ExpertQS.txt (2,441 bytes)   

[22:50] Chris McElligott Park: One thing I would like to note that is coming in expert mode (when I finally have another public build of the game in general) is that it will force a minimum of two AIs.  A lot of the complexity of the game is lost when you only have one AI, because you don't get that ramp-up in challenge after defeating the first one, and have to figure out how to still deal with the second one.
This is a lot closer to the design of the original AIWC, which really matters for the state of the endgame in particular for players who are looking for a proper challenge.
[23:09] Daniexpert: Would it still be possible to have expert settings with 1 AI? In the sense that I don't have to manually set everything to be expert-like in the game settings
[23:10] Daniexpert: It doesn't need to be called expert, but sometimes I'd personally like to play with expert settings with a single AI (mostly when doing diff 9 and 10)
[23:10] Daniexpert: But adjusting everything manually can be tedious

[02:12] Chris McElligott Park: Essentially that's mostly what Challenger is for, but I do see your point in terms of "I'd like to set a baseline of X and then change just a couple of things."  I'll have to think about how to make that happen.
[02:13] Chris McElligott Park: I do really think a LOT is lost when you don't have the flow of going for two AIs -- that's the flow that the entire first game was built around.
[02:13] Chris McElligott Park: Ooh, I guess I have one idea.
[02:13] Chris McElligott Park: I could make some quickstarts, later on, which have kind of a blank slate version in challenger mode that is "expert minus XYZ"
[02:14] Chris McElligott Park: So instead of starting that quickstart or starting a custom game normally, you go to that quickstart and load it into the lobby as your starting point, then add whatever you want.
[02:14] Chris McElligott Park: I think that's probably the best way for us to handle this sort of thing long-term, because there are so many permutations.
[02:14] Chris McElligott Park: Expert mode has a long way to go, though, so let's get through most of that before we create these.
[02:15] Chris McElligott Park: I will likely forget about it, so it's a good one for mantis, or the sort of thing you could do yourself with your preferred settings using this: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#Make_Your_Own_Quickstarts.21