AresMars
Posts: 234
Joined: 12/13/2007 Status: offline
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Pzgndr, I think you are missing the point of my post. a) I said MAXIMIZE the experience.....you could play the original game with UMPs (and the computer version with Ai's), but that is not as ENJOYABLE as having 7 active players. I feel that this is also true for the computer version. On this we may disagree but I would be suprised if you did. IMHO, it takes 7 HUMAN players to have a real EIA game experience......either FtF or PBEM b) the UMP rules where created for the orginal game because you could not always find 7 players to play. (A sad state of affairs but HARSH reality!) This computer version of the game greatly increases the chances of finding 7 players through PBEM and includes a replacement player pool to draw from when real life gets in the way of any of those players. This is the strenght that the Internet brings to games of this sort....you can play anyone, from anywhere, all the time. WOOOT! c) IMHO, an AI or UMP is not the best play experience possible or available to an EiA player. It has been said many times before....it is hard to NEGOTIATE with an AI or Computer.... d) _ I __ am hoping (Matrix has their own agenda) that BUG FIXES and the such are the intital focus to improve the play of 7 human Matrix Customers is all.... e) I never dismissed SOLO play -- I have used it ALOT to relearn how to play and rekindle my love of EiA after 12 years of absence.... f) AI improvements wil also benefit me, but my interest clearly is in PBEM games with other players. I am clearly only stating my point of view here and did not expect people to point out "errors" in MY wishes.... BTW, UMP means _ Uncontrolled Major Powers _ for those that never played the boardgame....and was a way for les sthen 7 players to play the boardgame.... quote:
ORIGINAL: pzgndr quote:
This game is a re-creation of a boardgame that requires 7 people to maximize the experience -- the game was not developed for SOLO play and thus has a poor AI for that. This is incorrect. The original board game may have provided the maximum experience for 7 people if available, but the UMP rules were specifically designed to allow less than 7 people to also have an enjoyable game experience. Yes? The computer game replaces UMPs with AI, therefore anyone who played with UMPs before will be playing with AI now. Was the game developed "for" solo play? Not necessarily, but with functional AI and adjustable difficulty setting for each major power, solo against 6 AI opponents becomes a viable option now whereas it was not before. So it's unfair to dismiss this new option. The quality of the AI is of course subject to debate. But read the forum comments; Marshall Ellis and Matrix Games acknowledge weaknesses with the initial AI and plan to make improvements. 'delatbable' provided a nice solo vs AI AAR which demonstrates that even with its weaknesses upon release, the AI did "reasonably well." Once the game is more or less finalized with bug fixes and other issues resolved, then the AI can be enhanced for better performance... for 1-6 AI players for any of the major powers. quote:
If develloper time is going to be spent, I would prefer attention be spent on improving the play experience for 7 human players and removing game bugs then making SOLO play better..... Well, fortunately that is not the plan Matrix has in mind.
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