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AI Issues (Ship Spamming, Range, Cheating)

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AI Issues (Ship Spamming, Range, Cheating)

from GalCiv3 Forums

Hello Stardock

Brad: This is GiskardUK from Twitter, this is the full report.

Excuse the title type... should have said Ship spammering, not spam spamming.

 

I was told the AI for GalCiv does not cheat so I am making this report because it sure looks like its cheating to me.

I have seen this in a few games since release now, 1 race usually suddenly starts spamming ships like crazy.

It ends up with so many ships that the only way it could possibly produce them in the numbers it does is if it can produce 1 large ship per ship yard, per turn.

Mean while it takes me 9 turns to do produce a similar ship from my best ship yard and that is with 5 planets helping, even with a large empire that is doing pretty well, I cannot keep up with the AI's ship building at all.

I get by, by building a bigger fleet and researching logistics, then just using the larger fleet to destroy as many of the AIs fleets per turn as I possibly can. Typically I destroy between 6 and 8 ships per turn with each fleet in an area being targeted by the AI, 1 to 3 in areas that are not being targeted by the AI. I have to do this every turn or the AI just floods the entire map with ships.

I have seen the AI flooding other AIs territory with ships then when I destroy a star base, they flood in to my area to regroup near a planet I own. So I just put a massive fleet there and have them destroy all incoming ships as fast as possible. Other ships from the AIs fleet do not move, even after a planet is lost, they stay still until destroyed.

This has been going on now for I think 100 turns in my current game, also war is constant, council votes to end wars do not end any of the wars but diplomatic measures do work.

This completely takes over the game when it happens, it stops being about doing other things and starts being about destroying as many ships as possible. Also the AI whilst a threat, tends to run out of transports quickly, it does not spam those for reason. So it does not gain much ground this way, it just takes cover the game and stops anything else from being done.

 

Last issue, I have seen the AI affected by this totally ignoring ship ranges to send its fleets deep in to my territory when it should not have been able too. There is chance they had a starbase some place that I could not see, but I would but that chance at about 20% because everything it would build on, has been built on by me already and I have scouts that have been roaming around looking for enemy units.

Here are some stats from my current game.

Difficulty = Normal for the current game.

Iridium Corporation
4th Population
3rd Economy
1st Military Power
7th Approval
2nd Tourism
5 Treasury
3rd Influence
2nd Social Manufacturing

Player
1st Population
1st Economy
2nd Military Power
8th Approval
1st Tourism
1st Treasury
1st Influence
1st Social Manufacturing

PS notice social manufacturing does not seem to have any effect on approval with large empires.

154,614 views 30 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting glasscitypc, reply 25

I get annoyed by this too...   I expand rapidly early game,  colonizing everything in sight.  I build lots of ships early and place them in orbit around these planets/shipyards/starbases.  I have specialized planets pumping out tons of production.  I have 17 planets now and a descent Faction Power score.  That is until I run across the Iridium who have nearly QUADRUPLE my Faction Power score with LESS planets than me.  All of my planets have 95% approval or higher yet I'm listed as 3rd in Approval???  Yet I have the most planets.  Ummmkay!   No matter how hard I try I cannot get my score higher than the AI.  Just when I think I'm doing good then BAM I meet a civ with QUADruple my score with less resources and planets.  Then they pick a war with me because I'm "WEAK" or "Ripe for conquest."   HUH??????   Then I look at the trade screen and the AI has twice as many ships as me.  So now war takes over the game and the AI refuses peace.  Here we go,  war again.  ugh.  This is on normal mode and it happened on gifted difficulty as well.   Putting it on "easy" is laughable so there's no happy medium,  Easy mode is too easy,  normal and gifted modes you get killed in Faction Power no matter what you do.  Please stop the madness and balance the game Stardock!

 

I'm puzzled by the AI's magic ability to have huge/maxed out approval, too. I sometimes take over their planets and notice they have made no attempts to make their populations happy with buildings. I am usually dead last or near last in approval even at 98 approval. I think the Iridium had lots of ships because they took that Ideology Trait which gives all of their planets 3 free ships, but who knows.

 

On another matter, I have noticed that if you have Open Borders with races near you, they send most, if not all of their ships into your territory, mainly camping them next to your starbases, fleets and worlds, usually ignoring the protection of their own assets. This looks like the AI is just spiting the player. I have also noticed multiple AI's seemingly working together to park fleets around your fleets so you can't move them. What strange behaviour. That last one is happening to me right now btw, had to use the destroy command to get rid of an enemy fleet so I could move my own. They don't seem to care if the Open Borders treaty ends or not, and of course, while they will whine to you about you not respecting their territory, you can't ask them to leave yours.

Reply #27 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

With morale I'm the opposite you don't need buildings for high morale just expand.

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Reply #28 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I currently have all planets at 100 morale but my civilization morale is at 98.

 

Tee hee.

Reply #29 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I hear ya about the AI parking it's ships in your territory.   In my game,  the Thalans have fleets all over my influence zone and when asking them to leave, they say "I'm sorry, I will have the ships leave immediately" or something of that sort.  A few turns later, still there!  They won't leave and they're parked all over my planets, starbases and shipyards!  I'm infested with alien bugs!

Reply #30 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting admiralWillyWilber, reply 27

With morale I'm the opposite you don't need buildings for high morale just expand.

I'm at 19 planets,  dead last in approval with all planets 95% or higher in approval.

Here's what else I don't get,   I'm also 3rd in population.  Now the 1st place and 2nd place civs have LESS planets than me by far and me and my 19 planets somehow have less population than their 7 and 9 planet empires.  These faction power stats baffle me and I'm a math junkie lol.   I don't get the logic here.