Phase Fleet Formation

from Sins Forums

I just quit a game because I was waiting 40 minutes for an enemy fleet to attack me (I knew because of the advent culture tech). I watched them that entire time trying to get into formation to jump. Some times they were this close, and then got jumbled up again. After that time was up I decided to attack them myself, even though defending would have almost certainly spelled victory, and was demolished upon arrival. Because I suffered such a major defeat (the pips that represent our fleets around the planets were both at max) due to an error in the game, and not because of my own wrongdueings I decided to quit and then rant here. I thought this bug was fixed a while ago?

16,408 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

This isn't a bug; the AI wants to attack, but it realizes you have too many defenses so it cancels its phase jump and moves out of position.  If you removed your fleet from the gravity well it was defending, the AI probably would attack.  Combine with a PJI and you can easily slaughter it this way.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I watched the replay and it whenever I hit alt through the AI's eyes it showed the blue "I want to jump there" lines.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Again, I've seen this behavior as well.  They do jump as soon as I leave the well without defenders, so I think this is actually intended behavior.  They're setting up for their attack, but decide at the last minute that they don't have enough forces.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

They're setting up for their attack, but decide at the last minute that they don't have enough forces.

yeah, but then they just keep thinking oh, i want to attack! wait, no i dont. oh, i want to attack! wait, no i dont... its like a person with 15 second short term memory loss (50 First Dates?)

i mean... how does the AI know you have a fleet around your planet? unless it has the Advent Culture side effect (which in this case it didnt), and Advent planet monitoring ability (the one their capital ship has, i forget the name) a TEC probe ability, a phased out Vasari Scout in the same GW, or some other way of gathering intelligence, the AI shouldnt be able to know where all of our ships are. maybe on unfair you can cut corners a bit, but for normal etc, it shouldnt be like this.

and in the end, what good is the AI if he just sits there trying to jump, deciding not to, forgetting why he decided not to and trying to jump again? i relaise its hard to program AI with intelligence, but maybe a line of code that tells it to jump to another planet, or launch a super weapon, or something like that. but 15 second memory loss is BORING

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

 The AI is an scavanger, it wont fight a battle unless it has to or thinks it can win. So it causes it to jump between planets often or sit at the egde of its planet waiting for your fleet to move so it can take the planet with little effort.

If you ever play against several unfair AI on more than one front, you will see that the side that your fleet is not on is usually the side they hit from. But as soon as you move your fleet away to defend that otherside the other AIs pounce on that world.

Many Many of a games Ive played where the game has become a stalemate. My fleet in my planet, the AI at his. I build up to make an attack, phase jump to his planet to find my fleet has jump right on top of his. A giant mess of ships at the edge of a grav well. My fleet jumps....smashs into his. His fleet leaves for my planet. Classic AI move. At least my AI. lol, just glad I have mines now.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

I was playing against a hard vasari ai, and the theory of them waiting for me to move is out because at first I had no ships there, so they could've wiped me. Then, when I saw them congregating I built defenses, then a brought my fleet over after a while.

Also, I thought that unfair AI only gave them an economic advantage. There's unfair advantages that work inside the game, but being able to see your enemy's planets for free should be outside the scope of that.