AI on unfair cheats? Maybe

from Sins Forums

Now I have played the AI on unfair before, and have had this happen to me before, so I know it's not a freak occurance.

I have a game set up on a random map with 6 or so other unfair AIs (FFA). Now one thing that happened to me very consistanly was AI team ups against me. An enemy fleet would attack one of my colonies, so i would go and respond, and then another AI would attack a seperate colony and nearly the exact same time. Now this would happen very frequently throughout the match and I DEFINATLY locked the teams. So save the film, and look over the replay. Through out the entire 2 days it took to finish the match, the total amount of AI attacks against other AIs (Not including pirates) added up to 11. And thats an attack of any size, even small groups of cobalts, which is what most of the atacks were.

Further investigation revealed that when one AI was preparing to jump to one of my colonies, he would wait for another AI to get set up for jump on another colony, then they would both jump at nearly the same time. This was extremly frustrating and i am wondering is this on purpose? Is that the point of the unfair AI? To be unfair? maybe. Balls if I know. But its annoying, because i can effectivly eliminate the hard AI fairly easily. And I have beaten the unfair AI 1v1. But when ever I add more that one unfair AI, they immediatly start working in unison, attacking each other very minimally, while focusing attacks on all other players ( including lower level AIs)

As i previously ask, could this be on purpose? The unfair AI actually being unfair? Could be, it says so in the name. Maybe I'm just a noob, hell if i know.

strategy
5,384 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

First of all, the unfair AI (and hard for that matter) do cheat for extra resources.  Second of all, they're opportunists.  It's not necessarily that they're timing their attacks, but rather waiting until your fleet is tied up to launch their attack.  Often times AI's will just sit right outside your borders waiting for your to move your defenders away before they attack, and another AI attacking your flank is just such an excuse.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Oi vey, sounds like barrels of fun. But that still doesnt answer the question of why the unfair AIs tend to ignore other unfair AIs in favor of lower level AIs/players. Maybe they choose who they attack based in skill level? Noticing that fellow unfair AIs are greater threats, they attack lower level AIs and players? A possibility?

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

The AI doesn't like to fight enemies that are strong enough to really hurt it, and will usually run away if it's outgunned (usually; it is known to do stupid things occasionally).  This explains attacking the weaker AI's and players.  However, they also tend to focus their attacks against one player if that player is winning the game.  Basically in earlier versions they would all sit cowering in their respective empires while you knocked them off one-by-one, but if you ever get that strong now the AI's will go into kamikaze mode and start ganging up on you to provide some level of challenge.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

The AI will make allies regardless of what you do. What's important is to make sure they're making allies WITH you, not AGAINST you.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

amazingly, destroying their homeworld has apparently no affect on how much they like you. all you have to do is give them some metal when they ask for it and go attack the guy they tell you to attack and they'll be your best friend forever.

 

so ya, basically the AI diplomacy system is psychotic and terrible and i never use it (locked teams setting disables it). good thing the second expansion pack is about Diplomacy.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

He's playing locked teams; those aren't the issues.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

The name kind of gives it away - the unfair level was a request by beta testers for a difficulty where the AI gets bonuses.  As for ganging up on you, that is probably due to opportunism and bad luck rather than hardcoded AI choices.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Unfair Ai is Unfair, when it said "unfair" it really meant "unfair". As for the ganging up thing that happens ALL THE time from easy to unfair if teams are unlocked then comp gangs up on you which is a shame seeing as it eliminates diplomacy and in online games all anyone does is betray each other.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah I remember playing vs unfair ai, those 3 minutes it had higher income then me were really tense :O But then my homeworld upgrade kicked in  and he never passed me in income for the rest of the game.  I guess AI really benefits from quickstart now :)