Well EXCUSE me for living!

[Iron Giant]

So, I try to be a nice Galactic Ruler! I have a treaty with EVERYONE. Everything is going fine. Then I notice that even though the other races have trade/research treatys with me (some were even partnerships) THey ALL HATE ME! Whoa. A couple of turns later, they ALL declare war on me.

Now I'm barely holding on, fighting a war on 4 fronts! Even little 1 System races that I could squash like a bug (if I could pull the ships away from my contracting front!!!) have declared war and they are all working to wipe me out.

Is this normal? Is this a punishment for doing too well? Will the hurting stop when they have beat me down to a level they are comforable with or is the the beginning of the end?

[dominion]

This always happen to me too. Their mood often is brotherly then slowly changes to murderous. That's why I always mine my warp points. It allows me to go on the defensive on certain fronts as I take care of other matters in my empire. I think they are just jealous since they say "we can't allow you to expand on every planet". Strange, I'm only in 4 systems (started with 2 systems) and haven't colonized since due to the wars.

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"Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"

[This message has been edited by dominion (edited 19 October 2000).]

[Baron Munchausen]

Yes, the AI now works like many other strategy games in that it automatically turns against any player that gets more powerful than a certain threshold. You can find the settings that control it in the SETTINGS.TXT file. Just set "AI Uses Mega Evil Empire" to "false" and it won't happen at all. Just remember, people were complaining about the total lack of CHALLENGE in the earlier demos. This was part of the fix. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Taqwus]

*chuckle*

I was wondering what was. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Of course, with my usual style of play versus the AI, it fits perfectly -- big, EVIL Empire. The AI never holds a grudge after a a game...

Only 4 systems, 'tho, and it was triggered? That is indeed odd... hrm. Unless you had a lot of tech / pop compared to the rest... interesting. Or it's a relative threshold, and the rest were doing very poorly...



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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[General Hawkwing]

This leaves you with a few options.
1) Demand tribute from the weakest ones (1 system type) as much as possible. Would weaken them more and if you get a planet or 2 within their system, you should be able to defeat them while waging war against the others.
2) Maybe you could forestall this by offering minor gifts to the weaker ones (resources, old ships, general tech that would not come back to hurt you (medical, political, planet improvement, even propulsion since they don't appear to research it). This would increase their production/score and maybe forestall their declaration.
3) Wipe out weaker races upon contact. Cold but effective. You still gain any research they have that you don't.

[Baron Munchausen]

Or... use Intelligence Ops to stir up trouble between them so even if they are attacking you, they are also attacking each other. The "communications mimic" operation is good for this, it sends fake declarations of war. If everyone is fighting everyone, you're at much less disadvantage than if everyone is attacking you exclusively.

[greghacke]

I used the Baron's trick to great success. I work intelligence and colonization as my first research. By the time I meet my "friends," I make treaties, then broker my Intel to push them into war against each other. i have an 8 empire game going with me being the only one not at war.

[General Hawkwing]

After watching the "feeling" status for a few games, I have noticed the following.
1) Usually only 1 empire will turn on you gradually. For me it was the 2nd ranked empire. Nothing, free resources, tech, releasing claims to systems (I did not try giving away planets http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif ) will stop them from turning on you.
2) The remaining empires continued to stay friendly while the 1 grew less friendly. Once the first declared war, the rest followed suit within a turn (maybe 2). I also could not stop this from happening.

I have not encountered any empires after war was declared, so I do not know what their response will be.

Also note that some of the empires that went to war with me had no "official" contact with the other empires. Nor did they during the war(s).

[Elmo]

FWIW: I'm currently at war with one AI empire and have been for quite a few turns in a PBEM game. At the same time I have partnerships with two other AI empires and they continue to have Brotherly feelings toward me with no outward signs of wavering in their friendliness. Seems like there is a wide range of possible AI actions and reactions toward non-AI empires.

Elmo

[General Hawkwing]

Elmo,
Did you declare war or did the AI?
What is your score relative to the rest of the AI's? (ahead by 100% or more, ahead by 50%, about even, or below)

This would influence their response.

[Seawolf]

Now who was saying that beating the AI was easy? Also the AI does not cheat!! Nice work MM!

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Seawolf on the prowl

[Comar]

You have the choice to give the AI advantages or not, but from what I can tell it does not cheat. We are in a multi-player game where the AI is busy kicking the butt off two human players that are working together. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

This AI can give you a very good fight and, if you are not very careful, whip you.

[General Hawkwing]

Good, I would expect no less from MM. But why cann't the AI do this in demo 0.99? I thought that was based on the gold code. Are you using sim. combat or tactical?
Demo 0.99 AI is vastly improved over 0.51 & 0.56 but still not near the challenge SE3 presented. Did SE3 AI advance after the gold release? I didn't start playing SE3 until Version 2.something and was wondering.

[Comar]

For all the multi-player games, the combat is simultaneous. I haven't messed with the demo, so I can't say what is going on there.

I do know that the computer does better with simultaneous that it does with tactical.

[General Hawkwing]

Comar,
Does the AI do better with sim. combat or is it just that your ships do worse?

[Comar]

Good question. I'm not sure I have an answer either. It could well be a combination of both. I tend to design my ships for my style of play in tactical combat which may not translate over to strategic play. I'm starting to experiment to see what is the best ship designs for strategic play. It does present a different challenge.

[Lupusman]

The best way is after you get an enemy design, run simulations till you win most (or all) the time.