a question

[Dictatress]

Having played Alpha Centauri for only a few days, I'm still "very green." So please excuse my inexperience.
The AI in my first three games seemed quite reasonable. They aren't anymore. When I first speak to them, they greet me and then immediately declare vendetta. Can someone explain to me why they're so unreasoningly aggressive, and whether it's going to be like that all the time?

[vitamin j]

Hello and welcome!

I'm pretty sure the AI is more or less friendly depending on the difficulty level you play. It also depends on the faction itself. For example, the Hive is an aggressive faction and so more difficult to keep peace with. I'm sure others here could provide more details about this...I feel your pain, though. You'd think you'd have to actually do something to the AI to make it hate you. Oh well.

vitamin j

[Ned]

It's been a long time since I have played anything but Transcend, so I do not recall whether the AI is less friendly at higher difficulty levels, but what I do know is the AI is very hostile to the leader in the power meter.

Ned

[Basil]

Hi!

The AI is definitely more hostile on higher difficulty levels.

A possibility is that you may have committed an "atrocity" sometime during the present game. "Atrocities" range from using Planet Busters downwards to nerve-stapling your own bases. (One might not expect Yang to be angry because you nerve-stapled your citizens, but he will be.) The AI's are very hostile towards anyone (human or another AI) who's committed an atrocity.

Beyond that, sometimes apparantly minor things can have large diplomatic effects. I remember one game where I was running first, having a low-grade war with Yang who was second, and prosperous trading relationship with Morgan, who was third. Then Morgan surpassed Yang by an iota on the powergraph. He immediately declared Vendetta on me, and my crawlers and formers started to be picked off by Morgan bombers.

But the short answer to your question is no, the AI isn't always like that. Figuring out how best to deal with them is one of the challenges of the game!

[Darius]

The AI are very sensitive to your social engineering settings. Each AI faction has specific "aversions", and if you are running run of those settings, that faction will hate you. (I'm at work and don't have the manual with me, but you can look them up in the manual or in the datalinks for each faction.) If you run all of the default settings, the AI factions will tend to be nicer to you.

Darius

[Earwicker]

The AI factions also have a habit of following the "friend of my enemy is my enemy" philosophy, particularly when it comes to diametrically opposed factions. So chum up with Lal, and Yang will hate you; University/ Miriam, Marr/ Hminee.

[Method]

the AI's social engineering likes/dislikes are:
Gaians-will like you if you run: Green. will hate you if: planned Free Market
Hive-like you: Police state. will hate you: democracy fundamentalism.
University:like: knowlege. hate: power, wealth
morgan: like: free market hate: planned green
spartans: like power: hate: knowlege/wealth
believers: like: fundamentalism hate: police, demo
pk'ers: like: demo: hate: police/fundy

CyCon: like:cybernetic hate:eudaimonia, thought control
drones: like: Eudaimonia hate: cybernetic thought control
Pirates: i think they like power, and hate knowlege/wealth, but i usually play as them so i dunno
data angels. like: democracy hate: police and fundy
cult: like green hate planned, FM
caretakers/ usurper: always hate yous

[The diplomat]

Also, there is an option that makes the factions more aggressive. Make sure that option is off if you don't want the factions to be aggressive!

[Dictatress]

Wow. Thanks for all the explanations. The thing is I haven't committed any atrocities (yet ), nor was the aggressive option on. And that was happening when I was just making contact with everyone.
But now that I know they're reasonable, I'm content.

[Ned]

Just for our benefit, tell us what level you were playing, what faction, what SE settings, who declared vendetta, and whether at the time you were ahead or way behind on the power meter. Ned

[Dictatress]

I was on Specialist level, playing the Spartans. The SE settings were the basic ones: frontier, simple, survival, none. The ones who declared vendetta were Yang, Lal, and someone else... Morgan I think. The other 3 were seething the next time I looked at their profile. I was the vying for the first place on the power meter (i. e. sometimes I was first and sometimes second).

[Ned]

The only explanation I have is your power rating. It is strange, though, that you had no one that wanted to enter into a treaty. However, I have had games like this too.

Ned

[Verrucosus]

This might just be a Peacekeeper's paranoia, but I am also puzzled by the other factions occasionally inexplicable hostility.

The three factors of AI mood given in the manual are SE choices, relative strength (power rating) and past behaviour. Yet, sometimes even pacifists like Morgan or Deidre are hostile although those factors tell you that they should be friendly. (Generally, I play Lal on Librarian.)

Still, my impression is that this kind of odd behaviour is just an occasional deviation from the rule. That's fine with me. The game would not be as much fun if diplomacy were entirely predictable.

Verrucosus

[Dictatress]

Yeah, I think that game was merely something out of the ordinary. It hasn't happened since.

Now they just all dislike me . My ideal SE settings are police state + green + power. Lal hates me for the police state. Morgan hates me for green economy. Yang hates me always. Miriam finds some odd reason. Deirdre usually doesn't survive that long (hehe ). And Zakharov is scared of me.

It's all the worse for them.