AI isn't building colony ships

Dude, that's an easy influence win right there haha.

-Spencer

So in my current DA game (Large,9 factions 8 minors, challenging diff), it's week 109 and the AI hasn't built one colony ship. None of them.

1) Are you using any mods?

2) Check that the AIs are indeed set to the right difficulty, and didn't get (by accident or bug) set to fool.

I have also seen this bug a few times. It does not appear to be anything to do with the AI settings. I can start a game on crippling and if I don't like the looks of my starting position then I use CTRL-N until I get a reasonable galaxy. Sometimes I find that having done this, none of the AIs do anything. I also saw this bug in Dread Lords.

I've had the same problem enough times that I've stopped playing DA until the next patch. I also play max number civs at painful. I didn't have the problem until I tried altering the personalities a bit (made Yor more aggressive, etc.) Multiple restarts later I keep getting the same thing. The AI intelligences are set for Gifted or higher so I don't think that's the problem.

By the way, one thing you may want to consider changing is that there doesn't seem to be an easy way to restore the default settings to each civ. I've been tweaking the AI settings seeing if I can get them to colonize again. I even uninstalled and reinstalled DA, but the changes I made to the AI civs persisted, and the AI still won't colonize.

By the way, one thing you may want to consider changing is that there doesn't seem to be an easy way to restore the default settings to each civ.

Click the clear button in the race customization screen. Failing that, just delete the custom race files from My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar.

Yeah, clear then save restores the default. I thought I'd tried that but it definitely works. I'll start a game later tonight or tomorrow and see if the AI colonizes now. At last check the only thing I'd altered was making some more aggressive and giving them more money, so I don't think it was the settings themselves.

Played a few games today. With the AI reset I don't seem to be having the problem. Considering that the only changes I made to the AI were giving them more cash, making them more agressive, and shuffling the starting abilities this suggests to me one of two things. Either the process of modding the AI somehow bugged it, or it's just random and I'm imagining an association.

I can start a game on crippling and if I don't like the looks of my starting position then I use CTRL-N until I get a reasonable galaxy.

Yup, thats exactly what I did.