AI doesn't know what to do when I have superior military

So you're too good for Normal, just like you said, move over to Bright or Intelligent and get your ass kicked

Brad has explained that the AI only reaches it's topform on genius level (incredible it gets bonuses as you can read in the new faq pages). It WILL find ways to outproduce you military on the higher levels.

I think it's logical that the AI players won't declare war on you when you are the strongest military. Wouldn't make that much sense for them.

If you REALLY want a war at Normal level, change the AI alignments. Say you take the evil path and you put 3 or 4 AI's on pure good. Wanna bet you get your war?

LordTheRon:

You missed my question. The AI is supposed to react as a real player would. What would a player do if confronted with a superior military. He would find allies. Why is the AI not allying with other races against me? That is my basic question.

I have seen plenty of opportunities where like-minding (good or evil) alien races could have allied and posed a threat to me. I have seen cases where aliens WERE allies and on the opposing side (they good, me evil) and they still didn't attack me, even though their combined military was definetly stronger then mine. Does it do this at higher difficulty levels?

Well the AI isn't at 'full thinking' on normal, so just try a higher difficulty level and it should be a different scenario. I haven't tried higher levels yet, since I'm getting smoked on normal and the AI's DO attack me. Are you sure you're using the latest version of the game?

BTW six games won and none submitted to the Metaverse?

Complaining aboutthe normal AI is not fruitful. If you find it too simple, simply step up. I've played on normal and am now playing on bright - and there is a big difference - I can clearly see the AI playing differently - and better.

Grifman

>Brad has explained that the AI only reaches it's >topform on genius level (incredible it gets bonuses as >you can read in the new faq pages). It WILL find ways >to outproduce you military on the higher levels.

Wait, are you saying that the AI is more difficult at higher levels because it's getting free ability modifiers as opposed to being smarter?? Because if that's true, then that's the opposite of what was advertised - that the AI plays by the same rules.

At Incredible the AI does get a bit of a bonus, and this is in the form of better money from tax income per planet (+40% I believe). Then again playing games against any AIs at that level is meant to provide an almost unbeatable challenge.

On Bright it gets a SLIGHT bonus to taxation income (only +5% I believe).

On levels below Intelligent it is getting penalized in it's tax income.

Otherwise it plays by the same rules as the human player and just gets smarter (more access to AI scripts) as you increase the difficulty level.

I THINK I remembered that correctly, been a day or two since I read the breakdown on the differences in AI levels. It was floating around somewhere... http://www.geocities.com/russellmz/FAQ.html

~SDC~

are you guys who are playing at higher levels using the new updates/bonus packs or playing the game out of the box? I'm wondering about game busting/ending random events. Are they reduced or do you still get the blammo Draginol empire has taken over your home system with ships that are near unbeatable (which is most cases is GAME OVER).
I havent gotten the updates yet and I have been paying on FOOL. At higher levels , with a more competent AI AND random game busters, it must be frusrtating unless the events have been toned down.

On bright the AI is still penalized compared to the human player but is able to use more sophisticated algorithms.

~SDC~

I think Azakain means genius instead of bright. Bright is one level below intelligent.

On intelligent all the algorithms are used by the AI right Brad?

fool
beginner
sub-normal
normal
bright
intelligent
genius
incredible

My information is that the AI only gets a tax bonus at incredible or perhaps a very small bonus on genius.

On intelligent I'm a 100% sure it plays fair. It just (as Brad explained quite a few times already) plays smarter because it isn't handicapped at that level anymore.

Wasn't Intelligent: it's equal in finances, but it wasn't totally enabled to all of its algys. Genius is when all algorithms come into play with a 5% bonus, I thought. But still it would miss rolls to enforce the things it checked on.

I bet at Incredible it ALWAYS acts on any information it has...

~SDC~

Intelligent, Genius, and Incredible all have the same playing skills. Intelligent is the "Brightest" AI. Genius and Incredible are "bonus" AIs for people (all maybe 4 of them) who can beat Intelligent consistently.

Astro

Excellent, good to know.

~SDC~

so you're saying Genius and Incredible use the EXACT same algorithms as Intelligent? the only difference is that Genius has a 5% economy bonus and Incredible has a 35%? i thought that Genius and Incredible were also more likely to "notice" player actions.

can someone verify this?

cheers

h

Braaaad! Wake up from your nap and tell us! waaaah!

Remember too this may be in flux and be receiving tweaking as we play the game folks...

~SDC~

Since no one is offering anything to the contrary, I guess what I describe is indeed how the AI behaves on Normal. Time to move to Bright.

I'll try asking one more time. Does the AI ally against you at higher difficulties? In other words, have you seen two races who are weaker then you ally up and attack you?

Here's an idea I'd like to see more fully developed...and/or included on this site! (it's the beginning of an unofficial FAQ and I believe it answers this question).

http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GF&id=31082

Brad posted the following a few weeks ago:

So now each computer player can indvidually be set to the following difficulty levels:

[IntLevel0] 4 Fool
[IntLevel1] 14 Beginner
[IntLevel2] 36 Sub-Normal
[IntLevel3] 42 Normal
[IntLevel4] 50 Bright
[IntLevel5] 60 Intelligent
[IntLevel6] 65 Genius
[IntLevel7] 100 Incredible

With the corresponding intelligence being 4, 14, 36, 42, 50, 60, 65, 100.

We may tweak these or add more after released based on what you guys say.

So now, you have sub-normal, normal, bright, intelligent and genius quite close together. I have not personally won with all the AI's set to genius on a medium sized map or higher. And incredible is just, well the AI gets lots of extra stuff.

Speaking of extra stuff, how do the resources get handled?

The intelligence ratings do two things: 1) They determine how much money they get from colonies.

So in pColony->CalcTaxesCollected() at the end it gets:
ulTaxes = ulTaxes * (40 + ulIntelligence);

So at intelligence = 60 (intelligent) it's getting the same from a colony as you. At Genius it's getting a bit more. And at incredible, all bets are off.

The other way intelligence matters is that it determines whether the AI is going to
a) Do a thorough analysis on what players are doing
Which AI scripts are available to use, and
c) Determines whether the AI is going to do anything about it.

Example:
An AI with intelligence 60 will be able to check out its sensor areas and see if you are building up for an attack, fortifying starbases, trying to culturally dominate it, etc. It will then have to roll to see if it is going to do anything about it. I.e. "Do I recognize this as a threat or am I too dumb to see this?". If it rolls that it is going to recognize the threat then it has to roll whether it's goign to actually do anything about it. And if it is going to do something about it then it rolls to see if it will tell the human player about it (if it's a human player that is the threat).

IF the AI FAILS the roll, the human player gets a message from the AI letting it know it's on to what it's doing. Otherwise it quietly lowers relations and prepares for a war.

If you play on say Genius, and build up star bases and ships in a sector you're planning to attack you'll notice ships from other sectors quietly coming in to fortify. Fighters shadowing your transports. Etc.

But on lower intelligence levels, none of this happens. Which is one of the changes. So when you get the game, on Fool and Beginner you should be able to play the game without getting creamed now. This is different than it was in the beta when fool was = Int 15 and the next one up was 30.

"#15 by Citizen Augusten - 4/2/2003 4:03:28 PM

...I'll try asking one more time. Does the AI ally against you at higher difficulties? In other words, have you seen two races who are weaker then you ally up and attack you? "

Hey, I want to know the answer to this as well! Spit it out people, stop talking about other stuff.