Berserk AI bug?

posted on November 9th, 2011, 12:51 pm

I have noticed something odd about the AI since FO 3.2.5 came out, and that is that sometimes the klingon AI on the hard setting just goes crazy.

It spits out a tone of ships with no regard for resource costs and charges in like crazy with me having absolutely no chance of repelling him.

I think the romulan AI does this too sometime but I can't be sure. I also don't know if this has been adressed before, i looked around a little and it doesn't seem to be open anywhere.

So my question is wether is this a bug or is it an intentional rushing strategy?

posted on November 9th, 2011, 1:30 pm

The AI is scripted, hard and merci don't make such a huge difference anyways. If you observe the AI you will see that it's not using any ressources at all.

So yes, it's "kinda" intentional.

Some AIs got a specific behavior, usually Kling / Dom / Rom are the spamer, Borg seems to wait till it got a huge amount, and Feds are mostly just uber easy.

posted on November 9th, 2011, 2:23 pm

No, feds spam too, but they are more... conservative. it looks something like this:

First they will act like borg, essentially harass a little and build up a lot. If you attack them during their buildup period then they will go insane, repel your attack and throw everything at you. In the meantime they will churn out even more ships that will wait untill either you attack again or they believe they have enough and fedroll you.

Its a quite creative way for the ai, i must admit, much better than any traditional way it operates. Sure its nothing compared to humans, but its still a big like from me!

posted on November 9th, 2011, 7:03 pm

The AI doesn't use resources so it's just limited by the time it takes to build stuff, and since the Klingon AI gets a fully upgraded yard rather than having to build the additional bays, it builds really fast.

posted on November 9th, 2011, 7:09 pm

Each AI uses a separate build time and cost ratio compared to the player: the harder the AI, the faster it builds ships and the less it costs

posted on November 9th, 2011, 7:22 pm

It's pretty much intentional; after all, an AI that doesn't have every possible advantage against you is just boring The cost and time for AI vary depending on the difficulty, but every AI faction, whether Klingon or Federation will spam at some point.

posted on November 9th, 2011, 7:50 pm

Another sweet touch is that the AI is also capable of building ships from both avatars!

posted on November 9th, 2011, 10:33 pm

I noticed yesterday that they appear to have rank bonuses too. I had a freshly minted S-7 Defender come out at me with the bastion shield set already in place. that -8 firepower from all weapon types makes a rush of them ( as much as an S-7 "rushes" ) kinda challenging to repel.

posted on November 10th, 2011, 6:55 am

Don't be silly, you can easily repel it. Just spam out monsoon+defiant/kvort+sus'a/s-2+t-15/shrike or torpedo rhienn/torpedo-regen adaptor and you'll have the perfect counter before that slowpoke even gets to your base!

posted on November 10th, 2011, 7:07 am

I harass them with Nova_refits. I have a warpin yard. Single player after all. Those nova refits are fast and deadly. circle around and come up from behind, fire, and run. Rinse, repeat until debris.

posted on November 10th, 2011, 8:47 am

Defiant works nicely too, especially with its weapon buster!

posted on November 10th, 2011, 11:44 pm

The S7 Defender, Tavara warbird, and Phalanx class are all built at rank five by the AI. Perhaps as a consolation of sorts, the AI will never promote these classes to rank six.

posted on November 11th, 2011, 7:43 am

The S7 Defender, Tavara warbird, and Phalanx class are all built at rank five by the AI. Perhaps as a consolation of sorts, the AI will never promote these classes to rank six.

Interesting to know. I had only noticed the Defender, and didnt know about the others, or the ranking stuff.