AI and War |
Something that has occured to me when we have been talking about upgrades, but I think deserves a seperate topic.
I have yet to see the AI end a war with out being destroyed, them or me. How does an AI end a war? I have tried a couple of times to make treaties and stuff but they never seem to be interested.
I know that some civs will always fight to the bitter end and thats fine, but sometimes they should sue for peace if things are going really bad for them, or be glad to accept a treaty that is harsh on them but saves from being wiped out.
Or if they have gained a system and feel they have acheived their goals. I know this is probably really hard to get an AI to understand, but you could say if it has cleared its enemy from X system then it might consider offering peace with a treaty that favours it.
Oh and some races at least should be willing to surrender rather than face becoming a species of fosils.
Is it possible to add a
Is it possible to add a "fear" level as well an anger level? So that the more hammered an Ai race gets the more its fear level increases, making it more likely to look for a way out of war (more likely to propose and or accept treaties).
IE: it considers how many ships it is destroying vrs how many it is loosing, and if it is loosing planets then it should get far more scared. Loosing its Homeworld should be crippling and almost making it offer anything for peace.
Also if it has negative fear(?) i.e. its kicking the brown stuff out of its enemy it might consider offering a peace treaty where it gets all the advantages (tech, limits on what the enemy can do militarily such as bomb planets, and demand tribute). Of course this should be race determined, are they peaceful, neutral, aggressive, also who started the war.
Score Difference ~ Fear
It's possible without too much work. You could probably use the difference in score to modify the AI's anger level toward their enemy. If the enemy is 5x larger, you'd expect the AI to consider the benefits of making peace if possible...
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Cool, I think this would
Cool, I think this would make a real difference to the diplomacy side of the game.
Fear Level
This sounds a very good idea as wanting to stop a war because you are losing it seems sound and AI's who fight to the death all the time because you have angered them beyond reason by shattering their fleets taking their planets and crushing there armies. Of course some warrior AI's would be more prone to be influenced by anger and less by fear but other AI's might be more prone to make peace after you had knocked them about a bit. This sort of thing happens quite a bit with GCII which whilst it is not as good a game in my opinion as SEV but fighting limited wars is a good feature.
GCII.... I am sure I have
GCII.... I am sure I have heard of that.....
Oh yes it was that game I played before SEV came out 
Good game, but rather limited at times I felt.....
Strangely
So did I for that matter GCII is a very good game but it doesn’t have the scope that SEV has and its lack of a tactical combat option is a major flaw
I also hated the lets
I also hated the lets research 4 levels of tech that gain me nothing of any real note so I can get someting that gives me a bonus of 1 *WOOO* *errrr* *DAMN*
Oh and that bloody lets consruct pretty ship editor for no valid reason really NARKED me.
Other than it had some great stuff, loved the space station idea. Fleet logistics was a cool idea and well implemented. Ground combat was simple and worked better than SEV I felt. Oh and I liked the pretty planets, but found the building squares to be a rather annoying faff.
As it has been said, there
As it has been said, there are loads of values you can use such as making the AI still consider treaties when it is angry, it doesn't have to accept all forms of treaty but I feel the treaty max_anger level should be raised, its what i've done anyway; while keeping certain elements that can be chosen as they were.
A sort of fear level is quite possible, you just need to make it so when an AI loses a battle its anger level is lowered. There are a few value for this which i've modified. You'd be surprised to hear that in the basic AI they gain anger when they lose a ground combat for instance, thus encouraging war and further attacks while losing.
On the flip side a really nice value I found was that the more empires a player is at war with, the more approachable it is to find peace.
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Designing an advanced, diplomatic AI + shipset
Consult the great SEV Wiki
Wouldn't using "fear" to
Wouldn't using "fear" to lower anger affect all AI's the same though. I would think that by having them as seperate values it allows you to give different styles of empire (peaceful, neutral, aggressive) to react differently.
You could also use the fear vrs anger score to affect how the AI responded did it start fortifying its worm holes and planets and go for a dug in defensive stratergy, or does it go for the attacking planet conquoring / killing stratergy.
You could also use this
You could also use this value to affect what the AI researches and builds. If it strongly fears an enemy you could make it research techs in certain areas.
i.e. Its fighting an enemy that uses missles then it researches PD and adds more PD to its ships.
Its fighting an enemy that doesn't use missles so it can drop PD and use the space for more sheilds, armour or weapons.
Its being out ranged by faster ships so maybe faster engines could help, or go for fighters.
Its loosing planets so it builds weapons platforms and troops in a hurry.
Or it is easily mastering its enemy (has a negative fear score) so it will carry on as if not at war for the moment.
No it wouldn't.
You could also use the fear vrs anger score to affect how the AI responded did it start fortifying its worm holes and planets and go for a dug in defensive stratergy, or does it go for the attacking planet conquoring / killing stratergy.
Each races main csf AI file can be compiled with different values, variables and code for making decisions, leading to massively different AI's at the end of the day. One could have a fear value, while another doesn't ever have to use it.
I wasn't meaning a seperate variable called fear however, I was meaning to simulate it but what you suggest could well be possible if we put in our own variable called fear and used it to influence the AI's actions. From my impressions of the AI, things really are that impressively customisable
i.e. Its fighting an enemy that uses missles then it researches PD and adds more PD to its ships.
Its fighting an enemy that doesn't use missles so it can drop PD and use the space for more sheilds, armour or weapons.
Its being out ranged by faster ships so maybe faster engines could help, or go for fighters.
Its loosing planets so it builds weapons platforms and troops in a hurry.
Or it is easily mastering its enemy (has a negative fear score) so it will carry on as if not at war for the moment.
From my experience most this is probably possible but you are talking about some extended coding , still if enough people develop the AI and enough people share their work who knows what we will end up with.
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Designing an advanced, diplomatic AI + shipset
Consult the great SEV Wiki
Machiavelli the game programmer
It strikes me that two values:
Fear and Hate would be useful, partially because this would allow a matrix of responses --
High Hate, low fear: Attack
High Hate, Medium fear: defend
High Hate, High fear: Surrender
Low Hate, High fear: Build, negotiate
Low Hate, Low fear: Build, explore, intell
etc.
AI and War
It will end a war when the AI's anger level against its enemy is reduced to the point where it might accept or propose a treaty of some sorts. This will rarely occur unless there is an extended break in the destruction and the AI has time to "cool off."
Some of the functionality you describe is possible with enhanced used of existing modifiers such as score comparison or the type of race (peaceful, neutral, aggressive) it is.
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