What happened to the Hard Aggressive AI?

I've played several FFAs and 2v2s with my friend and since launch, and with using unfair AI we have seen no issues with AI aggressiveness.  We've even lost to them the first few games by not taking them seriously enough.  They attack pretty early now, and can easily overwhelm you if you've been screwing around too much.  They're quite a bit better at attacking starbases now as well.  I have never once had an issue with the AI not attacking since the release version.  Perhaps you should try bumping the difficulty up from hard?  Might be something up with hard AI.

It is possible the AI still have a crippling flaw where their ships shuttle back and forth between two worlds...I think the bug is related to an automatically made rally point or something that confuses ships when they get produced....

SD claimed it was fixed but maybe it was not, or not fixed completely...

If you're unhappy with the quality of the AI, have you considered playing it in online multiplayer against human opponents (who are capable of actual strategic thought)?

I don't know about the hard AI, but the unfair AI can be quite good. It loves to pop up where you least expect it by going the long way, using wormholes and all sorts of things. You may just need to play through all the AI levels and find thats good for your level again. And some AI (I only know of easy, but it might be everything below unfair) were intentionally made easier so new players could have a better time learning, while the harder ones were supposed to be made more intelligent.

Would it really be asking so much for one single AI discussion thread to not be met with a Sanchez crap irrelevant reply about how one should just go play MP instead?

I generally play against unfairs or humans.  If I'm looking to just win without a realistic chance of losing, I play against unfair.  If I feel like an actual challenge, I just go on ICO because I don't feel like playing against AI's that just get stupid amounts of resources and capital levels from nowhere.

That said, perhaps the hard AI isn't as hard as it used to be or maybe there's some weird hiccup about the resource income rate experienced by hard level AI's that just happens to slip through the cracks of the AI handling code, resulting in stupid behavior.  I haven't played against it enough to know for sure how it handles things in Rebellion.

He's probably like the majority of people who play this game, who like to take their time and empire build. Why play online where that's impossible? Boooooooooooring.

Because I don't want to play 5v5, yet whenever I try to get a 2v2 or even a 3v3 going nobody joins.  If the community is still fixed in their 5v5 ways, I'll just stick with TCP/IP with my friends.

Well, for what it's worth, I have no problem joining 2v2s and 3v3s and try to as much as possible...thing is, I find that most of those games are "Friends Only" or password protected....

To be fair, I went ahead and tried Unfair...

It was a 2 vs 2, on Secret I believe.

I took it easy, had a couple pirate invasions on my worlds, but before long the AI did cooperatively attack, once it's forces were pretty dominating.  An observation I made was it seems like the AI doesn't like jumping into a system unless it's pretty darn sure it's going to win by a wide margin.  There's a lack of hit and run tactics, or just throwing some planet bombers in a system for distraction.

Maybe it's that it requires that wide margin which keeps it from advancing in more equaled research and defense games.

The AI in Unfair just walked over my 3 Kol battleships with huge corvette spam before they could get out of a system.

I may try Unfair again just because one game is not enough, but cheating AI's have always left a poor taste in my mouth.     Losing to a spamming cheating AI is not nearly as enjoyable as getting beat without exploits.  I still have my doubts if I got more aggressive in attacking their planets, built starbases and a Titan as to what would happen, but maybe I'll see.  

An AI can do a 1000 APM more than me, it already out builds/researches me easily on Hard, I just want it more willing to sacrifice ships by attacking me, not zerging me because it knows it has me 2 to 1 before it jumps into my system by cheating on income and research speeds.

My initial assessment on Hard stands, it was a departure from what I was used to, while making an AI is challenging, it's a bit disappointing for a Hard, only because it wasn't aggressive by any means.  Especially for a game that was missing a single player campaign (many felt so in the beginning), the skirmish AI should have had plenty of opportunity for clear and direct focus, making up for it.  I was actually wondering if their was some bug, some issues with hard, maybe there is.

As for multiplayer, I used to in the early days of the series and with good players it was fun.  I just don't play enough to be that good for an old online community.  I think I got turned off in the early days because i always hated that starting positions couldn't be chosen, made from messed up games from the first minute.

Generally speaking, online MP gaming started losing it's luster like 10 years ago, the internet is wack, it gets old, I grew up.  I got no peer pressure driving me to play games my friends are, I don't 'need' to be 'WINNING', etc.  LAN gaming was/is the real bomb.  Although playing games for recreation and immersion seems to be a dying breed, it's something I still desire.  

Sins never really hit the immersion for me, although it did provide some depth of mental stimulation with a mix of adrenaline from the combat (when it's challenging).

That could very well be. One of the biggest criticism of the AI was that it was absolutely pathetic in attacking fortified planets because it did not weigh starbases as a big enough threat and couldn't tell if they were upgraded or well backed by repair bays and hangars. If the devs corrected for this by making them require better odds of winning, that could be what happened if you like to turtle around a few choke points.

If this is the case, you could try to artificially making the game harder for you by giving yourself handicaps, like what some of the achievements ask for you to do. Not using starbases is a great one since the AI has so much trouble with them, play like in original Sins where only your fleet and your fairly weak defenses can protect you. It might also lead to the AI attacking you more often.

While I understand where you are coming from, keep in mind the AI has plenty of handicaps of its own. It is never going to have as clear of an idea of what situation its in compared to a human player. A human takes in so many variables into account without even realizing it, an AI needs to be programmed for every single one. Thus the AI will waste lots of resources building stupid things like refineries and mines that a sane human player would rarely build, and its lack of tactics means it needs to be able to afford greater loses than a human can to compete.

While this cheating flavor is pretty overwhelming at the vicious and cruel levels because of their research bonuses, in addition to the greater economic ones, I think as you get better at the game you'll be able to defeat them without their cheats being apparent, as I have.

Not everyone has the time to sit through a couple of hours for a multiplayer game nor every single game has to be a competitive multiplayer game. What happen to games being something that is fun to play alone when you have the time to play, without the game becoming another multiplayer focused game without any effort put into making the single player AI great?

If they dont fix the AI to be reasonably competent, i think it would be difficult for me to buy the future iterations of Sins of the Solar Empire. The AI doesnt have to be extremely intelligent or capable of any actual strategic thought. It just have to feel that they are building a decent fleets and attack the player reasonably, i wont complain, as long as it wont be as terrible as in the beta.

If you have a fleet sitting at a well defended world, the AI will often park its fleet at one of its adjacent worlds and try to wait until you move elsewhere. It probably judges that it has little chance of winning, so won't attack which is reasonable.

You could try baiting the AI to attack by moving your fleet to a world further out, as keeping your fleet at a fortress world will often end up in a deadlock, where the AI will just sit there waiting, based on my experience anyway.

do u dont have a Weaponpenalty on unfair AI ??

Since BETA 1, the AI has come a long way but it's still a WIP. Not too long ago it wouldn't even build fleets once it got capitals so I'm confident they'll iron this out soon enough as it's clearly not finished.

I would imagine AI is SD's last concern...a good way to improve AI is to get it to mimic smart human behaviors...problem is, game hasn't been out long so not all the "smart human strategies" have been developed...furthermore, why bother getting an AI to know how to spam and abuse corvettes if a subsequent balance patch ends up nerfing them into oblivion?

Makes sense to get balance and bugs under wrap, then focus on the AI...

The AI seems to be smarter this time around although I do though understand it is situational. As humans we have bad days and bad games but we expect the AI to always be top notch for every situation regardless of how we play. It should though at least put up a fight. Having played that many games with poor results from the AI is convincing that there is an issue there. Maybe it is type specific. Were they aggressor AI's?

I've only played a few games on the released version but in my last, an unfair AI it beat me to a choke point, forced me to retreat attacking on two fronts and stretching out my forces until it raided and widdled away my defenses. Had I been quicker though at taking the choke point, I might have just as easily steam rolled the AI.

I don't think any AI has advantages in combat. Only economic (hard+) and research (on the hardest two) bonuses.

The AI is definitely aggressive if you're not turtling. It sounds like you're (OP) disappointed that the AI won't attack into a heavily fortified position, but that seems reasonable to me.

I've actually been impressed with the AI improvements over a couple versions back. It seems to attack where I'm weakest instead of at the closest chokepoint. Especially in team games they love to come in at your flank as soon as your fleet is on the move.

It's a proper and perfectly appropriate response when someone complains about the quality of the AI.  If you want to travel by car, then don't complain about your bicycle for its being a bicycle and its not offering the benefits of automobile travel.  Likewise, if you want to play a strategy game, don't complain about the quality of the AI's strategic ability; go find real opponents to play against instead.

In that case, I think you'll be pleased with the current state of Rebellion ICO.  When 400+ people are online at once, it's easier to find and fill 2v2s and 3v3s.

No, it isn't.  And what a moronic attempt at a metaphorical comparison.  He isn't complaining about his bicycle not offering the benefits of a car.  He is complaining that the bicycle is now broken in some way (which it wasn't before in Diplomacy apparently), and would like it fixed.  The only thing your response does "proper and perfectly" is make you a smart ass, bordering on complete asshole.  To use your analogy, what you did is equivalent to me going to to the bike shop and telling the shop keeper that my bike is broken in some way (which is wasn't before, obviously), and some random asshole (you), butting into the conversation to say "why don't you get a car then...much more reliable".  Maybe I don't want a car?  Maybe I am an environmentalist?  Maybe I live 2 blocks from work?  Maybe I like to keep in shape?  Maybe you should mind your damned business if you cannot actually address/comment the concern of the OP, instead of your own singular opinion. 

I, like many others, do not play MP because I don't want to be rushed.  So I too would like the AI improved whenever, and however, possible.  You sir, can take your car, and shove it.  Thanks...

AI are very hard to code, the best and easy way to make them competitive to humans, is to make them cheat. All RTS are the same, every AI as a edge by cheating. 

Humans all have a different play style, etc other humans will adapt but AI can't even super computers are taken by humans, look at big blue, everything they try, it get beaten after a while because human learn very fast where AI have to be programmed.

Now for AI in sins, It is very good they turtle when you do, they are waiting for you to jump in their own well where it will have the advantage. It's basically playing you., by playing your game.

Edit: MP in sins was fun until I realized it desync after 6 hours and playing a different game then my friend I decided this was a nice vs AI game...

I OFFICIALLY Nominate DirtySanchezz to be included in the SoaSE's Troll Bestiary.

Just shut up and give me my karma. I deserve it for writing your epic review.