I know I'm often beating on about the fact that games should be released complete, not requiring patches (or, worse, paid expansions) to make them work properly, but I must admit I'd rather see CA release a supplement that improves upon the existing PO than adds more units that will themselves require further correction in the future. The thought of poor PO is really the only thing keeping me from buying RTW (well, that and the fact I've never heard a good comment regarding sieges), but as far as I'm concerned that's reason enough - who cares how aesthetically pleasing a game is, when you get bored of it after a few weeks of play?

The thought of using genetic algorithms in games opens up a whole host of possibilities in my mind! Communities could share their GA-based artificial opponents, allowing players to fight battles against opponents who have already learnt the hard way from myriad other players, or the strength of the opposition could grow as a game progresses - imagine how tactics might evolve (historically and in-game) after the first battles using a new unit type. And were you suggesting that specific generals within a single game could have their own state of learning, distinct from that of other generals, that grows as the general does and dies with them... That beats the current star rating system, if you ask me!

Of course, the problem with that is the technical aspects of the GA system. The artificial opponent will only be as good as the system that grows it, and that will only be as good as the people who program it!

As for Galactic Civilisations - I saw this in Game a few weeks back and it piqued my interest, though I set it aside as 'just another strategy game' (I have so many on the backlog that I'm not sure I'll ever complete them - I'm not even sure I'll ever 'complete' MTW!) But I may reconsider it at some point, from what you've said... Thanks!