As training for games against human opponents, skirmish is a joke. The AI consistently displays a lack of unit tactics and realistic behavior (Something that was somewhat successfully coded into War3), particularly when massing units (If you can call what the computer does a "mass".) It never sends enough units per wave, and rarely selects the appropriate targets for each unit type.

These deficiencies are especially apparent in the latter missions of Single Player campaigns. Initially, the computer's standing units and preset defences will be difficult to overcome. However once the money starts flowing and you attain a good rate of unit production you become unstoppable, since the computer's counterattacks don't adapt to yours.

just waiting for the patch that "makes it fun"

something along the lines of:
fixed AI suckage
fixed multiplay issues since we dediced to use the biggest piece of shit directplay as our multiplayer protocol, and its the dumbest fucking protocol in the world when it comes to playing behind routers or NATs or ICS, which are fairly common nowadays.

AOM had the same issue. The only way I've been able to multiplay generals is by using VPN with a friend, and thats limited to only 2 people, since neither of us have a server OS that supports more than 1 VPN connection. I shouldnt have to jump through hoops to play a fucking game multiplayer because of their dumbass choice of protocols.

Not sure what they did differently, but freelancer is working without a hitch, and it uses directplay too, so they actually did it right. didnt have to mess with VPN, port forwarding, dmz, any of that shit.

They can patch all they want, but as of yet, it still hasnt fixed the major issues this game has.

This comment was edited on Feb 26, 19:19.

you know what there is no pleasing you fuckers, if they did not patch all the time you would be whining "where is the patch so that my china soldiers wear red instead of burgandy."

Still cant direct connect behind a router....lousy patch..

bellyflop, you got the bad 1.2 patch. You need to uninstall the game and then reinstall it. Then use the in-game auto update and everything should work fine.

I can tank rush against the AI on brutal and kick its ass.

Really? I was only able to beat the PC on Brutal by using a combination of an A10 strike and the Particle cannon. Particle cannon took out the power plants and the A10s took out the massing attack force. Only then was I able to overwhelm the PC in a rush of tanks, humvees filled with rangers, and commanche's. Prior to that all attacks had been ground to a halt.

it takes a really poor player to be unable to stop a tank rush

My point exactly. And I can tank rush against the AI on brutal and kick its ass. I think you are assuming I actually want to play MP but I dont, I am looking for a decent SP experience which Generals just doesnt have. I havent even tried the MP yet because frankly I couldnt care less...

And thats what I am talking about...all this time and still no change (or improvement) to the single player game or to the AI in general.

I dont know about you other gamers but I'll take better game play over better graphics any day of the year. All 3 of my favorite and most played games of all time dont even require a 3d card.

I just think its time to start thinking about spiffing up the AI in these things...I really just dont care how real a shadow of a palm tree looks if my tanks just sit there when they are being shot at or the enemy AI just trickles a few units at a time towards your base in moronic attmepts to attack.

Skirmish mode on Brutal ain't easy. It's beatable but you can't slow down for a second or it overwhelms you. The AI doesn't seem to use Generals abilites but it manages to use Superweapons pretty effectively.

But that's not AI, that's just the computer cheating. War3 works the same way; At the hardest difficulty, the computer takes in resources twice as fast as you.

Skirmish mode on Brutal ain't easy. It's beatable but you can't slow down for a second or it overwhelms you. The AI doesn't seem to use Generals abilites but it manages to use Superweapons pretty effectively. I'm not the best RTS player of all time but I'm certainly no slouch either and the Brutal AI makes for a challenging game that is beatable but takes a lot of work.

"Enemy AI is however a pretty tenacious opponent. "

I hope your joking. There might as well be no AI, they are dumb as shit.

probably to make the game a level playing field; the higher you can put your resolution, the more of the battlefield you can see. If everyone plays at 800x600 it's even.

that is one thing i TOTALLY don't understand ...PLEASE SOMEONE explain to me why quick matches can only be played at 800x600????? i mean ..... DAMN! thats really really friggin dumb.

Pathing AI I haven't noticed.

Friendly Unit AI is numbnutted to the extreme. Enemy AI is however a pretty tenacious opponent.

No Unit formations- Yes.

Very little strategy- I disagree, to crack a smart players base takes more than 15 tanks and two anti-infantry vehicles.

Generals Abilites- Valid complaint with the Artillery strike. The thing is it takes about 30 seconds from when you fire to when it actually hits. Taking out units with Artillery strike is next to impossible because of the delay. It's also balanced out with the long recharge time. Artillery strike is for opening a corridor into the enemy base. It however is not strong enough to disable a base only to buy you some time before the bad guys can plug the whole.

I find the core gameplay of Generals very fun. I think the interface needed a lot more polish but otherwise this is the most enjoyable time I've had with an RTS in quite a while.

What game are YOU playing? In MY game I can run over soldiers pretty easy with tanks and kill them....then continue with the tank rush.

You can get three missle defenders for the price of one tank. By the time the tank is within squishing range it's long been dead. Try the laser designation ability, it is THE BEST anti-tank weapon in the game. If a tank gets lased it is dead. Period. Given how cheap and early in the tech tree a missle defender is it takes a really poor player to be unable to stop a tank rush.

A tank rush does not work. A mix of units with smart use of general's abilities, airpower and super weapons does.

Belly Flop: See my posts #3 and #10.

Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx

Pathing is bad - period

AI is bad - I love how your units stand there and die to anything shooting them that is out of their range. They don't try to run, they just stand there and die.

Interface is bad - I am spoiled by the excellent interface of *craft and Age of *. It's really hard to tell at a glance what units are in what group and how much health they have.

No unit formations - You can't even have units follow other units. All you get is waypoints -- no standard 'guard this unit' or 'follow'. All you get is the retarded "guard area" which makes your units behave like units in other RTS (i.e. attacking things that come into their sight radius).

Very little strategy - It's still all about the tanks. Throw in a couple anti infantry vehicles and use them wisely. Der.

The Special General Abilities or whatever they are called are just lame. It should not be possible in a strategy game to just instantly wipe out a few buildings with an artillery strike. There is NOTHING you can do to prevent it. Your buildings just die BY MAGIC.

Shall I go on?

What game are YOU playing? In MY game I can run over soldiers pretty easy with tanks and kill them....then continue with the tank rush.

Base defenses are weak, and there are very few options.

I dont think its an awful game, its just not original in any way....its all been done (better) before.

Yeah, same here. I really like it, but there are bound to be those who don't. I've only had a few problems.
One being a replay I saved unfolds totally differently than how the actual round was played. I won against the cpu, but in the replay, the cpu shows a scenario where it wins. Heh, guess I'll have to show it again to remind it who is boss.

The other problem I've had is installing the 1.03 patch.

1.02 patch worked fine, but 1.03 won't auto download.
It says file not found. ??? After downloading the standalone .exe file and running it I get an error that says old file is there, but has been modified so no update performed? huh? I will try uninstalling the game and trying again, but it means no online play for me for now.

Any1 else have same problem? BTW I have european version.
Oh well.

Well if they'd spent the time to fix the COMPLETELY OBVIOUS suckiness of the game before they released it, they wouldn't need to be patching it. They aren't making a good game better, they're attempting to fix a broken game. It's pretty obvious that this game was NOT ready to be released, and any moron could see that, so they had to know, yet they released it anyway. So where was their concern for making a good game then?

Please do tell what you find so horrible about Generals. It's all I've been playing the past few days and I've been having a great time with it.

Stratagies? Like what? Tank rush works just fine...exaclty as it did in the original C & C, and I mean friggin identical except now its in 3d.

VERY disappointing.

Uh, what game are you playing? Five rocket soldiers can stop a tank rush cold, especially the US missle defender. Base defenses do in fact work. There is always a way to get around them but just rushing them will get nowhere fast. As in any rts just hanging out in your base will only bring defeat but a few patriot missle site at the approaches to your base will stop any tank rush.

I'm not quite sure as to what people are complaining about with Generals. The balance is fine, just check the weekly win statistics, all three side have virtually the same win ratio. Yeah certain sides are easier to play successfully but playing a good GLA player is hard as hell despite the fact that your tanks can blow his up in about two shots. The only problem I see with the game is an unpolished interface and some slow performance during big battles.

As to multiplayer being unplayable, I haven't had any troubles. There was one game where the lag was pretty bad, other than that one I have had a smooth experience online. Is patching the multiplayer so that it runs even better that big of a crime?