Ratio of battles won/lost: a simple fix for infinite war?

from GalCiv3 Forums

I recently became trapped in a perpetual war with a neighboring faction. Due to geography of the large map the conflict was fought across a tiny front of maybe 40 hexes. This war went on for a long time: it began just as I had launched my first medium ship, and ended when I achieved a science victory.

Now I’m not complaining as such, while these infinite wars common occurrence, this last match has been the most intense game I’ve had. Certainly things were touch and go for a long time; every victorious fleet was crushed by the brand new fleet from the enemy, each new weapon met with new defenses etc. But eventually it got to a point where for every fleet they lost I would lose maybe a ship. And after that the damage to my fleet was caused by pieces of enemy crew smudging the paintwork.

And here lies the problem. I know the AI responds to being roundly beaten, but as I was role-playing a bit I didn’t especially want to conquer their planets I just wanted peace. It’d be nice not to have to eliminate a faction (or near as) to get peace.

Given how much war material they lost, couldn’t the AI have some sort of war attrition metric built in? Nothing that affects stats as such – it would be a pain to have ones production or moral hurt because the AI is too dumb to accept peace – but a decision metric that made peace more likely; to state verbally, “after 10 fleet battles, if I have lost 70% of the battles seek peace, if I’ve lost 95% beg for peace”. If we assume the AI has been successful, say taken a planet, make the decision be something like “if planet has been take, ignore the next 10 battle outcomes”.

Some sort of algorithm that meant one is not left swatting wave after wave of numerous but totally outclassed ships out of the stars would be nice

Just a thought

7,141 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

It seems like you are experiencing this only because you and your enemy were locked in a stalemate for a while. The AI faction will be more likely to ask for peace, or you can propose peace to them (and make demands) when you are significantly more powerful than they are. Alternatively, you can also achieve this if your diplomatic bonuses are high enough. How much higher was your faction's military rating?

 

Most factions are practically begging me for peace after I capture several of their planets and decimate their fleets.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

At the time my diplomatic bonuses were pretty high but military power low (but tech high). Even after taking two planets they wouldn't accept peace unless I gave them 2 dozen technologies and several planets.

 

I guess the thing is I didn't really want to wipe them out, wasn't the game I had decided to play. It would be nice if the AI recognized it made a mistake, for want of a better word, before the end came.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The AI actually already has just such a stat. It's called WarEndurance. Most races start with X WarEndurance, and it is reduced by casualties.

 

For reference, the Drengin have the highest (I think) at 150 and the Iridium have the lowest at 80. The AI loses 2 Endurance from a lost fleet and 1.75 from losing a planet. It gains 2 endurance per fleet it kills and 1 for every planet it takes. It presumably also recharges at some rate.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Sweet. Now I know what war endurance does. I had an inkling when I saw the xml, but I never bothered to figure it out.

 

But there you have it, getnohappy. You either beat up your enemies then leave, or you raise your military power.