Cowardly AI needs fixed

Generally, if you fight him in his systems, he'll be a lot 'braver'. Plus, if he flees the system while you are in the system, you can just destroy all his stuff.

I haven't had a huge problem with the "cowardly AI" factor so far.

If he flees from my fleet, I'm perfectly content to let him do so. I'll simply take over his system that much faster, and move on to the next. Eventually, he'll stand and fight.

The key, I think, is to focus on systems, not on chasing down and eliminating fleets.

The AI tends to be a little TOO choosy.

I mean, if a force jumps in that at a glance I can tell will wipe me out, I'll probably retreat.

If the force is larger, but not MUCH larger, I'll stick it out for a bit.

If the force is much larger but I'm making significant headway and it will provide a strategic advantage if I win, or at least bloody them a bit, I'll fight.

The AI seems to calculate how 'close' a battle is too accurately. I can't calculate numbers like the AI does, which is what the problem is.

I'm fine with the AI running if they're taking a pounding or simply overwhelmed with weaponry, but when my fleet has just one capital ship more than theirs and they run, that's ridiculous.

Maybe just some kind of margin of error for how evenly matched the fleets are could help, or based on the remaining Hit Points of their ships?

Right now it seems to know immediately if it's outmatched, even by a little the instant a fleet jumps into a system and encounters another, or the instant the tide seems to turn. Probably half the confrontations the AI fleet sticks around for, once I knock out the first Capital Ship, they all turn tail to get out of the system. Many of these battles aren't startlingly in my favor either, just it seems like the AI keeps some kind value on all of the ships worth combined, and immediately after it passes 50/50, the AI bugs out, regardless of it's progress.

Overall this is smart, it's nice to not have a stupidly suicidal AI. But most people don't fight like that either, they'll stick out battles that aren't wholly in their favor, or stay in a battle for a specific goal (I often fight enemy fleets that outclass me with the sole goal of taking out one of the Capitol Ships, once that's done, it's time to go).

Making it not dead on accurate for the outcomes of the battles, or maybe just waiting to retreat units until they're damaged might be some kind of solution.

Totally agreed with you there Uranium, I think you hit it exactly the AI calculates his strength compared to yours, if yours is a bigger fleet he runs from the battle. The AI defiantly needs to be fixed so they will hang out for the battles. I mean that’s what this is all about building large fleets and going at it with others. This tactic really sucks when the game is winding down and you just want to wipe out his remaining forces but it becomes irritably impossible when he just keeps jumping out of the system and flees the battle all the time. Totally unacceptable....

I have to admit I liek the curent AI system. It adds a different layer of strategy to the one player games that couldn't be done otherwise. I enjoy having two fleets come at them from opposite sides, or have a fleet waiting for them at their retreat point. It just adds more strategic elements. That said though it is deifnietly important that they fix the PJI's to actually slow the enemy down. But other then that I htink it's workable, unless you're paying a 10 player FFA like I've been doing fo rhte last 8 hours.

agree too!

NECRO...everything in this thread is obsolete....AI is more suicidal than a drunk lemming...