AI improvements

from GalCiv2 Forums
This game is getting better and better. Especially with 1.2. My last game I almost quit because it seemed i couldn't possibly fend off 3 civs bearing down on me... (mostly because my empire was spread thin because i started in a corner)



However. What i've noticed is the AI doesn't seem to put enough effort into building battle group fleets. By this I mean all fighters/battleships. It seems like all you have to do is get the match ups right against maybe 5-10 of these fleets, and the rest of his navy is transports and escorts. (which go up like kindeling by the dozens) (And if you're behind, you're best bet is to build a military starbase where you are going to fight, and try to take out these fleets.)


After you wipe out the AI's transports it is in a hopeless situation, because it's economy is wrecked (loss of population) and you can start bringing your forces to bear.

What I'd love to see from the AI, is get away from building so many escorts. (or any at all) Best would be to "own" a sector of space by military might, clean out each planets defenses, and send in fast transports that meet up with the battle fleets for protection. This would provide protection for the transports, and allow the transports to get there faster. (not limited by escorts speed)

Also, sending hords of transports after 1 unprotected planet deep in enemy territory (even escorted), is silly. The AI should be able to build 2-3 very fast transports to make an "attempt" at grabing an unprotected planet. But focusing 4-5 fleets of transports/escorts is just a waste. (esp after the first one gets decimated)

I am currently playing at crippling level, don't yet want to give the AI too much money...

I think one more or two more rounds of AI tweaking and this game will be incredible. I'd personally love to have go back to painfull or challenging.   


24,666 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Their escorts are a joke. 1 or 2 offense and defense. Easily taken out by almost anything. If I escort transports they are fleeted with my main battleships. Troops are to valuable, in my opinion, to trust them to anything less.
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I prefer to not use an escort at all. So much of your battleships tend to be filled with weapons and armour so they can travel nowhere near as fast as transports. If you put enough engines on transports you can usually tour them from any planet in your empire to any enemy planet in 1 turn, and if you are playing on a large enough map that that is not possible all you have to do is take a non direct route that isn't patrolled by your enemies. A few scouts will give you the pathfinding ability to set this up. I lose far fewer transports this way than by stuffing them with slower moving battle groups.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well thte AI is not up to my talent level yet, but it is putting up much more of a fight. My key advantage seems to be speed agressiveness and more intel because I have better sensor range and use speed. If I had to fight at the AI speed and sensor ranges it would be hard to defeat them at higher levels. As it is now the AI production bonus help its lack in these areas now. I agree with the above posted comments
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How do you trade fleets? Personally, I don't "play" the game in the standard sense, I RP. Also. I like to think of myself as the U.S, trading away big weapons to small civs and then getting raped by them in a turn or to and then utterly anhilating them... I have noticed the AI's crappy battlefleets.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't know if you can specifically give them fleets that stay together as a fleet (logistics would be a problem here if you could), but if you write down all the ships in a fleet you want to give them, and then give them that entire fleet they may choose to put them in a fleet if it suits their strategy and logistics. I've done this many times before to help keep a small civ alive and distracting my main rivals while I tech up so I can beat the big civs. Sometimes the civ I give the ships to puts them in a fleet right away and other times they spread the ships out throughout their other fleets.