The suicidal Arceans; or, the perils of misplaced AI aggression

from GalCiv2 Forums

So I'm playing a game on TOA where I've been at war with the Arceans, on and off, for four game years, and it's become clear they're doomed. I really would rather just sit back and wait for them to be wiped out by the other guys - there's much bigger problems out there - but the constant declarations of war have given them the "They hate us" condition and we're permanently at war. I even tried offering all my techs for peace - but nothing.

The thing is, though, the Arceans really need to make peace with somebody:

I understand the reason behind having the AI react badly to constant wars, but in this game, it's been the Arceans' own fault - they just kept attacking the Altarians every time I convinced them to make peace with us. The Arceans being who they are, I can actually buy this behavior, but it exposes two of the standing flaws in the AI that still have never really been addressed:

  • First, the AI needs to consider alliances in its behavior. The Altarians are a superpower now, but for a while they were very weak, so they made a good target - I can understand that much. However, they had one powerful ally (me) and two other good civilizations that would help thanks to their SA. Had I been the Arceans, I never would have started this, and it remains a major AI flaw that they don't take alliances into consideration when deciding whether or not to declare war.
  • Second, the AI needs to learn from its mistakes. During the first war, the Arceans lost the vast majority of battles that I saw, yet only a few weeks after making peace, they declared war again. Again, I think any human player who had suffered a serious setback like this would go to some kind of Plan B rather than making the exact same mistakes over again.

Now, I'm not trying to be overly harsh on the AI - I still have a lot of respect for it overall - but this is one error in its playstyle that's hardly ever been mentioned on the forums, and if there is ever another patch, it'd be nice to seen something done about it.

10,179 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

  I don't see this as an error;  the AI style here is desparation.  If all AI players played exactly the same strategy,  they would all be just another AI opponent.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

The error here is that the reason the Arceans are in this mess in the first place is that they kept making the same mistake - attacking the Altarians - over and over again. Like I said, it fits slightly with the Arceans' backstory, but it's still stupid on their part.

In addition, they should be trying to make peace with somebody. Fighting every major race in the galaxy at once is just insane.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting qrtxian, reply 2
but it's still stupid on their part

  What is the intelligence level of the Arceans (its in the stats tab of the foreign relations screen)?

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You know when I first saw your screenshot that you posted, it reminded me of one DAMN EPIC GAME that I played. But it was the Alterians who were at war with everybody. (Well they did have an ally, the Terrans). The funny thing was, is that I started the game, with absolutely no intentions of playing it. I hated the model they used for the Doom Ray, so all I was going to do was sit there on my one little planet and research all the weapon techs until I found a model that I liked. Then leave the game and switch the Doom Ray's model to the new one.

Hell I didn't even use my one free colony ship. That was until the Drengins started grabbing the worlds in my homeworld's star system. (Mine was modded to where each race had five planets in their home star system.) Then they felt that they needed my one little measly planet more than I did and began landing troops. Oh now it was on! Atlantis is sacred ground. It took me weeks of game time to even begin to start making any head way against the Altarians. And just when I thought I was actually getting somewhere, the game crashed and took the saved games along with it. But it was epic! I've since tried desperately to recreate that game to no avail.

 

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Well, the Arceans at least had enough sense to know when they were beaten. I finally resumed this game and they surrendered to me after 2-3 more months, just as I put Arcea itself under attack. Of course, it was just two months after that before the Thalan-Yor Axis finally attacked my allies, and that's to say nothing of the local Dread Lords... But at least the Longest War In GalCiv History is over.

The Arceans, incidentally, had "Intelligent/Tough" AI, like everyone else. I still can't figure out why they never tried to sue for peace - if not with me, then with someone else.