When will basic problems be addressed ?

from GalCiv2 Forums
The current 1.3 is probably a better game than 1.2, mostly because it isn't as easy to economically dominate. The game I'm playing has been the best game i've had in a while (enjoyment wise). (probably because I went back to playing maso, and didn't get a good colony rush)

But for all the improvements, you still see the AI doing some stupid things. Actually the errors tend to be more like the AI forgets to manage certain things or design decisions that in practice, don't work.

Here are the things that bug me, that I'm getting to think will never be addressed :
1) AI fleets just sitting around, probably left over from a previous war.
2) AI planets (mostly minors) with 10 ships in orbit that are basically out of order.
3) AIs never ending desire to build crappy ships in huge quantities.
4) AIs that are losing horribly trying to send hords of pathetic escorts/transports to their doom.
5) escorts.
6) AI not using defense correctly.
7) some AIs not using farms, combined with AIs lack of soldiering = easy conquests
8) overall lack of feedback. Seems like the AI doesn't ever change gears. IE I attack a planet, and they don't adjust what they're building there. Why keep building a transport ?



5,077 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Forgot the 2 other biggy(s) :

1)AI ships that just got built, that are left sitting right next to the planet waiting to die.
2)AI transports that could invade a planet, but press on to planet 10 turns away...(that they'll never get to...)
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
#7 - exactly right. The only ones to ever research soldering techs seem to be Drengin and Yor.

And a class 18 planet with a starport and half a dozen stock markets should have a farm as well.

The AI shoots itself in its own foot too often, it seems.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
#2 of your last post seems related to #8 of the OP. It just doesn't shift gears quickly enough.

It will send a troop transport right past a planet I just took (which now has less than 2B population) in favour of a planet several turns away with a population of 13B, when it is very likely it will never make it because I will destroy it sooner.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just out of curiousity, do you turn on the "more cpu cycles to the AI" option in your games. I am curious if that would make #3 and #6 better.

Cheers,
Reavers
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I do, and it does not seem to help that much. They are still very slow to upgrade.

In this last game I had taken out most of the Altarian worlds before offering them peace. Shortly thereafter they surrendered to the Drengin without even a war breaking out between them.

I had used beam weapons against their mass drivers.

The Drengin, probably because I was much closer to them at that point because of that takeover, declared war on me about 6 months after my war ended.

They still did not have any beam defense, even though they should have known that is what I was using. I had my fleet sitting in the open all that time. They had light armor, that's all. They didn't last long.



And I would like to put in my complaint, again, of the AI's misuse of bonus tiles and overuse of stock exchanges in 1.3A.

Class 18 planet with:
1 Starport
1 Research Acadamy
1 Cultural Center
11 Stock Exchanges (one of which is placed on a 300% manufacturing bonus tile, another on a 100% manufacturing bonus tile)
0 Factories (Zero, nada, zip)
0 Farms


And this was very typical of the planets I was capturing.

If this is an example of an improved AI, well...
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
strange, i'm still battling my first game and the IA has a nice ammount of factories build on each planet, i'm on crippling and the IA is playing pretty well.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Planetary management by the AI is still hit and miss. I've seen what moose is talking about, I'm not sure if early in my game that the AI had decided to tear down it's factories. (because it was losing.)

I've also seen the Torians at the other extreame. (8 or more factories on most planets)

I've seen some AIs correctly use farms.

I haven't seen anymore planets without starports in newest version.

Part of the problem is the desire to keep the AIs distinct. By doing this, basically each AI ends up over focusing in a certain way, and missing out overall. I mean, for the Torians building mostly factories is neat, but can they afford to power them without economic worlds ? (with maso bonuses maybe)

The reality is right now, the way the game is balanced there are not too many different succussful planet build styles. (and the AIs are trying to use distinct styles)