Who lives? Who dies?

[Lucy In The Sky]

I've never seen this addressed. Single player, Huge map of Planet, in either SMAC or SMAX, pure/orig factions or a custom mix, any dificulty level - seems the AI rather quickly kills off one or even 2 of the 7 factions. On what basis? Why? More than the AI can carry?

[GeneralTacticus]

originally posted by Lucy in the Sky
I've never seen this addressed. Single player, Huge map of Planet, in either SMAC or SMAX, pure/orig factions or a custom mix, any dificulty level - seems the AI rather quickly kills off one or even 2 of the 7 factions. On what basis? Why? More than the AI can carry?

I've never noticed any kind of pattern in this, it seems to be just luck. I've also seen games where no-one was eliminated at all. Also, don't forget that A: in SMAX, it's possible to free eliminated factions by probe; and B: often (unless you've turned on Do or Die) an eliminated faction will escape in a colony pod.

As I've said, it seems to be nothing more than chance. If a faction winds up near a very aggressive faction, or another faction gets a big military, or if for any reason they get into a war they're not ready for, they'll probably die.

[Flubber]

I have not noticed any pattern on this either. Sometimes all the AIs build decent size empires and the only one eliminating them is me. Other times a couple of factions die out before i even meet them. Sometimes a faction builds a bunch of cities, other times I have found "empires" of 1 or two bases and the AI seems disinclined to build any more despite a empty available land.


The early death you have seen is most likely a result of factions placed too close together. Even on huge maps, the random map generator seems inclined to place factions almost on top of each other sometimes, even if there are huge tracts of good lands elsewhere. Close factions equals early conflicts usually equals death for a faction.

So i don't think there is a pattern to kill off some of the AIs. I simply think that factions are often placed too close and that results in the early kill-off you have seen

[Earwicker]

Yeah, I don't think the computer has it in for itself. Just unlucky for those other factions.

Worms can be a culprit early on, too. Attackes can wipe out bases, CP's entirely, or leave them ripe for another faction's plucking.

I recently saw such a horrific start for Roze: a landlocked square right next to the Ruins' fungal patch. Worms took out her second pod and she other CP sent out for expansion. Worse, a SL parked itself a couple of squares away and bombarded decentral for 50 years. After she surrendered to me, I captured the dern thing and gave it to her as a trohpy. And more bases. She'd have been toast if not for her knight in shining armor



[communists! they locked up santa!]