Stupid AI tricks! Post them here!

I posted this, about the AI declaring war too frequently when it is much too weak to do anything.

https://forums.stardock.com/463909/page/1/

1) The AI appears to know exactly where the habitable planets are located.  I could see this being a fine perk for the AI on the hardest of difficulty settings, but it seems at bit unfair on the lower settings. This may not can be fixed right away because currently the "Explore" algorithm seems to just search for empty space, not for nearby stars that haven't been explored. So perhaps some work into a new "Explore - Stars" algorithm is needed. 

2) In previous patches the AI had Constructors just sitting around all over the place doing nothing.  Maybe this has largely been fixed already. But for higher difficulties, the AI should know how to create 5 starbase formations(or at least 4, since 4 would be much easier to code) around a single planet for Economic starbase usage or for Culture starbase beacons(on certain factions).  I know some work has been done on AI Constructor preferences, but I feel this area can continue to be improved much further.

3) ***The AI desperately needs make better use of building space on planets.*** The initial space should be filled with T1 buildings before upgrades are considered. Upgrades are a pretty inefficient use of resources in general. AI should prefer terraforming, before upgrading T1 buildings when possible.  AI should invest in Terraforming techs much earlier as well.

Getting AI to properly use adjacency bonus seems a harder task, but perhaps start with small improvements.  Such as if there's a 3 hexagon triangle available upon planet foundation, it builds its 3 factories there(so they all get +2 adjacency bonuses.

4) AI should be coded to go to 100% Manufacturing for at least the first 10 turns after planet foundation. This is the efficient course of action 99.9% of the time upon planet foundation. i guess this one may largely be effected by the "AI governors" and wether they make it in before launch.  In general, all AI planets need a governor that heavily emphasizes either Manufacturing or Science. Income governors should only be triggered if net income for faction goes below 0(At least with games current economic state).

5) AI should charge heavily restrictive prices for purchase of Military ships through diplomacy. Perhaps also charge a higher price for Military tech trading as well. Factions shouldn't be very willing to trade anything military related.

6) Player should have more warnings to give the AI before outright declaring WAR.  If computer doesn't comply with reasonable request, then they shouldn't hold a grudge against the player forever because of a WAR caused by their own aggressive actions.

Basically, the player can't make many of the request that the AI can make of us.  The request should be able to go both ways.

I've already reported this, and it should be fixed in beta 6.

Minor races are building starbases way far away from their home planet, and stealing a lot of the available resources.  I'm talking about halfway across an Immense map here.  They also seem to know where those resources are without having to explore first.

Just a couple of things I have noticed. You have been working on getting the AI to develop their planets for years and you have done a good job, they recognize hex bonuses, but they do not seem to recognize adjacency bonuses yet.

They also seem to put too much priority on expansion vs colony development and the results are poorly developed planets in the late game.

For once, I would like to see at least one race put more real priority on wealth. The Iridium would be a good choice to play around with. All the AI are dead broke from start to finish and I have virtually assured victory by any option I choose when I have late tech warships, big fleets, 100K BC in the bank and I am earning 5K per turn by turn 200. The AI sits over in it's corner of the galaxy with 100 under developed colonies, small to medium ships with maybe plasma level weapons, no range tech, no logistics, and maybe Ion drives, if I have traded it to them for invasion tech.

And, I am not by any stretch a power player

Their strategy is great for a smaller map but on the big maps, their priorities are wrong. They wind up with slow research, no gold, and no chance to win against a greedy, capitalist, diplomatic, and patient, human.

Unfortunately i cant provide a save as i have reformatted recently 

i noticed that the ai seems to either ignore range limits or has an unlisted 100% bonus to range 

i was playing an immense map * i changed ship range in mapsizes  globalcombatmods to -0.20* 

i had an AI freighter reach one of my planets  the planet was at least 80 tiles away from the nearest ai planet/starbase and after checking the freighters specs and race mods / teh mods  determined that  the ship should have had ~ 40 range 

If you get that to happen again, open the debug console and type "god". Then you can select their ship and see what range they have. If they're moving outside their range, definitely a bug. Otherwise, they might have some bonuses to range, such as trade resources (or bugged range)

i went and looked for everything including resources techs racial abilitys and even looked what kind of bonus's the ai got on different difficulty levels even if i made a couple of mistakes my estimate was ~40 range it should have had and ~ 80 was the distance it was traveling. if it was 45 or 50 i could go hrmm maybe i missed something but this was at least double its range.

and with the minors also seeming to ignore range as others have said i wouldnt be surprised to find that range does not work for the AI

I know that colony ships do abide by range. When reporting on AI cheating, they did not send a ship to a habitable planet just outside their range, but as soon as they had a colony ship that could reach it, they sent it. Whether constructors are bugged for range, or only minor factions, is something I don't know.

   1)  AI does not terraform.  Altaria was still a class 10 when I found it around turn 100

   2)  AI, both minor and major, build way to many mining bases before they build economic bases, or colony ships.  Most strategic resources are kinda useless early on, and should have a lower priority than building colony ships and economic bases.  Minors and Majors grab every location on the map with 2+ resources in range of a single starbase in the early game.

   3)  Minors should not harvest relics.

   4)  Minors should research soldiering and defense techs.

   5)  Minors know where all resources are and their constructors have infinite range.

   6)  Minors rarely build defensive ships.

   7)  AI rarely researches universal translator, and does not trade with minors even when that tech is traded to them.

   8)  Drengin (and others) often research Extreme Colonization before basic weapon / defense techs.

   9)  Minors are usually broke once they run through their starting cash - starbases are expensive.

   10)  Minors rarely research trade techs or build freighters.

   11)  Auto designed support ships rarely have a second engines.  6 support modules and a sensor bay, but only 1 engine.  I use 2 support : 1 engine in my custom designs.

1. The AI is bad at managing its income/economy - The games I have played on "Godlike" the AIs' are going broke, their planets' income are mostly in the negative.

The AI doesn't seem to get any "Economical" bonus as you go up in difficulty. Maybe add a 100% "Economical" bonus for the AI in "GalCiv3AIdefs.xml" on "Godlike" difficulty. The AI is going broke because it doesn't seem to value and build any economical planets. Hope the 100% "Economical" bonus helps.

I tried adding the following to GalVic3AIdefs.xml in Godlike

<Stats>
    <EffectType>ColonyGrossIncome</EffectType>
    <Scope>Global</Scope>
    <Target>
     <TargetType>Colony</TargetType>
    </Target>
    <BonusType>Multiplier</BonusType>
    <Value>1</Value>
   </Stats>

Gave the AI 100% bonus to income, it saids "AI Difficulty". Doesn't seem to be working for the AI, I need to click their planets and go "Govern Planet" to "Adjust Planet Production" in god mode.

Maybe the values are not refreshing for me and the AI is actually getting the bonus, even though it shows planet income is negative, but it's + 10 income. Maybe someone can tell me.

2. AI doesn't build enough military ships - I think the AI doesn't build enough ships because of the above reason I mentioned. In my game medium map all 6 AIs' on Godlike difficulty, all of them have 2-3 small ships, and 1-2 medium, this is on turn 75. Most of AIs' have around 20-25 planets.

3. AI not building + morale buildings?- AI doesn't seem to value them that highly. The Drengin in all my games are at 30%-40 % approval on all their planets. The Yor's approval rating took a nosedive also in my current game, they built too many "Assembly" around the same time after the colony rush was over. All of the Yor planets can support up to 26 population now, The Yor techs that add max. population cap for each planet is too high in my opinion for anyone or the AI to deal with.

4. AI doesn't build economic/influence star bases - I checked through my game in a medium size map, I do not see a single economic star base built by the AI. AI needs to always build at least one in each solar system. First star base always being an economic star base, second always an influence star base, less planets culture flipping. After the colony rush is over, AI needs to start build military bases near it's borders. I did see a minor race build a military star base near its home world.

I have played several games where all the available planets get taken right away on small maps.  This happens even when I make trades to obtain other AI's survey ships.  Even with 3 - 4 survey ships at my disposal + the ones I obtain from surveying anomalies, I am finding settled worlds.

The AI is generally really bad at economic and planet management, and that screws them mid to lategame. 

You need to write some code to get them managing their economy reasonably well. Specialising planets, terraforming, economic starbases, etc.

Also the AI REALLLY undervalues resources. Often trading them for a low level tech or some cash. 

As a player, if you are willing to dump some tech to the AI, grabbing all the resources (nanites, hyperstones, etc) can give you a massive lead. Individually they aren't great, but buying every single one off every single AI gives you a huge advantage.

Nothing like having ships with +100% capacity compared to the AI Bet they regret trading me all their Helios Ore for a few age of expansion techs now!!!