Quick idea for people developing launchers...
I am currently using a launcher that lets me select which AI I want to play against and has an AI folder with Base SC2data files, I'm sure that's pretty similar to how most are set up.
There are a lot of good AI's available now, and I think launchers should add a feature for random AI selection. Also let users customize which races a certain AI is good for (so we don't random a Protoss-only AI that gets Zerg as the race). This way, when starting a game I won't know if I am playing against 6.1.1, AMAI, 1337's fast expanding AI, Darkzero's protoss AI, etc. Granted, they all have their chat spam to announce which one you are playing, but that is easy to remove.
Not knowing what the opponents starting build will be is a fundamental part of the game that makes it dynamic. Playing a 1v1 on a large map we do not always find our opponent before we have to make substantial build decisions. I haven't yet bothered to learn the intricacies of what makes each one of these AI's different but I have noticed how long each one seems to give you at the beginning of the game and believe it would be more fun if we could play them without having any idea about what the opening strategy will be. HOpe you agree
Hi, this is a great idea! Reg'd just so I could comment on that.
/signed
sadly it looks like we are the only ones who share this opinion.
kind of wish i didn't drop out of computer science in college
imho it will be very nice. so simple to realize this :)
!sup
one of the launchers almsot does this. requires an AI folder with subfolders that are names of AIs with a base.sc2data in it. Then, presumably copies the one you selected into the right sc folder b4 launching game.
It should be fairly straightforward to select randomly from those folders. I'm not sure I'd use the feature though.