How good is the AI at cleaning up anomalies?

from GalCiv3 Forums

Referring mostly to the instant tech anomalies....

I noticed quite large differences in the amount of anomalies i find from game to game with same settings? (always gigantic map)

The games where i get almost no anomalies have one thing in common.... i always spot an AI survey ship sailing away from my territory, and i just know it has been busy gorging itself on all my anomalies so i got none!

 

It makes me wonder how it got there so fast?

How it has such enormous range?

and how it got around to all the anomalies so fast when its speed is relatively low?

 

Another thing i noticed is that reloading a game seems to change the priority of the AI and make it come charging down to my territory when the first time it did not?

I can confirm reloading changed the AI attack priority back towards me when before the reload it was preferring to attack someone else it was at war with at the same time.

 

But in general how effective are the AI at grabbing anomalies compared to the player? Would i be better off putting anomalies on rare or even none?

 

I have a pretty good strategy of getting survey ships up and running very fast.... its usually my second tech i research and i use my 3 free constructors to find Thaluim and promethium for excellent starting survey ship. Still, sometimes it seems pointless because i get nothing?

 

And yes we all know the AI knows where all the anomalies are in fog of war..... if i see an AI survey ship heading in direction 'x' i go in that same direction, and would you believe it, 'bingo' i find one, every time (range permitting) fancy that eh?

 

My other question is.... due to the way reloading changes AI priority toward the player.... that means if i start a game, i should make sure i have a good several hours of continuous play to clean up anomalies before saving and reloading?

38,457 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

well i cant answer the main question but the range i can help with

there are 2 range modifiers in the game based on settings.

one is map size the bigger the map the bigger the range bonus everyone gets

tiny = 0

small =.05

medium =.1

large =.15

huge =.2

gigantic =.3

immense =.5

excessive =.75

insane =1.1

 

the second is ai difficulty

gifted =.02

genius =.5

incredible = .6

godlike = 1.0

 

on top of that the ai at higher difficulty settings gets a mass cap bonus which allows them to put more sensors and more lifesupport modulse on their ships

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

They will zoom to anomalies fast but the guarded ones are almost never discovered by them. 

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Thanks for that....

 

It also occurs to me that the Survey ship i spot is heading back towards its home because it went on a wormhole and is out of range?

 

However, all things considered, what i want to know is, am i better off just switching anomalies off entirely?

 

I do like the idea of not having to bother with all that searching around.... it is very time consuming, so if there is not all that much advantage too anomalies for the player, i would prefer not to bother?

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Mystikmind, reply 3

I do like the idea of not having to bother with all that searching around.... it is very time consuming, so if there is not all that much advantage too anomalies for the player, i would prefer not to bother?
End of Mystikmind's quote

Its one of your biggest advantages early game.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Horemvore, reply 4


Its one of your biggest advantages early game.

End of Horemvore's quote

 

Hmmmm but how exactly?

 

In Galciv2 absolutely yes, even in Galciv3 pre-1.8 patch, yes.... but since 1.8 AI can take guarded anomalies with zero damage!!

The money is generally very minimal.

The technology is great, but its not really helping me early game because i don't have the resources to make use of it. If i develop a powerful ship, my shipyard slaps me in the face with a billion years build time - But the AI can and will start making powerful ships with the techs they find, since AI is allowed to build stuff early game.

I am thinking if i put anomalies on zero and don't bother with survey ships i can redirect those resources toward developing my planets and at the same time cut off the AI from finding techs and building powerful ships with their magical ship production power (even on normal difficulty).

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Try it.  If you like it that way, go for it.  I find I am making better use of the anomalies than the AI is in most cases.  Occasionally, they luck out and generate a few extra survey ships and really clear out an area.  I play on insane maps, so there is a lot of space to search.  If you see a survey ship and it seems to be beelining through your territory, then it is probably recovering from a wormhole.  Otherwise, they follow a more random looking path over several turns.  I play against higher difficulties, so the occasional tech gift is just helping me catch up.   In my early economy the money is not ignorable, either.  Still, I strongly advise you to play in a way that is fun for you.  If you play just like me, we will both feel weird about it.  ;)

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting erischild, reply 6

Try it.  If you like it that way, go for it.  I find I am making better use of the anomalies than the AI is in most cases.  Occasionally, they luck out and generate a few extra survey ships and really clear out an area.  I play on insane maps, so there is a lot of space to search.  If you see a survey ship and it seems to be beelining through your territory, then it is probably recovering from a wormhole.  Otherwise, they follow a more random looking path over several turns.  I play against higher difficulties, so the occasional tech gift is just helping me catch up.   In my early economy the money is not ignorable, either.  Still, I strongly advise you to play in a way that is fun for you.  If you play just like me, we will both feel weird about it.  ;)
End of erischild's quote

 

Searching for anomalies is fun, but like most things one tends to get tired of it after a while. Its good to try something different every now and then :)

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Well you could leave anomolies on but ignore them. The main there are a few reasons for magical ship production. Yes I'm bringing up the other thread. First you choose to play unindustrialised and playing means in early and mid game everything is turtled because you can't build anything because lack of factories. None thing gets done for a long time. You would like the torians you should check them out since they couldn't play with factories. Beside total manufacturing bonuses provided early on you have chosen to ignore bonus boosting adjancies. This also slows you down. After all this bonuses to higher levels doesn't help.s Farms take time to build and use. This might work but not in mid or early game to replace factories. So you are just choosing to play unindustrialised. Now yes factories require maintenance but rush buying ships requires 9 bc for every manufacturing point is not efficient for all your ships.

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

i'm torn between replaying my old game and try more factories or starting a new game with anomalies off, lol