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inconsequence and lack of force concentration ARE the main things everybody is complaining about. I mean, all the AI's logistic errors hurt them, but these are what makes them victims instead of adversaries
My biggest complaint is that war with the AI is always to the death. There is no "limited conflict." It is just like in Civilization where you get into a war in 2000 B.C. and when it rolls around to A.D. 1790 you're still in that same Da$#$% war with that same player. Who the hell ever heard of a 4,000 year war?!?! Why is this the exact model used by every single strategy game ever made? When the AI declares war it should have clearly defined goals. Drop them into a temporary text file or something. Things like, "Capture planets x, y, and z; and kill all Drushocks ships in system A." When the goals are met, it offers a non-aggression treaty. Similarly, it should have clearly defined, "Well, I lost this one" settings. Something like, "If I've lost 2 entire systems and not defeated a single of my enemy's fleets... Then offer protectorate status or tribute plus non-interaction treaty."
Secondarily, I'd like to see a setting where the AI doesn't just get angry, but gets submissive. After a point, the AI should get afraid of you, not just angry at you. It should actively seek out allies before attacking you suicidally.
Easy and very important: The AI should get cumulatively less likely to declare war the more wars it is already involved in. So it should be way, way less likely to declare war on a third empire if it is already at war with two. When it begins losing battles, it should start getting out of the multi-front wars and try to concentrate on killing the weakest of its enemies.
There needs to be some way to get the AI to give up a claim on a system. Right now once they claim something, they never give up trying to get it.
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