AI fleets constantly getting caught in loops

[Liggi]

I wanted to check if other people had experienced this as much as I have.

Almost every single game I play, I find the AI regularly getting itself caught in "order loops". I've lost count of the number of times I'll zoom into a system either in Observer mode or just while playing, and find the AI randomly heading to a hyperlane and then back to a random point in the system, then back to the hyperlane, or heading to bombard a planet and then heading to a hyperlane and then back again, over and over.

I'm not sure what's causing it, or if there's an easy fix (ie. forcing the AI not to repeat the same order multiple times by forcing it to stick to one to get itself out of the loop). But I wanted to take the temperature here to see if other people have noticed the same.

I have reported this with a Bug Report, with an attached save where the behaviour can be replicated.

 

[Lykus Cerebros]

I think they went over this in one of the last DD.
Seemed to be a bug and I think they are on it for the next patch.

 

[Liggi]

I can't find any mention of AI military / fleet behaviour at all in the last dev diary. Can you point out where that is discussed?

 

[Arrnea]

Yes, I've seen this as well - ships pacing back and forth in a system instead of bombing the nearby undefended enemy planet.

 

[exi123]

I have also seen this. On the other side sometimes fleets just seems to forget what to do. They are just flaoting in space for months or years. Seems like an order gets cancelled and the AI forgets to move the fleet to a starbase or at least back to their own territory.

Also: Has anyone seen the AI updating their fleets? This was mentioned in the DD, but i never saw that at any point.

 

[Liggi]

The Bug Report I filed on this isn't being acknowledged... to be fair, it's an old-ish report and so is for 3.1.1, not 3.1.2, but the issue persists.

I'm not really sure what else to do other than file a bug report and raise the issue here. It seems like many others are experiencing it.

Are the devs aware of it?

 

[UltimateTobi]

I hope they go over military AI in 3.2 as well.

 

[Bezborg]

I see this all the time. I don't even play Stellaris properly anymore, I just RP tall isolated empires for a few hours then go sleep. I go back in 3-4 days and just start another game. The AI is so dumb, the QoL updates are so slow, the UI and various options are so stagnant...

Maybe I'm done

 

[Liggi]

I think the most frustrating thing about this bug for me is that if you actually watch the military AI, they often seem to be behaving pretty competently. They are fairly smart, they attack on multiple fronts, invade worlds etc.

But they seem to be hamstrung by weird looping bugs like this in almost every war I observe.

For example: in the last game I played, two empires were at war and one managed to push the other all the way back to their homeworld, but then got caught in a loop every time it went to bombard their capital. Eventually, it just ended in a status quo. One empire had done pretty well, but if they hadn't have gotten caught in a loop, they would potentially have totally overrun the other empire.

I've seen similar things where a much larger force ends up conceding systems to a smaller one because the larger fleets get caught in a loop and never arrive to the frontline, allowing the smaller empire to conquer a bunch of systems basically unopposed!

 

[Bezborg]

I think the most frustrating thing about this bug for me is that if you actually watch the military AI, they often seem to be behaving pretty competently. They are fairly smart, they attack on multiple fronts, invade worlds etc.

But they seem to be hamstrung by weird looping bugs like this in almost every war I observe.

For example: in the last game I played, two empires were at war and one managed to push the other all the way back to their homeworld, but then got caught in a loop every time it went to bombard their capital. Eventually, it just ended in a status quo. One empire had done pretty well, but if they hadn't have gotten caught in a loop, they would potentially have totally overrun the other empire.

I've seen similar things where a much larger force ends up conceding systems to a smaller one because the larger fleets get caught in a loop and never arrive to the frontline, allowing the smaller empire to conquer a bunch of systems basically unopposed!

Somewhat connected to this: it's about time that planets gave off some strike craft. Especially ones with fortresses. Missle capabilities as well, for orbiting craft.

 

[AxeBeard]

it has been like this for at least 2 years