posted 03-09-99 10:33 AM ET     

Basically, the AI isn't protecting Morgan's bases with Probe teams at a crucial point in the game (~rank 12 in the tech tree). Morgan manages to stay one pace ahead of me in tech (maybe he getting them from the #3 UofP, also my enemy), but so what? Having access to Morgan's road net, I just roll various probe teams in and grab the tech on the same turn. As a result, I've been able to:
1) probe the same base multiple times, no security lock, no defensive probe teans ever appear;
2) having infiltrated Morgan's datalinks (obviously), whenever he gets a new tech that allows a new project, I know the base where it's being built;
3) I wait a turn until he's invested something into the project, then ZAP, I blow it away with a probe;
4) I steal the same tech with another probe and rush build Telematrix or whatever on the next turn, because Econ is on 90% (I just steal the tech! - but still inventing in 6 turns, heh).

You get the picture. Sure, the PK have elite probes, but the AI offers no resistance, no adaptation whatsoever! Even a single mediocre Probe team would force me to build double the number of Probes I'm currently deploying to accomplish this.

The result is that the game is practically being given away to me at this stage. Doesn't the AI know that its #2 faction, Morgan, sits cheek-and-jowl on the same continent, sharing the roadnet with its mortal enemy (me)? It's strange, since I _have_ seen the Hive and Spartans deploy Probe defenses on the least provocation.