After all these years RTS games still create increased difficulty by giving the AI cheats; You can take out all their refineries/workers and somehow they still spit out hordes of units when they shouldn't have any money.

Have you played every meaningful RTS out there and checked?.

Because.....

Not really true. In Dune 2000/Red Alert 1 or any other C&C game when you canceled the money supply the AI couldn't produce anything. The same in Starcraft 2 if we are talking about a newer game. The only exception are off course scripted campaigns that are supposed to pose a challenge for the player.

I guess your grievance is with Stronghold Crusader 2 that can turn AI cheating in to a masterpiece at some occasions.

Because AI isn't something "we" (the mainstream) are asking for. RTS is mostly a niche product from a small developer who hasn't got the means to develop an impressive AI. Or it's designed for competitive multiplayer, like StarCraft 2. In this case, there's no AI needed. And setting waypoints for your stupid units counts towards your APM, which is important because of your e-peen.

Actually I think it is. Not focusing on AI is a big reason RTS games are a relatively small genre. Simply put focus needs to be on single player experience that isn't a scripted campaign with story. That would make the genre much more appealing for a lot of more gamers that aren't hardcore.

From what I hear, they don't need AI. It's all about the one-million-imputs-per-minute thing! :D

Whatever, I'm one of those noob heretics that dares to play RTS's with a mouse and only a mouse and I sometimes even forget what hotkeys are.
Prefer turn-based anyway.

The AI most certainly cheats in the old Westwood games. It can build upto 3/4 buildings at once. It builds much faster then you and ALWAYS seems to have enough money to rebuild a harvester (C&C specific).

Hm, never noticed that before but I guess you are right.

I find AI in RTS games to be pretty limited, which causes a victory seeking player to always do the same thing to win. AI usually either does early base rushing or cheats in order to turtle long enough to get late game uber units. So in many RTS games, the strategy is almost always one thing - base rush before the AI can. Turtling against an AI, especially one on hard difficulty, almost never works. But that kind of kills the fun because you spend a quick 10 minute game overwhelming your opponent with level 1 peasants or grunt infantry.

So I guess the reason why RTS AI has always been limited is because of the nature of the genre. The point of an RTS is to seek out your enemy's base and destroy it. AI can only do so much with that premise. And as some have pointed out, that's what helps make turn based games more flexible.

I never noticed it much as a kid but when a fog of war mod came out many years ago, I got to watch the dirty bastard perform its trick lol.

That's up to speed. Crank down the speed (How fast units move, resource income, build times etc.) and suddenly playing as almost a 4X becomes possible. The biggest reason RTS is a small genre is the developers obsession with them always being fast if you ask me. The faster they are the more important reflexes are and the less civilization building features are possible unless really good automation functions which are extremely rare.

Not that I've played every RTS out there, but one of the best AIs I've ever seen in an RTS was in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, with the AI mod installed.

AI seems to have always been weak. You have the varying degrees of AI

EASY AI:
1) Detect enemy, shoot at enemy
2) Make units if money is > X amount
3) send/recall units based on if under attack
4) affecting every unit at once

Harder AI:
1) Planning for bases/tactics
2) Doing a pincher attack
3) figuring out where the enemy is without cheating
4) hit and run tactics


I'm reminded of looking at the editor and maps for StarCraft, and often bases and potential bases had hints added in to tell the AI when they got to the area where they should set up camp, where the resources were, etc.

More intelligent actions like hit and run or moving units via a shuttle was either map specific, or had to be programmed and then the game would decide to use them when appropriate. When the hints weren't used, the AI could make very odd decisions of where to place buildings.

This is probably more why in single player games why the enemy rarely makes more buildings than they start with and instead just concentrate on sending wave after wave of enemies at you. Or base things off scripts of when you enter an area, do action X. You can do a lot with that alone.