It is a testament to how good the AI of this game is that one of the features they're adding is a stupider AI for easier difficulties. I have never seen an AI that is this smart beforehand, in fact, most people use AI and Stupid synonymously when referring to difficulties in games.

Good show, Stardock, good show.

However, I must third the comment on Fleets and Attacking. I too rarely see the AI effectively defend itself. The AI should understand the concept of escorts for vulnerable ships, sallying forth from besieged planets to fight transports and lone ships and returning to orbit, and the idea of relieving besieged planets with other fleets to take pressure off (something I rarely see).

First of all let me say this is a great game. A game where the AI both doesn’t cheat and plays to win instead of only trying to defeat you is a groundbreaking endeavor that should be commended and encouraged. Kudos.

If you are tweaking the AI here is what I have noticed. (apologies if they have already been mentioned ad infinitum)

I have seen the AI place multiple starbases with no upgrades around the map. I am not sure that a bare bones starbase even provides any kind of bonus. One starbase with a few key upgrades would obviously be better if this is the case. Mining starbases on the other hand are usually fully decked out with defensive upgrades.

The AI doesn’t seem to pay attention to population at all. I have viewed game ending graphs where all the AI’s plateau early and stay constant. There are reasons perhaps to do this but it seems it would limit not only taxes but also the number of troops available to attack/defend.

Here is something that was also in GalCiv1. Once an AI has ships guarding a planet it doesn’t seem to upgrade or add to them until they are wiped out. This can lead to a race’s homeworld being guarded by scouts and colony ships, etc. It is odd since once you clear a planet if you don’t invade immediately the AI will then usually buy a decent defensive ship. This makes you just wait until you can take over a planet before attacking since there is no point to wearing down a planet’s defenses. It is not as extreme as it was in GalCiv1 but it does seem to appear from time to time. I think it is has to do with how the AI evaluates ship strength on a planet. It may see 4 scouts and 3 colony ships as enough protection just by looking at the numbers even though none of them are armed. That said I am pretty bad about putting little more than token defense around my planets so maybe this is just mimicking human behavior.

I have only played on small maps (at all AI’s at intelligent level) so this may be the cause of these behaviors. Also this is the X9 patch and not the X10 patch (haven’t been able to play since last weekend) so the latest may have cleared things up.

Keep up the good work.

I have to second the 'not escorting transports' thing. They don't even hold them back until the area is clear: I've seen them drive transports waaay across my empire to get the one undefended planet in the middle. They must be hoping I don't pop a defender out and blow them up on the way past! Transports - and population - are expensive, they should be protected. The AI (on normal, or one up from normal) often bleeds it's planets white for no gain.

I'm glad to hear that there is a 1.X.2 on the way! I love Galciv2, but I absolutely suck at it. The Yor are stomping me on Normal level right now. I can't wait to see what the update includes. Go team! *Slaps Stardock on the rear*

I started a game on beginner when I first loaded up the game and got the snot smack out of me. I had to go to easy to get the hang of things then slowly progress up. I just got done with a technology victory on beginner. It was a LOOOONG game. Next i'm going to normal.

Looks great. Any thoughts about including new AI regarding the tech trading exploit?

And to think, all the time spent on making the AI a tiny bit better could have been spent fixing the economy.

Pffff. The economy works fine. And Brad isn't the only guy who works on the game, he's just the only guy who codes the AI.

Better AI is always welcome. The one thing that distinguishes GC from all other 4x games is it's AI.

People need to get a grip.

Agreed - I may be new here, but it's nice to see someone just focusing on the AI side of things. Thus far, I've been quite impressed.

I might be wrong about this, but I think that some of the influence starbase spamming might be for the purpose of increasing range.

LoL, Scumbag mentioned the GalCiv2 economy like it is broken. I don't have any problems with it. Is there an issue, or was he just tossing out garbage because he doesn't have a handle on the game yet?

I might be wrong about this, but I think that some of the influence starbase spamming might be for the purpose of increasing range.

I understanded that only planets and starbases increase range, influence has nothing to do with range.


Brad: When is the 4 starbases per sector rule going to be implemented? This is the one rule Iam waiting for the most, not forgetting the new fleet system

Ps. I liked that you tuned the tech trading between AI, I think it should be even more harder. What I would love is a No techt rade and maybe a tech trade only allowed between alliances option. Well these are just personal wishes, keep it up StarDock

Is there an issue, or was he just tossing out garbage because he doesn't have a handle on the game yet?

Paying for un-used social production, research bonuses not being close to the amount stated, no improvements actually giving the listed improvements (or even close), the game's "design decision" to not do proper math...

I'm not exactly sure hows URLs work on this forum sofrware, so here's a basic link:

https://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=274&AID=105129

I have a 'handle' on the game as much as the developers.

I totally agree with the 'AI needs to understand the advantage of being the attacker' thing. The AI (even on intelligent) is rather passive when it comes to space battles. Which is especially deadly because it rarely bulds ships with strong defenses.
I have won several wars just because of that fact... both our fleets hanging in space, more or less equally strong, and the AI rarely attacks my fleets... lets me pick what to fight and leaves me the advantage of attack.

Another odd thing I saw during my current game: The Drenging had a research resource 3 squares next to their home planet - and never used it, even though they sent constructors all over the map to get other resources. Don't know how this could happen.

Anyway, in spite of this issues, the AI is still pretty impressive and I'm looking forward to the next updates.

I just posted an article about AI (and some game) weaknesses Link, I hope they can be helpful.

I'll add my support to many of the ideas posted here. I've played 1 game on normal and one game on Challenging and won both games rather easily (although the AI was 'smarter' on Challenging).

Things I noticed:

1. The AI did respond to my ship building by modding their ships. I noticed on my Challenging game at first the AI was using beam weapons without any defense and by the mid part of the war they had changed and were making ships with rail guns and shields. However, it did not tend to group their ships very smartly. I often found one better ship with a number of inferior ships in their fleets. Since I was the attacker 98% of the time, I usually took out their most powerful ship in the first salvo. Had they grouped their ships better, they would have stood a better chance.

2. The AI doesn't research speed technologies enough. My fleets were moving 7pc/wk from the start of the war, the AI flleets never got beyond 2 pc/wk. It was easy to dictate the point of the battle. The very few times that the AI attacked first, they would almost always take 3 of my 4 medium ships out - still losing all 6 of theirs. In the cases I attacked first, most of the time I lost no ships but had 1 badly damaged. Obviously attacking first is a strong advantage. IMO this is a bit too strong of an advantage. Is it possible to consider alternating ship attacks? The attacker's strongest ship still goes first, but the defenders strongest ship fires next? This would immediately make the AI much tougher IMO.

3. The AI still doesn't have a clue to how much a tech trade costs. I'm constantly getting the AI asking to trade something like 'Mass Driver Theory' for 'Enhanced Miniturization' as if they were equal. If that's the way the AI makes trades between themselves, it's no wonder the AI has a tech trading problem. IMO, if you attached a research cost to each tech and programmed the AI to only trade if the research costs (or reseach cost plus credits) is equal, it would slow down some of the AI tech trading. Another idea would be to impose a 5 turn wait between acquiring a tech via trade and the ability to re-trade that tech to another AI. The AI needs to be smarter about Tech trades too. For example, if it sees that I have speed technologies and I'm trying to trade Planetary Improvements to it - the AI should mention 'Hey. I know Planetary Improvements is nice, but I'm not interested in getting anything else until Warp speed technology is on the table!'. This would force the player (and other AI's ) to perhaps deal techs that they would rather keep if they wanted to trade other technologies to the AI players.

4. The AI needs to protect Transports/Freighters/Constructors better during war. I constantly destroyed constructors that were sent out right through the middle of my fleets unescorted. Transports have already been mentioned.

5. As has been mentioned, the AI still makes poor decisions in many cases about what it builds on a planet. It's clear to me that perhaps it's not deciding what purpose the planet will serve once it acquires it. On some planets I've captured, the AI has 5-7 embassies, other planets have 3-4 entertaiment complexes. It doesn't always do a good job of taking advantage of square bonuses as has been mentioned. Also, I do still find planets (especially the minors) that have 4-5 farms built.

6. Minors need to protect their planets better. In many cases they have enough technology to build decent defensive ships, but I always seem to find that their planets have maybe only 1-2 ships in orbit along with 3-4 frieghters. Minors should be restricted to building starports within the 8 adjacent space squares. I constantly find minors that build starports half-way around the galaxy.

7. The AI doesn't seem to fleet their transports. It also doesn't seem to build them until they are needed. What seems to happen is that AI decides it needs a troop transport, builds one and sends it out to it's destination unescorted. At least on Challenging, it should build a fleet of transports in a controlled area, fleet them up and protect them.

8. At least in the games I've played so far, the AI seems to be reluctant to press it's advantage over weaker Civs. In the last game I played the Drengin had the Alterians down to it's home system for most of the game. They were at war 2-3 times and the Drengin never finished off the Alterians. While I'm not sure why, the Alterians didn't seem to have any better ships (and far less of them) than the Drengin.

9. Final thought, does the AI do an agressive enough job of trying to form Alliances? So far in the games I've played, I've never seen the AI make an Alliance with another civization. In fact, in my last challenging game, the Knox (whom I was at war with) were very friendly with the Drengin and had they in fact Allied - it would have caused me a ton of trouble as my home territory was pretty much empty as all my attack ships were half way across the galaxy fighting the Knox. I've also never be offered an alliance by a AI civilization. Even the Alterians, of which I had a close relationship and were at war with the Drengin never called an offered one (I know I would have if the situations were reversed). Might be another thing to look at (perhaps alliances between the AI only comes on Intelligent level - but if that's the case maybe you should look at implimenting it on Chanllenging IF the AI civilization is at war and is losing badly).

My 2 cents.