I don't know if this is a bug exactly...

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Hey Guys,
I have noticed, and was wondering if you have noticed a bug/glitch with the AI?

Whenever I build a scout vessel, and set it to auto explore everything is fine. However, when I build more than 1 scout vessel, and set them all to auto explore, they all want to:
1. Go to the exact same location every single time. This has occurred while playing the included and custom civs.
2. Go no further than a few tiles away from the home planet, and continually circle the home planet never moving more than 10 to 15 tiles away from the home planet. This has occurred while playing both the included and custom civs.

I have even built my own scouts and my own survey vessels, and it still occurs when I build more than one vessel of the same type and set them to auto explore. Now, when I set survey vessels to Auto Survey, this does not occur.

So is this an AI problem? Do I have some setting wrong?
3,450 views 3 replies
Reply #1 Top
Edit to above Post:
Go to the exact same location every single time.

This may be mis-leading. When the ship is exploring, the ship will set a course, and each ship will go to the exact same destination.
Then after exploring a few tiles away from the home planet, they set a course back to the home planet and then just continue to fly around and around never moving very far from the home planet.
Each ship always goes the same route to the same spot.
Reply #2 Top
The auto explore function, especially with multiple ships using it has always been less than stellar. They seem to get in a conga line and then go about the most inefficient way to explore the map, doubling back and forth.
Reply #3 Top

The auto explore function, especially with multiple ships using it has always been less than stellar. They seem to get in a conga line and then go about the most inefficient way to explore the map, doubling back and forth.
End of quote


Yes, Exactly, except it seems to work fine with one ship. Also, multiple auto-survey seems to work fine as well. It seems like a glitch. It seems to happen even if I build a ship, set to auto explore, start building another ship, a few turns later setting it to auto explore. The ship will set a different course until they come near each other and then they will conga line and double back.

Perhaps they need to make auto explore function like auto survey. The AI takes the scout, gets the coordinates of the nearest unexplored star system (unseen by the user) and sets a course near that system. The next scout sets a course for a different star system. And so on.
The only other method to improve this function would be to use compass points (N, NE, NW, S, SE, SW, etc) to guide the scouts which way they should go, and then the scout would just move further and further out, until it hits the edge of the maximum range, then it would double back on a similar course, but one that takes it thru unexplored space.