The systems, at least

I recently bought the online version of Terraforming Mars, and it was something of a disappointment. The graphics are fine, and the implementation seems to be complete, but there are serious problems with both the AI and the multiplayer stability.

I totally understand when an AI isn't good at a game.  It is a complex problem to make an AI understand the fine points of a game, especially when you want that game to be moddable or extendable.  Chess is an easier problem that other games, in a way, because the rules are set in stone.  Unfortunately a game like TM needs an AI that can cope with card changes, expansions, and variable numbers of players, and this dramatically increases the challenge of coding it.

Given all that, I get why the AI in TM is bad.  What I don't get is why it isn't even capable of understanding game systems.  Some cards in TM take a production from one person and give it to another.  Unfortunately the AI doesn't understand this, so it will try to play a card that takes steel production when it is the only one who is producing steel.  It ends up stealing production from itself, completely negating the card.  I am fine with an AI that plays cards suboptimally, but an AI that plays attack cards to blow up its own stuff?  That is unforgivably sloppy coding.

This reminds me of the AI in Civ 6.  I get that the AI there is weak and makes random choices.  That is fine, if unfortunate.  But when the AI is completely incapable of understanding an entire game system I get grumpy at the developers.  You can't just make aircraft a big portion of the game and then forget to tell the AI how to build or use them!  (It turns out you *can* do this, and they did, but it makes them look foolish in the extreme.)

The other issue with TM is the buggy multiplayer.  When I tried multiplayer there were serious disconnect problems and the chat window just stopped working.  I get that online games are not a simple problem, but if your game can't even maintain a basic chat window, you are not ready for release.  It is not just me either, as lots of reviews on the product on Steam talked about similar bugs in online play.

Really the TM game is best played solo.  It is a fine game for that, and seems to work flawlessly.  I just can't get past the game having massive issues with any number of players beyond one, and it irks me that the one company to get the rights to produce the game I like so much really screwed the dog on this one.

I am not asking much here.  An AI that takes random actions that all forward its position in some way, and an online mode that lets players stay connected, play the game, and type to each other.  That doesn't seem like a lot to ask, and yet apparently it is too much.

Maybe someday TM will be sold to a competent developer.  Until then, I guess we are likely stuck with in person play, playing solo, or a buggy, half baked mess.