How's the ai at fleeting up in 2.0?

I've never seen anything like that.   I suspect that this is the effect of a mod and not the base game.... that is if it is a genuine screen shot and not something highly doctored to make a point.

Like Taslios, I have never seen such a mess myself either.

In my games the AI uses *normally* a quite smart mix of bigger fleets, and fast "runner" ships that create havoc by attacking soft targets using hit and run tactics.

However, *sometimes* the AI seems to divert from that general line and does dumb things, like having loads of scouts lurking around in the same spot, usually around resources or having quite many single ships stacked, but not combined to a fleet. Dunno if it the AI can get confused sometimes so it "forgets" those ships, or if there are other factors...

Have also nevers seen it this bad, but the AI still sends out way to many single ships,

its funny because if it sends out fleets(which it does sometimes), those actually can pose a real threat to the player

I saw that picture earlier and was quite surprised. I don't think I've ever seen the AI play quite like that... though they used to be worse about fleeting.

Generally, the AI are good at fleeting up now. Sometimes, big fleets aren't necessary, and I noticed in a recent 2.0 game that fleets were being used to attack larger, higher priority targets while single ships and occasional pairs were sent to dispatch asteroid mines and unprotected assets.

I was pleasantly surprised by this behavior.

That said, I played a game last night on a small map with three other factions set to gifted. I had just conquered the Altarians, and they gave their last planet (bottom of the map) to the Iridium (top of the map). The Iridium sent ships that were stationed at their two planets, two starbases, and shipyard--something like 8 ships--all separately. Even though sending them as one fleet wouldn't have changed their doom, they should have sent them as one fleet.

For any devs reading, I suggest instructing the AI to prioritize gathering ships into fleets in their territory away from threats before sending them anywhere across hostile territory. At least give them a chance...

I haven't seen anything like that LongDeadFingers.  That said, the AI does send plenty of single ship fleets.  While it might seem like a good idea for the AI to go for easy targets like asteroid fields and the like, and might be annoying to noobs, the main problem still is that AI ships are very slow compared to competent human player designs (not enough engines on their designs in particular) so they become easy pickings.

I play without any mods, and yeah I've seen this at least once.

It was the Thalans, who had at least 2.5x the power of the second most powerful civilization (myself as the Terrans). Single ships all over the galaxy, and the few fleets they did field are usually the ones that have a transport in them. Might have something to do with the fact they were the first to tech to Huge hulls in that game, and didn't face a credible threat until very much later. But once I teched to Huge hulls, backstabbed the Thalans and started sending fleets of Huge ships at them... well, it was a slog, but they were eventually summarily dealt with.

In my last game, the AI were running some ships of 20+ moves--which I'd consider fairly good for their tech levels (I think they only had Warp). Not all of their ships were outfitted that way, and those that were, they seemed to be using to take out undefended or poorly defended targets.

Has this been since the 2.0 update (relevance to OP)?

That one probably is a pre-2.0 save, come to think of it. I haven't started another Insane map ever since; they're kind of a huge commitment.

"Some" doesn't cut the mustard, it needs to be consistent across designs.  Otherwise, when they do fleet-up, you end up with large fleets moving like a snail, which frankly is always.

In my last game any decent ship speed was far too rare to make a material difference.

Never seen it. Tbh the AI Fleeting up has been good/great for a few patches now. 

The speed thing i noticed a few patches ago maybe 1.7ish. But i mod my game to give the AI teams a lot more cap so their designs end up being fast/too fast. But the main issue was cargo hulls not having enough engine so any fleet with a transport was slow but i have not noticed that in 2.0 but it may be my mods.

I'm glad it isn't common. One of the last longish attempts I made to get back into the game was when the ai still had its habit of using friendly teritory as a sort of parking lot for its ships... which I gather was resloved quite a while ago. The screeshot looks far worse than what I remember of that situation, so it took me by surprise.

Icemania, your comments re the ai's inability to prioritize engine speed are of real concern and I'm sorry to hear that's still going on in 2.0... ScrivenerOfLight, you evidently are seeing at least some improvement. Okay, not sure what to make of this then but it is still quite poor as far as fleets with transorts, yes? Brad, if you are reading, I'd be happy if you would confirm it's going to get more attention. Hopefully everyone will see significant improvement soon.

Regarding AI fleets - one thing I notice that many of their fleets consist of the same ships. Also planets are often defended by loads of the same type.

It is not always the case, but using various types together seems rather the exception than the rule. IMO that is not so interesting, would be cool if it got improved...

I also play with no mod.  The AI, builds waves of ships, rarely creating a fleet even with 2 or more ships in same hex.  Yes, this is 2.0.  The worst that I had was 76 single ships in one hex.

Here's a screen Rog214 posted from a 2.0 game.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=858066091

Stacked ships = 81

Wow, that's quite bad indeed. I had silly stacks *sometimes*, but never that big - but then I don't play the biggest maps....

Pardon me if this was stated and I missed it, but what map sizes and difficulty levels are you guys playing at when you get these massive stacks of ships?

I suspect that may be part of the issue...

I have generally been playing larger maps (huge-insane) with gifted AI and have not seen this behavior.

I play on insane/incredible and have seen the ai send many single ships, but it usually  doesnt stack ships. Was the ai at war when you saw it stacking up those ships?

I usually play huge/gigantic, sometimes one step bigger (what was that - immense? - it's been a while). I don't play the two or three biggest map sizes.

My record was 46 ships stacked. I think they all had a waypoint set for the planet I was attacking. 

I play Incredible on Insane or Immense, about 1/4 recommended number of opponents.  Makes for limited contact diplomacy and large empires.  I haven't seen such extreme stacking for a very long time.  The Pirates were the worst about it, and even they fleet up nowadays.  It doesn't really do them a lot of good, but they are trying hard to be a nuisance.  Have to give them credit for that.

The AI seems more prone to stack up in their own territory.  Invasions have fleets and some singletons wandering about bothering asteroid mines and constructors.  I think the stacks are some sort of pre-fleeting behavior that isn't really working out for them.  Perhaps they are building ships before they are investing in Logistics, then don't think to re-address the stacks once they do have the logistics.

I play usually on Huge and Excessive sized maps and see this behavior a lot. It has gotten better with 2.0 but still happens.

Just stumbled (again) over an issue loosely related to this topic: the AI often seems to amass a lot of ships (mostly war ships, but also transporters) in ship yards and is then not inclined to use them when an enemy is near. I can freely attack planets and asteroid mines with a fleet much smaller than what is in such a shipyard without the AI reacting (at least it does not by building a fleet from the shipyard ships and attacking me or by relocating the ships to protect their planets).

The transports I see in those shipyards also seem not to be used for anything.

That is on an insane map with 10 gifted AIs.

The AI builds different ships for defense(no engines or life support) and offense,

and as far as i know the AI will never use defense ships to attack,

meaning it also wont use them to intercept your fleets.

But why then leave them in the shipyard and not at least move them to planets for defense?

Apart from that, when the enemy is on top of you, you (that is, the AI) should use every means of defense it has ...

Immense map, fighting the Deregin (Gifted), late in the game (turn 160)

Both of us have had plenty of time to fleet up. We are separated by quite a distance (120+ hexes) and I'm attacking them with a few mixed fleets of 5-8 ships (escorts, capital, carriers guardians). Clean off a planet, land transports and move on. Use the new planet to extend my range and refit as necessary.

Deregin planet defense is 8-12 medium ships, all assault, and a few fleets of 8-12 ships with a mix of small/med interceptors, capital and assault. No escorts or guardians.

Besides the "sit at the planet or starbase/shipyard" behavior, the Deregin haven't put any extra movement on any ships (they are at 4), so that really puts them at a disadvantage, as my fleets all need 20+ movement just to cross the gap in a reasonable time. I see quite a few singletons floating about and they do not seem to combine into a fleet for protection.

Additionally, they don't seem to have researched large or carrier ships at all. 12+ of their assault ships on a planet is pretty tough to crack,  and I'm taking 30% losses in the escorts/assault to do it. But, in open space, with the speed advantage and some far ranged radar pickets, I have a big advantage and can pick them off with a little thought and no losses.

Not complaining, just noting the that the strategy and tactics for the AI here have available improvements.