View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0002528AI War 1 / ClassicSuggestion - Balance TweaksJan 18, 2011 3:35 am
ReporterRed Spot Assigned ToChris_McElligottPark  
Status closedResolutionwon't fix 
Product Version4.066 
Summary0002528: Aggravating guards
DescriptionConcerning aggravating guards. Currently they seem rather unintelligent. When I get a transport near a guardpost the guards are released, kill the transport and move on the gate on route to my homeplanet, guess what was in that transport? :D
They kill the only defenseless ship and leave the raidingparty to destroy the post without any defenders there to do something about it. This also makes it rather trivial to clear out planets that are not adjacent to your own, just aggravate the guards and have a fleet catch them as they trickle in next door.

The only guardposts that seem to offer some resistance to this are shield(ed)posts, but there the guards can be tricked by or attacking the shield/post or sending in some raid-starships to hurt the guards/post itself a bit.

In other words, I think guards should never abandon their posts/"planet" as long as there are enemy ships on the planet and possibly never allow them to leave the planet as long as it isnt adjacent to a human planet. Possibly allowing the AI to spawn in some extra ships if it finds itself under attack.

The AI sending in 100-200 ships cause I disturbed the planet doesnt affect me much, it does make taking the "empty" planet later on pretty trivial (send in a cap of mk1 raid-starships and a colony ship, et voila, new planet). This allows me to attack and conquer planets with little more than a token-force, which I would think isnt as intended. :)
TagsNo tags attached.
Internal Weight

Relationships

related to 0002678 new Make sure alerting and freeing are behaving as the documentation states. 
related to 0002673 new Transports permanently aggro ships. 

Activities

Chris_McElligottPark

Jan 18, 2011 3:12 am

administrator   ~0009049

There are a few tweaks to this sort of thing in the coming 4.070. However, in the main they are doing what we want, as those counterattacks can be really devastating. We're not planning on revisiting this at the moment, as it's very fiddly to get things working as intended and we'd wind up introducing more issues than we'd solve. In the main, I think the current model, when paired with the stalking mechanic, gives more good results than anything I can think up, anyway.

When we have ships not ever leave planets when there are your ships on the planet, then you can just lead the AI on a merry chase with an empty transport, or just stick a few low-level guys there under cloaking to trap the AI, or many various other variants of that. The current method is best at killing you when you're down, or in the middle of a big fight when stuff unexpectedly slips out. And it's not terrible even in the situation you describe, where you're out experimenting and have the upper hand, so it's overall doing pretty reasonable.

These things always evolve, though. But not right now. ;)

Red Spot

Jan 18, 2011 3:35 am

reporter   ~0009051

Couple of good points you make. Either way it is fun to wack the AI, I just figured they could be a bit more nasty than they currently are. I may perhaps just need to adjust the difficulty I play on :)

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Jan 18, 2011 3:05 am Red Spot New Issue
Jan 18, 2011 3:12 am Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0009049
Jan 18, 2011 3:12 am Chris_McElligottPark Status new => closed
Jan 18, 2011 3:12 am Chris_McElligottPark Assigned To => Chris_McElligottPark
Jan 18, 2011 3:12 am Chris_McElligottPark Resolution open => won't fix
Jan 18, 2011 3:35 am Red Spot Note Added: 0009051
Jan 28, 2011 5:19 pm Red Spot Relationship added related to 0002678
Jan 28, 2011 5:23 pm Red Spot Relationship added related to 0002673