Bad behavior ... too bad

from Stardock Forums
Am I alone or the game is too oriented on wars? I play game on huge maps and with 3 other civs and everytime I get on one, it tells me that, in some ways or another, that he will kick my ass.

Why a 4X computer game has too be that way, I played my 5 or 6th game today and it happens all the time. You discover a new civ, okay, let's kick his butt out of the game ... that's not what I call great AI, i'm disapointed ...

There's should be a reason to go in war, ressources, religion, territory, trades and more, but the game continue to start wars against me without reasons.

If I had to discover a planetary civ, I would try to establish diplomatic with her, then, conflicts come with time when you vote on some points in the council or because of your bad behavior, etc...

With that, it would have been the perfect game, you shouldn't be attacked by another without a good reason or because the AI player is really a bad ass. I always got attacked by the civ who got the greatest part of the pie, that's bad ...

I found the diplomatic scheme in Civilization III better than this, if he attacks you, it's because he have a good reason to do it.
869 views 26 replies
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
The AI acts like a really player, I think the problem is your military is to weak. The AI see's that you can't defend your self so it attacks, I know when I play strategy players I usually go of the weakest player. Also make sure your playing on a easy setting at first, by putting the aliens on beginner.

~SDC~
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
for*

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I thought the game was more diplomatic/political oriented than this ... that's not what I expected.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Try playing with all AIs set to Pure Good and see what happens. The evil AIs are irredeemably pugnacious.

I've already won a game without firing a shot, or being attacked (not that it was easy... a fair amount of back-room dealing was needed)

~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
If you put the AI to being "good" and trade with them and keep the difficulty level down, you shouldn't have too much problem.

But if you're thinking you can just colonize choice planets in the galaxy and leave them defenseless and no one will try to colonize them, then I think that's a little unrealistic. This is Galactic Civilizations, not space utopia. The alien civilizations are trying to make their mark on teh galaxy. They'll take a diplomatic,cultural, economic or military path depending on which way suits them.



~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Incidentally, in Civ 3, you leave your cities undefended, the AI, even on the easiest levels, will take your cities.

~SDC~
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Does the fact of having a good fleet on planetary systems to defend them help you having better influence?
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
The entire point of this game is take over the galaxy. I would be a bit dissapointed if the AI didn't try to attack, undermine, or subvert me as soon as possible. (especially if I am undefended) I know that this is what I would do as a player, and I would not expect the AI to play fair or nice. I don't. ;)
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
ExportA: Population, social improvements, and base star influence are the main determining factors when it comes to influence. Having fleets orbiting your system wont effect this, but it will make would be agressors think twice before sending those invasion Transports ;)

~SDC~
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
If you were playing against 3 other human players.. would you simply never attack? Of course not. Just like any multiplayer 4x game.. or in fact *any* game, you take out the weakest if you can. Heck.. that is a basic premise even in the boardgame Risk. :D

But there are documented GalCiv games where people have won without firing a shot. I don't know what 4x games you have played, but that *is* a rarity, for 4x games till now. It is possible in GalCiv.. be happy. =)

fleabitfox
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Export: Having a decent military will help you have better relations. Basically, the AI's want your money. If it's easier to just walk in and take it, they will. Otherwise they'll trade with you and do other things.

Check out this game I played where I barely built a military at all and this was with the AIs set to being pretty hard:

http://www.galciv.com/examples/5


~SDC~
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
You can never have peace without a sizable army to back it up. sweety irony ;)
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't know, Brad. This is getting to sound like a broken record, but I was winning easily at "Tough" in the Beta and I'm going to have to go back to "Beginner" again. Every time you folks update the game I have to take two steps back on the difficulty settings. I don't think this is just because the tech path changes with every update.

I just terminated a game that was barely set to "Normal" and I was never doing more than marking time. To be fair, random events had a lot to do with the game becoming pointless. None of the random events were beneficial (3 recessions, a UP vote to take a percentage of my money, etc). I spent the whole time pumping out military. Since the Drengin had one more planet than I did, they could afford to pump out even more military units while still staying far beyond my reach economically and technologically. Sort of dull, all in all.

Oh well, back to the beginning again. >:(

End transmission.

~SDC~
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't know... yesterday I finished my first game on Large galaxy with all AI set to Bright. Now I am trying to scale up to inteligent, but from what I can see that AI level means business...

Granted some random events can put you back a bit but I thought recession is galaxy wide, so all Empires are effected not just you. I rarely put all my eggs in the military bag. You have to be able to fend off an attack, make sure to follow the military graph and stay competitive. I find that strong diplomacy can make you a tons of cash and friends to fight on your side (or instead of you :) )

Just give it some time.. you'll get in the grove... (wow this sounded like something I read on another forum ;) )

~SDC~
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
Sorry to hear that.

Most of what I've been doing with the AI has not been militarily oriented but rather economic.

For instance, having the AI build star bases more intelligently is key.

Recessions are a fact of galactic life. They affect everyone equally. There are economic boons too.

There are other ways of keeping out of war. For instance, try this:

Build trade goods, colonize class 14 worlds, build a soil enhancement on them and sell them to AI players in exchange for ships. I can play a game where I barely have to build any offensive ships, I simply purchase ships from other players. I'll keep an eye on their military might and if it starts getting too high I'll sell them stuff.

You can also sell influence and technologies and get a lot of ships.

~SDC~
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
I would much rather it was difficult sooner than later. Once you master the hardest difficulty setting, it would very quickly become much less fun. If it always will be a challange, I'll be happy.

Can't wait to try it.. buying it at EB tomorrow (the smuckerheads didn't have it today, grrr...)

fleabitfox
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm playing on BEGINNER AI for all the civs to get my feet wet. So far,there is a little military action going on but because I gave myself extra diplomacy points, I'm staying out of all the fracus except from the Dregnins..as I expected. However, I have a good military ( I weasled some defense ships from a few friendly empires) so I am fending the buggers off. BUT............I'm getting a bad feeling from the YOR, who seemed so freindly to me for most of the game. I'm not feeling the love from them lately so I wouldnt be surprised if they are up to something. Something nasty.
This first game is already blown as I didnt score enough planets early on and my influence is not that great...but its a good learning exercise.
Anyway, I think the diplomatic AI is great so far.
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, on the "go teach your grandma to suck eggs" front... ;)

The Drengin were crushing everyone (all major and minor civs) except the Arceans. (They were still at war with the Arceans, but the Arceans were stuck on planet in a far corner sector.) You can't build Trade Goods that the Drengins already own. :p

I started the game by preventing the Yor from expanding from their sector and building starbases on the four (4!) resources near my home sector (I've never had more than one nearby before). Even then, I didn't really start building beyond 1 defender per planet until the Drengin showed up with their battle cruisers.

Like I said, I think I just lucked out... right out. Apparently I've done some awful things in previous lives. (And you should have seen the ugly game I Ctl-N'd out of to get to this lovely game - no other planets above 12 within reach of my colony ships.)

Anyhow, we return you to your regularly scheduled beatings now.

End transmission.

~SDC~
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
LOL. ;)

That reminds me, another thing that can help you stay out of war is your diploamacy ability. When you start up a game, be the pacifists, and put as many points into diplomacy as possible and you'll find that you get into far fewer wars.
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
Agreed. I got stuck in the land of hard choices too early to bother researching diplomatic technologies, but I'm usually guilty of ignoring everything beyond Trade until I'm ready to go for Alliances.

As a point of interest, I was (am) playing as the War Party, with Economics and Pop. Growth +10, Speed +1, and Planet Quality +5%. Nothing too specialized. I think I'll try another game with Planet Quality +10%. It's expensive, but it sure makes for nice surprizes when you colonize. :)

End transmission.

~SDC~