Another close look at how the AI builds up its worlds: 1.6 edition

[GC13]

If you want the short version of the story, the AI is still doing way too much redevelopment, indicating that it's really bad at deciding what it wants. Its desire for Unity seems to be way lower, which is a good thing, but it's still putting Unity buildings on bad spots (like mineral tiles adjacent to the capital), even if it decides to redevelop them later.

 

[Army Pea]

Thanks for making this follow up video.

 

[mergele]

After watching this and the previous video I feel kind of quilty for beating the AI. Guess I'll have to throw everything except the homeworld into sectors, just to prevent myself from getting the unfair advantage of mostly decent planet development.

 

[GamerSteve]

I laughed my head off watching some of the dumb AI moves.

Until I realized this is what my stupid sector governors are doing!

 

[Jorrhast]

Until I realized this is what my stupid sector governors are doing!

Don't forget they also don't use all minerals you are giving them for buildings.

 

[Magdaki]

I've often said, the AI doesn't need to be optimal, but it does need to be at least rational. It clearly is not rational at this point. Oh well, maybe in 1.6.1... or 1.6.2 ... or 1.7.... or 1.8... or maybe Stellaris 2.

 

[Alaric Ironaxe]

Shame the AI is still so incompetent with managing planet tiles, hopefully this will be addressed in a future update.

 

[ShadowAngell]

Well at least i know now why do i have +90 food and -50 energy in my sector.

 

[GC13]

Well at least i know now why do i have +90 food and -50 energy in my sector.

I actually find that strange, since in my experience the AI really likes to build energy. Was your sector set to Balanced?

 

[Vishaing]

I wonder if the immediate redevelopments may be caused by "Ties" in the weighting of buildings. I remember running into that sort of inconsistency in some....things.... I've programmed, and it was pretty easy to resolve by adding a minor (+5% or so) weighting to a building if it is already present. This wouldn't be enough to overwhelm a building that legitimately has a higher build priority, but in the case of two buildings with near or nearly identical build weights it would give the constructed building just enough of an edge as to not be redeveloped.

This could also explain why the Redevelopment largely seems to happen on empty tiles, where building weight is the most similar.

 

[Tobasco da Gama]

Yeah, there's probably a bit of a "Burridan's Ass" situation going on with the AI. It's a hard problem to solve in the general case, unfortunately, but it does seem like there needs to be stronger weighting against redevelopment, at the very least.

 

[orochi2k]

There is a theory that the ancient race called human was not destroyed by the smart AI they created. But, rather...the stupid one. (This message comes from future)

 

[Foreign Alien]

Can't be helped. Stellaris is a 4x after all and no 4x has ever had a good AI.

 

[ShadowAngell]

I actually find that strange, since in my experience the AI really likes to build energy. Was your sector set to Balanced?

First was set to Research, but after it got to -10 energy i set it to Balanced, 10 years fast forward and iv got +90 food insted +10 and -50 energy.

 

[OdinTGE]

I actually find that strange, since in my experience the AI really likes to build energy. Was your sector set to Balanced?

In briefly watching for a while in observer mode I found this as well. After the initial replacing of buildings over and over in the early stages of a colony I would then watch the AI just pave over a planet in power plants; all tile bonuses be damned.

 

[Razzlie]

Thanks for these.

It's about time we had documented proof of the issues of the AI.

 

[Elfwind]

There is a theory that the ancient race called human was not destroyed by the smart AI they created. But, rather...the stupid one. (This message comes from future)

I thought they blew themselves up playing a childish game of nations and borders because they were too stupid to unite and focus on progressing their race together. =p

 

[GamerSteve]

I actually find that strange, since in my experience the AI really likes to build energy. Was your sector set to Balanced?

Last game I played co-op with a friend of mine, I had almost all my sectors on energy focus due to the cost of keeping the fleet out of dry-dock for wars... And I ended up at like +80 food due to sectors. In fact I started building over most of my core world food tiles because it was just so stupid how much food I had.

Baffling to me is... when your empire is at +80 food, why the frick are the sector governors building orbital food modules onto the space ports? You only do that when you have a food shortage -- not when you have a massive surplus. Yeesh.

Right now I am playing a game with more core due to government and ascension perks and I am at 12 core systems, and about 14 worlds. No sectors yet. I am loving it.

Eventually when some worlds are built out, I will hand them off, but not before then.

 

[Hopit]

Well
This explains why I have a slightly harder time beating the AI when I use the Autobuild mod and allow the AI to use the same settings as I do

 

[LordMagus]

I've often said, the AI doesn't need to be optimal, but it does need to be at least rational. It clearly is not rational at this point. Oh well, maybe in 1.6.1... or 1.6.2 ... or 1.7.... or 1.8... or maybe Stellaris 2.

Given that it's been over a year and problems like this are still around, maybe it'll be released as a mod. Especially given all the statements by Wiz saying "all is well" when all is most definitely not well.