Suggestions to improve the AI

We all love the overhaul the AI got earlier this year, but it still needs tweaking in my opinion - in particular the disposition system. I thought we could have 1 thread of suggestions to make it easier to catalog ideas. I’ll kick off with these:

  • When you gain top position on the leader-board, instead of automatically changing all AI to -1, why not just decrease their disposition by 1? It seems to go against the feature of being able to trade with them / bribe them with $$ over a period of time for them to just completely drop you over something relatively trivial.

  • Disposition shouldn’t drop further when they attack you, and you defend (which 99% of the time you’re going to do, if only because you have industry on that star)

  • On turn based games, the AI should not be able to make moves (or rather decisions) in between the allotted “turns” as they currently appear to do.

  • When you attempt to trade with an AI, or try and bribe them for tech, if they don’t send you something it would be good to know why - this could be in the form of an event log (the AI received your tech but doesn’t have the $ to send you one back / has a negative disposition towards you so decided not to send you anything this time) or a message as if from the AI.

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When you gain top position on the leader-board, instead of automatically changing all AI to -1, why not just decrease their disposition by 1? It seems to go against the feature of being able to trade with them / bribe them with $$ over a period of time for them to just completely drop you over something relatively trivial.

I found this to be a really annoying AI feature. In order to have any commerce with the AI, I must first boost it from -1 to 0 via a tech trade or $, and then another transfer to get the tech they will send.

When you attempt to trade with an AI, or try and bribe them for tech, if they don’t send you something it would be good to know why - this could be in the form of an event log (the AI received your tech but doesn’t have the $ to send you one back / has a negative disposition towards you so decided not to send you anything this time) or a message as if from the AI.

Agreed.

I don’t mind writing some more stuff for the AI. I’m sure I saved all the stuff from the google site here somewhere.

I have it here too. Still want to use it!

I have a better a.i. suggestion, that is a.i. objectives and manipulative disposition.

A.I. Objectives
Each a.i. would have certain objectives it would want to complete. For example, the a.i. may want X stars from its neighbors that is influenced by disposition and threat level. However, the a.i. can bribed to narrow his objectives. If 2 of the 3 surrounding players dislike the a.i.'s objective to annex it’s surrounding stars, the two players will bribe the a.i. to not attack them. That forces the a.i. to invade the 3rd player. However, if the 3rd player bribes the a.i., then the objective is cancelled.

Manipulative Disposition
Each player would have the option to tinker with the a.i.'s disposition towards another player. If player A doesn’t want the a.i. to trade with player B, then he will decrease player B’s disposition with the a.i. This idea makes a.i. more important, rather than a trade tool for whatever tech you are lacking.

Rather than “better” you might want to say “another” or “different” … Being that your better is subjective + it’s a dick comment to make in a suggestion forum + it’s effectively shitting on the people who spoke up before you and suggested the topic in the first place.

This isn’t the first time you’ve done it, which is why I’m calling you out on it.

Rather than replying to this thread, you could’ve kept it dead. Now you are just asking for an argument. Anyone who has surf the forums long enough knows that a flame comment will give birth to another flame comment. Therefore, everyone should’ve left ignored this comment specifically.

Foremost, I have a few arrogant facts. First, I have an semi-egotistical personality, but that’s because I have a very statistical mind. Numbers and balances is how I work out my chances. If I think that 95% is better than 60%, then I’ll prefer the 95%. It is also how I play my game. Similarly, that’s how I view life if I was a robot, but I’m not. If you have a problem with this, then keep this to yourself. That’s me being honest and sarcastic.

Next, I need to express that I’m not the only the player who has made dick comments. If you’re interested in becoming a mod, go ask Jay and be our vigilante. Do remember to keep in mind that not all comments are intended to be personal or vulgar. I believe my dick comment was not personal nor vulgar, but that’s from my perspective. I apologize to those who were offended.

This brings me to the topic of player types. If the varieties were grouped into diplomatic, aggressive, or passive, then I’d say I’m diplomatic. What are you? And what makes you so concerned that you called my comment a dick after a week of silence? Two Rhetorical Questions. However I will state that in this situation, I will ignore a “dick” comment unless they’ve worked a few hours too long to insult me. That’s an exaggeration, but it’s what most people would do.

Regarding this statement,

“Better” is an “Eye of the Beholder” adjective. It means that some may agree or some will not. In addition, I don’t remember using better or any of its synonyms other than this time. However I will play ball. First, this type of confrontational comment is very common, such as in competitive games like Starcraft or League of Legends. One side argues, because they think their right and vice versa. That’s normal. However, what you did was not either, but rather personal stance. You are not a moderator. It’s what people call obnoxious. But I’m not in stone. My character does evolve with mistakes. My mood can sometimes be salty. I sometimes heed words. I sometimes judge before I act. My example applies to everyone.

Now listen to my ultimatum:
If you respond to this comment, then I will consider a flame war. That’s an ultimatum, Mr. Kavanavak. Otherwise, leave this thread alone and don’t respond.

P.S. If you want to become a moderator, then lower the profanity. It’s hypocritical to water down the flames with oil(profanity). Heed my words and leave this comment alone.

From, Trensicourt(IGN)

I think the fundamental issue with the suggestion, and your own self analysis, it that by defining yourself as a certain type of player you lessen yourself.

In one game I may be a diplomat, in another an aggressive player. The rules and environment help define my approach.

The suggestion for separate objectives means that each AI will have a corresponding strategy to defeat it, whereas one singular, more dynamic AI would be more challenging to deal with in each game as it’s rules and movements would be more opaque.

I got one of those “see what you’ve missed” update emails and the thread was at the top of the list, I wasn’t commenting to bring life to a dead thread, I hope the threads not dead because there were a lot of interesting suggestions.

I totally get your points, I don’t want to flame your fire, the first time i read you saying you had a better idea I was slightly annoyed and then seeing it again here it became clear that it was a larger reflection and not just a one off so I pointed it out. I doubt anyone was actually offended since it wasn’t actually offesive, but I do think it’s a dick way to state a theoretically positive addition to an ongoing conversation.

If you feel fanned by all means comment back. I don’t think there’s any more for me to say since I already took this off topic on my last post.

Thanks for resolving this peacefully.