Does the AI use creative tactics?

[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...