quote:
Originally posted by Lupusman:
Isn't it because the ships already have orders to go through the warp point (and not attack the colony ship), but they can't go through the warp because it is blocked. Since they don't have orders to attack, they won't attack, even though that's where they want to go.
I believe you are correct, but the question is, why isn't a ship given orders to attack the colonizer? All of the ships in the group have had multiple trips back to the resupply base, and all of the ships wind up without standing orders at the end of the turn. For some reason, a minister is assigning the ships orders to do something on the other side of the warp point every turn, but never assigns any one of the many individual ships or fleets the responsibility to attack the colonizer.
I keep wondering if there is a setting in one of the AI files that says "Don't attack non-combatants" or "Don't attack non-threatening ships" but I can't figure out what that setting would be. Could it be something to do with the "Maximum Systems to Defend at a Time" setting in the AI_Settings file? It is set to 5 for the Rage, which is as high or higher than most. However, by this time (past turn 100), the Rage have many more systems than that and are at war with four different races. Perhaps this system is not considered threatened enough or strategic enough to warrant defending.