War: What is the goal

from GalCiv2 Forums
So lately I've been playing with the 2nd beta and just completely ignoring building any offensive or defensive ships until someone decides to declare on me (all games with all ops on intelligent). Of course sooner or later someone will declare, but the problem I see is that they don't have much in the way of organization in their attacks. They might target a starbase, they might try to hunt down some freighters, or they might just diddle around with a couple of fleets.

So The question is when the AI decides to initiate a war, what kind of a goal does it have in mind? It seems entirely pointless to declare a war just to attack a couple of freighters and otherwise sit on your thumbs. What is especially annoying is that I have my planets wide open to invasion and I don't see a single troop transport (and yes the AI has had planetary invasion in all the games but one) built anywhere!

Looking at Civ4 the AI fights a couple different kinds of wars, one is the all out conquest war, the other is the minor incursion with lots of pillaging. I am wondering if the AI in GC2 kind of looks at it the same way, if it can't invade it looks for other targets, but the problem is that its really easy to defend your targets with SB upgrades which make the starbases immune to the enemy (early game anyway, but by the time I'm building my own fleets I can defend the SBs with those).

I guess it would make more sense to me if when the AI decides to initiate a war they don't just do it with what they have on hand, they make the determination that you are ripe for the picking, and then build up for the assault (like good human players will do) so that when they actually do declare they have transports ready to hit the undefended planets and adequate fleets to take down SBs.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What I've found in beta 2 is that the ai holds off on attacking planets unless it's confident it can win. They will usually bypass my planets until they find one with only 4-5 ships and no orbital fleet manager, then pick it apart. As far as invading goes, they comp. has worked me several times, usually setting up orbital blockades to destroy my ships as I produce them, or launching massive deep strikes into my territory. I had one where they flew though my whole empire to attack a core world literally on the other side of the map.

It seems like this new build makes the AI more hesitant to attack though, I don't know if it's by design to play smarter (not meat grinding as much or sending ships to thier certain death) or what.

I would like to see more orginization though before they declare war (at least with some races, and alliances might result in war before htey are ready, that's the nature of the beast though). Like if theDrenjin are preparing to declare war, if I start seeing troop build ups or more ships of thier moving towards my planets.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually the fleet construction is better in the beta, they actually have some speed for a change. Its not even that they don't invade, its just that when you play as a complete pacifist there is seemingly no penalty once they do declare war (early game). It would be nice if every now and then they would grab some of your planets in a quick strike once they declare, rather than dorking around with a handful of useless fleets which cannot target anything.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually the fleet construction is better in the beta, they actually have some speed for a change./quote]

The key to exploiting the HUGE attack advantage is not only speed but also seeing the enemy before he sees you. Do the AIs now place more value on researching and using sensors? A good player tries to beat the others to "Eyes of the Universe".

The Dread Lords have fast ships but in the campaign missions I always get in the first shot. I ensure my fleets have enough fire power to usually take them out before they can return fire. The few times they get to fire my ships have leveled up to the point where they can absorb the hit. Always playing on level Tough I have yet to loose any combats ships! I just completed the apocalypse mission on Nov. 8, 2227, having only lost 3 non-combat ships (the scout from the start of the game, 1 constructor, and 1 starbase mining a military resource [no modules]) but I destroyed well over 200 enemy ships!

A little one sided don't you think!!! For the sake of balance I think both sides should fire at the same time.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What is the goal of war?

To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.

I thought it would be obvious.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah I've noticed that in the beta the AI doesn't seem as blood thirsty... No one declared war on me until I owned almost half the galaxy... I had not even developed space militarization... However I was far enough ahead in tech that I would get two or three military techs each week once I started researching them
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"WAR! Bum bum... Bum Bum
What is it good for?... Absolutly nothin... say it again yeah!
War, I despise, cause it means destruction of innocnet lives!"

I have no idea how to honestly answer, but it may be that the AI is simply looking to lower your military rating. That would explain it hunting down starbases (Do frieghters count towards military standing?) and then once theres nothing else to destroy it doesnt know what to do with itself?... Maybe
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i have found the ai quite blood thirsty in my beta game.Was happily making my little empire on the other side of the map when all of a sudden every1 declares war on me from minor races up.in5 turns i had 8 races against me:( .I was only just to the right of the neutral bar
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In response to post #4. That was classic! Thanks for keeping it in perspective.

I see the AI providing a challenge when I play against it. I don't feel the AI are galactic retards mindlessly throwing away ship after ship or fleet after fleet.. It will find a weak spot if there is one and exploit it or try to... It will invade it will fight...

I've no complaints against the AI at all.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hmm, well maybe its my play style that makes this happen to me. I seldom get a dog pile on me (unless I intentionally provoke it) since I tend to make sure I have good diplo (usually by techs). My point though is regardless of the style of play I employ the AI should be better set up to take immediate advantage of its war declarations than it currently is.

I cannot imagine declaring war without either the transports on hand to take at least a couple of planets, or a fleet capeable of knocking off whatever starbase there might be on a resource (and then having the constructors on hand to immediately grab it and put on some defense).

It just seems as though these AIs see that I'm a '0' in military and decide to declare for the sake of it. Of course if they have no transports and I have no soft targets (that is my SBs have military modules and my freighters and constructors have more than enough speed to stay away from any trouble) then they are just blowing in the wind. The only thing they can do is attack the trade routes, which while it can be annoying, isn't really that much of a problem.

Moreover they don't seem to recognize very well that the '0' rating came from early development of planet infrastructure and economy, so that once I have to switch to offensive production I can do so very easilly, and nominally (through tradeing) I will have at least as good of mil tech if not slightly better. For sure my engine tech will be better. The only thing I'm often missing is PI, but I have time to either research it or buy it while I get my fleets in order.

Again, this is early game only, mid to late game... well I don't have real accurate data since I'm usually pretty far ahead in terms of economy and tech so any wars are pretty one sided. Especially since I'll have transports with speeds around 20 so that they will never see my invasions coming