Dumb vs Genius - Is the Computer Cheating??

from Stardock Forums
Tried something just to see the difference in alien intelligence. Tried a map where I made sure I was close to an alien race with the following setting and encountered:

Galaxy: Gigantic, All races Genius & Evil, had my sensors incread to the max for visibility.
I had three nearby stars that had habitable planets.

1) In 4 turns, the Drengin had 5 stars and 7 planets.
2) Three Drengin planets had 1 or 2 Defender units
3) Drengin had at least 5 visible colony ships in route


Granted, I know they start knowing where all habitable planents are, however. In four turns, even the smartest human can't get to where the Drengin got.

Starting with only 1000bc, the most you can buy in 2 turns w/o going (-) is 1, maybe 2 colony ships. Secondly, where did they acquire the technology for the defenders, since even as a technologist, it takes me 5 turns just to get Weapon or Defense Theory.

Just curious here???
309 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes they cheat, they must be.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Not cheating, bonuses. I betcha at genius, the AI gets a big production and research boost.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
On Genius the AI's abilities are increased.

I.e. Each civilization has around 30 abilities.

Humans get 10 points to distribute.

At genius, the AI gets 20 points to distribute.

At "normal" they get 8.

Money wise at "normal" they get 1000.

But at "genius" they get 2000 to start with.

As stated, the game does play by the same rules as human players. But at the top most levels, our main concern is making sure players are challenged. Our goal is to make sure that at normal or bright the AI provides a challenging game while having roughly the same amount of resources as you do. (at bright they are identical to the human player in everything).