TBS Games- Best AI

[Jaddison]

Wondering what everyone's thoughts are on what TBS or TBT (turn based tactical) games have the best solo AI? Am thinking of an AI that is good because of it's strategy/tactics/employment not that it gets some artificial boosts to production/units/damage

[tgb]

Warlock. AFAIK, the A.I. gets no bonuses.

[Freezer-TPF-]

Probably chess.

[killbot737]

The Massive Assault series. When it first came out the computer would play each turn perfectly, for max casualties on your side. If you didn't play perfect back you'd be completely crushed. Enough people complained that they had to put out a patch to make it more dumb.

[Sepiche]

For a fairly complex game Gal Civ 2 has good AI.

[Kraken]

For a fairly complex game Gal Civ 2 has good AI.

If you set the AI at a dumb level you will sometimes get a message from an AI player to the effect that "I see what you're up to, and if you hadn't hindered my intelligence I would stop you. Just so you know." It's one of the few games that actually has AI intelligence settings (rather than just overall difficulty) -- and one of the even rarer games where you don't necessarily want to dial it up to maximum.

For the first year or so after GalCiv2 came out, the developers analyzed saved games uploaded to their Multiverse and used player strategies to improve their AI. It anticipates the victory condition that you're going for and actively tries to block you from achieving it.

[Butterknife]

I will also chime in and say Galactic Civilizations 2. Really no other game has gotten their AI to that point of excellence, with the exception of chess of course. GalCiv 2 can beat you fair and square.

[yakuza]

For a fairly complex game Gal Civ 2 has good AI.

If you set the AI at a dumb level you will sometimes get a message from an AI player to the effect that "I see what you're up to, and if you hadn't hindered my intelligence I would stop you. Just so you know." It's one of the few games that actually has AI intelligence settings (rather than just overall difficulty) -- and one of the even rarer games where you don't necessarily want to dial it up to maximum.

For the first year or so after GalCiv2 came out, the developers analyzed saved games uploaded to their Multiverse and used player strategies to improve their AI. It anticipates the victory condition that you're going for and actively tries to block you from achieving it.

That's quite impressive, although I have played GalCiv2, I wasn't aware it did that.

[Paingod]

I might agree on Galactic Civilizations II.

When I first sat down with that game, the AI stomped me hard and frequently. It forces you to get better at the game and really get to know the mechanics in order to win against it. Only once you're playing the game well in every way can you hope to stand up against the AI.

It's also probably the only game where I've ever felt like Diplomatic Relations mattered and I would actively work to maintain some political leeway with opposing forces. In just about every other game that offers diplomacy, I just ignore it and do just fine by myself. Doing so in GalCivII is a surefire recipe for failure.

[TheMix]

Some day I have to take another stab at GalCiv2. I tried to play through the campaign but at some point (I think it was late in the campaign, but I don't have any real reason for thinking that) I hit a scenario that I couldn't figure out. I don't remember the specifics, but it was something along the lines of having massively overpowered enemy ships show up almost immediately. I couldn't figure out how to get past it. So I quit.

Maybe some day I'll go back and try it again.

[Paingod]

I almost forgot the game even had a campaign. With those kinds of games I generally skip the pretext "missions" that restrict aspects of the game and/or set me against challenges the developers thought were cute. I just dip right into the sandbox mode and play there.

[TheMix]

Ooooohhhhh... I totally didn't even think of that.

I will usually do the campaigns because they are usually a good way of getting introduced to a new game. They often start slowly and ramp up.

Funny, I just didn't think to treat it as a MOO or Civ style game. I probably would have after beating the campaign, but...

[T]

This is a great question, it seems that a lot of strategy games nowadays are SP only and have very bad AI. I will not buy another TBS game until I know it has a good AI or async multiplayer. I was recently burned by Conquest of Elysium 3.

I've only dabbled in the Civilization series, but I hear Civ IV has a great AI. Unfortunately I hear Civ V does not have a good AI due to the change to one unit per hex.

As someone mentioned above, I'm hearing that Warlock has a decent non-cheating AI and I will probably buy it soon. I should pick up GalCiv 2 as I've never played that.

[Kraken]

Civ 5's AI will give you a challenge, but it does it through brute force and cheating rather than actual intelligent behavior. Diplomacy often seems semi-random, too.

[JonathanStrange]

Best AIs I've seen are in the chess engines. However, when the engines attempt to simulate different human player levels - say a Class A player or an Expert - they don't play realistically: some just hang a pawn or lose an exchange to simulate a human's carelessness and then go on to play a fairly flawless tactical game.

The PC turn-based games can be appear to be stronger if one plays passively or in a live-and-let-live way, the AIs usually gobble up everything and overwhelm the player.

The AIs seem smarter too if you play quickly - I often do this in GalCiv2, SOTS1, Armada 2526 - and an enemy fleet can take you by surprise. My carelessness is the price for being able to finish a game and it's sort of the human counterpart (carelessness) to the AI's lack of judgement (building too many defenses, building no defenses, building no mines on a resource rich planet, not upgrading its buildings, etc).

One has to do something to keep the feeling the AI is in it to win it.