What am I doing wrong?

from GalCiv2 Forums
So before buying Galciv II, I read a bit about it. The dominant feature that I saw was wars, conflict with the AI, and other such stuff of that nature.

So I started up a few games on the easier difficulty levels, played around a bit, and was never attacked by the AI. Alright, I thought, the problem is that I'm not using enough military races, and the galaxy isn't large enough. So I start a new game, including the Thalians, Torians, Arceans, Terrans, and the Yor (I'm playing as a custom race) on a gigantic galaxy. I got the Snathi and Dark Yor as minor races, too. The only war that happens is between the Arceans and the Yor, and the only action taken against me is the Arceans demand tribute upon first meeting me, but don't do anything when I refuse. The Snathi and Dark Yor build nothing but constructors and freighters, which sit in orbit around their worlds. None of the other races relations towards me ever go below neutral, and slowly progress towards close as the game advances.

Well, I think again, clearly the problem there was that by the time I met other races, I was too advanced and they didn't want to challenge me. So I started another game with the Drengan, Yor, Torians, and Thalians in a small galaxy. It started out well. The Drengans started building up a military, relations degraded to "cool", and I felt like I had to build an actual military in case they attacked. For the first time, ships with mass drivers circled my worlds to repel an invasion. Then, nothing happened. The Drengan got culturally squeezed between me and the Thalians (the two leading races), were unable to keep up with only 4 planets, and eventually the Torians declared war on them and destroyed them. The Yor never even bothered building a fleet, and the Thalians seemed unwilling to use theirs, despite their military superiority, both in tech and numbers.

So, what am I doing wrong? Why do the AIs not go to war? Is there some "aggressiveness" slider that I missed? Do neutral civilizations not get attacked? Do I need to play a game with all the evil races and nothing else? What do I need to do to get warmongering AIs?
strategies
6,989 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Is there some "aggressiveness" slider that I missed?


Not a slider per se, but when setting up the game you can choose how aggressive your opponents are. Also, raise the level of difficulty. At the lower levels the AI doesn't do much; the common phrase is 'sits and drools'. You can also bribe other civs into going to war with each other, and of course the easiest way to get into a scrap is to start it yourself.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Force em to use max cpu. If all else fails, start a war!..... Orrrrr, if you are the super manipulator make the galaxy fall into all out war and watch them kille eachother whilst you eat popcorn! Divide and conquer is always a good tactic!

If they still aren't a challenge, set their difficulty up to Ultimate and see if you still win....
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you do not edit the personalities of your AIs, I suggest you set the difficulty to at least 'Tough'. At this level, AIs think alot better and the economics of all AIs are not at adisadvantage compare to yours. Read the manual about difficulty level.

GalCiv2:DA has got fantastic AI, trust me with this. It's like having another human player controlling them.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, the main way to get into wars at lower levels is random events. If a race gets, say, a PreCursor ranger when the best ship has 8 attack/6 defense, they'll go to war.

Also, wars happen quickest when you make several treaties.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"So I started up a few games on the easier difficulty levels..."

This is your problem, try playing on tough and you'll see who is who
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What difficulty are you playing on.

Make sure you ahve the Krynn in there and you'll be declared a blight on the galaxy.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Definately crank up the intel on your adversaries. I set it at beginner, which is still not quite "sits and drools" and I had both the Drengin and Yor thuggin' on me. I eventually attacked one of them, the Yor I think and got a nice scape going.

After I got comfortable with the game, I use a large map, 5 AIs, at normal setting and I have the Yor and Drengin thuggin' and eventually one of them, usually the Yor, declare war. In this last game, I smacked the Yor back to their home world (got two worlds, three asteroid mines and a morale resource), they sued for peace, I said yes to regroup and get my economy started back up (deficit spending during wartime), and I hadn't even made it back across the border when the dummy started thuggin' on me again.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Even on beginner, they can be quite aggressive. Also, try putting ships near their planets and building influence starbases. That can lead to wars.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You did not say if you were playing DL or DA; the AI is better in DA. Play on Tough or above, align evil, and you will find relations with the good races will start dropping (especially if you don't build a competitive military).
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Crank up difficulty up lol? - AI starts being semiwhat agressive on "masochistic" .but also AI typically never attackes in the beggining - they are too busy developing (no sense declaring wars when you dont have planet invasion yet).

Typically after world grab phase, aggressive race start teching for weapons and start building fleets. Shortly after that theyn will go for blood.

by mid -game a lot of wars are starting and the only way they dont touch you - if you have sky high diplomacy skills ,lots of trading and treaties - this is way to diplomacy victory actually.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Can't you also set the starting relationship with each race? It should be a setting that goes team-close-warm-neutral-cool-hostile-war-????. That might only apply to custom races, in which case you edit the races, create a custom variant that hates your guts, start a game on a tiny map with rare everything and fast technology, then get into a knife fight in a phone booth with eight other guys.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Definately crank up the intel on your adversaries. I set it at beginner, which is still not quite "sits and drools" and I had both the Drengin and Yor thuggin' on me. I eventually attacked one of them, the Yor I think and got a nice scape going.

After I got comfortable with the game, I use a large map, 5 AIs, at normal setting and I have the Yor and Drengin thuggin' and eventually one of them, usually the Yor, declare war. In this last game, I smacked the Yor back to their home world (got two worlds, three asteroid mines and a morale resource), they sued for peace, I said yes to regroup and get my economy started back up (deficit spending during wartime), and I hadn't even made it back across the border when the dummy started thuggin' on me again.


Just as a side note, when they sue for peace you can normally refuse the first offer and then with the window still open offer them a peace treaty and demand some money/tech along with it.

Usually works for me. Just remember, if they aren't willing to pay for peace you obviously didn't beat them badly enough.