Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shark7

Any one else notice just how random this seems to be? Not so much random, but the AI instead of expanding outwards will send a colony ship halfway across the map to take a planet in your territory...or for one with a group of alien population that reject it...or for a resource it needs. And while this might be a good thing, it is also a logistics nightmare and from the standpoint of economics makes zero sense.

I think the AI needs to have its colonization choice formula redone a bit that weights it more toward planets closer to its own territory. Either that or a rule in place for both player and AI that colonies cannot be formed more than a certain distance from the empires current 'border'. What I'm hoping for is a more gradual expansion, and the AI empires being more able to mount a credible defense. As it is, they are spread so thin that assaulting them is quite easy. This is due to having colonies from one side of the map to the other...the AI empires simply can't gather a fleet fast enough to defend anything.

Anyone else feel this way?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kruos
It appears that the same thing happened : on 19 IAs, some (~2-3) have absolutely colonized nothing, whereas very nice and colonizable planet are in their sight and available (sometime in their own homeworld!). Cash available, no wars...

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC



For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

Freedom is not Free.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kruos
It appears that the same thing happened : on 19 IAs, some (~2-3) have absolutely colonized nothing, whereas very nice and colonizable planet are in their sight and available (sometime in their own homeworld!). Cash available, no wars...

Are you playing with the option for independent worlds to form their own empires? If so, that could explain the appearance of AI empires that seem to have not expanded, since they would have recently formed from a single world and may not yet have the resources to colonize outside their system.

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Are you playing with the option for independent worlds to form their own empires? If so, that could explain the appearance of AI empires that seem to have not expanded, since they would have recently formed from a single world and may not yet have the resources to colonize outside their system.

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I have seen this behavior before as well, but they are not independent empires that grew up, but rather, AI empires that simply rolled bad combinations of race/government.

This is actually somewhat of a problem. You've frequently asked players who seem to be spiralling into bankruptcy what their race/government is, but the thing is, because the AI can use any combination, ALL combinations must be viable. If a combination of race/government is completely nonviable and will be in the red from square one, it should not be chosen by the AI and players should be warned against it.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kruos
I dont think that this problem is related to the race/government economical consequences. At the start every empires have enough cash to buy many colony ship, so if it was a cash related issue, they would at least have some colonies (the one colonized before going into bankrupt), or in my tests it appears that they have only one colonie, their homeworld, even after 10-20 years...

I have saves available for investigation if needed, but the simpler is to try it yourself : all sliders on normal, 1400 stars, 19IAs randomly generated, independant not allowed to become empire, save just at the start, let it live 10-20 years and then see with the editor how empires have evolved. ;)

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC



For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

Freedom is not Free.

quote:

I tried exactly this. After about 20 years, the only AI empires that still had just one or two colonies were clearly ones that had started as independents. Their home worlds were often Deserts and they simply did not have enough cash or resources to expand further. If you have a save that shows a normal starting AI empire that's still on just one or two colonies after 20 years, I would be very interested in seeing it.

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I tried exactly this. After about 20 years, the only AI empires that still had just one or two colonies were clearly ones that had started as independents. Their home worlds were often Deserts and they simply did not have enough cash or resources to expand further. If you have a save that shows a normal starting AI empire that's still on just one or two colonies after 20 years, I would be very interested in seeing it.

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OK, I am now 100% convinced the problem with the map side to map side empires has nothing to do with colonization weighting, but is in fact a diplomacy problem...

That problem being that the AI is far to willing to trade maps with other empires. And this does not make sense.

I don't give mine away. Why would I give a potential enemy the keys to the gate...so to speak. The AI is constantly hounding me about wanting to trade maps, and I can give the AI a trinket or a few thousand credits and get theirs.

Another problem is the automatic map sharing between allied empires. While this might make sense, it also leads to the logistic nightmare that is DW colony expansion.

The solution...Territory and Galaxy maps should be as well gaurded by AI empires as their unique tech is. You should need a near 100 relations favorability before the AI is willing to give up that information. After all, you do not want to give the map away to someone who might use it to attack you.

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If you have a save that shows a normal starting AI empire that's still on just one or two colonies after 20 years, I would be very interested in seeing it.