Does the AI react to your intention to colonize a planet?

from GalCiv3 Forums

It could just be co-incidence, but a number of times now i have observed something interesting about AI behavior.....

 

You know how the AI often seems to ignore nice worlds away from the players area.... and the game can be very advanced and it still ignores them....

 

Well strangely, whenever i finally decide to send a colonizer there, all of a sudden the AI wakes up and grabs those worlds before i get there? Its as if the AI somehow knows my colonizer is heading there and is reacting to that?

 

I wonder if i reloaded an old saved game before dispatching my colonizer, would the AI have still grabbed those worlds just the same or continued to ignore them?

39,319 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

It's possible.  On any difficulty above Normal the Ai is unaffected by FoW, so it could very well be "reacting" to your colonizer on the way.  Or, that planet is just next on the ai's colonization list and you get there around same time by fluke.  One of the things the Ai does fairly well is colonize.

In the early days of my playing this game, I used to explore for a while, then reload a save from the start so I had a little colonization heads up advantage.  Ok cheat :)  In any event, I found that whether it took me 30 turns to get to a planet or a I went right there, if the Ai was going to beat me to it, it would have already done so, implying the colonization behaviour is fixed - these are the x planets we will colonize in this order - kind of thing.

What changes the pattern is if something happens to their ship (pirates) on the way, or you beat them to it, then they go for the next one on the list.

Range is also a factor.  They get range buffs on difficulties above normal, which may change the order in which they choose to colonize.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

From reading posts on AI strategies it stops colonising after a limited number of turns. Something like 30 this needs to scale by map size

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting admiralWillyWilber, reply 2

From reading posts on AI strategies it stops colonising after a limited number of turns. Something like 30 this needs to scale by map size

Not currently Possible. You can however change the strategies to make the AI colonize when ever possible, even during wartime...

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

How did deathdwind, and naselus do it. How do you change strategies to colonise whenever possible.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting admiralWillyWilber, reply 2

From reading posts on AI strategies it stops colonising after a limited number of turns. Something like 30 this needs to scale by map size

 

Well that seems about rite, the AI seems to stop colonizing around that time. but then i am talking about turns over 100 or even 200!

 

There are some planets clearly ignored by the AI for a huge amount of time, and eventually i send a colonizer, then as soon as i do that, suddenly the AI colonizers those planets?

 

I guess its handy to be able to provoke the AI to finish colonizing its territory?? lol

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting admiralWillyWilber, reply 4

How do you change strategies to colonise whenever possible.

You play with this:-

        <BuildShip>
            <ShipClass>Colony</ShipClass>
            <BuildFirst>5</BuildFirst>
            <PreferToRush>true</PreferToRush>
            <Weight>50</Weight>
        </BuildShip>

In each strategy.

There is also an AI Define that tell the AI how many Colony ships to have available at one time:-

<MaxColonyShipsBuiltAtOnce>10</MaxColonyShipsBuiltAtOnce>

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Did you clear out pirates before sending your colonizer? If there are pirates, the AI won't send colony ship near these worlds, even if the colony ships can outrun the pirates easily.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting zuPloed, reply 7

Did you clear out pirates before sending your colonizer? If there are pirates, the AI won't send colony ship near these worlds, even if the colony ships can outrun the pirates easily.

 

No i did not clear pirates.

I did not know the AI wont send colony ships near pirates? But then the player can set pirate bases to abundant and gain an advantage that way?

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Pirates and the AI....they are like Supermans Kryptonite to the AI, is absurd the way they avoid them.

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Horemvore, reply 9

Pirates and the AI....they are like Supermans Kryptonite to the AI, is absurd the way they avoid them.

 

That's a pretty good exploit then.

 

You can swarm the universe with pirates and all you have to do is pass the last movement turn on every ship without sensors and you will never get ambushed.

 

But you know what will happen? They will up the speed of pirates eventually i think?? lol

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Horemore thanks, but also what is the name of the file, and where is it.

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

AIStrategyDefs.xml

GalCiv3AIDefs.xml

Both in the ..data/Game folder.