AI Surrender?

I have noticed the same thing happening to me since installing the Entrenchment expansion.  Usually it occurs once I attack the HW, but I had barely started and hadn't even wiped out the population.  It is rather confusing... perhaps to mimic sore losers that quit as soon as they realize they cannot win...

A number of people have commented on this since Entrenchment came out (and I really like Entrenchment generally!)  The Devs were responding to complaints that it was tedious to have to wipe out every AI ship and planet in order to win a game.  I can kind of understand that in a 1 v 1 game against the AI, but I agree with you that the surrender now often comes way too early.

Even worse, in my opinion, is when I am playing against multiple AI in a FFA game, and discover early on that one or more of the AI is "dead" (cracked glass in the diplomacy screen, can't make alliances, can't put pirate bounty on them, no longer spends credits or takes offensive action, etc.) when that AI still controls multiple planets, has a fleet with cap ships and is weak but would still have been a potential factor for alliances, but has now left the game.  In one FFA game, I needed some planets that a "dead" (ie., "quitter") AI still controlled -- I sent my fleet in but apparently because the dead "AI" was no longer an enemy, my fleet would not automatically bomb the planet or attack the structures unless I speciifcally told it to attack each one.  Talk about tedious...  Aside from that, an AI quitting a FFA game early reduces the complexity and strategy. with no benefit to the game play. 

Its been suggested before, and I agree, that there should be an "AI will not surrender" option.

the AI in Entrenchment surrenders under a wider variety of conditions than it used to. i don't know the full list but this is what i've noticed. the AI becomes more likely to surrender when:

1) you nuked their homeworld and have a much bigger fleet than they do.

2) you have built Super Weapons (Novalith, Kostura, Deliverance) and they have nothing comparable. 

3) you have multiple high level capital ships and they have no high level capital ships.

4) in a team game if you have defeated members of their team so that they are facing a 2on1 or worse situation.

5) you have built a Starbase in their homeworld grav well (or maybe just one of their highly developed grav wells anywhere). 

6) they have just lost multiple colonies in a short period of time (fairly likey if they are being attacked by more than one player on more than one front). 

their may be more conditions than those, but i'm pretty sure each of those conditions significantly increases the chance of a surrender occuring. they seem to stack with each other as well. in other words the AI has become more proficient at identifying situations where their loss is basically inevitable. 

so in other words, we will never play a complete game with the ai?

you will play fewer complete games with the AI than you used to. none of those conditions are automatic triggers, they just increase the chance of a surrender. some AI's will just be stubborn though and fight it out. i think Aggressor AI's tend to surrender the most often and Defender AI's are the least likely. 

i was playing hard aggressor on random huge multi and i controlled 2 out of 5 star systems and he had 3 out of the 5 i dominated an entire star system in 30 min and then i moved on to another star system  and i got half way through that one and he surrendered

I can understand some players not wanting to drag out a game where victory is inevitable. However, I would much rather prefer getting a message akin to "Player X wants to surrender to you, do you accept?" Unless everyone accepts, the game goes on and the surrender is void. This would make those on both sides of the fence happy. Any idea how to mod something like this?

its a good idea Draxalon. let's hope it comes through in a future patch. as is it now you have to choose "keep playing" but it just feels wrong. some minor UI changes to make it feel more satisfying to keep playing to the bitter end would be nice for the people who want it. 

I was in the home stretch of a 3 system 7 player match with just me and an Advent AI left. The Advent still had control over half the star system we were fighting in, had a fleet rougly equivalent to mine (though I had more capships, they had many more frigates and cruisers along with a hefty number of drone carriers). I was prepping one of my two fleets to jump at a desert world with an artifact when a lone drone carrier hopped into the grav well, just in range of my 8/8 starbase.

The moment the carrier went down, the AI surrendered.

I scouted the map afterwards and saw that their homeworld had just been hit by a Novalith shell (I leave my superweapons on autofire) but was otherwise still intact.

Perhaps an option in the startup to disable surrendering? Fighting against an opponent with no fear of retaliation is NOT FUN.

Continuing play with a dead or surrendered AI (as it currently works) is a pain. If you have ever needed to clear a gravity well that a "dead" AI left in a planet that you want after the AI showed as "dead", you will know what I mean.  Because the AI is dead, the fleet will not automatically target or clear the mines any more.  If I really want that planet with the mines gone, I have to target each one individually.

Please, just give us the option to disable/activate AI Surrendering. It should be possible to change this option at everypoint of the game or at least on loading a game.

The AI surrenders when it cannot fight back anymore, normally when they lose their fleet and have 3 or less planets for development.  It's annoying, but now the AI has been tweaked to fight on as long as they have ship yards.

I normally play medium to large stars which takes hours to complete.