AI factions collapsing

from Sins Forums

 

Something I’ve been noticing from my Rebellion AI skirmish games is that the AI doesn’t seem to be coping well with the Rebellion changes.

I tend to play the game like this: (hey, it makes me happy, YMMV of course  :) )

  1. Grab a few systems while fending off early rush attacks and pirate raids.
  2. Build some serious defences, dabble in a bit of diplomacy to make nice with at least one neighbour
  3. Research and build a honkin’ big FLEET-O-DOOM
  4. Kick Ass and Chew Bubblegum. (Bubblegum optional)

When playing vanilla and entrenchment this used to give me cool defensive fights as I research and then going out and taking on big enemy faction fleets, well defended systems, etc.  All good clean fun.

But what I’ve been finding in Rebellion after the initial attacks have been fended off and I begin to seriously scout is…. somewhat depressing.  Shattered and collapsing AI factions - in my most recent game about 80% of systems were uninhabited – most of them had been inhabited (as evidenced by a few orbital facilities) but since abandoned.  Of 7 Unfair AI factions, three had been defeated, and the other 4 had just… collapsed.  They each had a few core systems with poor defences and no decent fleets at all. 

The only scary fleet belonged to a defeated faction.  Defeated factions seemed to have a lot of cultural output too.  There were no threats, no serious military actions, no-one expanding or even reclaiming lost territories.  It just felt like the AIs had given up, or had no idea what to do.

This (broadly) is my experience in all my Rebellion AI skirmish games so far.  No serious threat from AI factions after the early game.

I don’t know what causes this.  Contributing factors may include:

-overly strong pirate raids that just destroy planets, and the AI doesn’t seem to be able to defend or recover from.

-overly strong super weapons, or lack of any defensive strategy to cope with super weapons.

-inability to recover from economic set-backs, i.e. if fleet support research is high, a massive proportion of money and resources goes to support it.  The loss of a big portion of this fleet plus the loss of a few systems means the AI needs to do some serious rebuilding and has almost no income to do so… the AI just seems to stop doing anything, even without any more pressure.

Also, the new victory conditions are great, I especially like the Capital planet one, but the AI does not seem to understand these *at all*.  Capital worlds are left totally undefended, and it seems absurdly easy to kill an AI faction by just fleet-rushing his Capital.  Surely the routes to Capital worlds should be defended like crazy by mines, pimped-out starbases and reserve fleets at the least.   Not to mention shielding capitals to prevent “Oh I scouted your capital and I have a Novalith therefore I win” cheese.

Maybe I’m setting up the games wrong, but Cruel+ difficulty just seems to get an insurmountable early game advantage.  But I do remember Hard/Unfair AIs giving me a good run for my money in previous versions.

Anyway, I’d be interested in anyone else’s thoughts/experiences around this.

6,303 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I've found the AI's performance to very tremendously in Rebellion. Sometimes the hards are a bigger challenge then the cruels. I don't know if its particular AI level and type combinations, something with specific games or what, but if you think its too easy go to unfair. Otherwise maybe try specifying an aggressor/economic etc. AI, and see which ones do the best.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I've let the game play itself on the Whirlwind map with 7 Normal AI players for 4 hours. (I just surrendered immediately after the start of the game and chose to keep playing/watching.) Some AIs are indeed clueless. Others are not. About 3 hours into the game most of the map had been claimed by just two AIs, both Vasari. Then one steamrolled everything else with tons of capital ships and a titan. The more lame part was that it spammed the Kos cannon but never jumped its fleet to the target after firing.

The AIs suck at building defences. One starbase here or there, usually not upgraded enough to withstand even a single Kortul. The pirate raids were deadly to anything but the strongest faction. Most avoided to engage the pirates, but the Vasari which built the Kultorask actively went after them, although not after their bases, wiping out raid after raid.

 

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Hmm, usually my enemies have at the first 3-6 planets close to their border a fully upgraded starbase(playing against normal random) and usually they are all doing about the same, sometimes 1 bitch slaps the other, but nothing happens the same.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

I'm running my AI's on normal or whatever the default is, they seem to be doing just fine. Maybe the higher difficulty AI's are tearing each other up in their respective strong fields? So all a player needs to do is survive the initial onslaught and suddenly there's no one left to attack you. 

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Lately, as Advent Loyalists, Hard AI's have been given me a tough time (I know AL is kinda weak but I beat unfairs in Diplomacy).  I've been going up against 7 cap fleets (no frigates) and getting stomped.

However, as TL last night, they seemed to do nothing.  I was fairly close to my main enemy and found a titan factory at his homeworld, which I destroyed.

I wonder if some AI's are trying to titan rush and getting defeated if caught off guard.  While I play with pirates off, I could totally see pirates killing factions because I think they got buffed again.  (I made a mod with just the gamplay.constants file to lower the raid compositions and buff all weapons vs. pirate armor for when I want to use pirates).

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

i only have hard fights when i play against 3 hard AI with locked team 1:3 or 1:2. when there are more faction the challange is gone. 

 

On diplomacy i realy had to take a look on my military position. if i was lower than rank two, they attacked me fast. Now i have all the time that i want.