I agree about the R&D part. I have already noticed it.
I think that the price should be linked to the use you make or the market existing.
If there is a lot of competition on a specific product, i think that you should sell the R&D for 5 times the cost of it, against perhaps only 3 times for a "normal" R&D.

Another thing I noticed which is quite new. If i build a farm (i only/mainly play with farms currently), one of the AI will nearly immediatly build a farm or change its production to propose the same product than me. After a few months, as it doesn't work (I lower my price until he gaves up) he stops. But this shows that competitors are really reactive and competitive.

I agree with the AI changes making them much harder now
I havent had time to sit down and play for the last few days as Ive been really busy with work, but I left the game running on max speed to see what the AI was doing, for a while atleast, and the AI hae good tech and brand rating now which is allowing them to ern lots of money. One game, I kept it running for 30 years and 3 of the AI were earning 300-700mil profits per year, very good!

I do agree with Inarius that perhaps if an AI is falling behind, that that focus on a Niche Market rather than lots of markets. I have seen some AI do this when its their product expertise which is good. But perhaps another method of 'selection' is which markets are currently underserviced.

A last observation/recommendation is that acquiring technology be more expensive across the board. At the moment, tech AI do not make alot of money as buying/selling technology is very cheap and the amount of time and money they invest into R&D usually only earns 2xcost if someone even buys something off them, so they earn very little.
A would say an increase of x5 (Or atleast x3) would be more realistic and give them some sort of edge.

I will give more detailed feedback when I am able to play again- Should only be 1-2 weeks if I buckle down and get all my work done as quickly as possible

The smallest AI (Headquarter + a retail shop) like on the site the example of "subsidiary AI" have some issues, in my opinion.
They often loose their money slowly (or quickly), until they collapse. They are not profitable.

Could it be possible to change them a little ? I haven't seen a lot "specialized" AI, who build specific retail (leather, jewelry, apparels, etc...). Perhaps specializing in a market niche would protect them ?

And, also, as they are quite small, why do they need to begin and build headquarter ? Headquarter are very costly (firstly because they are big and you need to buy lands) and because when you have only 1 shop and nothing else, i don't see well why you have to also own a headquarter.

On the other hand, the recent changes are great. I have begun in the hardest mode, and I am after 20 years in the 5th position.
The AI is much more agressive and it's more interesting.

[quote="Dotcom656"]One thing I noticed about the AI types. is that if you do select a game with stocks disabled, the game still still makes some AI into stock trading AIS which effectively makes them useless.[/quote]

Will fix this in the next patch. When the stock market is disabled, there won't be any stock focused AI.

One thing I noticed about the AI types. is that if you do select a game with stocks disabled, the game still still makes some AI into stock trading AIS which effectively makes them useless.

We have improved the AI in the next patch (1.912) and have thus reset the poll. You may download the latest patch and evaluate the AI and vote again.

Hi mwyeoh, I have loaded your game and taken a look. You may upload future games here as well.

Hi David

Heres a save from my latest game at lvl6.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23145017/MAT__003.zip

I played 19 years this time and stopped when I was earning 1.2Billion (Far more than any AI)
Again Im already 6th richest in the world with 19Billion personal wealth

The three best AI earned pretty much all their money from factories this time.
But they were selling finished products to retail companies this time around

I havent gone into an analysis this time, just thought you might be interested in having a look at how a game has played out

The AI is definitely starting to become more competitive at difficulty level 5, with some companies going very well.

Here is my save game. I just lost my source of aluminium as I was saving though
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23145017/MAT__002.zip

I decided to stop at 21 years when I was clear winner in profits and could selectively start targeting other company's most profitable lines
My stock was also worth 21.5 billion, I had 100% ownership and was 6th richest person on the planet (Worth 22 billion)

There were 4 standout AI companies
Happy resources made equal amounts of money from factories and retail
Global link made their money from factories
Eyewatch made their money selling furniture (Their expertise)- but mainly from factories rather than retail
And the BIGGEST standout Memory today made most of their money from farms and a good amount from footwear (Their expertise)

Observations in this game:
[list]The AI is very good at getting their brand up, but only use unique branding. I used corporate branding which made selling any later goods very easy as I instantly had a good brand name
Memory Today sold alot of items for a good price but their technology was very bad in many areas (They relied on brand instead). Sandals and shoes were good (Their most profitable line- sports shoes on the other hand was quite bad)
The tech AI did not make much money at the end. I dont think they had enough techs available to sell to others. They need to focus either on short projects on a range of unexploited goods, or long projects on estabished goods lines. At the end the tech AI only survived on farms or mines (They sold all their R&D centers)
Realestate AI held their ground but were not the money makers that retail AI were
The sole Stock AI company, Southern Lines did not seem to invest in any companies throughout the whole game and just sat on their 230mil from the beginning of the game[/list]

So again, I believe there is promise in semiproduct focused AI (Livestock focused, Plant/farming focused, raw materials focused, Semi product focused (This need to be broken down further)) as this was where the AI made alot of their money- particularly Memory Today

[quote="Inarius"]In my game, i'm second.

All the AI were with the highest level of cash at the beginning. But it seams they are not playing very well...


At least, they play. But some are really dumb.

I wait until R&D disruption is fixed to continue my game.[/quote]

What's the difficulty level of your game? How many years are you into the game?