Massivley interconnected systems.

[geoschmo]

More conflict. Yes, I did not think about that, but I believe you are right.

As far as placement of ships, the AI will direct ships to defend claimed systems based on the level of enemy presence there. This actually should aid them in that as it will allow there forces a more direct route to defend those systems, and thus should be able to bring a defensive force to bear more rapidly and in greater concentration. Or at least it would work that way on paper. Haven't tested it yet.

I started long ago removing or reducing the number of black hole systems from my maps when I play the AI, so for me that wasn't much of a factor. I know that if no alternate route exsists, the AI will send an endless stream of colony ships into a damaging warp point. But does the AI always chose the most direct route even if a damaging warp point is on that route and a slightly longer route exsists with no damaging warp point? I don't know.

This may tell us though. If nothing else, with more routes, chances are better of finding one that is shorter and has no damaging warp point, so it should help the AI some, even if it doesn't help as much as it helps the human players.

Geoschmo

[Quikngruvn]

Heh. More conflict indeed. Defending your territory would be tougher, with many more points of entry into your empire to defend and fewer (or nonexistent) bottlenecks....

Faster expansion for sure... brings new meaning to the phrase "the interconnectedness of all things" (with apologies to Douglas Adams).

Quikngruvn

[Gryphin]

Another thought:
With more warp points to defend, will the AI use more Resources building mines or sattelites to defend them?

Destructive Warp Points: I have seen these,(and the black holes on the other side) with large quantitys of 1/2 dead ships of various types. I have not seen any since I learned how to implement "Avoid System", < wry grin >. In the game I'm playing now, there is a mine layer dead in space in a destructive warp point. What I don't know is: Was it
1) Just passing through or
2) Did it plan to lay mines at that warp point
Any thoughts on that?

[ 23 January 2002: Message edited by: Gryphin ]

[Growltigga]

Gryphin, not sure what you mean - do you mean the AI mine layer is just sitting turkey on an small or unstable (ie damage inducing) warp point that it is the other side of a warp point near the black hole (in which case it is not going to sit there for very long)

PS I cant get "avoid system" to work - how do you do it smartalec?

[Gryphin]

The hapless mine layer was damaged in a warp point. The warp point leads to a black hole. It has been sitting there since I found it. When it fell into my possesion, (after forcing the owning race to surrender), It still had mines onboard. Since it was a drain on my resources and I could not destroy it, I gifted it to an enemy AI, (and they accepted it).

I'll have to check on the "Avoid System" selector but I belive it is under the Empire button. You then mark or unmark systems as desired. If you don't use this, the AI will take the shortest path including through destructive warp points and black holes.
Not "smart", Experianced.

[Growltigga]

which means Gryf that I will need to practice more which currently I cannot do as I dont have SEIV with me - our game may be very very short indeed

Daft question but were all the engines on the minelayer operative

[Gryphin]

A good question, I never took note of the engines. My experiance will be offset by your ability to keep track of details. The real experiance I was thinking of was in terms of the years of gaming in general starting with cardboard and lead.