Strange start to a war

from GalCiv2 Forums
Something very weird is going on with my current game. I don't know if the game has gotten glitched or what.

The Drengin sent a single defender/fighter into my territory, attacked a planet, killed one of two ships in orbit, then ran away to their nearest colony. They had no other ships anywhere near my territory, except on a colony close to my area.

We had friendly relations, I was only slightly less powerful than they were, I was their biggest trading partner. It doesn't make any sense.

Also, the Yor were following my initial survey ship around with two fighters, with the ship as their destination like they were going to attack it. We are not at war. The fighters would bump into it and the camera would jerk to it, but they never launched an attack. After it did that about half a dozen times, they sent the fighters back to one of their colonies.

Both are set to "Intelligent". Any idea WTF this is all about? I've never even heard of the AI launching a surprise attack.
49,201 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
quote: Also, the Yor were following my initial survey ship around with two fighters, with the ship as their destination like they were going to attack it. We are not at war. The fighters would bump into it and the camera would jerk to it, but they never launched an attack. After it did that about half a dozen times, they sent the fighters back to one of their colonies. unquote

sounds like the Yor were making sure your ship wasn't up to no good and they later felt satisfied.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
the drengin sound like they need to be taught a lesson to me...make the Yor better friends to help you out
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
quote: Also, the Yor were following my initial survey ship around with two fighters, with the ship as their destination like they were going to attack it. We are not at war. The fighters would bump into it and the camera would jerk to it, but they never launched an attack. After it did that about half a dozen times, they sent the fighters back to one of their colonies. unquote

sounds like the Yor were making sure your ship wasn't up to no good and they later felt satisfied.




JJ do you wonder how I did this?
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
the way to quote someone for something JJ is by putting brackets around the word quote.. [ ] << quote to start and to end the quote [/ ] then add quote after the backslash...
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
the way to quote someone for something JJ is by putting brackets around the word quote.. [ ] << quote to start and to end the quote [/ ] then add quote after the backslash...


I usually use the highlight and the quote button thing, but for some reason I was unable to do it like that, and I had forgotten what the code was at that moment for quotes.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In my ignorance of how computer AIs function, it sounds like a glitch. In several of my games, I have had the camera jump to another race's scout as though to a battle scene, but nothing happened. There may be some general glitch in there.

As for sneak attacks, in one of my games the Yor were reduced to one planet, and then the Thalans came out of nowhere and conquered it. Previous to that, there was almost no contact between them, certainly no war. In fact, that was the only aggressive action the Thalans took that game. That was on Challenging, with 'Bright' intelligence, so at that level and above sneak attacks can be done.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ok, now I KNOW something is wrong. The Torians just did the same damn thing. For the Torians to attack me at this point makes about as much sense as Trinidad launching a surprise paratroop invasion into the United States.

The Torians are at war with the Drengin and the Yor. The 4 of us are all that's left. My military outweighs everyone else's military combined and then some. The Torians and I are very friendly. I just gave them a bunch of ships to help them out and I'm about to attack the Drengin myself. The ship that attacked my planet was one of the ships I just gave to them.

I'm going to zip up the save file and email it to Stardock. Something's gotta be out of whack in this game.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
yea, that does sound wierd because if the AI is set to intelligent, they shouldn't make those stupid moves.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Something similar happened to me like this, playing Drath, the Altarians attacked and destroyed one of my ships for no apparent reason. My relations were friendly and they were my main trading partner. Even more strange after this sneak attack, I checked the diplomacy screen and we were not at war, still friendly relations?!?!?

I think, the Altarian ship was on autopilot, which got confused with my ship in its way, so it just cleared a path. Friendly fire incident anyone?

Only seen it once in 20+ games so no big deal.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
One possibility, is that they have sold the ships to the race you are at war with. Ive thought a few times WTF then realized it was the Thorians attacking me, but the Yor using their ships.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


why how many times have you launched surprise attacks on the AI even with friendly terms... it seems the AI is so strong that it's even learning stupid human tactics...
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Even more strange after this sneak attack, I checked the diplomacy screen and we were not at war, still friendly relations?!?!?


In both my cases, the attack automatically put us at war.

One possibility, is that they have sold the ships to the race you are at war with.


I wasn't at war with anyone either time this happened. It was definitely the Drengin and Torians that attacked.


Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It's happened again in a second game. A single Drengin defender attacks a planet during peacetime, then runs away to the closest colony.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
oooh a sneak attack?

sweet. I was wondering if the AI was capable of such a maneuver. Seems like the execution still needs a little tweaking, tho. Imagine the possibilities if you actually had to deal with a Pearl Harbor type scenario unfolding...
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
why how many times have you launched surprise attacks on the AI even with friendly terms... it seems the AI is so strong that it's even learning stupid human tactics...


At first I was thinking "Hey, that's a good reason for the AI to treat the human player different. We do sneak attacks." But then I thought, you know, if I have the difficulty level high enough, it's pretty much all who declares war on me anyway.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It is possible for the AI to do sneak attacks at Intelligent or higher if they think that you're up to no good.  On the lower levels, they'll contact you and complain about the fleets or transports you have too close to their worlds.  Sometimes it's a little too sensitive.  I'll take a look at the games that Mike send in, though, to see if it's something that Frogboy needs to look at. 
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks. My theory is autopilot went haywire. Just to clarify, I wasn't doing anything at all to provoke a reaction. No transports anywhere near them (don't think I had any at the time), no bases, nothing.