A Question About Anger

Lord Felix · #1 March 23rd, 2001, 08:24 PM

I *have* looked for this in the old Messages, so please no comments on that.

Pleased to say I abandoned as lost another game Last night. Restricting oneself to only one kind of planet really makes for a harder game. I was very puzzled by one thing though. I was playing as the crystal guys, gas only, medium map, all warps not connected, temporal power, against the toughest set of opponents I could conjure from Modpack 1.60. Bad mineral production problems for entire game, because I just didn't have access to many good planets. For a long time I had a partnership with the Eee and the Xchiatl (sp?), both rock-based, who were always at war with each other. Long slow peaceful build-up. When everything crashed down on me, I was rated #2, ahead on techs, way behind on production.

Here's what happened. I opened a warp point to Sergetti space and started pounding on them. Immediately the Xchiatl declared war on me, and the Eee got angry. A few turns later, a warp point opened, and the #1 empire, the Earth Alliance, surged in from the south, declared war, and started tearing me up big time. They started off angry when I met them. My question is, what did I do to make them angry? I was quite far from being the Mega Evil Empire. They had no need for my gas planets. Did they immediately start hating me because I had planets in sectors they'd found and immediately claimed? If so, why was their behavior so different from the Eee? And why did the Eee and Xchiatl get pissed and turn on me after I went after the Sergetti?

I spent quite a while studying the various AI anger text files, and I don't get it. Is there a clear explanation anywhere? Thanks!

Nitram Draw · #2 March 23rd, 2001, 08:35 PM

Is it possible that an communication mimic was used on you? This could possibly cause the EA to be at war with you.

Lord Felix · #3 March 23rd, 2001, 08:41 PM

A communications mimic is a good guess, but I'm sure it's not that, since I have intel projects disabled. I've found that I can absolutely chew the AI up with intel, which I think is much too powerful, so I don't use it any more.

Any other theories?

DirectorTsaarx · #4 March 23rd, 2001, 08:44 PM

Usually you get a message about a communications mimic being used against you; generally at the same time as you get the message declaring war...

You say you had a partnership with Eee and Xiati? Which means that when you entered Sergetti space, they could see the same Sergetti sectors you saw; maybe they got angry about those? Or maybe they had (or entered into) treaties with Sergetti, and decided to turn against you.

As for the EA, they may just be predisposed to dislike other races. Some races are like that; I had to toast the Abbidon in my most recent game, because they refused to make treaties & then started attacking my planets. Very un-neighborly.

Beck · #5 March 25th, 2001, 12:03 AM

Sounds like the Sergetti may of had treaties with the Earth Alliance and the Xiati and maybe the Eee and called on them to attack your empire. A partnership with either the Xiati or the Eee with whom you had a partnership would have given all the information about your systems to the Earth Alliance who used this information. It would seem that your attempting to push the Segetti around lead to your being stabbed in the back politically.

Baron Munchausen · #6 March 25th, 2001, 02:04 AM

I'm not too sure that there isn't some plain old RANDOMNESS built into the AI reactions. Notice the "Propose Treaty Percent Chance Per Turn" setting in the AI_Politics files. So this is randomized even when under control of anger levels. There might be some random factors involving 'first impressions' and reactions to events, as well. I've been at "Moderate" with some AIs and had them declare war the very next turn even though I saw no events in the log about any conflict that could have set them off.