Quoting Cheesenium, reply 7
I do agree on this, as a defensive Rebel is useless. The AI should be tailored to each subfaction as they play very distinctively different now.
I feel that they need to attack more though and they defend too much now. Nova cannon spam is quite annoying.
I completely agree that the AI should be tailored to fit the factions. However, it shouldn't just say "I'm a loyalist, so I'm going to turtle." I think the AI should be willing and able to change its tactics based on their knowledge of the map, with their faction's style of play acting as a sort of default starter tactic. If they see a neighbor massing ships, they should build defenses and/or counters. If they see someone expanding nearby, they should expand and create a front-line. Naturally, if there are multiple tactics being employed, they choose the tactics that most closely resemble their faction's mindset.
I also think the AI should act appropriately in team battles, regardless of faction. People like 4v4/5v5 teams, and there are roles to fill given certain positions. If an AI is surrounded by two teammates, then it should build up a serious economy and feed when asked. Likewise, if surrounded by two enemies, it should be prepared to turtle and snap at any aggressors.
The AI's inherent ability to adapt to its situation should be the determining factor in difficulty, with extra resources happening only when it can't possibly get better without them.
I completely believe that the devs can do this, since it's still early beta. It would make the AI much more capable and much more challenging in FFAs, while also providing a luck factor for larger team games. Certain factions will excel in certain situations (Loyalist TEC surrounded by 2 marauding enemies, Rebel TEC on the front lines), while being weaker in others (Rebel TEC surrounded by 2 marauding enemies, Loyalist TEC on the front lines)
I do agree on your opinion too. The AI pretty much ignores what are you doing now. The game is still on early beta, so im not expecting the AI to be perfect. However, compared to the vanilla Sins retail AI, even the current Rebellion AI is miles better than retail AI. I feel the Rebellion AI isnt as good as Diplomancy AI though.
However, the AI's build order seem to have some problems as i noticed them to build in this sequence:
1. Build a fairly large fleet at the beginning with LRMs and Cap ships. Defences are started to be build. If they lose their fleet on this stage, they wont rebuild them back. Leaving a few cap ships running around.
2. In the mid game, they stopped building any ship and started to tech for Titans and late game tech like Insurgence and Novalith. I think this will put them on a huge disadvantage from being steamrolled by a human player with a decent fleet. Still building defence, but i dont think its enough as they usually have a very small fleet.
3. Until they have all the late game tech, like Titan, Novalith and Insurgence. Then, only the AI start to amass a huge intimidating fleet rather quickly.
I am not sure is this the way the AI should behave in as it leaves them very vulnerable in the mid game. However, based on my play style, where i prefer to pressure them from the beginning whenever i have the chance, i feel that i am also on slight disadvantage side when the AI techs to Novalith and Insurgence because my bases arent very well defended.