I feel I need to reiterate comments that the AI is still lacking of any serious challenge. Many areas where in AOW the players took advantage of some instances have been fixed; however, AOWII brings a hole new bag of cheap AI tricks. It may be that I am just good, but from what I think I am seeing and hearing there are many who as well think the AI needs to be improved. The AI has no real sense of the hurry option (this is really bad, since the good players know to knock the AI out very fast with hurried units), boats/wetlands are problematic, and in general the AI is not smart enough in TC to really hurt a player unless he is a significantly larger in force. There are more AI technical challenges, but this should suffice for now. I do not want to go onto a tirade.
My opinion is that AOWII fails in producing a good enough AI opponent to last the AOWII SP player. I was a large fan of SP and MP co-op against the computer in AOW, but in AOWII it is not even worth trying. Devs, it is a major mistake not to improve the AI. It is incomplete in some ares. I am guessing unless really hard maps come out for SP (ones that compensate for the AIs weakness) you will find a significant amount of players give up on AOWII before you have a chance for an expansion.
I think many people underestimate the number of SP players there are. In AOW, there were more downloads on SP maps than MP ones. Isn't that odd if SP players are suppose to be a minority? The top 3 SP maps for AOW has an average of 2000+ downloads and the top 3 MP maps only average 1300. I speak this as a MP player, not as a SP one. I just think it is folly not to improve it even a bit. There is a market for strategy SP games. AOWII can have the best of both worlds.
Thus, with this in mind I have a few possibilites that might improve the AI and general gameplay. If you cannot get the code implemented to fix the AI problems (for example, the boat problem), give an option to disable things that are troublesome for the AI if players want to(ie. shipyards). Even if it isn't something drastic I think you should at least address something.
Maybe a special setting so advanced players can play against a godly AI (which will have to cheat on some things in this case, since clearly from a financial viewpoint it is not pratical to spend boat (no pun intended ) loads of money on a game once it is released). I know a cheating AI is not pratical, but it should be there for a player. It is better than nothing at all.For a godly AI, I would strongly suggest the following:
1.) More external gold and mana
2.) Less build time for AI controlled cities (maybe a third+ faster). This would help against players who rush units with hurry
Here are some others that I think should be considered:
1.) Less research points needed to research spells (keeps the AI with an edge on magic)
2.) More wizard casting points
3.) Start AI wizards with a stronger reputation
I am not sure on how many or how much these AI bonuses should be implemented, but from a practical standpoint it should be easier to do this than to write and rewrite much of the AI behavior code.
A harder, but more beneficial feature for the whole game (SP and MP) would be to add a general setting where the human player could set the level he/she plays at. For example, a human player could choose to play the map set on easy and he/she would either have bonuses or no disadvanatages. A harder human difficulty would begin to add difficulty to the human player by endowing them with many general disadvantages. Some disadvantages could be an increase in cost of structures/units, more casting/research costs for spells, weaker reputation, less city production points, and/or movement penalties. These are a few to name.
This idea would hamper the human player a bit (a good thing in certain instances) making the game more challenging for those who dare to try it. In SP, it could weaken the human player so there is more competition against the AI if the player craves for more challenge. Thus the AI abuse tricks would become a god send with all the disadvantages you might recieve. In MP, players could disadvantage themselves against a newbie so there is more challenge. Thus a good MP player could brag that he can beat any player on the hardest human difficulty level.
Even if it cannot be implemented into a patch (out of the difficulty of implementing it), a human difficulty setting would be a wonderful addition to an expansion or even the possible AOWIII down the road. The idea is that the AI can keep its advantages from its own settings, but a human player can make his/her situation more difficult if he/she so wishes.
I think AOWII overall is a wonderful game. If it was not so, I would not be still playing it. I urge you to do something to keep the fun factor of the game alive. There needs to be a lot done to make AOWII last. It needs that something, which will have players come back for the hundredeth time. Without that something AOWII will become just another good retail game. There are some good suggestions that devoted players have posted and many should be heeded if possible. We all as players want to see AOWII become better and a game that we can have fun with for years to come.[This message has been edited by Tekk Zero (edited 08-13-2002 @ 00:25 AM).]