Quote:
Originally Posted by Borodin
It really couldn't, not at the time.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Japo
sadly these games were released before they were really ready.
|
Both are true, I think.
They decided to make a game of epic scope, but the ceiling (I guess) were more the financial side of making it than the machine limitations. Seeing how much bugs they left in the game, the game was finished in incredible haste. In 1.0 they had problems with the sheer game functionality, AI worries being miles away! In 1.2 the enemy stacks started to "not be frozen" on the map. Incredible.
It seems that they just could not afford to go on with 1.3 (or they realized how long it would take to make the game AI significantly better in such a complex game).
As a good comparative measure of how good / apalling AI is in different Microprose games we may use the "cheating" bonus on Impossible (for X-COM it is not really a comparison, because human player never plays the Aliens):
X-COM ............................ 1.4 x normal (stats of the Aliens) - IIRC
Master of Orion I ............... 1.6 x normal (research points) - IIRC
Master of Magic ................ 3.0 x human research, production...
That is quite telling. They had to increase the bonus from 2.0 after version 1.2 was released because the game was still not competitive enough.
---
(As for the chess comparison, Moo is much closer to it (it has only X defined clash positions, Y planets to be settled, X*Y possible movements...). And it was much simpler to make a seemingly good AI, with almost no effort.