OK, if anyone here has played the Computer of Warcraft 3 in a Custom Game, they'll know what I mean.
The computer isn't skilled or intelligent, it doesn't use any real strategy (unless you count rushing). But what it lacks in strategy, it makes up for incredibly in what seems to be ignoring resources, and perfect micromanagement of all units in a battle.
Nem-X, Batty, and myself played the computer in a 3 on 2 (2 computers) match, and while I'm not that good at all, Batty and Nem are pretty decent (Well, Nem is, 
, despite his messed up computer).
We were utterly destroyed.
Computer rushes Nem with 6 heros and countless ground units, accompanied by flawlessly managed siege and air units, and pretty much crushed Nem, despite Nem's defenses, and Batty and I's attempts to save him. Computer then made an attack at Batty and I, taking out our secondary bases.
After this, it took out Batty's base, and seeing as I was Undead, and I had 30 gold and no gold mine (costs 300 gold to Haunt a Gold Mine), and nothing but 2 abominations, I quit.
It's not like Blizzard CAN'T do something about it... the AI in the Singleplayer Campaigns is fine, even on hard, it's not as dumb as this.
I guess, basicly, my point here is that it needs improved AI with less "AI Number Fudging" ("Mobs can channel so well because they're NPCs, etc etc."), or AI Difficulty Settings, because this is not working for me. And personaly, I LIKE playing with friends against computers or other players. I like being able to play the computer by myself when my DSL is down or something...
But oh well...
[/VENT]
In Starcraft the computer had easy medium hard, and custom. Custom is what I have never been able to kill without an uber-speedy rush.
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We were all impressed when Batty wrote:
My towers! OH GOD MY TOWERS! THEY FUCKING BROKE THEM! AI IS EVIL! AI MUST DIE! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! YES!
That along with your sigpic.... hehe...
Seriously, Batty must've had 35-40 towers, I'm not kidding, :/ They broke through it like plastic. He took out about half their ATTACK force, because I approached their base with my troops at the same time and got stomped.
That, and like Mort said, Blizzard has the habit of making beating the computer in MP really hard.
Normally if you can survive the first rush, ya got a good chance to win.
I havent actually played yet, I have never played games without paying for them when they are for sale
Hmm, if your playing prepicked races, then go for units that are good against them, and AOE stuff is alway good for any game right?
Maybe just get massive amounts of that unit that captures other units then digests them? I always liked that one.
(From the sounds of it, they took the insane AI from Brood War and set it to the default War3 AI)
It's just insane.
And as for beating the first rush... I've done it before, and it just means that you have about 5 minutes before the next rush. So I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Make yourself a human, vs 1 cpu to start out. Build a altar and make your arch mage, learn blizzard. Run into your enemies base and blizzard his peons to death.
From then on out he will send 1 war unit to your base to attack everytime one is built.
So make 2-3 towers outside your base since you'll never have to deal with more then 1 unit.
I beat 4 computers solo that way. It doesn't always work, but it will usually upset the AI so much that it breaks.
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Elvish Crack Piper enlisted the help of an infinite number of monkeys to write:
That probably works reynar, but waht I believe falaana wants to do is beat a fully power AI, not work the system
The way they designed the game...it's just too difficult.
Since the computer has 0 delay between making units and buildings; even if you were building exactly what he was you would be 1-2 minutes behind him by the time he had a fighting force.
The only "real" advantage I've seen is in custom maps, computers will tend to not make use of multiple goldmines right near there starting base. So while you can have 15 peons farming 3 mines, the computer will only use one.
But they quickly expand so the window of opportunity to crush them is short.
Edit: spelling [ 07-17-2002: Message edited by: Reynar ]
The computer micromanages its worker units to build resources as quickly as possible, and begins building low-end units almost immediately. The AI always has this built-in feature. Even when set on the easiest possible setting, it will maximize resources more effectively than most people can.
I say the computer cheats for one reason only: it can see the whole map at all times. If you build an expansion, it attacks the expansion. It will also focus most of its attacks wherever your most advanced building is, even if it has no way of knowing where you built it. The computer always knows where you started, even in a 1vs1 game on an 8-player map. It never has to send out a search unit.
All computer players attack the same target simultaneously. When this happens, none of them will pull their units back. This is good and bad. It's bad because you usually can't save the player getting attacked. It's good because the computer attacks with everything except for its workers and one or two low-end guards. This leaves the other players able to storm the comp home bases... and doing so is often a necessity. The player under attack has to retreat to an ally's base with one worker, and build something so he/she doesn't get eliminated.
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Verily, Elvish Crack Piper doth proclaim:
That probably works reynar, but waht I believe falaana wants to do is beat a fully power AI, not work the system
You mean Rosa.
And yeah rosa...while I did mention a way to beat the comp...Its still uber cheesy :/ Me and an RL friend got our asses whooped by 2 comps, and we were in the same room watching each other and talking strategy the whole time too.
:/
Fal
One I learned, is taking your unit production buildings, and setting their rally points to (one of) your Hero(es). Get your first hero out early, with only a small force to back him up. (Be sure to use a warrior Hero, in the case of Humans, use the Paladin.) Then, instead of sending your Hero back to the base for reinforcements, you can just press the building hotkey (Always hotkey buildings! I use the numbers from 4 to 0 for this. 1 to 3 are just general.) and start pumping out a few units.
If the map is small, you have no need to worry about base defence while your force is out fighting Creeps. If you're not super far away from your base, you should have enough time to catch the enemy's assault force from behind.
If you're up for a lot of micromanagement, tell as many units as possible to attack a single enemy. If an enemy unit is wounded, it still does full damage, if it's dead, it does none. This way, you can quickly take out the enemy while lessening the damage to your own troops. Take out the Seige units first, then the ranged units, then finally the melee units.
Know when to retreat. If you're losing a battle, you'll only waste resources by staying until the bitter end. Better to lose a single fight than to lose the game because of low resources.
If you get a spellcasting Hero to start, preferably one that can summon, get their summoning spell first, and have the creature take the brunt of the attacks instead of units made from scratch. This will save resources.
As Humans, hotkey your Town Hall (I use 0 for all of these.) in case you need to use Call to Arms. As Orcs, group select and hotkey your Burrows so you can quickly call Battle Stations.
As Undead, kill critters. They can give you temporary extra troops! (Necromancer's Raise Dead.)
Don't expand too early. This will take resources away from unit building, and in the beginning of the game, costs more than it's worth. Expanding early can lead to getting caught with your pants down, so to speak, by someone who focused on units. Expanding is good, don't get me wrong, but only after you're absolutely sure your army can beat an enemy attack.
Don't get multiple Heroes right off the hop. This is a mistake the computer makes; while the extra abilities are nice, a single Hero with its Ultimate ability will wipe the floor with 3 Heroes who don't have it. Get your first Hero to at least level 6 before building another, as Ultimate abilities are called that for a reason.
Save for farms and towers, you will never need more than two buildings of the same type in a single base.
In Multiplayer, two or more can play the same race and share Heroes, especially if they're the same type. Two or more paladins with Holy Light seems to work best.
Upgrade ASAP! Sometimes, a samll army of weak units can beat the crap out of a large army of assorted units, all because of upgrades.
If you're defending your base and upgrading your units, produce units one-at-a-time so queued units don't take up your upgrade money.
Get a tough Melee Hero for a first Hero, as they won't need many units to back them up initially. For Humans, take the Paladin instead of the Mountain King, as the Paladin can heal. This is the only exception.
As Undead, use Shades! Watch where your enemy Hero is going by telling a Shade to follow it around. The enemy just might accidentally reveal their base!
'Bout all I can think of for now.
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So quoth Fighter:
The Strategy Guide (As in, the official one) had some damn fine tips for Custom and Multiplayer games.One I learned, is taking your unit production buildings, and setting their rally points to (one of) your Hero(es). Get your first hero out early, with only a small force to back him up. (Be sure to use a warrior Hero, in the case of Humans, use the Paladin.) Then, instead of sending your Hero back to the base for reinforcements, you can just press the building hotkey (Always hotkey buildings! I use the numbers from 4 to 0 for this. 1 to 3 are just general.) and start pumping out a few units.
Sound advice. I think you stole it from PA, but, still, it's sound advice.
If the map is small, you have no need to worry about base defence while your force is out fighting Creeps. If you're not super far away from your base, you should have enough time to catch the enemy's assault force from behind.
Depends what they're using. If they're relying on archers or ranged support, then this move will devastate them. But a straight up fighter rush will nullify this, as it doesn't rely on position.
If you're up for a lot of micromanagement, tell as many units as possible to attack a single enemy. If an enemy unit is wounded, it still does full damage, if it's dead, it does none. This way, you can quickly take out the enemy while lessening the damage to your own troops. Take out the Seige units first, then the ranged units, then finally the melee units.
PA. And yes, that is important. Moreso with ranged.
Know when to retreat. If you're losing a battle, you'll only waste resources by staying until the bitter end. Better to lose a single fight than to lose the game because of low resources.Yup.
If you get a spellcasting Hero to start, preferably one that can summon, get their summoning spell first, and have the creature take the brunt of the attacks instead of units made from scratch. This will save resources.
Yup.
As Humans, hotkey your Town Hall (I use 0 for all of these.) in case you need to use Call to Arms. As Orcs, group select and hotkey your Burrows so you can quickly call Battle Stations.CTA sucks. It may save you, but you'll pay later in terms of lack of resources.
As Undead, kill critters. They can give you temporary extra troops! (Necromancer's Raise Dead.)
Don't expand too early. This will take resources away from unit building, and in the beginning of the game, costs more than it's worth. Expanding early can lead to getting caught with your pants down, so to speak, by someone who focused on units. Expanding is good, don't get me wrong, but only after you're absolutely sure your army can beat an enemy attack.
Don't get multiple Heroes right off the hop. This is a mistake the computer makes; while the extra abilities are nice, a single Hero with its Ultimate ability will wipe the floor with 3 Heroes who don't have it. Get your first Hero to at least level 6 before building another, as Ultimate abilities are called that for a reason.
Sound advice. But most games will end before he hits level 6. Sometimes even level 4.
Save for farms and towers, you will never need more than two buildings of the same type in a single base.Yeah.
In Multiplayer, two or more can play the same race and share Heroes, especially if they're the same type. Two or more paladins with Holy Light seems to work best.
Upgrade ASAP! Sometimes, a samll army of weak units can beat the crap out of a large army of assorted units, all because of upgrades.
If you're defending your base and upgrading your units, produce units one-at-a-time so queued units don't take up your upgrade money.
Get a tough Melee Hero for a first Hero, as they won't need many units to back them up initially. For Humans, take the Paladin instead of the Mountain King, as the Paladin can heal. This is the only exception.
Right. But you're wrong on the MK/paladin, unless you want to wipe our their hero.As Undead, use Shades! Watch where your enemy Hero is going by telling a Shade to follow it around. The enemy just might accidentally reveal their base!
By the time you get shades, you're already rushed. Doesn't help.'Bout all I can think of for now.
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ACES! Another post by Giantt:
Whoa whoa whoa, who the fuck are you and what did you do to Ruvyen? In any case, just leave him wherever he is and stick around, whoever you are.
I mailed Ruvyen to the Antarctic Circle and sold all his stuff.
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This insanity brought to you by Ford Prefect:
The AI is actually not cheating on resources. It is, however, cheating. I don't own WC3, but it sounds like the same AI they use everywhere else.The computer micromanages its worker units to build resources as quickly as possible, and begins building low-end units almost immediately. The AI always has this built-in feature. Even when set on the easiest possible setting, it will maximize resources more effectively than most people can.
I say the computer cheats for one reason only: it can see the whole map at all times. If you build an expansion, it attacks the expansion. It will also focus most of its attacks wherever your most advanced building is, even if it has no way of knowing where you built it. The computer always knows where you started, even in a 1vs1 game on an 8-player map. It never has to send out a search unit.
All computer players attack the same target simultaneously. When this happens, none of them will pull their units back. This is good and bad. It's bad because you usually can't save the player getting attacked. It's good because the computer attacks with everything except for its workers and one or two low-end guards. This leaves the other players able to storm the comp home bases... and doing so is often a necessity. The player under attack has to retreat to an ally's base with one worker, and build something so he/she doesn't get eliminated.
Then turn on map visibility and you have the same advantage. It's just a machine, and once you know how it'll react every single time its not difficult to beat.
You don't have to hotkey your first town hall, though. The backspace/delete key will select the building and center your view on it. Very useful for Town Portal spells.
"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums
One way to beat it though, after the first rush - find the path they use to get to you (usually a straight line between their base and yours). Then park some very heavy duty units there - the heaviest you can get.
All of a sudden - no more rushes. It'll just send a few units around your blockade, but it'll keep the rest where they are and it won't manufacture anything new (since there's no losses - but since you're blocking their route it keeps them where they are).
Works for just about every Westwood game out there; and as far as I recall, it works for Starcraft too - or it worked there; haven't tried it in a while 
ben(at)netmastering(dot)nl
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Reynar attempted to be funny by writing:
There is nothing even remotely difficult a bout computers once you figure out the weakness in the AI.
I figured the AI out playing Night Elves.... completely annihilated them.
It really isnt all that hard It is a matter of matching your resources to theirs.
They were persistent little bastards, I tell ya that. Computer controlled armies are hard to beat, even if it looks like you could crush them easily.
In the last custom game we ran last night, the computer set about playing, exactly as we were. Both forces joined and set about clearing alternate mining bases, and then they simply sat at one base...waiting (or perhaps having tea and scones, i'm really not sure).
Maybe the AI just has it in for you? (30 towers, we must pwn them !!) 
