AI dies of plague

I had this happen in my last game and had a mix of reactions. The Krynn and THalands researched it, whereas the Drengin and Korath (embroiled in wars as per usual) pretty much died off as a result of it. This was on randomized "challenging" with "force max CPU usage" so I couldn't tell you what the individual AI's were set at.

Me the yor, the drengin and my ally the korath were playing a game and the plague struck all of us. I invented the medicine quickly, but they never bothered to even try researching it. The drengin ended the game by surrendering to the korath, but at that point they both didn't have much more then 10 billion people, down from 200.

All right, I'm sorry, but this truly reminds me of "War of the Worlds."

Too cool. A mega-event? Is this for the Dark Avatar Expansion. Did you both have no Tech Trading?

I always put tech trading off

Does No Tech Trading apply to everyone or just the Human player?

I've seen this happen as well. Normally the AI will go for the tech. But sometimes they won't.

It's one of those things where I'll probably have to hard-code the AI to handle that mega event if it becomes too common of a thing for them never to go for it.

Hey, what yas all complaining about? this event is a nice free ride to a way high metaverse score!

I just had tath event and it saved my game.

The Drath were hiring everyone and thier dog to attack me, the Arceans AND Korx both got the Super Race event, plus some kind of galactic pow wow had just accured so that my allies declared war on me. I had my back against the wall when the plague hit, I quickly got the cure, tehn took my vengence. The Drath got the cure themselves, but I started steam rolling everyone else before they could get their own (I always play with big population growth bonuses as mone of my picks, so I had plenty of soldiers to send out!).

Personally, I thought it made the game much more fun, since it changed things so dramatically (as mega events should).



I couldn't agree more.

Too Mystikminds comment, thats the last thing we want. Or at least me.

I understand that the mega events are chosen semi intelligently... in the case Fued is talking about, was his ability to resist the plague considered versus those of his many opponents, or did he just take advantage of a situation that wasn't intentionally made to suit him? I'm interested to know the extent to which these mega events try to shake up/even out the galaxy.

They are chosen based on what is going on in the galaxy.

my remark was a bit 'toungue in cheeque' actually,,,, in the sense that everyone seems to be so serious about cheese, and then here we are with this mega event!! hehehe

Well what i think truthfully, a human player will be able to better adapt to any mega event than the AI. It is 'cheesy' but i think that is a small price to pay compared to the fun these events bring to the game.

I am aware. I am just wondering what things in particular are taken into account.

If all you want from this game is to get high meta verse scores then I guess that even is good. But those who actually want some kind of challenge think a "you win" event is kinda cheesy.

i'll just quote myself;

"Better adapt" and a free win are two completely different things. The AI is very incapable to act to mega events. I mean how hard is it to spend alot of focus on research and research one tech which takes around 5 turns to do?

No, instead it does nothing and after 20+ turns the AI goes from very powerful to next to extinct.

What point is there in a better AI if one mega event almost completely destroys them?

   Sell them the cure then

But in all seriousness i hope that this doesnot spell the doom of this event as i like it. In fact i wish it were harder to find the cure so that the playing field is reduced on all sides.

However all i am looking for is a nicely balanced game and i will be happy

The Galactic Core Forums - Home of the Metaverse Council

In my game, I would have gladly sold the cure except tech trading was disallowed. I think a fix would be to give the plague cure a ridiculously high priority if the no tech trade option is selected.

Even then it should have a ridiculously high priority because there is no guarantee that the one that has the cure will sell it.

I got hit with the Plague mega-event in the game I just finished. I jacked up research and got the cure in 3 turns, and the Drengin got it in about 15ish (it looked like they finished what they were researching, then went for the cure). Everybody else just kinda died off because they wouldn't offer me an even remotely worthwhile price for the cure tech (as in they'd accept paying 200bc or so, tops, for a tech that would literally save their empire).

I think the reason the AI factions go so long without researching the Cure is that they don't like 80's music.   

Sorry... Seriously, though: I have noticed that, especially in the late game, when an AI faction goes to war, they cease all research and building and plow all of their production into building warships. Under normal conditions, this is fine, but the devs need to build in a 'reality check' of some kind that would turn research back on for events like this.

I haven't tried this yet, but I think it would be ridiculously easy for a player with Super Manipulator as his/her race ability to set everyone else fighting as soon as the plague event starts, wait a few months, then wade in and start gobbling up planets for the low, low price of one transport each.

I had this in beta 2b and the AI's were very slow to research it. I think Brad/Frogboy/Draginol should hardcode the AI's to research it straight away. I can't think of a situation where this wouldn't be the right course of action the plague affects are just so powerful.

Even if there was a situation where researching the cure straight away wasn't the right course of action it would prob only be minor mistake poss except near to tech victory.

How does the plague work anyway? can it destroy an entire population resulting in colony destruction? would it affect population on transports?

The whole point of Mega events are to provide events that turn the galaxy on it's end (so to speak). If the cure is easily researched, or if teh AI is hardcoded to research it right away, then the event becomes nothing more then a speed bump. It slows things down, but ultimatly doesn't change things much.

Like the special abilities, the mega evetns are by nature unbalanced, since they are meant to unbalance what ever is going on in the galaxy. Teh actual "blance" comes in that sometimes an event works against you (like one that I had that made all of my allies declare war on me), sometimes they work on your behalf. I feel it adds to the fun of the game.

Whichever empire was winning when the event happens would probably continue realativly unabated. Whatever the affect was on thier empire wouldn't make any differance, since it would have the same result on every empire. To explain this better, think of a group of boats in a harbor. If the tide goes out or comes in, it has the same result on all the boats.

Perhaps there is some middle ground that can be reached. Would it be possible to, in the pre-game options, toggle which mega events are possible? That way people can turn the plague event (or others that they don't like) off while still retaining the possibility of mega evetns?