Slow booming AI races

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Slow booming AI races - 1/23/2011 6:17:09 PM

currierm

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Joined: 9/9/2010
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I'm playing a game with 700 planets and all 19 other races. A few of them are strong enough to at least give me a challenge, but a bunch never really expanded. The Ugnari, Teekans and one or two others only have 2 or 3 worlds.

Just wanted to get people's opinion on which (if any) AI's are consistently very slow growing and/or weak. Do you buff their starting conditions? I could also swap them out for some of the hard races- but I do like the variety.

Post #: 1

RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/23/2011 6:54:15 PM

ehsumrell1

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From: The Briar Patch Nebula
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You can also 'tweak' races stats in the races.txt file concerning their
intelligence, aggression, caution, and reproduction rate. Once you
fully understand how the settings affect each race's characteristics
and reactions, you can create some very 'exhilarating' games.

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RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/23/2011 7:47:02 PM

WoodMan

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Sometimes you get a few that don't expand that well. Usually the Teekans expand like crazy in my games.

I find the fastest growing are Shandar and Securan, while those that hardly get past a couple of colonies are Boskara, Kiadian, Mortalen and anyone with Despotism or Military Dictarship governments. But it does vary from game to game.

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RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/23/2011 9:35:34 PM

Tavior

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You forget one factor. I notice that Volcano, Ice, and Ocean race tend to be slow growth until they get other race under their belt. However I have seen some game where Volcano and Ice are plenty enough to allow rapid growth of a such empire to almost 25 colonies. Ocean are exception to this and almost alway have to rely on invasion to expand or just research other planets to get a fighting chance. I have notice that Desert are fairly common and tend to run out quickly since 4 or 5 can live on them especially Dhayut due to their engine technology giving them a huge advantage in finding dessert first and independent colonies to grab.

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RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/24/2011 7:07:40 AM

Kayoz

Posts: 1516
Joined: 12/20/2010
From: Timbuktu
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currierm -

I think what you're seeing has to do with the AI creating colonies only within a certain distance of another colony. This seems to be the case, as it's quite rare that the AI will build colonies a long way away from its core. It may be that all of the planets "close enough" to the HW were too low quality.

It might be worth poking around with the editor and seeing what sort of planets are close to them; and perhaps how the AI reacts to you creating a high-quality planet of the appropriate type close to them.

(in reply to currierm)

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RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/24/2011 7:17:26 AM

J HG T

Posts: 1093
Joined: 5/14/2010
From: Kiadia Prime
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AI will colonize planets quite far away if the situation favors it. In my current game Naxilians occupy the "western" part of the galaxy (ring galaxy, some stars in the center) but have grabbed couple planets from the center of the galaxy where my main empire is. Probably has something to do with our MDP.
Also, as Woodman said, AI empires expansion can vary greatly from game to game.

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RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/24/2011 10:57:19 AM

Setekh

Posts: 178
Joined: 12/12/2010
From: Norfolk, England
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Dhayut go nuts in my game and spread across the galaxy like a plague.

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RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/24/2011 11:29:59 AM

WoodMan

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From: Ol' Blighty
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quote:

You forget one factor. I notice that Volcano, Ice, and Ocean race tend to be slow growth until they get other race under their belt. However I have seen some game where Volcano and Ice are plenty enough to allow rapid growth of a such empire to almost 25 colonies. Ocean are exception to this and almost alway have to rely on invasion to expand or just research other planets to get a fighting chance. I have notice that Desert are fairly common and tend to run out quickly since 4 or 5 can live on them especially Dhayut due to their engine technology giving them a huge advantage in finding dessert first and independent colonies to grab.

In RotS I am finding Ocean planets quite common, and the races that inhabit them are certainly not the worst off. Races that can only colonize Continental are at the biggest disadvantage at the start. However, some of the races able to inhabit other planet types have other weaknesses, like the Teekan for example, who aren't that good at defending themselves. I like the balance of the races overall.

As you say, Desert planets are quite common, I don't think they are overly common, but put that hand in hand with the amazing government of the Securans and I think thats why they spread so much.

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RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/25/2011 4:32:47 PM

Tavior

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quote:

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

In RotS I am finding Ocean planets quite common, and the races that inhabit them are certainly not the worst off.� Races that can only colonize Continental are at the biggest disadvantage at the start.� However, some of the races able to inhabit other planet types have other weaknesses, like the Teekan for example, who aren't that good at defending themselves.� I like the balance of the races overall.�

As you say, Desert planets are quite common, I don't think they are overly common, but put that hand in hand with the amazing government of the Securans and I think thats why they spread so much.

You are right on all counts. It seem that all desert planet species has a advantage to allow them to expansion rather quick, Securan Happy/government, Dhayut Engine, and other.

Right now I did a 500 galaxy with 19 empires and two Ocean Species were spreading per normal and one had *roughly estimate 5 or 8* then another empire or two declared war and took over everything except their Homeworld. Another Ocean species only had 2 or 3 colony outside of it's homeworld and never went into a major skirmish or colony clash. Those are just seem "common" to me.

If I tried doing an Ocean Species myself, I feel that you have to really push research for at least for a non-ocean colonization + maybe conquest one or two independent if possible.

It could been that most Ocean NPC has been hit hard in my games with Sadorandomizer steak.

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RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/25/2011 11:12:05 PM

Abraxis

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It seems to me, from my very limited experience with this game so far, that the frequency of each planet type occurring is offset by the quality. For example, one quick game with the Securan's or whatever (the desert hippies) I noticed I was expanding like crazy with desert planets everywhere, but they rarely exceeded 60% quality. As the humans, there are fewer continental planets, but they're generally in the 80%+ range for quality.

I'm not sure about the other types, but it seems like empires will generally either favor growing out or up, think Russia vs Japan. I'm curious about the the other four types though, Marshes seem to be right up there in quality, but seem even rarer then continental. Oceans seem poor quality and relatively rare, so I'm not entirely sure what to think.

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Post #: 10

RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/26/2011 6:25:03 AM

adecoy95

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i have noticed this, i recently played in a harsh galaxy, where nobody could afford anything and even home systems were barren wastelands, and many empires never colonized anything at all.

it could have also been that i was extremely expansive, and i regularly traded techs for currency to build colony ships.

perhaps that by the time the ai decided learning colony techs of their own i already grabbed all the good worlds?

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Post #: 11

RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/26/2011 3:20:36 PM

Abraxis

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Another thing I noticed in my current game. I had the triclops sand weasels to the north and the wookies to the west. After trading maps with them I noticed there were a bunch of marsh worlds to the west, and only a few in the north. Eventually I ended up needing to bribe both empires as I was getting stomped by cyber t-rexes and fish men with large heads.

The sand weasels, who had a decent sized empire, only valued marsh world colonization at around 450,000, while the wookies who only had two colonies and plenty of nearby marsh worlds valued it at nearly 1,500,000.

So I would guess that the slow booming empires at least know what could possibly help them expand, and adopt the proper amount of urgency to acquire the ability to expand.

Probably, with the ones who never do, they just keep getting screwed by others moving in before they've researched the colonization tech (which they seem to appropriately prioritize).

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RE: Slow booming AI races - 1/26/2011 8:47:41 PM

adecoy95

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that could be the reason, they need to put the colony techs on a higher priority.

they seem to have race specific techs on the highest priority, i regularly see them with all 3 of the four race specific techs early in the game. do you think it would change if they moved some of that priority over to the colonization techs?

(in reply to Abraxis)

Post #: 13