So, recently, my friend and I have been playing quite a bit of Company of Heroes,a Real Time Strategy game set in World War II. It's a truly great game, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys either WWII or RTS games in general. Despite this, tonight was a prime example of a common problem I see in RTS games. The Skirmish Mode AI.
To begin, let me set the stage. My friend and I have both had CoH for several years, and are both quite experienced with it. In fact, we've played it together for long enough that we essentially have a consistent base strategy that we always build off of. The point is, we know how to work together, and usually win the games that we play.
So, tonight, we decided to play a quick round of Skirmish mode against two Normal AI opponents, simply to beat the stuffing out of them and practice our tactics a bit. We both chose to play as the American faction, and made both of the enemies the Wermacht. We fired up the game, and set off for victory!
Needless to say, that sentiment didn't last for too long. We were playing on a small map, and it only took about 10 seconds to reach the center of the map. So, after about thirty seconds, I had sent a unit of Engineers (three men per unit) into the center to capture it, backed up by one of my friend's Engies. Typically, this would be enough to deal with any very early-game situation. Unfortunately, we were greeted by FIVE UNITS of Wermacht Engineers (two men per unit). The battle was over quickly, and my friend sent his unit into a building to wait for reinforcements, while my unit was destroyed outright.
During the skirmish, I had begun to build a unit of Riflemen, which used up all of my resources (I had built three units of Engineers, one of which had been killed). As I did this, I reflected on how the enemy could have accomplished what it had, but dismissed it. I figured that I'd send my Rifles up, along with two of my friends Engineers, and defeat them, crippling the enemy's "economy."
When I got there, the enemy had killed my friends remaining Engies and had secured the center of the map. They had brought even more Engineers, along with two units of Volksgrenadiers, the Wermacht equivalent of Riflemen. My jaw hit the floor, and my friend immediately retreated his units at the sight of over twenty men starting down his six. My rifles were gunned down on sight. I couldn't believe that, in a matter of one minute, the enemies had sent all of their engineers (who are the units that build structures), and had still somehow constructed the building necessary for the Volksgrenadiers.
It only got worse. Over the course of the game, the enemies seemed to pull numerous units out of their collective asses, from snipers to armored cars to tanks! By the time they had fielded two tanks, we hadn't even constructed the buildings necessary for an armored car! To make matters even less believable, the Wermacht must use Manpower and Fuel at regular intervals to increase their "Phases," which grant them access to better units, such as tanks. So, that meant that the enemy AI had somehow outnumbered us two-to-one from the very start, built numerous buildings without the necessary units, and produced tanks before we even had armored cars ready.
-__________- I'm not buying it.
This is a problem that I see constantly in RTS games. The Skirmish AI changes randomly from being too easy (which it is most of the time in CoH), to essentially cheating by creating units seemingly instantly and with no cost. So, Escapist Members, have any of you had similar experience in the realm of Real Time Strategy Games?
TL;DR: In RTS games, the Skirmish Mode AI tends to cheat and seemingly spawn units out of nowhere and with no cost. Has anyone else ever gotten the feeling that this had happened to them?
To begin, let me set the stage. My friend and I have both had CoH for several years, and are both quite experienced with it. In fact, we've played it together for long enough that we essentially have a consistent base strategy that we always build off of. The point is, we know how to work together, and usually win the games that we play.
So, tonight, we decided to play a quick round of Skirmish mode against two Normal AI opponents, simply to beat the stuffing out of them and practice our tactics a bit. We both chose to play as the American faction, and made both of the enemies the Wermacht. We fired up the game, and set off for victory!
Needless to say, that sentiment didn't last for too long. We were playing on a small map, and it only took about 10 seconds to reach the center of the map. So, after about thirty seconds, I had sent a unit of Engineers (three men per unit) into the center to capture it, backed up by one of my friend's Engies. Typically, this would be enough to deal with any very early-game situation. Unfortunately, we were greeted by FIVE UNITS of Wermacht Engineers (two men per unit). The battle was over quickly, and my friend sent his unit into a building to wait for reinforcements, while my unit was destroyed outright.
During the skirmish, I had begun to build a unit of Riflemen, which used up all of my resources (I had built three units of Engineers, one of which had been killed). As I did this, I reflected on how the enemy could have accomplished what it had, but dismissed it. I figured that I'd send my Rifles up, along with two of my friends Engineers, and defeat them, crippling the enemy's "economy."
When I got there, the enemy had killed my friends remaining Engies and had secured the center of the map. They had brought even more Engineers, along with two units of Volksgrenadiers, the Wermacht equivalent of Riflemen. My jaw hit the floor, and my friend immediately retreated his units at the sight of over twenty men starting down his six. My rifles were gunned down on sight. I couldn't believe that, in a matter of one minute, the enemies had sent all of their engineers (who are the units that build structures), and had still somehow constructed the building necessary for the Volksgrenadiers.
It only got worse. Over the course of the game, the enemies seemed to pull numerous units out of their collective asses, from snipers to armored cars to tanks! By the time they had fielded two tanks, we hadn't even constructed the buildings necessary for an armored car! To make matters even less believable, the Wermacht must use Manpower and Fuel at regular intervals to increase their "Phases," which grant them access to better units, such as tanks. So, that meant that the enemy AI had somehow outnumbered us two-to-one from the very start, built numerous buildings without the necessary units, and produced tanks before we even had armored cars ready.
-__________- I'm not buying it.
This is a problem that I see constantly in RTS games. The Skirmish AI changes randomly from being too easy (which it is most of the time in CoH), to essentially cheating by creating units seemingly instantly and with no cost. So, Escapist Members, have any of you had similar experience in the realm of Real Time Strategy Games?
TL;DR: In RTS games, the Skirmish Mode AI tends to cheat and seemingly spawn units out of nowhere and with no cost. Has anyone else ever gotten the feeling that this had happened to them?