Does the AI use creative tactics?

[Rollo]

Originally posted by Master Belisarius:
I go for the first option...
Sorry Rollo, but I'm with Mephisto and Alpha Kodiak: I think that sometimes the AI can do some "intelligent" actions, but really is not smart. In fact, I would prefer that the SE4 AI could cheat something and then, play better.

Nothing to feel sorry for . Actually I agree with you. All I said was that the AI can look at things that humans cannot. Whether or not it makes intelligent decisions is a totally different matter.

Rollo

[Q]

Excellent observations Gandalph. I always had the feeling the AI could "see" how strong the protection of a colony through weapon platforms and fighters was, but I never could prove it as you did.

[ August 01, 2002, 12:03: Message edited by: Q ]

[Atraikius]

Just to throw a little more to think of in this

I've seen a similar situation in several of my games while working on AI's.

Early in the game, I had a few frigates and a stack of sats defending my side of a warp point, with about a dozen lightly defended planets and a home world in that system and the adjacent one. I was attacked by a fleet of about 15 destroyers which I didn't have a chance of destroying with the forces I had available in the area. Resorting to cheesy tactics and using tactical combat, I attempted to damage or cripple as many of the enemy ships as possible, taking advantage of the AI's tendancy to retreat all damaged ships back to the nearest ship yard for repair. I was able to destroy 7 ships, and damage 6 others to some extent. However, instead of returning the ships for repair, the AI proceded to send the two undamaged ships into the adjacent system, and glassed the one breathable planet in the system other than my homeworld (assumed this was due to that being the only planet colonized other than my homeworld the Last time they had a ship in the system), while the 6 damaged ships (one of which only had 1 engine, 1 DUC 5, and 1 CSM 3) each proceeded to attack separate planets that they were capable of reaching durring the AI's move, glassing all 6. The next turn, the AI sent its three most damaged ships back for repair, while the other three proceeded to glass the remaining planet in the initial system, and two planets with minimal defenses that were within range in the adjacent system (bypassing the homeworld which was the closest planet to the warp point). Meanwhile, the two undamaged ships, instead of glassing any of the other planets in the system, chased down and destroyed the colony ship that I had sent out from my home world durring my turn, followed by a second colony ship the turn after, placing the two undamaged ships 4 systems from thier closest colony. The odd coincidence in this (which I have also seen with drones) is that in the strategy used by the enemy fleet, colony ships were one of the top target type priorities (use target type first was set to false).

My point in all of that is that I am wondering if the strategies used also have an effect on determining the AI's target selection outside of combat.

[dogscoff]

nice to hear some stories of challenging AI behaviour. I have my own theory:

Having read our continual *****ing about how predictable the AI is, Aaron snuck an "occasionally do something unexpected completey at random" function into the AI code during a previous patch. Most of the time this will result in the AI doing something new and stupid, and we will disregard it as such, but every now and again, a random action will occur which looks like excellent strategy from the AI.

If there isn't a function like this, there should be one=-)

[geoschmo]

It wouldn't suprise me at all if the AI could see the contents in the cargo of our planets. I would think it's an unintentional thing, could be called a bug. But it might be a bug that we don't want fixed.

Consider some of the other bugs that have been fixed in the past. Populations used to get unhappy at the presence of cloaked enemy ships. And you used to be able to see the contents of an enemy planet yourself by pulling up their planets in the combat simulator. It's very possible that these were fixed only from the players perspective and not from that of the AI.

Geoschmo

[jim]

Here is another example that suggests the AI benefits from info advantages:

1) The AI had a force of 45 ships in the square adjacent to a warp point that was a choke point into my empire,

2) I had a fleet of superior force - 40 ships but of much more combat strength than that of the AI - sitting on the warp point serving as a "cover force" for

3) Another 10 ship fleet on the warp point of 5 shipyard ships that were building defense bases and 5 other warships serving as close escort.

The three fleets sat there, without any combat, for several turns. I then selected "attack" for the cover force against the AI force. The result was that the AI force moved into the warp point square, destroyed the 10-ship fleet and was destroyed by my 40-ship fleet next.

Thus, the AI "knew" impossibly that I had ordered my cover force to attack and "impossibly" slipped through it to attack the weaker force.

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by jim:
Here is another example that suggests the AI benefits from info advantages:

1) The AI had a force of 45 ships in the square adjacent to a warp point that was a choke point into my empire,

2) I had a fleet of superior force - 40 ships but of much more combat strength than that of the AI - sitting on the warp point serving as a "cover force" for

3) Another 10 ship fleet on the warp point of 5 shipyard ships that were building defense bases and 5 other warships serving as close escort.

The three fleets sat there, without any combat, for several turns. I then selected "attack" for the cover force against the AI force. The result was that the AI force moved into the warp point square, destroyed the 10-ship fleet and was destroyed by my 40-ship fleet next.

Thus, the AI "knew" impossibly that I had ordered my cover force to attack and "impossibly" slipped through it to attack the weaker force.

I'm assuming this was a sim-move game; my explanation is possibly more mundane:

The enemy fleet had orders to attack the 10-ship fleet. Since there were two fleets in the same sector, the enemy fleet did the usual "AI dance" trying to move around the 2nd fleet to get to the 10-ship fleet. When you gave the attack order, the sim-move translated your order into the usual "seek after and attack" order. If I remember correctly, the "sought after" fleet gets a chance to move away (at least sometimes, if not always). So, your attack fleet moved in, the enemy saw the path was finally clear, attacked the original target, and sat around waiting for more orders, at which point your larger fleet caught up and engaged the enemy.

I hope that all made sense...