AI cheating?

I was quite surprised as I found the incoming attack. Where is that carrier coming from? AI only has a jump level of 1 and according to the ruler it is a level 4 jump from Algieba. AI is cheating, is it not?

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The “bug” seemd to be there at least since September of last year.

It can be helpful to Jay if you can provide the game number.

Is this a real time game or turn based game ?

From the URL game/4998799799091200. Is this the game number?

Real time

Yes that is the game number.

Quoting a post on discord chat:

[Proteus Bug] The AI can do illegal jumps. Caught an AI making a jump which requires Level 6 HR but it only has level 3. No one in the game has Level 6 yet. The origin is the home-star moving to another one of it’s own stars. The carrier has ~300 ships and was created on the home star.

I have 6 AFKs in my game. Hard to stay alive, when AI is not bound by rules.

The range bug doesn’t help the AI other than the surprise factor. I think the AI would be harder without the bug since it would do less stupid stuff. Ships in the air can’t react or change flight path so shorter jump paths are more flexible.

The key is managing which AIs you are friendly with and tech trading. The less neighbours you have the better.

In Triton if you are winning all the AI hates you but you can still trade by bribing them and trading immediately. In Proteus you get -1 every cycle but can gain reputation by defending against AI attacks.

If you are not top of the leaderboard then the AI disposition will stay the same unless you attack them or they accidentally attack you.

If you have a premium account the best way to learn how to handle the AI is to create a custom turn-based game with only you and the AI then quickly play out the entire game.

I’d better have another look for this bug this weekend.

@Frankensteiner Did you just claim Askella, or have you held it for a while. Was the AI attacking you when it launched the fleet, or trying to capture an unclaimed star.

Hi Jay, I was owning the system already, but had been in clinches with this AI

Hi @AnnanFay. I did not completely understand your advice. AIs have a relationship (currently only negative numbers) with me which I can improve by sending money or technology. I can try this.

Will the trade back?

@Frankensteiner, AIs will only trade back with you if after you send them the required cash or a tech, their relationship with you is positive. If it is 0 or negative, they will not trade back.

In addition, AIs will not send you techs unless you first send them cash or techs, even if your relationship with the AI is at +8 (max). You must initiate the trade yourself.

What @AnnanFay was saying was that if you are in the lead for number of stars, then each cycle, your reputation with them will be set to -1, unless it is already lower than that, regardless of any prior dealings positive or negative with the AI or its predecessor.

@Frankensteiner also be aware an AI will not trade back if they don’t have the money too. Often it’s cheaper to send them a tech, so make sure to do it right after the cycle when the ai has cash to send you back a tech.