Any advice setting up a good game vs. AI?

Hi ther try using the Unnamed mod? It's an AI upgrade.
It is a lot more challenging than basic Game AI. There should be a new release of the Unnamed mod this sunday acording to Unnamed?
You just put the Unnamed folder in the "game types folder" in your SE5 then start a new game, this will give you the option for standard game or unnamed game?
This link will take you to the current version if you carn't wait till sunday.
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php
Hope this helps

Spuda

You could try setting the cost of research to high, play a race with a research penalty and three racial techs to research (and another penalty to intel or production).

I don't think using Neutral Races changes the number of Empires... but you can manually create some empires and set them to computer controlled to make things more crowded.

"Balance Mod" has a bit better AI... but if you are research strong, you can still easily out pace them.

I'm playing BM with small map, low number of empires and team mode on (me aginst THEM, they can fight each other, but cannot make treaties (eg. peace) with me). AI tends to get migration treaties and either reserch or trades colonization techs, so they keep up with me and even press me hard. Dumb style, but brute force wins for some time. Of course they are much less efective than player, but i've even lost planet to AI invasion (not glasing, but they more often glass my planet than capture).

I wonder that. In description in Manual it says "computer players get a bonus in resources each turn", but I think its more than that. I think they get an undisclosed boost in research too.

For example, i'm playing against opponents who all have Moderate bonus on hard difficulty (BM 1.11, SEV 1.63). Despite the fact that I generate FIVE times the amount of research to my nearest rival, and don't spend my research on the expensive big projects (i.e. Colonisation) I am always trailing on Tech Levels on Comparisons. I'm on year 2413.1 in my current game and I've never been above the tech level of the no. 2 player, despite me clearly dominating at 1st place.

So either the AI is getting a different bonus which doesnt show in Comparisons, the AI is only researching low cost tech for easy tech level boosts, or its because I spread my research evenly and the AI does not (i.e it spends 90% on one tech for a 'quick win')? Any thoughts?

IIRC, kwok sometimes said, that
1) AI gets that boost to research too
and
2) Comparision shows values unmodified by that bonus

Another reson why AI can be so far ahead in research are treaties. If AIs Make treaties that they can migrate and trade all techs, then they will get much more techs and much more undomed planets.

migration isnt that big a deal when you can just research planet modification and there are rp reasons, your at war with them and its them against you...the organics are blood sucking vampires =p

Anyway...

I was wondering if the AI can/could/will trade organic tech for like say like religious tech resulting in a AI with too much good stuff

You cannnot use racial tech unless you have the correct trait. Even if you somehow learnt the tech, you cannot use any of its results.

And yes, Score Comparison shows unmodified values. AI really receives a multiplier to those displayed values.

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

I'm playing 1.44 with Balance Mod 1.09 and based on a post a few weeks back I've set the starting conditions to - Paradise quadrant medium sized - no neutrals, AI agressive and bonus to AI. I also changed the max number of ships from 200 to 500 and max units I doubled or trebled (can't remember exactly now).

Turns used to go pretty quick even in late stages of a game but in this game take about five minutes - but I'm not complaining - it's more of a challenge - I'm at turn 134 and still have my dreadnoughts wiped by planetary defences - mostly when they have meson blasters - but I've just broken a treaty to get things moving and I'm now fighting the AI on three fronts - more enemies = more fun.

Only thing that seems a bit odd is that I have one system that takes about 10 seconds to load where all the others, even where they have dozens of enemy ships load instantly. Can't see anything obviously different about this system except that my ships seem to take damage even when they are parked in orbit and not fighting - I've had to move all my ships into the sectors nearby.

Possbily the AI is trading with one another on techs, also I have found that the AI tends to research some of the lower cost techs such as Armor.
"We are the Vahl, resistance is...welcomed"

The stock game cannot be made into a challenge, no matter how many restrictions you give yourself, imo.

You want both the Unnamed mod and the Balance Mod. Unnamed is Stock with better AI, BM is a mild reworking of the game to give the AI a better shot at winning and also changes some of the tech tree, weapons and ship sizes.

From what I've read and experienced:

Don't use neutral, non galaxy spanning AI empires, the other AI don't know how to deal with them well and get bogged down in a long drawn out war.

Set tech to high cost, the AI can't deal well with frequent refits.

Use the medium or large map so the AI has time to expand.

Use a low number of AI so they don't get in an early war with each other.

If you use Team Mode, the AI can make treaties with each other, but not you. Expect to fight an Intel war from the early game. They can also go to war against each other as well.

The bonus' are low, medium and high. IIRC, they are 2x 3x and 5x to research and production.

Team mode with High bonus is unwinnable. They will spam you with Intel and your empire will get dismantled in 3 turns. Team mode with medium bonus can be won, but you'll need every trick in the book to get a good momentum. Once you get it though, the AI doesn't seem to be able to stop you.

If you turn Intel off, they still build Intel facilitys, which actually gives you an (unwanted!) benefit, so avoid it. NOTE: The latest unnamed mod reportedly fixed this, but he is looking for testers.

Hope this helps.

I play with Kwoks BalanceMod, small galaxy medium number of AI, difficulty hard, AI bonus high, team mode on.
I am currently 6th out of 8 and even got rolled a few times in fleet battles but the game is FUN!!

The only thing I have a problem with in team mode is everyone is running intel against me and it really hurts...the only thing I can do is get a fate shrine, it reduces the chance for it working so party on team mode =D

Correction: BM AI also understand what "No Intel" means and won't build Intel facilities.

Either way, if you want to get daring, go to Settings.txt and edit just how much those low/mid/high AI bonuses mean. There's nothing to stop you from saying 'High AI bonus' means x80 resource/research points for the AI and x30 build speed (it is recommended you give them much higher resource bonus than build as the AI will otherwise bankrupt themselves).

Naturally, you ought to switch off Intel if you become insane enough to try that. Then switch on Team Mode to make sure you don't advantage of their super bonuses.

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

Btw, way how to make winning impossible (It almost happened to me once):
With intel off:
Start "redisigning" warp points (not totaly cut yourself off, becose AI cannot open its WPs, just move WPs in more defendable positions (eg. one "fort" sector with multiple WPs and lot of baseses, mines, fighters ...) and optimalize routes through your systems).
During this temporarily cut off part of enemy empire.
Before reconecting it, they would build system grav. fac. so you cannot WP there. Without intel you cannot hope in destroying that fac even if you have acces to part of that empire (so you does not lose comunication).

Wery funny when this happens.

Ahaha yeah, cutting off waypoints that much is treated as "has surrendered" in multiplayer - hence the unwritten rule to always leave one waypoint connected between empires so you at least have some hope of conventional warfare.

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

I am playing Balance Mod 1.11 on SE5 v1.63 with team mode, intel off, small galaxy (27 systems), highest bonus, hardest setting. It is scary. Previously I gave no bonus and I walked all over the AI easily, but this time the AI are outpacing me and at turn 43 I had a 24 frigate fleet & 3 carriers attacking me from one civ (two fleets) and three more 12 ship fleets from the other AIs. I am hanging on for dear life, could go either way, which keeps it interesting, specially when minerals are at 3k reserves and emergency building platforms!

One other thing, I set it up with a "perfect" type star map, which is supposed to help AI expansion. Has less nebula systems and little planets in the asteroid systems to help with resupply etc. I also placed the civ spawn points (after generating a nicely structured map) at good places to give the civs a chance to expand a bit.

If you really want to be frightened, use those settings, but turn intelligence on. There's nothing quite like the thrill of seeing a dozen or more intel news items every turn and finding you have a 300,000 point intel deficit...

Well the thing with Intel On in such conditions is that you stand no chance of winning and it's not very fun since the only defence is to build more Intel facilities and various +Intel Def facilities. Here's the alternative: go to Settings.txt and change "Computer Player Bonus Points Multiplier" and "Computer Player Bonus Queue Rate Multiplier" which dictate exactly what that High AI Bonus means. Just be sure to give them much bigger Bonus Points than Queue Rate Boost as otherwise the AI will bankrupt itself.

Currently I'm in a game where I've already achieved 'invincibility' - there's nothing the AI can do with Intel Off and my ships taking no damage from their shots (Crystalline Armour spam). So I went and upgraded the AI bonus which (I think) will be implemented when I next load and continue the game. Should mean the AI researches higher weapons that much faster to break me.

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

Your solution is to give the AI better guns and more manufacturing capability, which leads to more and better warships. Then you race to catch up by building resource/manufacturing/military capability. That's fine if you want a knock-down-drag-out slugfest. If you play with Intelligence on you need a different strategy. IMO, that strategy is far more complex. It isn't easy to do, but that is exactly the point...

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

Psieye, I responded to your statement that "you stand no chance of winning and it's not very fun" because it directly contradicts my experience. That experience tells me that team games with Intel are difficult, interesting and require a very different style of play. Your mileage may vary.

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE