Curious discovery

Good races will always ally at beginning of 2232

from GalCiv2 Forums

After a number of DA games, I've noticed an unusual recurring pattern: except when they don't have Alliances researched, all the good races always form alliances around the beginning of 2232. Previous relations don't seem to have much bearing, unless one good race has a much stronger military or has recently fought a war with one of the other races; map size also has no notable effect.

I'm not sure, what, if anything, this means, but it seems to occur too often to be a coincidence. I always knew good races in DL tended to form alliances much earlier then neutral or evil races did, but I've never noticed a specific date. None of my TOA games have gone on this long (although it would probably be 2233 in TOA).

This refers only to AIs allying with each other, not with me.

14,565 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

If it is a recurring pattern, it can not also be unusual.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

It's a pattern I didn't expect and would have thought unlikely, hence it's unusual.

"Recurring pattern" may be redundant, though.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You are talking about 6 years into the game and by that point I would expect that there would be few Ai's left to ally with one another.

Could it be that perhaps by that time you're quite a bit stronger than any one AI or even perhaps stronger than the sum of all AI's together? In DL I did notice that towards the end of games where I was down to 3 or 4 AI's that they naturally allied with each other against me. This could merely be an example of the same thing.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Mumblefratz, reply 3
You are talking about 6 years into the game and by that point I would expect that there would be few Ai's left to ally with one another.

Could it be that perhaps by that time you're quite a bit stronger than any one AI or even perhaps stronger than the sum of all AI's together? In DL I did notice that towards the end of games where I was down to 3 or 4 AI's that they naturally allied with each other against me. This could merely be an example of the same thing.

I don't think this is it, as the amount of surviving AIs varies depending on my playstyle, the size of the galaxy, and the AIs involved, so I can't say that there's usually just a few left. I've even rarely had DL games where no AI had been eliminated by 2231 (the equivalent year), although the DA AIs seem altogether nastier.

What I think is going on is that there's a certain date (the beginning of the 7th year: 2231 in DL, 2232 in DA, 2233 in TOA) before which AIs will not ally with each other, similiar to how they won't exchange treaties at first. Once this point is reached the good races are the first to ally; one of the only real differences in how AIs of different ethics play is that good races cooperate much more with each other then the other alignments do. I have, less frequently, seen neutral AIs ally, and very rarely so do evil ones.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

What I think is going on is that there's a certain date (the beginning of the 7th year: 2231 in DL, 2232 in DA, 2233 in TOA) before which AIs will not ally with each other, similiar to how they won't exchange treaties at first. Once this point is reached the good races are the first to ally; one of the only real differences in how AIs of different ethics play is that good races cooperate much more with each other then the other alignments do.
That's certainly possible. There are many things that are triggered on various dates within the game. For instance random events don't begin until Oct 1 of the 2nd year. Perhaps the AI's allying beginning with the 7th year is one of them. Mostly I haven't seen such behaviour because by year 7 I have one opponent at most.

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

What I think is going on is that there's a certain date (the beginning of the 7th year: 2231 in DL, 2232 in DA, 2233 in TOA) before which AIs will not ally with each other, similiar to how they won't exchange treaties at first.

Intuitively you are right, but the correct date is 01. January and 4 years into the game (192 turns to be precise).

However, because of the 1-turn-lag an alliance cannot be set up earlier as 8th January of this year.

And because of the new-found ability to align now, the AI will re-evaluate a few factors again, esp. the Military Rating does "weigh" much more heavy than before.

All those changes can be observed very clearly in the Foreign Policy Screen at around January/ February said year.

 

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Perhaps this varies based on difficulty level, or are you referring to the possibility of whether an AI will ally with the human player?

In nearly 100 games I've never seen AIs ally with each other in Year 4, or 5 for that matter. However I play on Tough and you usually play on higher levels (I believe) so this could factor in. IIRC you also prefer Very Fast tech speed, while I go with a slower setting, so this could also have some relation.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

This is so because the AI's will do nothing actively in order to "push" a friendly relation towards close, unlike the human player. Stuff like, gifting some money or warships, happen pretty random and chances are low that this will happen directly in 01 y4 - but even if it does the scale of these gifts simply are too low to be of any greater effect.

Then, the AI will also not try to avoid diplomatic penaltys (as for instance mindlessly building Influencer SB's in foreign sectors, or destroying them when they serve no need anymore...) and therefore, his own ability to ally is very random-like.

Nevertheless, the basic mechanism for an Alliance is exactly the same for both AI and player.