AI: finicky and prone to indebtedness
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Stardock Forums
Stardock Forums
In my first 'Challenging' game (still in progress) the Arceans for some reason appear to be bankrupt and stuck on a single planet. All other races are doing well with 3 to 5 planets each. There are no other yellow star systems remaining in the galaxy, but there are two perfectly fine class-14 planets in quadrants adjacent to the Arceans homeworld, but he won't touch them. In fact no AI player has touched them. The only reason I haven't colonized them is because they're still out of range of my colony ships.
Seems like maybe the AI should be adjusted so they don't 'turn up their noses' at class-14 planets if they have no other choice, preferring instead to fall further and further behind with no hope of recovery.
Second issue:
It is currently too easy to bankrupt the AI by forcing them to go into expensive and unnecessary payment plans during negotiations. An easy tactic is to sell shiny new techs to all the AI players, forcing them into long payment plans, even if they have the up-front cash available. If you continue to do this, the 'interest payments' become more and more significant. Eventually all AI-controlled economies exist simply to service their own debts. They have nothing left for their own production or research.
Perhaps this strategy should be nerfed so the AI won't go into debt if they have enough cash to pay up-front, or they have some percentage threshold of debt beyond which they won't cross. Maybe some races could be more likely to go into debt than others. Some civs could refuse to ever go on payment plans for their own moral reasons. Other civs would readily go into debt, but always declare war after a certain percentage threshold of debt in order to avoid paying.
Seems like maybe the AI should be adjusted so they don't 'turn up their noses' at class-14 planets if they have no other choice, preferring instead to fall further and further behind with no hope of recovery.
Second issue:
It is currently too easy to bankrupt the AI by forcing them to go into expensive and unnecessary payment plans during negotiations. An easy tactic is to sell shiny new techs to all the AI players, forcing them into long payment plans, even if they have the up-front cash available. If you continue to do this, the 'interest payments' become more and more significant. Eventually all AI-controlled economies exist simply to service their own debts. They have nothing left for their own production or research.
Perhaps this strategy should be nerfed so the AI won't go into debt if they have enough cash to pay up-front, or they have some percentage threshold of debt beyond which they won't cross. Maybe some races could be more likely to go into debt than others. Some civs could refuse to ever go on payment plans for their own moral reasons. Other civs would readily go into debt, but always declare war after a certain percentage threshold of debt in order to avoid paying.
