

oh oh oh... count me out... Rebel Alliance is the only force side i ever won..

Curious that, as we've said before, the AI seems to be a rebel at heart...

I played the game with the imps as Jahled sad. Left all of my planets, exept Coruscant for the rebs...

It was hard, but finally I won that game too..

I didn't change anything with Rebed.

At the end of the day, the AI doesn't do two critical things. The first is to transport 'characters' intelligently, ie: move diplomats on starships, or whilst with the advantage of a system blockade, make the most of the situation and have twenty-odd infiltrater/commando units with the blocade to overcome oppersition, etc.

 

The second is it's clumsy-approach to moving capital ships. We've all enjoyed this one, and wondered why the AI is doing it; your glorious Imperial fleet arrives at a system and squarely destroys the rebel-fleet constrained by our illustrious Indictor-Cruiser; Chains of Justice, enjoy the benefits of the blockading the system, and surprise-surprise, the subsequent 'influx' of ship-arrivals! They turn up one by one, and are destroyed one by one! It can't just be me who plays the game in an extremely paranoid-manor when the issue of gravity wells enters the equation. It would seem, the AI doesn't.....

The A1 is to quote Vader "As clumsy as he is stupid". No matter who it plays it plays like Ozzel is in charge.-GM Conway

Yes indeedy, however, i do enjoy turning up with my fleet of 50 Mc80b's and blowing the sweet beJesus out of the massed Imperial fleet, usually a couple of SSD's, ten or so ISD II's and 20 or 30 odd small capital ships. No one can stand against the might of justice, truth and death dealing peace.... ahem....

my my main concern is for the A.I.s sporadicness. I enjoy a game where both sides dont fling to immediate conflict, and allow each other even a a little while for economic development. The rebel A.I. has no real strategdy to it. Rather then to deploy and defend, it attacks like a fly.

 

I also find irrating how in a system that is under my control, they'll basically invade a planet, I'll kick them out, then they hit another planet in the same system, and this cycle repeats itself.

Yes, how many times have I seen the AI-guided Rebs send a fleet of Medium Transports and one Corvette to a system, only to be crushed by the might of the superior Imperial Navy....

 

If the AI would only add a few fishboats and frigates to the mix, a decent battle would ensue, even if they would still succumb to the intense firepower of Imperial Star Destoyers. But alas, the Imperial Navy must hunt down the pitiful ragtag Rebel fleet one or two ships at a time.

well you always have multiplayer game the only problem may occure while trying to connect or finding online players?! right?

OK, the AI is dumb and you can't make it smarter. You can make the game a bit toughter.

 

Use rebed and set the importance of all the sectors to high. You can do so for all sectors except the one with Yavin in it...

 

This way, the entire galaxy is populated from the start, giving a ton more resources to your oponent. Then, if I'm playing the rebs, I'll make sure that all resources cost fewer maintenance points for the empire. I'll also make sure the chars are a bit tougher. This makes for a better game overall. Especially when the Death Star shows up and starts destroying planets. If you're fast you can try to sabotage it.

Sounds like fun.....

The only problem is the Reb HQ is visible to the Empire when all sectors are populated. Not that I mind, since I love to send several SSDs to rid the galaxy of the Rebel vermin, but it does make the game skewed a bit.

true, but you can make two sectors the same as before, so it's still hidden, but there is still more resources

Of course...but the HQ will be in those two sectors...

it is also movable. one could also play the only good side, the Rebels

Rebels?

 

~~Untimely spits at the word~~

 

I only play the all-powerful and glorious Galactic Empire, keeper of Order and Justice! Why does everyone think the Rebels are the "good" guys? I mean, they are the ones rebelling!! The Empire has kept the peace and maintained order for a long time...what's so wrong with that?

The rebels are revolting.

we are uprising against a dictator - much like hitler. We are the way of no bad feelings. True the Empire probably could have killed the vong, but the rebens are doing a good job...

I would like to quote Han Solo on that last issue

[...]

"That's not what the Empire would have done, Commander," Han said. "What the Empire would have done was build a super-colossal Yuuzhan Vong-killing machine. They would have called it the Nova Colossus or the Galaxy Destructor or the Nostril of Palpatine or somethign equally grandiose. They would have spent billions of credits, employed thousands of contractors and subcontractors, and equipped it with the latest in death-dealing technology. And you know what would have happened? It wouldn't have worked. They'd forget to bolt down a metal plate over an access hatch leading to the main reactors, or some otehr mistake, and a hotshot enemy pilot would drop a bomb down there and blow the whole thing up. Now that's what the EMpire would have done."

[...]

I disagree with that. The rebels got lucky the first time, and the second time the Emperor wasn't paying attention to the battle. If he had been paying attention the rebels luck would not have been the same. Let's face it dictatorships are more centralized and react quickly to threats instead of debating everything. -Grand Moff Conway