AI mistaking my military buildup

"We know what you are up to!"

from GalCiv2 Forums
Does the AI take into account the fact that you might be at war with another race in that sector when it looks at your military presence building up there?

Here is the situation I found myself in last night:
Playing a medium galaxy with 6 Tough AI. I have habitable planets set to Abundant so that more "sharing" of systems occurs. I do this to encourage hostile dynamics. For example a 5 planet system with 4 habitable planets usually has 3 different owners where borders are closeby. Anyway I end up at war with the Yor and plan to invade a system where I own 2 of the 4 planets, the Yor have one and the Drath the other. I build up some Transports and also move some fleets nearby to knockout the Yor defenses when the time is right.

Thing is, its early game so the build-up takes a while, my ships only move 4 speed etc. During this the Drath get on the blower with the "We know what you are up to! We see your build up near our worlds - prepare for war!" message.

They are absolutely right about the build up since they are also in the same system but they are wrong about the reason since I am at war with the pesky Yor.

So back to my question, does the AI know to take account of the current local situation? (ie I am at war and the buildup is to invade the enemy planet that is also there). I see quite a few possibilites playing out here, not least of which is the Drath just want an excuse to attack.
10,505 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Diplomacy...

Apparently the Drath were merely looking for an excuse to go to war and liked their odds. The Arceans did it the other night with me. To be truthful I was going to take them out of the power grid as soon as I finished up with the Korx as I had (imo) stacked more than enough transports to do both races in and take over the most nortwest corner giving me the west edge of the huge map in its entirety. Because I couldn't sneak them I did lose more ships but in the end their 4 worlds now have a new religon.

Kat Faith!

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The AI can be good but it's not a human...an even a human would be suspicious of lots of ships near a world even if the human could GUESS (something that's hard to make AI do) that you're building up for your current war and not a surprise attack.

Part of the problem is that "surprise attacks" are commonly used by players to the AI has to err on the side of caution and think that any troop buildups near them are coming their way.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've noticed one problem with the way the AI recognizes these buildups, though: sometimes it considers its starbases - even its far-flung starbases - part of its threatened territory. I've had the AI in two different games declare war on me for transport mobilization. The only problem was, in both cases its closest planet was over 3 sectors away! But both times the AI did have several starbases in my sector where I was gathering the transports (to attack someone else, by the way).

I love that the AI will respond pre-emptively to my planned lightning strikes, but I'd like to see its recognition of a threat toned down just a little bit.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't know if it is just that, the AI seems to have learned opportunism as well. I had just taken out two of the nine starting races, and the Drengin decided they were going to "take me out while they still could", and then, while I am busy fighting them off, the Thalians, who had just given me 4 ships, decided that they didn't like my "militaristic leanings" (I had very few ships left at all, but was very close to being done building about 16 of a newly designed ship customized to counter the Drengin) and declared war on me too.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That is called gangbanging, and has been a valid Human stategy for a long time.
I use it myself a lot of the time.
If I see two or more Empires have crushed a third one, then it is only to my advantage to jump in and pick up a few choice planets to add to my empire at little or no cost, and also to deny those planets to the other empires.

Even if I had been supplying that emprire with ships previously in order to extend the war and keep those empires occupied while I consolidated my position.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Several of the races seem particularly aware of wars of conquest - both the Drath and the Altarians, for example, will now show a negative in the relations screen for "our tendency to conquer others" when you take a couple of races down. (Frogboy points out that the Drath AI is sensitive to such wars in one of his game examples.) As far as I can tell, it has made the conquest route a bit more difficult to achieve. Which is a good thing.