The AI and tech trading must be fixed to balance the game

from GalCiv2 Forums
When playing A game with many players the AI trades techs like crazy with each other. Then it continues down the tech tree of the weapon type that it recieves first. Since they trade like crazy ,most if not all AI races will have the same weapon types and the same defenses against said weapon type. Once this is realized by the human player . Victory is inevitable . simply research the one type noone else uses . and research heavily the defense against the most common type of weapon and you can beat fleets with one or 2 ships If they are equipped properly.
One solution is disable tech trading altogether . but alot of the time the AI races seem to still go down the same lines of research. I propose each race having some kind of random dice roll or something making them choose a "Preferred " weapon type at game start and continue down that line as their primary weapon and then do the same for a secondary weapon type . Their choice of defense Is just as important and should be handled in the same way. to avoid "cookie cutter Weapon/defense specializations. Otherwise the only way to even have a challenge is to disable tech trading altogher.
At least this way every race will differ in their ship types . And I would be forced to make tough decisions . As it stands right now All i have to do is see what the galactic weapon type is and build my ships to counter that. and viola I win regardless of my military size
3,156 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Defence choice (and offense choice) is based upon variables which, I believe, include what their rivals are doing. However, with all AI in the game, it just goes for everything. For a more varied game, you could try with 5 AI, they choose their own path much better, although it tends to be over quicker.

However, I agree that if the AI said "right, this game I'm going for lasers" it would also add some elements into the game, but it's whether or not that would limit flexibility.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
For a more varied game, you could try with 5 AI, they choose their own path much better

I was wondering why I never had this problem, but I always play against five random races, so this explains a lot.

I totally agree about tech trading. I always turn it off, because the way it is now it ends up with all AI having nearly the same tech and the player also has to trade like wild to prevent a big technological gap. There were several good suggestions around this forum (trading blueprints, trading only for techs you would be able to research yet, trading only techs away one developed on his own ...) and I hope, some of this ideas will make it into one of the coming patches or the add-on.

Until then, playing without techtrading makes much better games ...
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The AI used to go for all the weapons, and would do which ever would get done first. That means it takes the AI 3 times longer to get more powerful weapons. It's much better for them to go for one type of weapon then all 3. Also, the AI will switch weapon paths when it notices that you have high defense against it (at least Ive seen the AI do so on the higher difficulties, weather or not it was intended, Im not sure).
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
it actually makes perfect sense for the AI to do that. I always play a research powerhouse and I am guessing you are too from your description, if you can SINGLEHANDEDLY develop practical defenses againt the weapons that are developed by all the AI memebers at the same time then good for you, you would have left them in the dust anyways, the reason one or two of your ships kick ass is because they are more technologically advanced.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
All the things you want 'fixed' are currently available in the current release. I have seen AIs research different weapons in my games. And Frogboy's Journal entries (and other player's comments) describe how the AI discovers that it is outgunned on a particular weapon/defense type and makes a switch to develop another type. Its true that tech trading between AI will ensure that they all have some similarities, but that doesn't mean they aren't researching other weapon types.

For instance, in my current game my spies reveal that the Drengin have at least some of ALL the weapon types researched. And I am only playing on the Normal difficulty level.

The REAL problem, which is to be addressed in 1.2, is that the AI only redesigns its ships once a year (once every 52 turns). So even if they have a new counteracting weapons system, you won't see it on any ships until that ~52 turn timer runs out. I hope Frogboy makes it so that the AI designs new ships when they *need* them rather than at some arbitrary turn number (oooooo, Sept 1st. Time for the new Drengi ship line up to be released).

There are definitely some more kinks to work out of the AI, and I hope comments like ours will continue to spur the Dev team on. The addition of the "let the CPU spend more cycles on the AI" flag coming up will hopefully make things more challenging too.

Cheers,
Reaver
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah, I often don't research weapons early-game, and simply buy whatever tech is going. Hence, it would LOOK like I 'chose' the same weapon as everyone else - but once I'm ready, I speed up a more useful weapon tree. The AI switches too.

Tech trading is a bit troublesome still, but as anyone who has seen the improvements over the patches can tell you, it used to be MUCH worse. The AI are getting better at judging trades, and that's all I want.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi!
When playing A game with many players the AI trades techs like crazy with each other.

In 1.1(1) games I noticed they do significantly less trading than in 1.0x games. Some techs are almost never passed around. So I suggest you to upgrade your game to 1.11 and see for yourself if that works for you.

BR, Iztok