Help for the Inexperienced People

[GeneralsProTony]

I cant say I agree with you completely Zarm, Generals is extensively micro and when battling a great player your micro skills will be put to the test throught the course of the game. I rarely build base defenses and I am usually in a constant state of attack. Trust me when I say, if you pit two attack focused "good" players against one another the battle will be epic and entertaining. The problem is too many players just dont have the experience and skill to employ this style of play. Personally, I can say some of the most heated most enjoyable most challenging engagments I've had in a RTS game have been on Generals. Tear, Tear memories...

[Noodlesocks]

In my day, when we were bad at a game, we practiced and got better.

Even skirmish will teach you the basics of gameplay without proving much of a challenge.

[Commander32]

In my day, when we were bad at a game, we practiced and got better.

Even skirmish will teach you the basics of gameplay without proving much of a challenge.

Hahah, it took 13325 skirmish games for me to get it right...

[GeneralsProTony]

Skirmish helps but you cant honestly compare a scripted AI with a human player. Heck even if your playing a 3 brutal army team you can still gain the advantage within 15-20min of playing. I havent been able to beat 4v1 though yet; they just hit you with too many units before you could create chokepoints and establish your defenses. I want the AI to be less predictable and use unconventional tactics. I would love to see the AI to chinook drop a few rocket-filled hummers near my supply drop or to coordinate generals powers to pummle my base, but no, they choose to run straight into my defenses or waste time at my oil derriks.

[DazzD]

'Smart' AI is always good to play against and can provide a good learning experience. I used skirmish to learn how to play better. I will steal a quote from Hortey from the xcom forums that sums it up perfectly...

"I want that "clever girl" moment from the first Jurassic park movie"

When the AI provides those moments then they are the perfect thing for a new player to learn from. The hassle is the AI in generals 1 is now 9 years old and it shows. It's just the AI creating more and more units to the point they become over whelming.

I liked the AI in C&C3:TW (I think it was that one anyway) where you could choose the type of AI you wanted to play against, steam roller, turtle, Guerrilla, and especially Rusher. I just chose the one I struggled with the most and played them until I learnt how to defend/attack. Playing the single player missions in the game is pretty much a tutorial anyway. You start with the small stuff and work your way to the good stuff.

If they go Ai Companion (Help) then it might turn into that crap where the AI fights all your battles for you. One of the C&C single player missions had AI help and that bugged the hell out of me. They were far more a hindrance than a help.

If they go for a FPS switchable mode I will not touch this game with a 10ft barge pole. They need to get back to the original game play as much as possible. If they choose to dilute the game with FPS garbage it will be a waste. There’s so much FPS around now that it take away from the game being different. Please keep it RTS only, that is why I will buy it. If I wanted a FPS there's a 1000 out there to choose from.

I don’t want to be too harsh and I can see what the original post is saying, make it easy on new players. The easier it is for a noob the more will buy it and play it. The more competitors we will have online. I just think if I could learn the C&C games as a kid (like most of us), then the new players can do the same.

[GeneralsProTony]

I agree with you DazzD, the AI in Generals is quite outdated and single dimensional. I would like to see greater variation of tactics as is the case with c&c3 and its otional AI focus. Still, the AI is severely limited for its lack of adeptation. I would like to see a transition of tactics employed by the CPU in any given game. Maybe rush in the first 5 min, change it up and focus on hindering supplies, then maybe knock out the power and hit the defenses. Something to that extent; let it be always changing. Heck an evolving AI would be ideal, much more difficult to create, but ideal.

I highly doubt they would go implement any FPS in this game. The developers would most likely remain with the classic generals focus of play, RTS.

BTW a noob is certainly no competiter. They are more like an infestation flooding the community.lol Jp We were all noobs once and frankly I'd like to see the Generals/RTS community grow. I too have been familiar with RTS/C&C since childhood. Lol I remeber being hooked the first tiime I played it.

[DazzD]

That would be pretty cool to see GeneralsProTony. An evolving AI tactic base would make Skirmish last a hell of a lot longer. The amount of time my mates and me spent on LAN against a full map of hard armies LOL. Maybe they can have several set tactics and the AI tries one and then randomly changes to the next. It would be great to see a rush, then a change of tactic to say turtleing with strong defenses, then the change to steam roller. Building up stronger and stronger attacks from behind the heavy defenses. Maybe if the AI had 3 set plays for the start of games, Rush, fast expand or turtle. Then it changes to one of 3-5 mid game tactics and then a final change to one of 3 end game tactics. It would change by itself at random from one tactic to the next. I would hate to make the system... but love to play against it

I agree, we were all noobs once. The way I see it the more they can drag in to the new game the more good players we will play against down the track. The bigger the community the longer the games life expectancy.

[GeneralsProTony]

I would hate to make the system... but love to play against it

Lol yea, imagine contending with two evolving AI's that operate differently; now thats skirmish!

[DazzD]

It would make the play against 4 hard AI players near impossible. We used to team up in co-op LAN skirmish and see how many allied hard players we could beat. Lost it's fun once we worked out the AI's only strategy was to pour as many zombie units at you in the same line. A row of EMP rockets with arty bases behind them and it was game over. Having even 2 armies against you that use different tactics would make that same skirmish a far better challenge.

It would be cool to see AI armies that are allied complement each other and attack at the same time. If one is going a heavy air attack the other goes a heavy ground attack that supports it.

[Adridos]

Well, they could always make a normal AI and then implement all the strategies people come use as a part of a patch. Whatever they do, let'đ just hope the AI won't cheat, because that right there makes skirmish nonsensical.