AI ship building strategy

from GalCiv2 Forums
Since I play as evil usually i always find that i'm building the exact same ships. The AI's that I fight always use shield but various weapons, but usually beam weapons, so I find myself ALWAYS using missiles and sometimes mass drivers. I forgot which but one of the two that i use they make minimal armor for. They usually stack their ships with so much shields that i do almost no or completely no damage to them and always lack on everything else. Does each AI have a certain strategy on how to build ships that they go with every game? I havn't fought many evil races yet as their AIs usually suck and get decimated to the point where they are of no threat by the time i kill the races that DOW me so i dont know what they use.
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Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No, in my games the AI within a particular game always seem to use the same military branches, but each game they pick a different one.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hmm... i could be just a coincidence then.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In the game I'm playing now the AI players all have different strats. My first war I used missles exclusively and my opponant didn't have defense against it. By the end he was loading his ships down with point defense (I thought that was very cool by the way, but it was probably just a coincidence). He also used all beam weapons.

In my second war the AI player used missles and had mass driver defense mostly. I also know that one of the other AIs has tons of beam reasearch done, and another has most of the missle branch. Also, in both wars defenses were lacking. They'd come at me with large numbers in weapons and almost no defense.

I don't know how that changes game to game, havn't played enough. I'll keep an eye out though, see if the same races do the same thing.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
well i tend to do laser cuz it looks good, and i do notice they tend to use lasers, butthats usally cuz i trade them the tech and after a while they mix it up because i have so much D
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I can vouch for Kanaric's initial observations, that it seems that the stronger AI's go exclusivly for beam weapons/shields at first. However, in a large game i've seen them change defenses against a smaller AI enemy using mass drivers. I've never seen an AI change weapons though, and probably 75% of the time they use beams. I dunno if this is because they trade eachother the tech or what. Either way, these are what I've seen in the games I've played at any rate, and could just be coincidence.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi!
The AI's that I fight always use shield but various weapons, but usually beam weapons...

I've seen more differentiation in weapon techs. In my last few (1.1 betaX) games I've in each game seen each weapon branch used by at least one AI. They do research some low levels of beam weapons, but then they go specializing.

...so I find myself ALWAYS using missiles and sometimes mass drivers.

Misslie weapons, esp. Harpoons are the best for early fighting, as you get the most bang from the given space. Also, early defenses for missiles are (for a needed level of defense) the most expensive, and they need the most research to get to level 2. I've also rarely seen AI researching PD tech. Given all that I too prefer missliles to all other weapons.

BR, Iztok
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Missles are great for offensive punch, but lousy in the combat viewer. The Doomray and Black Hole Gun are what I usually go for, just because they look so cool.
A Doomray combined with a couple Black Hole Guns gives a nice visual, with the Doomray slicing out first followed up by the slower Black Hole Gun.

But I have games where the Ai uses mainly a single tech, two or all three. Usually it is two of them though. My last game everyone was using missles, except for the Drengin who had beams. The one before that all three were used.