razor436

Join Date 10/2008

Question on United Planets and AI's Strategy vs Ohter Races

UNITED PLANETS

Near the beginning of a game, on a humongous map, the United Planets assemble with only three participants and this persisted for a long time (I'm a puny civ stuck at the corner of the map). I can understand that the other races do not participate because I have not made contact with them yet. But still does not feel right because:

- I continuously receive updates from other races buildong those "wonders of the universe" improvements

- and most importantly, those few United Planets participants have made contact with other races but because they are not the player, those contacts do not count

I think this is a problem worth consideration becuase I feel it is unfair to the non-participants that the United Planets are making decisions which can be permanent without giving them a voice on the matter.

Does this really make sense to you? I'm just asking since I can't understand why the United Planets is still that way after many patches.

AI Strategies

Before I propose a suggestion for the AI, I was curious to know how the AI races' strategies, in terms of foreign affairs, work.

I suppose what dictates war and peace betweem AI races are their Relation Factors as listed at the GalCiv2 wikia. Is that all there is to it or or there some more underlying factors or strategies within the AI code?

I will try to be more clear.

Every race has the ultimate goal of killing everyone else in order to win the game. I know that the AI is coded so that a race expands, researches, builds improvements and units, and uses those units in the most efficient way possible. I am not concerend with that aspect of the AI. What interests me is the code responsible for Diplomacy. Along the way to achieving victory, each race must make war/peace/alliances with other races. Does the AI's diplomatic decisions depend siolely on the Relation Factors or are there additional factors as well. For example, does a civ want two other more powerful civs to be at war to decreased their relative military power and will therefore try to instigate a war between them.

Another example, does a civ pick and choose friend and foe based on what will benefits him most? Consider 3 civilizations A, B, and C. A is powerful, B and C are weak. Currently A and B are at war. Now C can make a choice: team up with A and wipeout B, but risk being wiped out later by A, OR team up with B to take on A, with the intention of weakening A's and B's relative military power to C's.

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Mistralok1

Join Date 05/2006

+22

You don't say which version you are playing, as things are *slightly* different between them- I'll get to that in a bit.

I continuously receive updates from other races buildong those "wonders of the universe" improvements

You are not the only person that is annoyed by this. Personally, I don't mind, since every civ likes to crow about it's achievements, and putting out a galactic press release makes perfect sense to me.

Regarding your UP question, throughout history, groups have gotten together and dictated to others what they may or may not do. This is reflected in the game. It may not seem fair to one or more of the other civs, but it is what it is.

Does the AI's diplomatic decisions depend siolely on the Relation Factors or are there additional factors as well.

These are the primary factors. The AI has gotten pretty savvy, and sometimes makes decisions that to me are 'beyond the ken'.

For example, does a civ want two other more powerful civs to be at war to decreased their relative military power and will therefore try to instigate a war between them.

Absolutely. The Drath are notorious for this. Their "Super Manipulator" skill is geared entirely towards this. The Drath will pick out the civs that they perceive to be the biggest threats, and set them against each other. They have a skill called "War Profiteering", and can make a pile of money by keeping the galaxy at war.

does a civ pick and choose friend and foe based on what will benefits him most?

Yes. Remember though, per your example, if you are allied or teamed with Civ A, it will not attack you. This is also true if you have a treaty with it. You can break a treaty and declare war on Civ A, but it will not. This is assuming that the player is Civ C. I don't think that the AI is quite as deep when dealing amongst itself.

Every race has the ultimate goal of killing everyone else in order to win the game.

Not exactly true. The AI is programmed to win the game, in any way possible. If it can research a win, it will. If it can ascend, it will. If it can win by influence or diplomacy it will- although those last two are often just byproducts of going for a military victory.

I hope that this has been of some small help. Good luck, and if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask.

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WIllythemailboy

Join Date 03/2006

+70

I'm not entirely sure the races you haven't met are being excluded, I think you're just not being told what their vote is. I once had a 4 choice vote when I had only met one other civ, and the winning proposal was one NEITHER of us voted for! I have no idea what version this was in - certainly not TA, possibly early DA or late DL.

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