AI woes

[LDiCesare]

I started a game of GC II recently what with Dark Avatar coming out soon and checking whether I'd buy it. I moved the difficulty one notch below crippling (can't remember the name) to make it easy since I hadn't played for a while.

I experienced a few silly AI moves that I'd like to share, in order to know whether these happen to others or if there are more of such problems than just what I saw.

1)Pathfinding.
I had a 7-move ship that could move from its place to target planet in one turn. So I click on the planet, the ship moves, avoids one planet in the path, moves again to the straight line, is hindered again, moves away and ends up one space away. One turn lost because it doesn't do pathfinding correctly.
I could hardly believe what I saw but it does look like the pathfinder is unable to find the shortest path and seems to favor straight lines even when there are planets or obstacles in its path that it can see.

2)AI attacking invulnerable freighters.
Freighters couldn't be attacked because
- I had built whatever the wonder it is which protects them and
- there was a UN vote that prevented them from being attacked
So why did the ai put stacks of ships near a mini freighter (apparently to attack it)? The ai wasted two fleets for the dozen or so turns before I won by just putting its ships beside the freighter, using up a lot of CPU and doing nothing.

3) AI doesn't protect its planets.
It took a few planets of mine and I could easily take them back immediately with 32-move transports in ine turn. It was blatant since once they had a fleet of 5 ships standing by the planet for 2 turns before they'd take it, and when they conquered it, the fleet stayed there, not protecting the planet, and letting me take it back immediately.

So are these problems known (I guess 3rd one is), and are there others like that? However good the ai is at finding out you"re planning something against it, it still looks like it's tactically inept. Not using A* pathfinding, or using a bugged version of it, is particularly pitiful.
Based on that game I played, I'm not interested in getting Dark Avatar, as the ai can waste a huge superiority and let you win the game even though it should be a piece of cake for them.

So, is the ai still as inept at taking out planets and conquering as it was when the game was first released? And are ther other concerns about the ai or on the other hand, things that get better?
I didn't enable the CPU-intensive ai algorithm option because my CPU is old, but since I should get a new computer soon, does anyone know if this option could help with the problems I described?

[Hydro]

Hi LD,

I play at Painful. I got to DL late (Nov 2006) and have played DA since it came out. Here are my observations wrt your questions. My PC is 3Ghz with 1.5GB RAM, which meets DL and DA requirements. I don’t use intensive CPU.

1. Pathfinding – I’ve noticed this very occasionally, and it is not clear why it occurs.
2. Freighters – I haven’t seen this before. Of course, I’ve never bothered with the special project, either. I have heard of this problem, though.
3. Protecting planets – when you think about it, it is impossible to protect your planets against 32-move ships. The area they can cover is huge, so the ‘threat’ they present would paralyze the AI. Dark Avatar fixed this problem by making engines both bigger and more expensive, and you have to think long and hard about the tradeoffs between fast vs powerful. Transports and constructors can become very expensive if you want them to be very fast, and you have to invest much more in research to get there. Overall I like DA’s solution since the galaxy becomes very small indeed when ships are flying around at uber speeds.

The AI will and does go on the offensive to eliminate defenders and then use either spoor ships (the DA race Korath) or waves of transports to take over planets. I play at Painful, and the AI generally starts serious offensives by 2130. Most minor races are eliminated by 2130 to 2131, and weaker races are being absorbed by their neighbors. The AI does sometimes group transports, but I frequently see single transports with escorts that attack a planet in series. This is not terribly efficient, but it will work – and it may be due to a low logistics ability.

The latest patches to DL and especially DA do provide a challenge. If you’re mopping up at your difficulty level then you should consider moving up! The game plays much differently, and current strategies may not work well anymore.

Note that the next patch for DA will reduce CPU needs to accommodate older rigs. Apparently most of the CPU horsepower is used tracking each ship, and they’ve developed a way of having 1 fleet icon stand for the rest. This should noticeably improve performance.

Hydro