AI doesn't know when to give up

I'm currently playing as Terrans on an Immense map, normal difficulty, abundant everything with 8 opponents. I had the misfortune of starting next to the Krynn Consulate who were on a "war frenzy" at the time I met them. About 10 turns into our meeting, the Krynn declared war on me due to their much greater faction and military power relative to mine. At first they were able to destroy a few of my fleets, however as time wore on I could design the fleets to take on their ships quite easily. Eventually I was able to take 5 of their worlds through a combination of military and cultural conquest (most of their worlds have near-zero or zero approval due to Large Empire Penalty, while I have 97% approval), and am moving on to take more. Nevertheless the Krynn refuse to offer me reasonable peace terms and demand nearly all of my technologies to end a war that they are probably going to restart soon. Despite the fact that they are almost certainly going to be stripped of most of their worlds, they continue to fight.

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I don't get the war frenzy thing, really. It just seems like a cheap way to make the AI not immediately be on good relations with you (and I notice it's harder to improve those relations than it was previously - everyone is 'furious' with me even though I've done bugger all wrong to them.

You're right, though - having its backside handed to it doesn't make the AI as willing to make concessions as it should.

Conversely, I made a custom Korath (just Drengin tech tree with nastier traits). They were fighting the Thalans, who surrendered their few remaining planets and ships to me. The Korath picked a fight but left it too late (I'd already built a proper fleet in the area and got some good manufacturing worlds made up). I proceeded to kick the seven shades out of them and gobble up a few worlds - in the end-turn phase the Korath diplomacy pops up with a 'shall we make peace?' box - no option to give a counter-offer or even enter into negotiations! The Korath offered me nothing and basically got free peace for x turns until I'm allowed to declare war on them again, when in fact I wanted to try a 'give me some of your territory, ships and a weekly tribute or you die'.

I also had another race declare war on me when I was already at war with them???

DipAI is a bit poorly atm.

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I believe that AI decisions for diplomacy are based purely on relative power (faction, military, industrial, economic, etc.) rather than on actual results in a war. In my current game, the Krynn do have much greater power (850 to my 505) than I do, but have failed to appropriately use it. They rarely form fleets and their transports are often undefended (or defended by only one, rather unbalanced ship); only on one occasion have they taken a world from me (a world they originally settled, which I subsequently retook). Otherwise, their damage to me has been limited to picking off constructors and destroying a few shipyards, which I put a stop to by constructing military fleets to defend the shipyards. In a few turns, my blitzkrieg of the Krynn Consulate will continue and they will be wiped out of my cluster completely.

Military and logistical AI seems to be quite poor as well. I have a slight edge over the Krynn in total production, but most of it is social production; the Krynn have far more military production than I do. What's more, a good chunk of my military production (my most productive out of 4 shipyards) is dedicated to making constructors, while the Krynn have a far greater percentage dedicated to actually producing weaponry. Despite this, they seem unable to appropriately use their fleets for a war effort, fighting more like a guerrilla force than the most powerful empire on the map (ships randomly appearing out of the blue in singles or doubles). Since (IIRC) normal difficulty gives full capability to the AI but no bonuses, it's unfortunate that GCIII was released in such an unfinished state.

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DARCA1213

Join Date 01/2014

+106

Race traits and relations have a part in it. If they hate you enough they won't surrender to anyone. Some also have a hard time giving up. You can expect players to play the game but understanding the root if the AIS reasoning is another and it leads to confusion about bugs and things that just need tweaking or understanding.

DARCA

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Quoting DARCA1213,

reply 3

That's true. The Krynn hate me for a number of reasons ("we are on a war frenzy", "you are ripe for conquest") that seem to be, as mentioned by Ash_Paradox, just ways of keeping us perpetually at war. Given that I've already eliminated them from a colonized cluster and am on my way from eliminating them from my home cluster, the Krynn are the ones who are ripe for conquest.

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