[Suggestion] Could you make friends of AIs at war only attack you if YOU started the war or refused to get out of their territory?

from Elemental Forums

I think it would be virtually impossible to win on the very hardest difficulties because even if AIs are initially only slightly friendly with each other, it could very well be that once one one AI declares war, soon all of them will.  Ridiculous and Insane should be extremely difficult, but not impossible.

Generally when the human declares war, they are ready for it.  It is not really so much of an advantage when an AI declares war on the player.  The AIs are likely enough to declare war on the hardest difficulties even without the helping a friend bit, because they have a lot bigger empires.

So, what do you think about instead of AIs having a default two-way non-aggression pact, they only help their friend if the player was the one to initiate hostilities or refuse to get out of territory?  This would provide an interesting strategic element, and would also discourage the player from being the one to go around starting wars.

What do the devs and other players think?

 

1,363 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I think that it is fine that the AI are uber-aggressive on ridiculous and insane. Actually, for some reason I find it somewhat easier to win on ridiculous than it was in .982.  It maybe that my .982 games had really bad starting positions, and my .99 and .991 games had all awesome starting positions.

And I assure you, ridiculous is not impossible, even with a standard sovereign (I've tried Relias and Irane)  Insane... I have no idea how insane plays now a days.

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I disagree about insane not being impossible... it should be improbably and virtually impossible in some sense. I look at that setting as hey look this is how long I survived gameplay. Also, it doesn't make sense that the allies not to join in a war. I do understand your point, but as Tuidjy pointed out that ridiculous is fine the way it is. I think it's impossible, but that is just my play style and I only use the standard sovereigns. As I understand it, Tuidjy prefers playing ridiculous with his custom built sovereigns, which give him the edge needed to win these games (which I always find interesting).

Insane should not be for all players and I think if Tuidjy can play really well (or game the system appropriately) on insane, then I think the difficulty is about right. I'll wait for word on other players about the difficulty on Insane. If somebody can win Insane (but only 1 or 2) then I would say that Insane is about right. Not sure how many people play and win on insane.

Although I disagree, I do not completely disagree, because on easy difficulty it should be the way that the AI players should do what you suggest, because easy is suppose to be well easy. Normal I would say that the chance for this happening should be lower and challenging and higher the AI should take all advantage (as players would) in this situation.

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I do find it silly that an AI decides they're sick of you and go to war, and then the lose -- badly -- and on the verge of defeat, their buddies decide the war is somehow your fault and try to gang up on you.  Of course by then, I have such a momentum of war that I am generally able to steamroll them, too, but the front with the first AI has moved so far that some of my home cities are not as defended as they should be and I sometimes lose one or two.  Its easy to retake them, though, so I let them.

I am really not liking the 'We remove ourselves from this world' mechanic, though, as whatever plots their cities were on are now uninhabitable, so I think I'm gonna set my games to make it more likely for the AI to surrender and hopefully that will end that.