Solarian Empires - Part 6

[Panopticon]

That's actually a pretty cool idea, randomness can substitute for intelligent AI sometimes.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Maybe you could just add some randomness, leave the AI as it is right now, but add a chance that they will wait a while and launch an assault with double or triple the forces they would normally have used. Perhaps by default the AI's could leave 25% of their produced ships at home for defensive purposes then depending on how their scouting or minor skirmishes are going the AI changes the ratio of forces being used agressively or defencively, maybe on occasion depending on how badly they are losing ships the AI would just take all it's forces out for a tour of the local neighborhood.

The AI already does assign some forces a 'home guard' flag so they don't leave the home system. Changing the proportion in reaction to circumstances is an interesting idea though. Also on my list is to have the AI establish a rally point and gather scattered forces before proceeding toward an objective. At the moment AI forces just head toward identified targets from the current locations.

[Wolfius]

Personally I like the drawn out skermishing and raiding. Rather more entertaining than the usual All-or-Nothing decisive battle and cleanup of so many other games.

[alex_brunius]

This is possible with perfect information. However, its a lot more tricky in reality. You don't know which defending ships have launched the missiles. You don't know if they have full or nearly empty magazines. You don't know if they are damaged. You don't know what other defenders might be in the same location, or may have been last time you fired but not this time. You don't know if there are beam defenders in the same location that simply haven't fired yet because you didn't penetrate the missile defences, etc..

You could easily end up with NPRs refusing to fire because they don't think they can overwhelm the defence when in reality the defenders are damaged or out of missiles or the ship that was really doing the defending is no longer with them.

You don't need to have perfect information of the defenses. If you don't have information you can use trial and error in order to increase the amount of information you have available.

What a player will commonly do is launch a single salvo (or a few salvos if enemy AMM have long range) and watch the effect.

Some interesting information I use to decide (that the AI might also find useful) are:
- Total known enemy fleet tonnage, compared to own tonnage of AMM armed ships (including their ammo status).
- Interception chance of enemy AMMs.
- Interception location (time left to impact when first missiles are intercepted)

As you can see the last two can be determined from launching a single "probing" salvo.

If you know the chance of interception and how many ticks your missiles have left to travel after first interception you can get a quite decent estimate on if you will be able to penetrate the AMM umbrella.

[QuakeIV]

You don't need to have perfect information of the defenses.  If you don't have information you can use trial and error in order to increase the amount of information you have available.

What a player will commonly do is launch a single salvo (or a few salvos if enemy AMM have long range) and watch the effect.

Some interesting information I use to decide (that the AI might also find useful) are:
- Total known enemy fleet tonnage, compared to own tonnage of AMM armed ships (including their ammo status).
- Interception chance of enemy AMMs.
- Interception location (time left to impact when first missiles are intercepted)

As you can see the last two can be determined from launching a single "probing" salvo.

If you know the chance of interception and how many ticks your missiles have left to travel after first interception you can get a quite decent estimate on if you will be able to penetrate the AMM umbrella.

Huh good idea.   Assuming the AI could find a way to pin down missile launch sites this could work quite well.

Certainly for a given situation the AI could launch a test salvo and see how well it works, then go from there until such a time as it has more info.   (trying to determine which classes are anti-missile by elimination)

[chrislocke2000]

Really like the plan for the NPRs to concentrate their forces before engaging, that's going to make combat with them substantially more interesting.

If you could also look at stopping the NPR from sending one suicide survey vessel or gate constructor after another that would be great.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

caught up on the last 3 parts, 6.4 is looking awesome!

I love multi-race Sol starts, but having to play all the races is such a pain... xD

While everyone is on their AI wishlist, I would love the AI didn't literally jumpgate everything :|

[Vanigo]

Man, this campaign really drives home how stupid and aggressive the NPRs are. Especially since you aren't even trying to write about the diplomatic smegstorm that would be cropping up in a situation like this. It's a very noticeable change from the other campaigns - instead of talking with the other factions as equals, the Jovians here are standing back and watching everyone tear each other apart like mad dogs in a gladiatorial pit.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Man, this campaign really drives home how stupid and aggressive the NPRs are. Especially since you aren't even trying to write about the diplomatic smegstorm that would be cropping up in a situation like this. It's a very noticeable change from the other campaigns - instead of talking with the other factions as equals, the Jovians here are standing back and watching everyone tear each other apart like mad dogs in a gladiatorial pit.

Yes, the NPRs really need some diplomatic options

I intend to overhaul diplomacy completely at some point so I'll fix that element of NPR behaviour them.

[MagusXIX]

While everyone is on their AI wishlist, I would love the AI didn't literally jumpgate everything :|

But ... but ... *I* literally jumpgate everything.  Why waste hull space on jump drives for anything but grav survey boats?

[Hawkeye]

Because using a jump gate gives you a much longer time of sensor blindness than using jump drives (and squadron jump) for example.

Imagine you are invading an enemy´s home system.
You jump your fleet in using a gate.
Now let´s assume the enemy is guarding the warp point.
That enemy now has several minutes where he can pound your ships with impunity, ´cause you can´t even see who is shooting at you (except for passives), let alone shoot back.

[MagusXIX]

Because using a jump gate gives you a much longer time of sensor blindness than using jump drives (and squadron jump) for example.

Really?  I had no idea.  It also seems a little backwards to me that something built in to a ship could be more effective than the massive installations that I imagine jump gates are (not to mention the extra build cost/logistics/time required to build a gate.)  Weird.

My not knowing this is probably the result of never finding any hostile races in my games.  40+ systems surveyed in my current one and nary an alien in sight.  Not even any precursors.  In my previous games, diplomatic teams were so easy to come by and so effective that the few races I have found quickly became allies.  Might have something to do with my very slow playstyle, too.

[Erik L]

Really?  I had no idea.  It also seems a little backwards to me that something built in to a ship could be more effective than the massive installations that I imagine jump gates are (not to mention the extra build cost/logistics/time required to build a gate.)  Weird.

My not knowing this is probably the result of never finding any hostile races in my games.  40+ systems surveyed in my current one and nary an alien in sight.  Not even any precursors.  In my previous games, diplomatic teams were so easy to come by and so effective that the few races I have found quickly became allies.  Might have something to do with my very slow playstyle, too.

Look at it as the sensors on board ship are more finely tuned to the on-board jump drives rather than the massive gates.

[QuakeIV]

I choose to ignore it because its weird.

[Triato]

I see jump gates as stabilized wormholes, as if a jump engine has done a permanent job. If jumpgates were some kind of space station it would  need materials to be built, personel and it would be destroyable (and there would not be natural jump gates).