phexac

Join Date 03/2006

Does AI use starbases other than mining?

I am asking because a lot of players will use starbases to boost both their military and their production as well as their influence. At the same time, the AI does not seem to use starbases nearly as much. They set up mining starbases, but they rarely upgrade them as fast as a human player would, and they do not seem to take advantage of economic, military, and influence starbases.

Is it just me, or have other players noticed the same thing?

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I see AI use econ bases a lot. In my current game, the Drath build three or four bases around their homeplanet, with another planet and several asteroids in range as well. Influence bases also get build sometimes, but not as often.

What difficulty do you play on? So far, most mining bases I encountered were upgraded, and after a certain point upgraded with weapons.

A more important question IMO is: Does the AI use the new 'starbase repair modules'?

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I plan on tough, which is the highest AI difficulty where AI has not started to cheat. Speaking of which, am I right about that? Where can I see difficulty levels listed?

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I also play on tough and the AI makes extensive use of starbases. The Carinoids had 4 influence starbases parked next to Drengi, for example. The AI does seem to prioritize weapons over production when upgrading econ bases.

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I've seen both Econ and Influence Starbases. Military not at all, but then again, I don't use them either.

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I think the extent of starbase use is one of the random traits AI civs are given at the start of each game. The Torians may place a ton one game, and then just a couple the next. And sometimes it just gets annoying...had to declare war on the Terrans one game just becasue they had about six influence bases around my home system. Personally I like that...just another way to make every game a little different.

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DivineWrath

Join Date 05/2006

+135

I've seen the AI use the other 3, but I've never seen them use Military or Influence very well. I'm not sure about Economic since I rarely use them myself.

They are very bad when it comes to influence starbases. I've seen them deploy one or two in my territory, but never upgrade them. Then they get a negative relationship factor of "-close borders" with me, just because of their incompentence. If you are going to use influence starbases, install the influence modules so they do something useful.

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I find the Ai uses starbases all the time, I play the game on normal/challening(depending upon how much effort i can be bothered to give the game) and on Large maps. I find that they uses all of the starbases. Though not very effectivly. I have seen them build miliary starbases miles away from any planets- not entirly sure why this would be a good idea. Similarly they place Influence bases next to their home planets, which again i don't understand.

Though they do seem to have a good idea how to build Economy bases near their trade routes and planets. Though the econ bases are the usually better armed than the military, and the influence bases never have any modules so their a bit of a waste.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

I play Gigantic maps on Tough and I've seen well-developed mining bases, plausible use of econ bases, maybe-sensible use of military bases, and naught but wacky attempts at using influence bases.

It might be a long time before I get a chance to verify that the AIs will use the new repair modules. I don't tend to go for an AI base until I have overwhelming force.

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Similarly they place Influence bases next to their home planets, which again i don't understand.

They increase morale on their own planets, just as it decreases morale on opponents planets.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

They increase morale on their own planets, just as it decreases morale on opponents planets.

IIRC, influence bases do not affect morale. They change the influence rating of a planet, and flips become possible when external influence rises above 4.0. I *think* that flips, when possible, are more likely for a planet that is flagged for unrest (super-low morale).

I called AI use of influence bases "wacky" in my last post, but I wasn't thinking of the times I've seen them used defensively like Mooosetek describes.

What boggles my mind is the regular number of bases I've seen built where they barely touched my worlds (often only 1 planet) and did nothing for the AI's worlds. This odd behavior is topped off by an apparently near-complete lack of interest in actually adding modules to influence bases.

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I've seen the Korx and Arceans use military starbases fairly effectively, actually.

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I think it's humorous when the minor races place influence starbases, when they don't even have influence to begin with, and are therefore ineffective.

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As of 1.6 I see the AI using all the starbases. Mil starbase before an invasion, influence bases, and economic bases. I agree with the other posts that it generally doesn't use the influence bases very effectively, especially not the minor races which will make 3 of them on a planet to no effect.

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The minor races seriously need to get an update, since they keep doing stuff that just doesn't make sense for them...

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

I agree that minors building influence bases seems like a bug.

But in my current gigantic game I'm finally seeing the Torians do some reasonable work to fight off my influence expansion, which is fine by me b/c they are an ally and I already have plenty o' planets to manage.

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What I find odd, though, is that I've never seen the AI pull an influence attack on me. On other civs, sure (those damn Thalans are like a freaking VIRUS) but I've never been in danger of many of my planets flipping...

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I think the minor AIs are just using the influence base as a range extender for their ships. I've never seen them upgrade from the initial base. It still would make more sense to have them build military for that purpose.

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