The AI needs to be more competative... against itsself.

from GalCiv2 Forums
It seems that the AIs that always do good are the ones aligned with the Torians and Altarians, who usually do good anyways. By aligned i mean ones that are friends with those races. I've only, for example, seen the Drengin do good ONCE only because i gave them an incredible amount of technology so they would trade me hull technology. It seems the AI can't compete against itself very well.

Sure the races that do good fight wars well, like the Arceans do very well in wars I see them fight against altarians. However they only fight against those races if I am the one to ally with them and i'm of evil alignment. Otherwise they would be helping them against the Drengin and simular races. This "AI Advantage" doesn't apply to all good races though. The Iconians, who i think are good they never do a think so i never really know, always do the absolute WORST however races seem to have the perogative to surrender to them which gives them a later game advantage. All of the new races, by new i mean new in GC2 for the AI to control which includes humans, do the ABSOLUTE worst.

I seriously think the AI would be more of a challenge if ALL of the AI players did as well as the Altarians or Arceans, if they did then i think most peoples problems with the AI would be solved. The AI would fight good, good as in not completely one sided, wars against other AI players and multiple strong allied AI opponeants would certainly give a challenge. I never played as good before so i'm SURE with how it seems the evil races are from my perspective that good players have basically a cakewalk game unless they fight their own alignment or the Arceans and i'm sure it can be frustrating for them.

I hope this 1.2 patch evens out the races as far as an AI goes because right now its completely unbalanced.
9,184 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In one game I had the Drengin swith to Good, and they went from a strictly average empire to having almost 50% of the influence in a very short space of time.

Of course, then they switched back to evil again and steam-rollered their way across the galaxy...


The one that the AI sems to play the worst at is in my opinion the Humans. Never have I seen the Terran Alliance do any good in any game, I guess because their main advantage is diplomacy which the AI in general doesn't do as well as a person.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Surely if all the races were balanced, it would be easier? Because none would get an upper hand, you'd be facing off against lots of weak enemies instead of one strong one.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Surely if all the races were balanced, it would be easier? Because none would get an upper hand, you'd be facing off against lots of weak enemies instead of one strong one.

No, if the AIs were equally smart a few would get the advantage eventually. Its like that on other games. The bonuses on planets they take, and the outcome of wars they fight would determine that. Plus resources they control, and who allied with them. Their are a large number of factors.

Also they would ally and combine their research power, for example, and be even more powerful.

As it stands now once you wipe the "super race" the game is basically over. If they are all powerful you would have many more opponeants allied against you.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thalans!! I've never seen them pass midgame, and I play almost always with all nine races. Once I gave them 2 levels of intelligence more than to the other races, and still they were the worst!

Maybe it has to do with the fact that they seem to start always at one corner of the galaxy and they're unable to grab as many planets as the others? Well sometimes I don't know where they started, because they are gone before I find their planets.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Remember when Brad posted about having the AI play a "no-humans" game and having each AI win approximately the same number of games? That's really hard to believe. OTOH I really don't believe there is a "worst race" because I have seen so many posts from different people saying "Why do the Drengins/Altarians/Yor suck so much?" and other people or myself saying, "Hey, that race is absolutely the most dominant in all my games!" Especially the Drengin, they have double the military and economy in every one of the last six games I've played.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Remember when Brad posted about having the AI play a "no-humans" game and having each AI win approximately the same number of games?


That is, in face, impossible. The terrans NEVER do anything at all, if i leave them alone or whatever happens in the game. So no, he has to be wrong or that was during some kind of early beta when all the AIs sucked.

"Why do the Drengins/Altarians/Yor suck so much?" and other people or myself saying, "Hey, that race is absolutely the most dominant in all my games!" Especially the Drengin, they have double the military and economy in every one of the last six games I've played.

The drengin is occasionally decent for me. However have you EVER seen the Terrans or Thalans do anything at all? No.

The Drengin aren't that great, always the Altarians, Torians, etc do better but they are only that way because their allies are ALL sub-par while the good races have 2 that always are on top. I think their is a way to rank these AIs.

Always good: Altarians, Arceans
Usually good: Torians, Drengin (only if the other evil races are doing OK, otherwise usually bad or average)
Average: Korx
Bad: Iconians, Yor
Horrible, never does anything without SEVERE human player assistance: Terrans, Thalans.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
However have you EVER seen the Terrans ... do anything at all?


Yes.

For me, on AI that's "Intelligent" or "Bright," I get:
Powerful: Arceans (by a lot), Torians
High Average:Iconians, Yor, Altarians, in that order
Low Average:Drengin, Korx, Drath, Terrans (in that order)
WTF, mate?: Scottlingas,* Thalans, in that order

The Thalans are so bad that I often make an informal personal objective out of keeping them alive when I'm feeling like the game is too easy or boring.

*Scottlingas are a minor race that I see on occaison. They seem to be fond of dominating all the other minor races, and no majors ever seem to want to fight them. Also, the "X minor race has stolen everything from Y major race" random event seems to favor them more than other minor races, though all of this is probably coincidence.