How does the AI do it?

from Stardock Forums
I've beaten the game in normal (all AIs set to normal). Now i've moved to inteligent. Inteligent is the hardest setting without giving the AI economic bonuses.

I've modded the game so i get stellar cartography right from the start (to deny the AI that initial advantage). The thing is, i'm producing colony ships as fast as possible so that i can take as many planets as possible. the problem is that the AI can keep up with my colony ship production, while beating me on tech (even though i have 40% research bonus). But the most annoying thing is that when i make first contact with a race (and this usually happens very early on), not only they have the tech to build defenders, but they HAVE at least a defender in each of their planets.

Now, how can they keep up colonizing, researching, building defenders like that? Someone can say that they are using the initial money to rush things. But if they have the same initial amount of cash that won't last for long for sure. Plus, they keep the same spending level unless they get into war (you can see this by the indicator graph in left lower screen).

Another interesting thing is that they can keep doing all this colonizing, reseaching and militar producing, and still have an enourmous population growth, equivalent to keeping all their planets at 100% morale.

Does someone have any ideas on how can i emulate this AI behaviour for myself? I can still beat the AI, but sometimes it gets rough in the first game years.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Everything you want to know and whole bunch of stuff you didn't know you even wanted.

http://www.orionsector.com/pages/galciv/downloads/The_Unofficial_GalCiv_Strategy_Guide_v1_0.doc
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
The AI already has some important economic and social advantages (pop growth, morale, production, etc...) at intelligent level. Add to that the fact they start trading a lot between themselves at that level, and you get an idea.
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Not to disagree Smith, I dont actually know if it does
get such bonuses at that level and the trading it does
is no more then the trading you can do as a player, but
it is very possible for a human player to outpace an
intelligent AI in all departments simutaniously.

At least it is at genius level, which is one level
higher then intelligent.

There are many fine examples on how to do this already
posted on the board, including im sure the link Ryan
point too.

Have fun!

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Now i've read that strategy guide and learned some new tricks, but it still doesn't explain how can the AI colonize fast and place defenders while doing great in tech.

Have you ever saved a game in the first turn and reloaded it? It says "we have fallen behind technologically". What gives? Does the AI have some starting adventages? How can we have fallen behind in the 1st turn?
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Now, how can they keep up colonizing, researching, building defenders like that? Someone can say that they are using the initial money to rush things. But if they have the same initial amount of cash that won't last for long for sure. Plus, they keep the same spending level unless they get into war (you can see this by the indicator graph in left lower screen).
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This definitely has not been my experience, playing the last 3 games with AIs set to either intelligent or genius. They do seem to get a better "push" at first, but I usually get espionage started right away, and from what I can see, they obey the same budget rules we do. By the time I've got the initial level of espionage on all the AIs, I'm outspending them, and have more techs, so I don't think their advantages are that great (NOTE: I am NOT talking about AIs set to incredible here, I have yet to play at that level).

Have you ever saved a game in the first turn and reloaded it? It says "we have fallen behind technologically". What gives? Does the AI have some starting adventages? How can we have fallen behind in the 1st turn?
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The "grading" for tech is so lame as to be worthless, just ignore it. It always says that. I usually average a tech every other month for the first 10 years of the game, and it always says I'm falling behind, even when I have more (sometimes FAR more) techs than the AIs. In my last game, I finished the game with 98 of the 150 standard techs, and I was still getting that message, and the scoring algorithm showed me as 2% of the way to a tech victory. Don't worry about it.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Crushbone-

What do you get from espionage that you find the use of credits is worth it and why? Not saying it has no use, I am just curious since the info esp gives is useless when I look at me so I have no idea why I would buy it about other races.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, the first level is pretty useless (although it does show spending in each of the 3 categories, and treasury balance), but I like the second level a LOT. It kicks in with 300bc cumulative spending on a given race. The reason I like it is this: it shows what tech the AI is currently researching.

The AIs are very stingy with what they pay for techs, and it's also not smart to load up your opponents with lots of nice tech. So one strategy is to sell them only what they're researching anyway, and if it's a tech that will take them several years to research, wait to sell it to them until they're almost done researching it anyway =)

That way, even if they don't pay you much, at least you're getting something, and not giving them any real advantage.

Also, if the early game tech-whoring is done right, you can be at 100% spending and still generating excess cash, so that's when I get a lot of that early push in espionage done. Once I reach the 300bc cumulative level, I cut the spending back quite a bit.

Also, some of the experts have mentioned that not keeping the espionage up to reasonable levels can cause problems in certain situations, such as detecting destabilization, for example.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
It says "we have fallen behind technologically". What gives? Does the AI have some starting adventages? How can we have fallen behind in the 1st turn?
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What this means is that you have less that a certain percentage of the total tech in the galaxy. The game starts everyone with the exact same tech (non at all), and as a result, you don't meet that condition.

I haven't tooked at it too closely, but I suspect it's 35% or so of total tech. In other words, you have to have 35% of the *net sum* of all races total tech to not get that message.

As an example, if each of the majors have techs with a total cost of 1500, and four minors exist with techs totalling 1000 each, the total cost of your techs much be high enough that your techs are 35% of 1500*5 + 1000*4 + your tech level. In other words, your techs have to cost approx. 11500/1.35==8519 research points or greater to not generate the 'fallen behind' message.

My percentage is probably not quite accurate, but that seems to be the basic operating principle behind the message.

~SDC~
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
So one strategy is to sell them only what they're researching anyway, and if it's a tech that will take them several years to research, wait to sell it to them until they're almost done researching it anyway
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So how would you know when the AI is *almost* done researching the tech?

Apart from watching the status and reloading when the AI starts to research a new tech (which is cheesy).
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Still i would like to know how they place defenders right after colonizing planets without falling behind. I would like to learn that trick.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Speed buying defenders. It is pretty cheap. I have had AIs set at intelligent who were over 400 BC in the hole in the early game because they rushed those defenders. And one must remember that an intelligent AI knows how to manipulate the spending sliders to the limit to get exactly which tech they need in an efficient manner of time if other priorities (like defense) do not interfere. And they manipulate those same sliders to get out of debt in an efficient manner if their are no task masters extorting them!

Just try some aggressive tech trading in the early game using techs that the AIs do not research early on. That will catch you up in tech and BC if you play it right. Some decent early techs to get: Advanced enviromental control, sensors, instant communications, basic repair, and anti-matter. Sell them to everyone at the same time for whatever you can get for it, whether it be BC or tech. And if you can somehow get corvettes, battleships, or dreadnaughts first, you can be set for years to come.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
von Schmidt: if you have espionage, you can see the current tech being researched *and* the computer's tech spending. You look up the tech cost on Javascout's web site and figure out how much time it would take to research at that rate of spending. This requires you to watch espionage constantly though.
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Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
What do you get from espionage that you find the use of credits is worth it and why? Not saying it has no use, I am just curious since the info esp gives is useless when I look at me so I have no idea why I would buy it about other races.
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One advantage I personally like with espionnage is that it enables me to see AI's abilities percentages. For instance, if my next victim has 200% in weapons and 200% in defense, I know I better look for some of his military resource starbases before even thinking about starting a war. Another example, if an AI has 300% in influence, let's say, I know it will be more difficult to flip his planets with culture.

In summary, espionnage enables me to fine-tune my tactics on how to take over specific AIs.
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Also, with the upcoming free expansion pack, you can gain knowledge of a victim's trade routes.

In my last game, I noticed that the Drengin were trading almost exclusively with me. I quietly built up other income sources so that when I finally attacked them, my economy was stable while theirs went south and they were drowning red ink. (Not sure if Drengin blood is red, but there was lots of that, too)


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Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
von Schmidt: if you have espionage, you can see the current tech being researched *and* the computer's tech spending. You look up the tech cost on Javascout's web site and figure out how much time it would take to research at that rate of spending
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Yes, vincible, that's it! Thanks for answering for me, I was busy yesterday =) I usually try to complete the trade a turn or two early for two reasons, though: 1 - They may spike up their spending, 2 - If it's not an exclusive tech, they may trade somebody else for it.

This requires you to watch espionage constantly though
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Yep, I check it every turn.
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
Also, espionage spending helps eliminate certain bad events, unless you just reload if they occur :)
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm glad people are actually reading the guide :) In ref to #17, the event is usually something about a diplomatic blunder leading to war.

BTW i've included all your nice comments here in the next version of the guide, to be released after the expansion pack.

Rob