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This week's progress on AI.

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This week's progress on AI.

from Stardock Forums
The AI has really gotten a lot of tuning this week. If the marketing decision comes in to hold off on release by a couple weeks we'll have another public beta and you'll get to see some of this AI stuff.

The star base handling has been rewritten to be much more intelligent. Also, the computer when it thinks is necessary will escort transports and such. I find that really cool watching it because of the seamless way you see escorts get together. It's not that common since the AI usually doesn't send in transports unless it's pretty confident of space superiority. But it's still pretty neat seeing a battle hammer, a fighter, and a transport merge together from different directions.

The different AI personalities have been implemented this week. This gives the luxury of different races trying different things.

Also threw in a useless but fun feature that, as a gamer, I wanted in but it's kind of pointless. The AI will suck up to you if you're dominating militarily.

"In honor of your greatness and PEACEFUL nature we would like to give you this gift.."

I dunno about others but dog gone it, when I'm wiping the floor with someone, I want it to grovel. Expect to see more groveling in before the final release and vice versa.

The AI is also getting better at handling relations with other players. It'll try to get like minded civilizations to work together (this includes the human player too and it'll talk to you and let you know what it thinks needs to be done). Lots of funny text there too depending on your moral alignment. ;)

We're almost there stability wise. I don't think we have any crash bugs at this point. What's left are problems with strings goofing up (hard locks). But they're not common and shouldn't be too hard to clear up once we find the culprits.

There is still an annoying problem where the turn button will get stuck. You have to hit the ENTER Key to get th enext turn to go. This is due to the threading. I'm told it happens mor eon my machine since I have SMP but it's still an issue we need to address.

Still debating on voice overs versus captions in the cut scenes (which you guys hvaen't seen but there's several MINUTES of cut scenes in GalCiv). Captions are easier to translate. Voice overs are cooler. Not sure which way to go on that yet.

I think you'll be quite pleased with the way the AI is heading. We will be working to make it easier at lower levels. We'll be penalizing the AI's economy more on the normal level (it currently gets a 10% penalty to its economy at normal) so that it's a bit easier.

The goal isn't to have an AI that's unbeatable. The goal is to have an AI that plays intelligently.

We also hope to tweak the "good planet" seeding more. Right now it's pretty random. Would like to see this more intelligent.
1,376 views 33 replies
Reply #26 from Stardock Forums Top
I have an AI complaint:
My game status is Good and I was allied with the Good Torian in a war against the evil Yor. The other 2 AI were eliminated. I watched the Torians attack this 1 system for over 12 turns, no transports ever appeared. I sent my own and took it, defended it with my Dreadnought. On the next turn, they attacked the planet, my planet, breaking the alliance and starting a war. If I had left the planet undefended, they would have moved away as before, but this is an improved AI.
My military ranking dwafted theirs. I expected a game win within two hours of play as I controlled nearly 3/4 of the galaxy. Why would they break a 60 month alliance? I did give them 2 Yor systems and sector ownership just 12 turns prior to the betrail. note: with my 4 military resources, my Dreadnought are more powerful than their Overlords and my Overlords are untouchable.
Reply #27 from Stardock Forums Top
'On the next turn, they attacked the planet, my planet, breaking the alliance and starting a war. If I had left the planet undefended, they would have moved away as before, but this is an improved AI.'

In my experience, the AI doesn't notice when a system changes hands if they've already sent the ship to attack. This carries through for transports, constructors, and colony ships too.

Also, the reason they may not have sent any transports may be because they couldn't get them there. A Transport's base range is 0 sectors.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #28 from Stardock Forums Top
AM said "In my experience, the AI doesn't notice when a system changes hands if they've already sent the ship to attack. "

This is the bug he is complaining about. I have seen it too, and it has been reported before. Perhaps they just haven't had time to figure out how to correct the problem.
Reply #29 from Stardock Forums Top
'AM said "In my experience, the AI doesn't notice when a system changes hands if they've already sent the ship to attack. "

This is the bug he is complaining about. I have seen it too, and it has been reported before.'

I'm not entirely sure it should be considered a bug. I do it all the time when I have ships on autopilot too. I just happen to get that nice warning dialog right before something happens that the AI doesn't.
Reply #30 from Stardock Forums Top
1). Back before the warning pop-up we used to get put into wars with non-belligerants when our ships on autopilot would attack planets that had changed hands or ships that had moved onto the destination tile. Terrans were given an aid to avoid the uncontrolled start of an unwanted war.

2). The AI does not put ships on autopilot. The ship movement was calculated during the time the human player took over the planet and the actuall movement takes place during the AI's turn. The AI is supposed to play by the same rules as the human player. Hence, if a human player can avoid an unwanted conflict, why can't the AI?

3). The problem is that the AI experiences an uncontrolled start of an unwanted war because the AI code lacks a final check for changes in situations. This was given to the human player because it was needed for ships on autopilot. It should be given to the AI because a move calculated in the multithreaded code may become an unwanted move during the AI's turn.
Reply #31 from Stardock Forums Top
Jack's #3 would really make the game better. My work-a-round is to leave the planet undefended (dangerous) for the 2 turns it takes for the AI ship to move away.
Reply #32 from Stardock Forums Top
'2). The AI does not put ships on autopilot. The ship movement was calculated during the time the human player took over the planet and the actuall movement takes place during the AI's turn.'

Hence the ship is esencially on autopilot. The path was already calculated, it just hasn't moved yet.

'The AI is supposed to play by the same rules as the human player. Hence, if a human player can avoid an unwanted conflict, why can't the AI?'

I never said they shouldn't. The last line describes exactly what should happen. If the move was calculated between the AI's normal turns, the ship is basically in the AI's equivalent of autopilot. The chance for the AI to change shouldn't come until the end of it's movement, or right when it gets to attack positin, same as for a human ship in autopilot.
Reply #33 from Stardock Forums Top
That is fine, just as long as an attack isn't solely a result of a move calculated before a star's change of hands.