A.I. triggers for starting wars (with you or each other)

I was wondering if people noticed certain triggers for the Artificial Intelligence starting wars.

One thing I noticed is that an AI will declare war (if they are predisposed to doing this-militaristic) if another culture's influence is winning over their planet. Two examples I can give is the Iconians declaring war on me (I was the Yor) because my influence was overlapping one of its planets. They claimed that "we were too evil to be allowed to live" as their excuse. Another example is the Drengin declaring war on the Torian because one of its distant colonies was too close to Torian space, and some tech that the Torians researched seemed to suddenly double its influence. Again I am the Yor in this game, and in this case the AI were warring on each other.

In these two examples, I believe there were some latent cultural tensions (from reading some of the backstory) along with alignment issues. Yor are evil and the Iconians are something (probably not evil). Torians are probably good while the Drengin are evil. Perhaps all 3 factors weighed in equally but the cultural influence on one of their planets seemed to be the triggering event for open war.

Have you guys noticed other triggers for the AI declaring war? I'm sure if the computer perceived you as being very weak that would be another trigger for them declaring war on you.

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I think this is a very interesting topic. I've noticed in play that all is peaceful for many turns and then suddenly everyone is declaring war on one another. There has to be a time trigger or an event trigger that causes the ai to suddenly want to go conquering....From my experience, the ai will go after what it perceives to be weaker factions. It appears to use its military rating. However the assessment used by the United Planets voting points seems closer to the actual power.

So often, ai's will attack me for no apparent reason. Without fail, my military ranking is below theirs. Likewise, almost without fail, my UP votes will exceed theirs.

I've also noticed that the ai is very willing to bribe other factions to declare war on others, including me.

I would not say that any faction seems more likely than another to declare war. I've had just about each of them at one time or another declare war on me. I would say that close borders seems to be an issue with the ai. Relations seems to be a lesser factor in determination. I've had average relationships declare war as often as anything lower.

It keeps it interesting not knowing when or what its going to do....

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the ai will go after what it perceives to be weaker factions

Yes it does, especially in Dark Avatar. There seems to be some randomness in the trigger, probably a % chance every turn depending on other factors like the +/- factors you see in the race relations window. Whatever other factors apply, though, being weak militarily is a sure way to get attacked. And don't be fooled by alignment - The "good" factions will jump on you just as fast, whether you're playing good or evil, if your military is much weaker than theirs.

The best thing to do to keep from becoming someone's lunch is get the AI factions to attack one another. It is usually not hard to do, especially if one has a much higher military rating than the other. Keep the strongest faction embroiled in wars with the others and you will have a much better chance.

As far as other war triggers go; parking fleets - especially transports - near another faction's planets will usually goad them into attacking you. This is the best way to go to war with the Altarians - their super ability only comes into play if you attack them.

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I wonder how much the backstory really plays into conflicts, also. I have seen the Torians and the Drengin be on great relations, though never allied. I have also seen the Drath and the Altarians as well as the Yor and the Iconians play nice. It seems there should be a discount to get those races with background hatred to war against one another. It is funny to read the opening line when you play as the Drath when he mentions if we run into our Altarian neighbors we will welcome them with open arms or something like that blah blah blah

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Military strength is a big factor. I'm in the middle of a game that I'm writing up an AAR for and I'm doing just fine. Everyone loves me and my culture is spreading like wildfire. Then out of nowhere the pirates pop up and start laying waste. As soon as my fleets are toast, my relations tank with the strong races. I've got the Yor and Drengin demanding cash, and the Altarians outright declared war. The Altarians stated that it had become "economically justifiable" to attack me, or some such nonsense. I think someone bribed them to do it, as there was a rash of races being "persuaded" into wars. I'm thinking the Drath Legion might need a good drubbing . . .

I've also seen quite a few instances of Race A attacking Race B and citing the fact that Race B is at war with Race C as the reason. I don't know off hand if Race A's relation with Race C played a big part or if Race A was just looking to attack while Race B was preoccupied. The A-B-C reason to declare war, I suppose.

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