Does the AI really know where all the resources are?

All I have to say is, if you see an enemy constructor heading into a corner of your territory you haven't explored yet, either blast it or get your own constructor there first PRONTO!

Have you ever seen the AI explore with scouts?

The only sensor drones it has are the ones it finds
in debri with its own hero and they dont bother to
explore.

The Ai is limited by range and often can not reach
resources within your space due to not having range,
but it knows where it is.

thats not too fair, too bad there isnt a diplomacy option where you can ask the aliens to remove its presents from a sector like in SE3.

The ai knows where the resources are. I use this quite effectively against it, however. Park your constructor near a resourse you know an alien ai wants. Wait to take it untill you see em coming en masse. Take it last minute. Do not. I repeat do not put constructors in their path or let em see one. Or they'll turn around knowing they are beaten to it and take a different one. This allows you to take another one you might not have been able to because it tends to send all its constructors toward the one it wants rather than secure first upgrade later.

I have never seen the AI turn around during a race to a colony or resource -even when its clear that I am going to beat the AI there,- but as for them knowing where everything is, read the text that shows up when you first start a game, CAREFULLY.

They've already explored space.

Anyways, does anyone else think it would be cool to keep the look of alien ships when you trade for them? Having a unique precursor ship look wouldn't be bad either.

Hopefully that kind of detail will be implemented in the expansion.

They turn around all the time with both colony and constructors in my games, when I have them beat to a resource or planet. Of course, I always play on Intelligent or higher AIs, so maybe it only happens on the higher ai levels.

~SDC~

Brad mentioned that different races excel at different things in this game. Some of the AI will check if the target system or resource has been taken and reroute. Others will hit themselves on their forehead when they reach there.

Similarly, some AI will prefer to charge out and die a glorious death in space rather than defend in orbit.

That is news to me that the AI knows where all the resources are without exploring. It seems Brad has consistantly said the AI ONLY knows where the yellow stars are.

Frogboy - why don't you put an entry in the Encyclopedia that explicity states what advantages and disadvantages the AI gets at the various levels. There seems to be so much misinformation out there....
[Message Edited]

does th AI know where your ships are as well?

The official answer is no. It was mentioned that comp checks to see if ships are in sensor range before making their move.

However, we do have reports from some players that AI ships gunned straight for human ships that are out of sensor range even after repeated evasion.

The AI knows where all the stars are, just like you, and they know what kind of stars they are (unlike you). They know which stars have good+ planets, but not what those planets are or how many of them are there, specifically. This has been stated in other posts in this forum (one of the formerly frequent 'AI cheats' threads).

The resources weren't intended to be known, but they apparently inherit from the star object, and as such, the AI does know what types they are, and where they're at. I recall this as having been explicitly stated before as well, but I could be mistaken.

I have yet to see AI ships not observe sensor ranges myself, so I can't comment on that oddity.

~SDC~