AI: Baiting? (b6497 w/ 6503 content)

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yandonman
Creative Contributor
Posts: 699
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:32 am

AI: Baiting? (b6497 w/ 6503 content)

#1 Post by yandonman »

Does the AI try to bait players?

I had a fleet of 1K dmg/1k hull opposite an AI fleet of 800 dmg/1.5k hull sitting on the front door (main choke point system into its empire). It brought in reinforcements, upping its fleet to 1.1k dmg/2.6k hull. So I backed away thinking I would draw it out - granted, I was razing the back of the AI's empire elsewhere - and then the AI also backed away. My jump was a 2 turn jump, the AI only moved back a single jump away. I got the uneasy feeling it was baiting me, daring me to attack the now undefended planet. (I did not, so I don't know if it was laying a trap or not)

Shortly after this, I tried a couple of times to bait the AI's fleet away from it's position. Once by backing off to see if it would take empty space (it didn't) and once by backing off of a freshly captured planet of its that I had taken (it didn't). Is the AI avoiding baiting?

Later, the AI seemed to actively set a trap: It had 25 ships two systems away from my 15 ship fleet. It then broke off 5 ships and moved them to within 1 jump of my 15 ships, but also within 1 jump of it's other 20 ships. I took the bait, ordering my ships to move to intercept. The AI also ordered it's 20 ships to move on the system with the 5 ships, like it anticipated that I would make that move - making it a 25 vs 15. (and it had better overall dmg/hull - though I had fewer but bigger guns and better shields - .. I was surprised that I won that engagement.)



Other AI notes: Space monsters seem to act sort of like a wall against the AI, even late into the game when it has the defense and firepower to knock them down. I've used the "monster wall" to my advantage a couple of times, reducing my empire's surface area of attack. The AI could do a better job of breaking through that "monster wall" and wrecking hell on an empire.

Random other: AI trying to build shipyard at a non-ship producing specie's planet (Ourbools)

This instance was a very enjoyable game.
Code released under GPL 2.0. Content released under GPL 2.0 and Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.

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winter leaf
Space Floater
Posts: 41
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 4:28 pm

Re: AI: Baiting? (b6497 w/ 6503 content)

#2 Post by winter leaf »

I have also had problems with this.Once,I was cornering the opposing player.it had a weaker fleet than me.There were other fleets behind that...lots of fleets I could easily defeat.It would take more than one turn to get to the weak fleets,but at the time I wasn't aware that the AI could go straight past me while travelling through starlanes (this might be on porpose but might be a bug).Because of that,they managed to take two planets from me before being defeated.I have had problems with this tactic,but not in the way you described.Maybe it's just programmers being clever... :)
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Dilvish
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Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:25 pm

Re: AI: Baiting? (b6497 w/ 6503 content)

#3 Post by Dilvish »

yandonman, I had passed on responding to the original post because I thought it nicer to leave some hints of dangerous mystery about the doings of the AI, but I guess I'll go ahead and answer now -- the AI does not currently intentionally 'bait' the player (even if in its own haphazard way it sometimes seems like it is).
winter leaf wrote:...at the time I wasn't aware that the AI could go straight past me while travelling through starlanes (this might be on purpose but might be a bug).
From what I can tell from your description, it doesn't sound like a bug. Blockades take place only in systems, not in the middle of a starlane. For a little more explanation on blockades -- if you have a system blockaded (armed aggressive ships in it which arrived at least one turn prior to any enemies), then your enemy could still enter that system, but unless they break the blockade (defeat all your armed ships), then they should only be able to leave on the same starlane(s) that any of their present ships had entered on.
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