Why does the AI keep rushing me with colony ships?

This is something that's been annoying me for a while. While to an EXTENT it's something I'd try to do in the sense of grabbing juicy Class-10+ worlds in the middle of the AI's little civilization for the express purposes of denying them, I've never once actually thought about wasting the time and money to go obsessive-compulsive and try to scoop up every inane, class 4- world in the center of my opponent's civilization.

Simply put, these worlds are so insignificant that they don't have the resources to be any considerable value or hindrance to the enemy, and are so deep in enemy territory sometimes they'll just instantly revolt anyway.

Generally, once the AI has exhausted planets in their own system, they'll begin pouring colony ships into MY systems trying to grab these stupid little worlds. It's extremely irritating and unrealistic.

Scenario: I've conquered a little corner of space and have a conflicting border with the Altarians. They're doing pretty piss-poor and I'm ready to fill their space with electric death. I suddenly see an Altarian colony ship heading for my home world... for the Class 4 you start with that I usually never bother to grab. I watch with mild amusement as they take the world, and no more then 3 turns later, the planet is in a state of revolt due to its proximity with my homeworld. It turns over to me.

What the hell is wrong with the AI? Any planet worth wasting my time on I already took, leaving a few class 4 or smaller planets. I spy another colony ship, followed by another heading for various locales in my dominion. I get irritated and immediately turn a billion people into frozen, decompressed space debris. I begin invading Altarian space. And I watch as, in the middle of a WARZONE, they CONTINE to try to rush colony ships around my warships (to no avail) in a desperate attempt to grab laughably worthless Class 2 worlds. In fact, they're building more colony ships then military ships, and I'm wondering when they're going to run out of people.

In the end, they all died. The planets they 'stole' from me didn't even have a PURPOSE. They just built a factory and a starport if they had room, so it wasn't even some sort of influential strategy they were trying.

This happens every game, no matter against whom I'm playing. It'd REALLY make me happy if the AI could at least have a little update that would simply stop grabbing inane, shitty little planets in an enemy's influence. I don't understand what purpose it serves except to annoy me IMMENSELY and to exhibit a rather glaring flaw in the AI's "intelligence", since while rushing a colony ship into an opponent's neighborhood to grab a low-class planet isn't something I'd do too often, and while doing the same while it's in HOSTILE territory isn't something I'd do at ALL, and even were I so inclined, if said colony ship were destroyed EVERY TIME I TRY, I'd probably give it up in a hurry.

So to me, it makes no sense why the AI keeps doing it.

Wow, that was long.
4,690 views 8 replies
Reply #1 Top
Yeah, it can be irritating. Usually I let them do it, and if I'm friendly with them I'll buy the planet off them, if not friendly I'll let it revolt.

But I agree, the AI should take into consideration the amount of foreign influence on a planet when deciding whether to colonize it.
Reply #2 Top
The AI's colonization logic is off, but I do have to comment that the class 4 in your home system is more valuable than you're letting on.

First of all, if you're lucky enough to have it within two squares of your homeworld, it provides a major boost to your initial population growth. Because you can load population to and from that planet USING NO COLONY SHIP MOVEMENT POINTS, you can immediately raise its population to over 2B.

In addition, with Dark Avatar, almost all planets of class 1-4 terraform VERY well (with the single exception of Mars, it seems). It is class 5-7 planets that are the worst.
Reply #3 Top
Well my biggest problem with Class 3- planets is that they don't show up on the strategic view. Which makes it difficult to see where any are, until the AI, using its omniscience, pinpoints them all and assaults me with meatshields in giant pressurized cans.
Reply #4 Top
the AI, using its omniscience


No, it's not omniscient. Haven't you noticed how many scout ships it sends out? I NEVER build scout ships anymore, but the AI does, and it sends them to the farthest reaches of the galaxy that it can reach. That's how it knows where things are. Read threads about AI "cheating". No one has been able to show that the AI knows where planets are without finding things first. And this has been my experience, also. The AI will not send colony ships to a location where it doesn't know there are habitable planets. I just had this happen in my current game. I was surprised that a class 10 planet was still around relatively late, until I realized that it was just too far away for any scouts to have reached it yet.


Reply #5 Top
Myself, I go every world possible. As you progress through your techs and gain your soil enhancement, habitation improvement, and terraforming, your small worlds become big. I've had a class 1 or 2 move up to 9-11. Class 4-7 move up to 10-16. It's not the mere problem that the AI is getting all it can. If the AI doesn't go the planetary improvement techs it's the AI's waist. If you do, it's your gain. I've been known to do the reverse and move in on the AI's small worlds that it's late on getting to. Throws a big curve into their influence power that way. Try it and see what you get!
Reply #6 Top

the AI, using its omniscience


No, it's not omniscient. Haven't you noticed how many scout ships it sends out? I NEVER build scout ships anymore, but the AI does, and it sends them to the farthest reaches of the galaxy that it can reach. That's how it knows where things are. Read threads about AI "cheating". No one has been able to show that the AI knows where planets are without finding things first. And this has been my experience, also. The AI will not send colony ships to a location where it doesn't know there are habitable planets. I just had this happen in my current game. I was surprised that a class 10 planet was still around relatively late, until I realized that it was just too far away for any scouts to have reached it yet.



So explain the Minor Races who have only two or three ships that are all on their own planet sending out resource-seeking constructors invariably?
Reply #7 Top
If I've heard correctly, the AI MIGHT know where resources are to start. It's old code, and I believe there was a time long before the game shipped where they DID show up on radar.

Regardless, its a tiny oversight, and hardly consequential enough to be considered a cheat on the AIs part... though I'll admit it gets a little annoying that the AI immediately sends constructors towards my destroyed starbases even if they shouldn't know about them!
Reply #8 Top
Yes, the original backstory of the game states that all the major races, except the humans know where all the planets are. They had advanced tech long enough to know where those planets are located. The AI then can not reach or do not find the planets important enough to colonize.

Minor Races: GC2 hard coded, can not colonize planets at all. so they use constructors instead. I miss the GC1 version of minor races. in GC1 they would settle a few planets near them, but would not go crazy. I think the fact that they can't colonize makes them too weak.