military power rankings seem off

from GalCiv3 Forums

playing on gifted, huge galaxy with 6 AI opponents with the latest release as Onyx.

so i’m watching the military power ranking chart because i’m trying to get strong enough before declaring war, and i’m seeing the terrans and the torians outpacing me by at least 2 to 1. no matter how or what ships i build or how fast i build them, they continue to outpace me. 

i get a galactic event that states the terrans are pissed at me for reason x or y, and they declare war on me because of it. long story short, their actual military was a joke and i steamrolled them into oblivion in 6 turns. 

i guess my issue/question is, why was their military power graph so much higher than mine, but when it came to facing off, i literally lost no ships against them while destroying their entire military? the graph seems sketchy at best and broken at worst. 

7,958 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

As far as I can tell, the military power seems to be calculated only from total offensive power, and does not factor in ship defense, evasion, or ship roles.  So it is very common for the AIs to have very high military rankings but be paper tigers in reality.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Military power also factors in your military manufacturing and liquid credits to a smaller extent. If you really want to boost your military rating effectively, though, just make a few very expensive ships loaded with nothing but weapons, which is effectively what the AI has (minus the expensive part).

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

here's my end-of-game military power graph.

 

when I went to war with the terrans I was half their rating.  also when I went to war with the torians I was under half their rating.  but I handily destroyed them both.  seriously this needs to be fixed.  the AI uses this in their diplomacy and is factored into their decision to go to war, not only against human players but other AI players.

end game power ranking graph

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I also agree that the AI needs to put more weight into your tech and manufacturing capabilities than anything else because at the end of the day, if you have better techs and more manufacturing than everyone else, you can basically ramp it over to military manufacturing whenever you want and trounce everyone.

Whether or not you actually have a sizable standing fleet or not should not weigh as much. In most of my games, I am usually so focused on going tall that I neglect my military, but when the AI decides to declare war on me because I am "Ripe for Conquest," I ramp up the military lines and put them back in their place with superior techs and production. Of course, any faction that attacks me are usually among the first to lose because even though I do not bother to wipe them out, I cripple them enough for other factions to do it.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Does the ranking account for HP on the ships? That's the one factor that the AI sometimes gets that can be very terrifying early game. One large ship with 100+ HP's can easily destroy a fleet simply because it can absorb the damage from the smaller vessels...