Why is the AI so crap at fighting wars?

from GalCiv3 Forums

3.7+ playing Milky Way.  Gifted AIs.

The Iririum Corp has been fighting Altarians for years.  Minor gains on both sides, but roughly a standoff.  I finally got pulled into the war allied with Irid, and ran a fleet over to wipe out the space defenses of the Altarian border worlds so Irid could invade.  Plopped a sensor ship there to watch.

Over the next 15 turns Iridian transport fleets drove around, poked here and there, passed within two hexes, yet never invaded the undefended worlds of their enemy.  (Not a Influence thing; the worlds were in Irid ZOI.)

Likewise the Thalan fleets in another area.  Thal ships jumped an Alt world, stripped off the space defenses, then left.  Just left.  A transport was present, but no attempt to invade. The world(s) were in my ZOI, but right on the fringe.  Later Yor transports drive by headed for ghad knows where.  I swear I could hear the bots whistling tunelessly.

What the h e double hockey sticks is going on?  This is the kind of performance I would expect of a Moron AI setting.  No dang wonder they don't pose a real challenge to live players.

 

 

107,266 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

What difficulty? Did the worlds have defending legions?

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Has the AI ever been good at fighting wars, even on Godlike? lol Actually, I take that back. They were probably better at the initial release of the game than they are now. At least then, they would destroy everything while diving straight for your worlds. Now, they just sort of...eh, sit there.

Quoting ForgottenSlayer, reply 1

What difficulty?
End of ForgottenSlayer's quote

TC mentioned Gifted.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting ForgottenSlayer, reply 1

What difficulty? Did the worlds have defending legions?
End of ForgottenSlayer's quote

First line of the OP.  Milky Way campaign, thus no Legions.  Gifted AI setting.

 

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Nilfiry, reply 2

Has the AI ever been good at fighting wars, even on Godlike? lol Actually, I take that back. They were probably better at the initial release of the game than they are now. At least then, they would destroy everything while diving straight for your worlds. Now, they just sort of...eh, sit there.
End of Nilfiry's quote

Back in OS/2 days, I fondly remember an epic battle on the largest universe at the time.  (100x100?)  Could I produce enough Excaliburs to stave off the hordes of slavering alien rape ships.  Slowly, slowly, I pushed them back and with a brilliant flanking maneuver took a border world.  FTW! 

Now they just kinda fly around and act like they're doing something.

 

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting DMF, reply 4

Back in OS/2 days, I fondly remember an epic battle on the largest universe at the time.  (100x100?)  Could I produce enough Excaliburs to stave off the hordes of slavering alien rape ships.  Slowly, slowly, I pushed them back and with a brilliant flanking maneuver took a border world.  FTW! 

Now they just kinda fly around and act like they're doing something.
End of DMF's quote

This is why I only ever play on Godlike. At least then with all of their cheats, they might have more incentive to do something. 

I exaggerate a bit, though. The AI is not THAT bad at using transports, but I just have no idea how they prioritize when/what to capture. I am assuming in your case, maybe the planetary defenses/resistance were too high for the transport to successfully capture the planet (as in 0% success)?

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Nilfiry, reply 5

I exaggerate a bit, though. The AI is not THAT bad at using transports, but I just have no idea how they prioritize when/what to capture. I am assuming in your case, maybe the planetary defenses/resistance were too high for the transport to successfully capture the planet (as in 0% success)?
End of Nilfiry's quote

There were four planets right together (north of Dratha, if you look at the Milky Way map).  Classes from 12 to 6 IIRC.  No developed defenses. And Altarians are not that good on the ground.

I didn't check the transport loadouts.

 

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

You got me then. There really should not have been any reason for those planets to go un-captured if they were literally just sitting ducks unless somehow the scenario is just scripted that way.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I stand corrected.  AI is set to Genius.  I cranked it up to Godlike a couple turns ago, but nothing godlike yet.

The Iridian has a naked transport with it's nose buried in a Yor world defended by 18 ships.  Which is stupid enough.  What's even more stupid is that the Yor won't yolo a tiny boat to kill it.  Perhaps since it's unarmed it isn't viewed as a threat.  Something wrong in SD Land.

 

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Don't know about 3.8 or 3.9 (the latest patch changes have significantly lessened my desire to play), but with 3.7, the A.I. wasted Stellar Architects (and thus administrators) in fruitless assaults on well-defended targets. Fleets composed of a Stellar Architect and two tiny ships attacking starbases with several levels of upgraded defenses...

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Well I remember back in the day that there was a range that ai transports need for there to be a planet to invade, and that was 16. I remember two mods that changed that to 256. It does needs to be increased from 16. Someone needs to make the mod again.

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

yes in crusade days the AI attacked visciously

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I think MAINTENANCE cost for ships is causing the AI to huddle on its planets instead of attacking en masse , I dont know how to eliminate these costs to free up the AI to attack ..yet .. played a months long game ( OC ) and the Borg would not declare war for 70 moves into the game (and still did not ) ... thought it was odd at best

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Nilfiry, reply 7

You got me then. There really should not have been any reason for those planets to go un-captured if they were literally just sitting ducks unless somehow the scenario is just scripted that way.
End of Nilfiry's quote

That wouldn't surprise me at all. Scenarios seem to be set up so that the AI will act a certain way no matter what. Which isn't a critism of SD, just an observation that scenarios are designed for the Meat Person Playing The Game to succeed...Unless he/she does something really stupid.

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

yes , I think the challenge to win is the thing we signed on for , not an easy ride , the heck with letting the human win , the computer should be out to annihilate whenever possible , I like trying to fend off massive assaults, cant recall the last time I lost , (not bragging ), I dont know how the recent versions play , but the AI seems to randomly put improvements with little thought and ignoring bonus squares or overemphasizing their importance, when I take a planet , I always wind up destroying improvements poorly selected and poorly placed. I do recall the AI played pretty darn well in GC2 and I may return to that to see if my memory is true or just nostalgic, If I could refrain from exploiting the AI on trades ... I just remembered the last time I lost .. GC2 hahaha

Reply #15 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting mrblondini, reply 13

Scenarios seem to be set up so that the AI will act a certain way no matter what.
End of mrblondini's quote

What Scenario?  Milky Way is a campaign game.  The AIs are not pre-programmed beyond their racial characteristics.  There is certainly no reluctance to declare war, just an amazing ineptitude at conducting it.

 

Reply #16 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Personally I've never picked up a game where none thing was wrong with it. The only difference now is that it is easier to come up with updates. With galcivilization 2 getting those last two updates it is better than what it used to be. Galactic civilizations 2 used to put the wrong improvements on the wrong tiles. There were balance mods for 2 with people attempting to fix it's problems. I tried playing two it is hard with threes interface being light-years ahead of two.