AI gets lamer every patch

Excellent! I wish this was happening to me.

You were saying?

If you can't handle the fire, step down to a lower difficulty level.

I, too, wish I saw more wars of opportunity...though they need to be blind; in other words, such dog piles should apply to the AI civs as well as the human.

Ala 1.1 notes:

+ AI will tend to band together to try to stop someone who is going around conquering them (whether that be human or another AI player who is mopping everyone up). + AI players will evaluate threats and put together coalitions against aggressive players or at the very least take a more active role in thwarting aggression from the sidelines. (LOTS involved in implementing this).

If you're winning, they decide to gang up on you to try and take you down. If someone else is winning, they do exactly the same (and I've had numerous messages from the AI asking me to 'join in the fun'). It's not cheese, it's sensible tactics. If someone is clearly going to start steamrolling the other people in any multiplayer game, a lot of the time the other players band together to stop them from being nailed one by one. Hi2u WWII.

How can you say... "It is now beating me so it is getting worse"? The AI is recognising you are on the ropes and is taking the opportunity to take you down.
If someone has reduced your military strength to the point where you are vulnerable then it is correct AI to take advantage to grab a few of your planets. I do it all the time if one of my ex-allies is taking a pounding and no longer look to be able to be of benifit to me.

first read then think then write.

@Bodyless
Good advice, but I'm not sure who or which comment you are referring to. Maybe you could enlighten me?

Hehe I don't think the AI will never win...first it's too easy, then when it gets improved to recognize legitimate threats it's too hard. Ah well, time to test v1.2...which it sounds like will be kicking my butt (since I'm the type to just go around killing races)

I am a "legitimate threat" when I have less primary planets than 2 other races, the same number as 6 others, and one more than 1 race, and out of 9 races have killed off only 1 that did not attack me first, and 1 that did attack me first? That's pretty far-fetched, in a tiny galaxy where every race has only their home planet and the low-PQ planet in their home system (except one race which had only their home planet, with only PQ0 planets available in their home system).

I am a "legitimate threat" when I have less primary planets than 2 other races, the same number as 6 others, and one more than 1 race, and out of 9 races have killed off only 1 that did not attack me first, and 1 that did attack me first?

It may not be that the computer sees you as a threat as much as it sees you as an opportunity. I know that when I see two AIs fighting I will often send a fleet and a transport to see if I can steal a planet or two from the guy getting killed. It's great to see the AI doing the same.

I am a "legitimate threat" when I have less primary planets than 2 other races, the same number as 6 others, and one more than 1 race, and out of 9 races have killed off only 1 that did not attack me first, and 1 that did attack me first?

You don't have to be a "legitimate threat' for them to gang up on you. They also attack if they think you are weak enough that they can wipe you out. Really, the only way to be safe from attack is to be of equal power, or slightly stronger, be of good alignment, and hope none of the other races is evil.

I really don't see why you are complaining about losing.
The AI has not been tweaked to single you out.
Your circumstances have just triggered various AI's to attack you.
The AI always has liked to attack weak militaries. How low had your military got?
What alignment were you? What diplomacy had you researched.
What were the trade links between the other AI's... this often seams to be treated as an informal alliance by the AI.
You say it was on tiny so everyone has close borders which sparks animosity as much as anything.
Cheese for me is when the AI knows you are human and behaves differently.

Even with all this lamerness it's still weak ha ha ha

Well you state that its a tiny map right? Well someones got to go for the others to take over the rest of the place! So yeah! They know it! You know it! Your f**ked!

Hehe I don't think the AI will never win...first it's too easy, then when it gets improved to recognize legitimate threats it's too hard. Ah well, time to test v1.2...which it sounds like will be kicking my butt (since I'm the type to just go around killing races)

PLEASE SD....*most* of us appreciate and like what you've done with the game. Please keep it up. We will remember SD's hard work.

I would love to be on the losing end of a gang pile on just once. Be grateful for a quality challenge instead of whining.

Tiny galaxys are naturally more hostile, with everyone trying to grab as many easy planets as possible, and when you play with ALL the other races active, you're just asking for constant wars.

Try playing medium or higher, and with less races if you want to get along with your neighbors

I, too, wish I saw more wars of opportunity...though they need to be blind; in other words, such dog piles should apply to the AI civs as well as the human.

The AI makes no distinction between players.

That may be true, but since the human player doesn't conform to a particular 'difficulty level', they can quite easily be singled out. Not deliberately of course, but the human will tend to either be ever so slightly ahead (making the others scared of him) or behind (making them gang up on him).

The AI makes no distinction between players.

Yea, right. Like you know what it is doing because you wrote the program. Everybody in this forum thinks they are a programmer.

Hell I as a player do this to computers that are getting beat on. Who doesn't enjoy a good group beat down?

Anyway the programers say that the computer doesn't destinguish, and frankly I believe him.

Also, something tells me you were not a good aignment, now that the computers are not push overs maybe a good alignment will make a little more sense?

Anyway in the mean time... here is a link for you mist.
http://www.ams.usda.gov/howtobuy/cheese.gif
I hear it goes well....

I am playing a huge map right now and I think the AI response to declaring war has been spot on.

At first they were battling among themselves but after I quickly took out two races and became the larger empire my next logical targets declared war on me one turn after another.

The most logical target but strongest military AI (Alterians) declared war on me. It occured away from where my main fleet was concentrated. The next turn my other end neighbor (Arceans) declared war. I had only strong relations with the long distance AI's and the Drengins who were my major trading partner in the center.

After took out most of the Arceans did the Drengins (who were my next logical target) declare war on me.

I was very aggressive and it seemed logical that they would all declare war on me as individually they were toast, but combined they were competitive to me.

It seemed logical and made the game much better IMHO.

The AI even now seems tactically dangerous if you allow yourself to end a turn inside his scanner range.

I just have found it hard to get a ally close enough to me to formally ally, ,so I don't know how that works.

I've had the Drengens attack me this way wtih the message "that we're your next logical target's so were hitting you first!"

It's awesome, if they didn't do this the same people would complain that the AI just sits there and lets them peg them off one by one.

I see the AI improvement as a direct result of Frogboy's tweaking it to be more competitive on larger maps. Most of the early play testing was done on smaller maps.

It's nice to see continuous hard work at improving the AI start showing up in game play.

BTW

I did turn the "AllowCPUIntensiveAlgorithms=1" switch in my 1.20.11 Beta 2 pref.ini file on. I don't think that is doing anything yet, but I am looking forward to when it does.

I just have found it hard to get a ally close enough to me to formally ally, ,so I don't know how that works.

That's easy, just treat yourself an underdog and do what the Drengins say "All your base are belong to us", then give them all your starbases and technology, your ally is formed.

BTW I also have seen the AI giving ships around to players involved in wars a LOT more. Both to me, and to other players ( I see different race ships in the fleets I see moving around.) Way Cool.