Interesting AI Behavior

Has anyone noticed the ridiculous pirate strength you get in a really long, long game, after you have every tech? I have to keep wiping them out because I'm the only civ that can make fleets of huge ships large enough to even hurt the guys. I'm talking they have a combined total attack of 900+ and total defense of 900+. So, I have to whip up mega fleets that do at least 1100+. It sucks, because the maintenance is horrible, no one else can stop them, and the pirates can wipe out a starbase fully loaded like nothing. May as well build 'em outta paper for all the good that thye do against them. I understand that the pirates must also get better as the game progresses to pose some threat. But when pirate fleets are more powerful than any fleet in the game but your own, and even at that, you may win, but you will lose a huge ship or three... maybe it's a little overboard. Maybe I should play the pirates................. to answer your question, no. But I have seen random war started against me from some random political deal, like a citizen of mine kills so and so in the Altarian government, then AT THE SAME TIME, some unknown entity gifts them with an incredible number of ships, literally tripling their military might and all of 'em going after my resources and other starbases. Is it possible, that just because your civ is doing well, the game overcompensates to generate a little drama or challenge. I mean, tripling someone's fleet in one turn and forcing war with them... a little overdone, I think.

So I'm in a gigantic v1.31 game and I had pretty much wiped out the Korx, leaving them with two planets. At that point I noticed about 15 different fleets from all over the map all heading to the identical point (235,13) deep within Terran space. There were about 5 fleets each from the Yor, Thalan and Terran. I'd never seen anything like it before. I didn't know what to make of it. My war with the Korx had pretty much cut off Terran space from everyone else. The only thing that I could come up with was perhaps the AI's were trying to get fleets behind my lines before I had completely cut off Terran space, but why did everyone feel the need to have fleets at precisely the same location. It's a mystery to me. The above screenshot shows a Terran fleet still on its way to (235,13) while about 15 fleets are sitting there waiting for him. Maybe he's bringing the beer for the party. The mini-map shows the galactic geography. The Terrans are blue, the Yor purple, Thalan pink, there's a remenant of Drath red and I'm the Drengin in gold. Has anyone seen anything like this or have any theory as to why they're doing this? There are currently no alliances in the game. Perhaps I'll find out what this is about once I attack the Terrans after I finish off the Drath

Either the AI is consipiring against you, or the game is using the same algorithm for each race to decide where to put ships in relation to your empire.

I hope it's not the AI being clever, because the player is unable to do the same thing. I believe you could co-ordinate attacks with the AI (and the AI with each other) in Alpha Centauri, but I haven't heard of that being implemented in GC2.

Anyway, that's interesting. Let us know what happens after the last ship arrives.

Either the AI is consipiring against you, or the game is using the same algorithm for each race to decide where to put ships in relation to your empire.

I would bet it's the latter. It's like a cat sleeping on the living room floor that suddenly jumps up and runs into the dining room for no apparent reason. If I make any sense out of it I'll let you know. It does seem like they're anticipating trouble from me (a reasonable assumption) and they want to have fleets in position on an undefended flank. I may be implying a bit too much rationality to AI behavior here, but maybe not.

Sadly i'd put a few quid on the AI doing something stupid that it shouldn't be doing personally...


Lenius.

Interesting Mumbles, very interesting. I never really pay attention with as much detail as you but I will have to give it a look now.

Has anyone noticed the ridiculous pirate strength you get in a really long, long game, after you have every tech?

Not to stray off of the OT but I kind of enjoy this, unless I am totally engaged in all out galactic warfare, then it gets a little bit difficult to handle them. It's nice to try out some different ship designs on them and gain some experience as well  

Hmm. Was your flagship in that spot before the AI fleets started accreting there? If so, perhaps they are reacting to its presence in AI territory?

Or, maybe deep down they all know that taking on your unarmed flagship is the only way they'll win a battle after you attack them, and they're all salivating at the chance to be the one to take it out?

I've noticed similiar behavior one time - 1.31. There were several different aI fleets (different races - I was at war with 4 at once due to alliances) heading to attack my weak arse Korx fleets in my space, when suddenly, they all turn tail and dissappear in the FOW. When I sent out a scout to see where they were going - they were all setting coarses for an empty spot in space. Weird - but I'll not complain since if all those fleets did attack me I'd have been toast (Especially the Drath who had double my military ranking at that point in this game and had jumbo mega death dealing ships I had no answer for at the time). I monitored them for a few turns - they never changed paths, but eventually they all stopped before getting there - and sat there idle for several weeks. And gave me time to rebuild and negotiate some peace treaties. I speculate that there were pirates or Terran ships (my ally) there at one time - that were destroyed or moved but the aI search algorythms didn't clear for some reason and the aI kept heading there after the bogies were gone.

Hmm. Was your flagship in that spot before the AI fleets started accreting there? If so, perhaps they are reacting to its presence in AI territory?

No. I just sent in a survey vessel (not my flagship) after the fact to see what the party was all about and why I wasn't invited.

When I sent out a scout to see where they were going - they were all setting coarses for an empty spot in space. Weird

This is the same thing, but I've never been at war with any of these races (yet). They've mostly all got there except the Terran in the picture that's almost there and another Terran fleet that's still chugging along at 4 parsec's per turn towards the same spot. Weird is right.

Maybe the Thalans came up with a new chocolate cake recipe, and invited the Yor and the Terrans to come check it out. After all, who doesn't like chocolate cake?

Since 1.3 I have noticed that the AI likes to park fleets of ships next to my starbases, even when the AI is "Friendly" and the Starbases in question are deep in my territory.

In my last game, I took this as a queue they were getting ready to invade me, and sent counter-attack fleets to all these locations, declared war, and obliterated them before the AI decided it had a shot at taking me out and destroyed all my Starbases in a single turn.

Since 1.3 I have noticed that the AI likes to park fleets of ships next to my starbases

The only starbase is the one in the screenshot about 11 parsec's away from the magic location. Plus it's the Terran's SB.

Maybe the Thalans came up with a new chocolate cake recipe, and invited the Yor and the Terrans to come check it out. After all, who doesn't like chocolate cake?

Yes, but chocolate cake doesn't go with beer and I just *know* that's what the last Terran ship is carrying.

I make a batch of coffee and/or espresso stout at least once a year, and I have to say it goes well with chocolate cake. Some people claim that stout is not actually beer, but this is wrong. It's probably a rumor started by a Drengin spy.

If you use hops to make it, then it's beer. If it doesn't have hops, it's not beer.

Coffee beer. Sounds interesting. It probably would go well with chocolate cake. You don't drink it warm do you?

I do use hops, albeit sparingly. Some commercial breweries may not. Sometimes you will find a beer made with gruit, a blend of herbs people used before hops became the standard, and that's still considered beer.

I don't drink it at room temperature, but it's best around 55-60° F; cellar/cave temperature as opposed to fridge temperature.

Shoot, morons, they blew the cover on the burlesque house...

Hope they don't find the bro..nevermind, ignore that player behind the curtain.


By the way, other races building starbases in your territory are likely going to be economy bases to enhance their trade routes. Interestingly, I've seen them do this quite a bit if they've got more than a couple lines heading to your home system. The minors are ridiculous about it. I couldn't park fleets anywhere near Earth without triggering a war with the Andians, and after I blew up the bases and reminded them I could splat them like bugs, they rebuilt the bases, and we'd be back at war in about ten turns.   

So I'm finally getting towards the end of this game and I have to conclude that this stationing of major fleets far behind enemy lines was a strategic move by the AI. As far as I'm concerned, this is a noticeable improvement over the v1.2 AI's strategic ability.

I've had to deal with these substantial behind the lines fleets each time I've gone to war. I used to be able to concentrate all of my forces along a front that I would use to both conquer my opponent’s planets as well as protect my space from attack by my opponent’s fleets. With this new AI strategy, I'm forced to actually keep fleets in reserve and to have a more distributed disposition of forces. I think this is a definite improvement.

Has anyone else noticed similar behavior?