Handicap for AI

I have always admired the fact that the AI does not cheat in thia game .. and it is the best AI I have seen in these types of games.

That being said, I wish there was an option to give the AI a metal / energy boost. Noramlly what people do to make it harder is load a map full of tons of AIs. This is good but on certain sized maps it barely helps teh AI and you just pick off his commanders and then it is no advantage. Defending commanders is not the AIs strongest attribute.

I would like to see an option to just give the AI free resources (and to set the resources at start). It would help the AI out on smaller maps and make some games more interesting / challenging.

This would be covered by this request: https://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/28840

I just want to weigh in briefly here to state that I think that the "Hard" AI is often more difficult than the "Brutal" AI, particularly in spread-out maps.

From my experience, the Hards tend to attack with small numbers of dudes all over the place, staying out of range of defensive structures and harassing any unprotected mexes, while Brutals wait a little longer before they make their first attacks and strike with a stronger force that's more likely to win if intercepted.

Thing is, many players don't have units online early enough to counter the early aggression of a Hard, and on spread-out maps, it's a real chore to keep your mexes online.

I'm not complaining that the AIs are bar or anything; it may simply be that they're complementary (one might be labeled "Harasser" while the other is "Builder" or something).