AI misusing ships

Well, if you send your own scout ship out, the auto-explore or auto-survey will deactivate once it has nothing left to explore. It too will just sit there from then on unless you set the auto-pilot or destroy it.

Right, though I would have hoped that the computer AI would be smart enough to do something with the ship, at least when it belongs to the other races leaving you responsible for your own ship naturally.

So it ignores it. Big deal.

I noticed that behavior to and when they park ships in my area I usually charge them a 3 or 4bc parking fee. They dont usually seem to mind!

Sometimes they just accumulate their old ships at one point without making fleets. Once the Arceans had more than 100 olds ships at the same place and I had to destroy them one by one, which took me several turns. The Arceans didn't move those ships, they just sat there waiting for their turn to be destroyed. I could have ignored them, but that was a gig galaxy and my system is not to good, so that having so many ships on the same spot was affecting perfomance a lot. It was making the game lag so much that it took me about half a minute to destroy each ship and it was a pain in the butt to scroll over that area.

but that was a gig galaxy and my system is not to good, so that having so many ships on the same spot was affecting perfomance a lot

Yes, I have noticed this. Towards the end game the AI races just churn ships out, the only effect it has is to slow the game to a crawl. I play on suicidal so they can churn one hell of alot of ships out. I have usually virtually won the game at this point so it just slows me down, I find it slightly annoying. Wish the AI would do something more useful after a while, like build some influence or military starbases perhaps? This would be more effective in stopping me later on.

One thing to keep in mind is that the AI does not cheat. This is relevant in that the AI does not know where your ships are unless your ships come within sensor range of the AI ships. Having scout ships parked all over the galaxy is one way of implementing a sensor net to see what your enemies are up to.

Perhaps I am just justifying the presence of enemy scouts all over the place, and those ships are just sitting there because there is no more space to explore. However: you know how when you have multiple scout ships set to auto-explore, and they all rush for the same piece of unexplored real estate, even when much of the galaxy has yet to be revealed? The AI ships probably use the same algorithm. I would expect the AI ships to accumulate in one part of the galaxy and not be as evenly distributed as they throughout space if they were "stuck" after autoexplore found no more area to discover. Hence, I think that the AI is intentionally leaving its ships in your space as a sensor net.

Urushiol,

This seems the most reasonable xplain.
I have found that when war comes, the enemy AI "forgets" to move/protect these ships.
So I am able to destroy them, I even tried just parking a fighter next to thier scout for an
extra turn or two... but the ship just waited for death!!!\

Lt Byram

Yes, that would explain the scout ships, but the ships I was talking about were war ships. The AI just accumulated more than 100 of them at one spot next to one of its planets, without stacking them in fleets, and without moving them for the 7 or 8 turns that took me to destroy them. It's like they were just sitting there wating for their turn to be upgraded or something, but they never had enough cash.

I don't know if the AI is programmed to eventualy destroy its own ships instead of upgrading them, being the first generally a much better option even if you have the money for the second one btw. I've actually seen this behaviur more than once, but never with so many ships.

I, like always, was playing with very slow tech, and I guess that could be causing the Ai to be producing too many ships, moreover when they have an inclination to produce cheap ones.


I hope you guys can understand my english

Chu,

Ayeap, see that here also. But I have another thought in mind about those ships. They eat up your moves. So your attacking them instead of attacking the AI planets.

Course, I really believe the explanation that the AI just doesn't give a rats but about them more than my excuse but hey it could be...

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

Maybe they were left there just to use up your movement points as the AI was building better ships?
A lot of ships cost a lot of money, so every ship you destroy also improves the AI's weekly income. Again better for building better ships without the bother of the upgrade time or the time to destroy them. Maybe the AI figures it is better just to abandon them.

Suralle, Moosetek13:

Yeah, I see your point with the movement points, but in fact I could have just ignored them and go for their fleets instead, that were heading to my planets.The only reason I destroyed them was because they were making the scroll lag like a slide show. That makes me think of another AI tactic: make my system lag so much that I'll think it twice before sending my ships to that area.

And yeah, I help their economy when I destroy all those worthless ships, but if they had destroyed them in the first place, it would have been even better for their economy.

To abandon ships and keep paying maintenace for them is just stupid, so the only logical reason that comes to my mind is that they may upgrade them in the future, but they don't make enough money for that so that they keep parking old ships at their parking spot, and that makes them earn even less money so that they can upgrade even less ships and so on...

I could have ignored them, but that was a gig galaxy and my system is not to good, so that having so many ships on the same spot was affecting perfomance a lot. It was making the game lag so much that it took me about half a minute to destroy each ship and it was a pain in the butt to scroll over that area.

In the "Interface" options screen you can click between "Full Battles," "Normal Battles," and "Instant Battles." "Instant" skips the animation entirely and just subtracts a move point and hit points. It would probably let you eat those hundred ships a lot faster. (I use it when I'm destroying 0-power defenders for forty turns in a row.)

Given how easy it is to destroy starbases, having the AI build these would be useless. There have been numerous posts about how incredibly weak starbases are, and it is so true unfortunately. The only time they are safe is if they are a long way from the front lines agains the AI. I can easily pick of the AI bases by building a very fast fleet (say 43 move) and running behind enemy lines and picking them all off.

I will soon be running with a mod to double or even triple the offense and defense of starbases (when I get around to it).

In the "Interface" options screen you can click between "Full Battles," "Normal Battles," and "Instant Battles." "Instant" skips the animation entirely and just subtracts a move point and hit points. It would probably let you eat those hundred ships a lot faster. (I use it when I'm destroying 0-power defenders for forty turns in a row.)

Thanks I didn't think of that. I always have quick battles on, which us pretty "quick", but not as much as instant, I'll do that next time.

maybe these large masses of enemy warships in one place are the AI potentially gathering a force for an invasion/declaration of war?

even if some of them are a bit out-dated, if its planning a war, hasnt enough money to upgrade them, and they arent too badly out -of-date, it makes more sense to let them die in an attack and hopefully doing a bit of damage than just disband them.

to the OP: yes, i've noticed this on larger maps too - they do the same with the flagship once the anomalies are gone - just sit in a corner somewhere...

to the OP: yes, i've noticed this on larger maps too - they do the same with the flagship once the anomalies are gone - just sit in a corner somewhere...

Glad to hear that too... well kinda glad. I wish we could get a developer or someone to say that this is either a bug or just not something they were worried about in the game.

Has the amount of moves used per Instant Battles changed? Before the v1.2 betas, it was costing me four movement to do one instant battle, but just one to do any other types.