Why does the AI declare war when it can't even reach or invade you?

from GalCiv3 Forums

This is something that happens to me sometimes in the early game. I am playing a game where my neighbor dow'd me because relations are utterly terrible, but they don't seem to be sending any troops or fleets so far. In fact, in the diplomatic screen I get a ++ to relations because they I am outside of their range or something. If that is the case then why go to war? In fact I am not even sure if they are able to even build transports though I can't confirm them since the graphs show they have more advanced tech than me.

Bonus question: Does the AI in general now assemble powerful fleets and armies and actually go on the offensive? I almost never saw that in the past. This is my first new game in a considerable while.

14,745 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

It should't.   I'd love to check out your save game.  There are so many lines of code that literally focus on making sure that the AI can get to you before it does this.

Starting in 1.4, the AI does assemble battle fleets in advance of a war.  It's a new new system that will continue to be expanded on.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 1

It should't.   I'd love to check out your save game.  There are so many lines of code that literally focus on making sure that the AI can get to you before it does this.

Starting in 1.4, the AI does assemble battle fleets in advance of a war.  It's a new new system that will continue to be expanded on.
End of Frogboy's quote

 

I don't know how useful my save is to you at this point since I have kept on playing. The AI did actually send a fleet to attack me after a while, but only a starbase that I constructed near their border (which is ironic since I was planning on using it as a springboard for my own invasion, only to get completely and utterly creamed by the sudden attack). After they blew up my starbase and crushed the fleets I had assembled there, I don't know what has happened to their ships. It appeared as if they were on their way towards my systems but I haven't seen them so far, and suspect that they simply retreated back into their own regions of space.

On the bright side, the fact that the AI demolished my fleets isn't something that has happened before. Though I suspect this may be largely because of my experimental fighter design which did not work out so well. It was a small hull with 1 railgun and 1 rocket. Their ships had point defence however and completely WRECKED my ships. I had to send like 3 or 4 fleets just to kill 1 of theirs. Needless to say I upgraded my designs afterward.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I also had this happen to me with the latest build. Insane sized map with 31 Majors (including many customs, obviously) and rare minors. One race on the other side of the map around turn 39 declared war on me after having their survey ship fall into a wormhole into my territory. They demanded stuff right away, I said no, next turn they declare war on me. It's now turn 340 and we've never encountered each other again. I'm now in the #1 slot and around turn 312 they asked for peace. I don't have a save from earlier when they first declared war on me that might be of help. I only have a couple of saves around this time frame... Didn't think to post about it, sorry.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

This happened to me again with the Iridum. Relations were very low and they dow'd me even though their empire is too far away to be any serious threat. Technically they can reach a deep space starbase that now exists close to them after they expanded their empire into that area of space, but it seems silly to dow me when that is literally the only asset I own they can actually attack.