Strange Agoraphobic AI

[Krsqk]

Now that I think about it, Carrier designs may explore as well.

The main concern with building a ship-heavy "Hesitant" race is maintenance--you'd need some sort of special economic tech to allow them to build masses of ships. And drones. Drones would be great--lots and lots of drones all over the place. Of course, they'd all be gone after the first battle, but what a battle that would be!

[Rollo]

Originally posted by Krsqk:
...AIs only explore using designs designated as attack ships; no other types will use unexplored warp points...

that's not true. I cannot recall for all the individual design types (boarding, kamikaze, carrier, etc.), but two things I know for sure:
1) fleets will explore (regardless of the design types included)
2) attack bases will explore

In fact the attack base design types are great for exploring, since they are not included into fleets and wander off alone. Scout ship designs using the attack base design type can help the AI explore and expand.

[Rollo]

Loser - I like your idea for the bottled demon AI. Some testing regarding boarding ships, carriers and kamikaze ships needs to be done. In any case you'll want to use a high number of turns that the AI doesn't use fleets. So the AI will not venture out for, say, the first 100 turns.

[ February 27, 2004, 21:19: Message edited by: Rollo ]

[Loser]

While I like the 'keep hem bottled up then let them out' idea for a lot of other settings, for that mod that I will probably never produce I would need the buggers to stay put until someone takes action to get them out. And even then I'd like to have it possible to avoid them, mostly.

Since fleets will explore, I guess that means no fleets for this AI. As inconvenient as that sounds, it should be okay, as each of their ships will approximate SE IV godhood in every way that can be done. This AI/empire/specialized-racial-tech combination is not meant to be beaten, just avoided. Here There Be Dragons.

Even if Colony Ships are the only ships that don't explore this little idea is more full-bodied than it was before, as they can at least fill out their home system now, and are still intimidating even if they use only Fighters and Drones.

[ February 27, 2004, 21:43: Message edited by: Loser ]

[Rollo]

I did a quick hack with one of my AI and tested them.
Results:
1) Kamikaze and boarding ships do not explore on their own (when not part of a fleet), but sit on the homeworld.
2) Carriers, as Krsqk suspected, do explore.
3) Satellite layers are deploying sats on the warp points.

[Loser]

Thank you for looking into this Rollo.

If a Kamikaze or Boarding Ship is built on another world does it move to the homeworld?

If an invader enters the system will the Kamikaze or Boarding Ship move to engage?

Since Sat Layers work is it safe to assume that Mine Layers will work too?

What about Stellar Manipulation Ships? They will open additional Wrap Points, I assume, but will they explore them?

Again, Rollo, thank you for looking into this. With so many of the Old Guard AI designers missing it is gret that you still respond to inquiries like this.

[Rollo]

If a Kamikaze or Boarding Ship is built on another world does it move to the homeworld?

yes

If an invader enters the system will the Kamikaze or Boarding Ship move to engage?

yes and no. They might try to engage and then 'chicken out' on second thought. The AI is easily scared by superior numbers and since all these ships would engange on their own it is not really effective. That is the big downside of not using fleets. (but more on this later)

Since Sat Layers work is it safe to assume that Mine Layers will work too?

yes

What about Stellar Manipulation Ships? They will open additional Wrap Points, I assume, but will they explore them?

The warp point openers would not explore (fairly certain). I have noticed an odd tendency by the AI, however, to not open warp points from their home system though. So they might not open any warp points at all, even when they have a ship available.

Again, Rollo, thank you for looking into this. With so many of the Old Guard AI designers missing it is gret that you still respond to inquiries like this.

You are welcome. Hey, this is a hobby of mine .

Because of the poor performance of the single boarding and kamikaze ships I tried something else: Defense Ships. I removed all the kamikaze and boarding ships from the queue and built only Defense Ships as warships. Also I set the 'Fleets Dont Use For Num Turns' back to 10, so the defense ships would form fleets.

Defense ships build their own fleets and don't mix with attack, carriers, boarding, etc. I just tested this and found that defense fleets do not explore. And they do engage the enemy in a much more efficient way then the lone ships would .

Hope this helps. It certainly gives me some food for thought on implementing monsters and other nasty things .

Rollo