First impressions of Galciv

[vishniac]

AI question

Brad said the AI thinks also during your turn.
Does it mean the longer it takes for you to play, the better its strategy?

[Lemmy]

No, as i understand it, the AI will need a certain amount of time, when it's done, it's done. Even if you're still in your turn.
If you're done before the AI, you'll probably get a "Please wait..." message or something..

[Draginol]

Precisely. What happens is that you press teh turn button and a little hour glass shows up on the turn button. You can still interact with the UI (to various degrees depending on your machine) so you're never stuck looking at a "please wait.." dialog.

There are times pretty regularly when the AI will seem to do something unexpected. It's usually when a condition is met that the human players don't normally expect an AI to be looking for.

The AI spends a lot (most) of its CPU time LOOKING at the galactic map seeing what players are doing. It doesn't make a distinction between human and other AI players (they're all from the same base class).

Here's an example of where you can be at war with someone you have decent relations with:

I'm allied with the Altarians. The Altarians are preparing to go to war with the evil Drengin who I don't like either. But the Drengin are allied with the Torians who I have a good relationship with. The Drengin project that the Altarians are about to attack because it notes the number of transports and attack level ships that are in sectors that are no where near its own planets. the Drengin send out fighters to hang out near the transports. At some point the Drengin sneak attack the Altarians to destroy those transports. This in turn causes you to be at war with the Drengin due to your treaty which activates the alliance with the Torians.

That's one of the more unexpected things players have reported. Personally, I think people just have too low expectations for computer players. Who here would allow another player to put in invasion ships righ their planets and not take preemptive action? But people are so used to computer players being stupid about letting humans just put a bunch of ships around their planets and letting them get away with it.

But I've gotten a lot of email about this over the last couple of months. there are lots of other examples lke that which are much more subtle. Unfortunately it's subtle to the point where we're going to have to put up warning dialogs to help players. A player will complain that morale is dropping and they don't know why when in fact it's because other players are quietly destabilizing them. So we have to put in something so that you get warnings even if you're not putting any espionage into those players.

I love multiplayer games. I was pretty high up in the Warcraft III ladder and was the top ranked player in total Annihliation boneyards. So i try to make sure that the computer players play with some of the kinds of skills you'd see in multiplayer.

[Lemmy]

The AI spends a lot (most) of its CPU time LOOKING at the galactic map seeing what players are doing. It doesn't make a distinction between human and other AI players (they're all from the same base class).

Does that mean it can see the entire galaxy, or it just looks at what it can see?

...there are lots of other examples lke that which are much more subtle.

That's something i was sort of worried about, that there is this great AI, but that the player won't even notice much of it. But it seems it will certainly be noticed

[Tytan]

Part of the Story of Galactic Civilizations is that the other Empires spent ages mapping out the various parts of this area and as a result know where everything is.....

.....But there is a fog of war and I do believe it applies to them.....so I don't think they can see everything.....they have to send out scouts and what not.......or freighters......There is also espionage where they can get information about you that way too.....

[Tytan]

Boy that sure sounds confusing doesn't it? I mean they know where all of the planets are.....but not what you are CURRENTLY doing with ships and what-not...........

[Draginol]

Planets are somewhat larger than ships.

Realisticaly, it's not much of an advantage to an experienced player because the player knows where all the stars are and the stars are distributed in clusters, not evently spread out.

[The Rusty Gamer]

Here's a question. If the AI is busy thinking and strategising while you're having your turn, does this mean that the longer you take to have a turn, the cleverer the AI will be with its turn; that is to say, the longer you take each turn, the more you could be "punished" because the AI has had more time to "think"?

[Lemmy]

Originally posted by Lemmy
No, as i understand it, the AI will need a certain amount of time, when it's done, it's done. Even if you're still in your turn.
If you're done before the AI, you'll probably get a "Please wait..." message or something..

i feel so ignored

[Jamski]

Originally posted by Lemmy

i feel so ignored

Did someone post?

-Jam