Bug or Feature: Ships traded to AIs inactive on first turn after trade
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I'm not quite sure if this is an intended feature or an oversight waiting to be exploited, but any ships that a player trades or gifts to an AI will simply refuse to move on the ensuing turn, no matter how many movement points it has left. I can see both pros and cons to this issue right now:
* You can use your ships as bargaining chips without the AI ever receiving the benefit of them. By parking AMMs next to some Drengin units and gifting them to the Altarians they are at war with, you can improve your relationship with the Altarians even though they never benefited from the deal. This is an easy way to sue for peace by the way, since you can enforce a peace treaty by raising your diplomatic standing with gifts. Had the Altarians been at war with you, you could gift them an AMM, kill it, rinse and repeat until they are friendly with you.
* On the other hand, if those AMMs gifted to the Altarians in the example above could be immediately utilized against the Drengin, it could be too easy for the human player to direct a proxy war, especially if a few Combat Transports changed hands too.
It looks like the only way out of this conundrum is for the AIs to recognize which race is gifting ships to their enemies so they can identify the puppet master behind the scenes. Surely this would be a nice addition to the AI even beyond the scope of stopping cheese tactics. Perhaps as a first step, we should be able to identify the original owner of a traded ship, at least for a few turns after the trade. Maybe we can improve the espionage aspect of the game later so players and AI alike can learn about diplomatic interactions between other races beyond the simplistic war declaration, destabilization, and extortion attempts currently available.
* You can use your ships as bargaining chips without the AI ever receiving the benefit of them. By parking AMMs next to some Drengin units and gifting them to the Altarians they are at war with, you can improve your relationship with the Altarians even though they never benefited from the deal. This is an easy way to sue for peace by the way, since you can enforce a peace treaty by raising your diplomatic standing with gifts. Had the Altarians been at war with you, you could gift them an AMM, kill it, rinse and repeat until they are friendly with you.
* On the other hand, if those AMMs gifted to the Altarians in the example above could be immediately utilized against the Drengin, it could be too easy for the human player to direct a proxy war, especially if a few Combat Transports changed hands too.
It looks like the only way out of this conundrum is for the AIs to recognize which race is gifting ships to their enemies so they can identify the puppet master behind the scenes. Surely this would be a nice addition to the AI even beyond the scope of stopping cheese tactics. Perhaps as a first step, we should be able to identify the original owner of a traded ship, at least for a few turns after the trade. Maybe we can improve the espionage aspect of the game later so players and AI alike can learn about diplomatic interactions between other races beyond the simplistic war declaration, destabilization, and extortion attempts currently available.