The campaign and challenge levels have AI that's set up to have an advantage over human players. On a 1-on-1 match in multiplayer with an AI opponent, I can beat it pretty easily depending on the map. I like to play against 3 or 4 AIs in multiplayer, if it's a free-for-all, or 2-3 AIs if they're on a team against me.
this game looks quite nice. look forwards to getting it. never played the previous installments but this one looks much better. is it better than other rts games? compared to like , i dunno, galcon/ labs or xeno wars
by "free play" do you mean "enter a level and just have to beat the AI, starting anywhere you want and being whatever faction you want?" Yes, that mode exists! Go to multiplayer and set up some AI opponents. If none of you select factions, teams, or starting locations, they are all randomized for you.
Then again u are the dev so everything is easier for u... P.S. I love the game so much it's in my sig!
i must be a moron because i dont really like the game at all and i find it way too confusing. i liked the first 2 games but this one just isnt for me. disappointing.
It's an RTS, so there will always be a learning curve. Once you learn how the game plays then the fun begins and you will know that the effort you made to learn the game is pretty much worth it.
WOW. New game from John Kooistra!?! Yesss!! I am usually not the hugest fan of RTS, but this is a no-brain instabuy. Can't wait to play.
I'm sad to hear that - would you like some help or tutoring? Basically, you can get away with only using two screens, and spamming the creation of battleships (the one in the game icon). Screen 1) squad multimove, bottom left -> move all your ships here Screen 2) fleet build - second from the right -> tell all your ships to build, at the same time trick 3) slow down the game speed! Go to options -> game options, and play the game at 1/3 or 1/2 speed if you're having trouble. That way, the AI won't come at you so fast! Basic beginner's strategy: (level 2 and above - level 1 is special) -build two or three harvesters, then build a foundry (the big round less menacing guy) -make sure your harvesters are over resource areas -if you already have a foundry, start building battleships - build nothing but battleships if it confuses you to do anything else -position your battleships such that they are between your important units and anyone who could attack you -attack early! as soon as you have 3 or 4 battleships, move them all to where you think your enemy is while building more battleships -[advanced] start moving your foundry towards the enemy, so that when it builds more battleships they are closer to the battle I hope that helps! More advanced strategies, and combining carriers with battleships, can wait for later. Just make sure you can build things from "fleet build", and move things in "squad multimove", and you *can* ignore everything else if you really want to. The rest is all there for more advanced users.
AI type Is the AI difficult because it has an advantage (Economy and/or military) or because it's smart?
thanks for the advice. im definitely not going to give up on it yet. i think part of the problem for me is telling the difference between the units just by looking at them. everything sorta blends together for me. im also one of those people who love to read a detailed game manual. i love rts games so im not sure why im having such a hard time with this one. getting too old maybe pushing 40!
On the final level of the campaign!! Great game John! The only RTS i like on my iPod. So ep. 2 will include a new campaign and possibly online multiplayer?
Game Impressions Red Conquest is the best (and will stay the best) RTS game on the iPhone and iPod Touch. RTS games are hard on the iDevices because there are so many units at one time, and being able to control them all at once is hard. Fortunately, Red Conquest makes commanding your units easy as pie. You can select them many ways. For example, if you want to move just a couple of units in different directions, you can go to the single-move menu and drag them where you want them to go. If you wanted to move all of your combat units (and nothing else), you could go to the multi-move screen, drill down to "combat units only", and then all of your combat units will be selected. From there, you could tell them to surround your base, surround the enemy planet, or just move somewhere. Building units is just as easy. Just tap on the unit you want to build from, click the build icon (the one with a hammer), and then drag units from the left side of the screen to the build queue. This game goes into extreme detail, because you can even select what direction you want the newly built units to launch from. Red Conquest has tons of content (an adventure mode, a skirmish mode, 4 separate challenge modes, and multi-player) and John promises to add more. This is only episode 1, and Red Conquest will eventually have 4 episodes. Don't worry - John promises that the remaining episodes will be free of charge, and he won't make them DLC.
The AI is pretty smart, but not that smart. An average player will be able to beat it in a fair fight, and it will give a new RTS player a bit of trouble. Seasoned RTS vets will find it pretty easy in a fair 1 on 1 fight... So the way the campaign and challenge modes work is by giving them more units, to start with, or a strategic positional value. The "defense" type challenges have very simple AI - "go straight at the planet!" But there are several dozen ships that come at you over time. So yeah, the advantage I talked about was position and numbers - the AI is really pretty average after that.
