Can you remember when you last felt threatened by an AI empire?

[Attitude Adjuster]

For me it was back when Fanatical Purifiers were just a personality type, before civics etc.

A fanatical purifier must've got a really good start, because he devoured two of his neighbours and owned about 1/3rd of the galaxy by 2270, and a federation formed on his borders to try and tackle him, but they got ruined too.

That was in the before-fore time, in the long ago, when empires weren't all exactly the same size, and they actually grew in size AFTER the 2240 mark.

I really love how this game has progressed, despite the birth pains, Apocalypse and MegaCorp are really positive directions, and i looked forward to MegaCorp for a long time, but after three games, none of which have gone beyond 2350, I'm already bored.

The galaxy has lost the ability to surprise me.

What drew me to this game were the stories, every game start was bubbling with potential. what's gonna happen this time? but now its the same. every single time.

I've been sat for three hours watching the galactic map and fiddling with my economy. and no territory has changed hands, there are dozens of unclaimed systems (i think the AI runs out of influence after meeting its neighbors and forming pacts).

Single player doesn't feel dynamic anymore at all, Occasionally a federation will form, and then sit there for 100 years with no wars. I'm playing on grand admiral with high aggression, and the only war i had involved one of my neighbours battering a 2k fleet repeatedly on a 2.4k starbase until he asked if we could call it a draw. I'm a fanatical purifier, everyone hates me, but nobody will do anything about me.

I really love this game. and yes multiplayer is a good substitute, but considering the length of the game usually most people have dropped out and been replaced by the AI after 3 hours, and its hard to find a group of people who can commit to 10-15 hours to see a game to completion.

I don't care if you have to make the AI cheat again, i never minded to begin with. just please, put life back into the galaxy, let the AI tell me stories again. Stories of conquest, stories of friendship, just anything but what's happening (or rather, not happening) now.

And yes, i fully realise this is now one of about a thousand threads about the AI. but i really feel the problem is just getting worse every patch not better, and every patch i stay for less and less time before shelving stellaris again.
I've tried AI mods, they make a difference, but at the cost of performance (which is another thing that has gotten worse over time, used to be the game would run fine until about 2400 on huge, now it runs shit at 2300 on medium)

 

[Yaskaleh]

Try to play as a life-seeded fanatical purifier. Your ability to snowball is quite hampered so nations around you do feel threatening when they gang up on you. Especially if you've just used 5000 alloys to build a habitat to be able to grow and your neighbours declare war on you.

 

[Inocybe]

They will hopefully bring back the challenge (but it is probable it will takes some times). The problem of this version, is that basically everyone become nice with you because you have a much bigger fleet.

Personnaly, as a player that love to play a story rather than a game (I don't min/max and optimize), I always felt threatened at the start of the game. I always feared to be attacked (I play pacifist) and always have in mind "I must build a fleet NOW to be equivalent to the other ugly guys in the galaxy, bc they don't like me).

 

[Rord64]

1.9, been fairly easy since then. It's a shame really.

 

[Attitude Adjuster]

Try to play as a life-seeded fanatical purifier. Your ability to snowball is quite hampered so nations around you do feel threatening when they gang up on you. Especially if you've just used 5000 alloys to build a habitat to be able to grow and your neighbours declare war on you.

I'm actually playing as that now,

granted its been made easier by a bug that gave me two new gaia worlds to colonise (I'm playing Humans, on Sol) and a free ecumenopolis from first league quests, but i shouldnt have to go to such lengths.

It's not just that the AI struggle to handle the new dynamics, they also don't fulfill their purpose of roleplay anymore. I really cant tell the difference between one empire and the other based on personality anymore. and it used to be a reasonably marked difference.

 

[Shireknight]

Nah and also in my games I read the announcements about war breaking out between the AI's but then they always seem to end in White peace treaties so no territory changes hands, I can't recall the last time I saw an AI take out another AI.

 

[klingonadmiral]

Way back when (pre-Apocalypse), I started next to an advanced start Determined Extermintor.

 

[Technoincubus]

I always lock my space with bastions and no AI can breach it. Never felt threatened, especially now, when AI is unable to cope with ship alloy costs

 

[Ter.Yeah]

Not so long ago. Was playing late at night, and had a couple of drinks, so was feeling brave. Found "Prophet's Retreat" and thought "F@ck it"

 

[Serenity84]

Only when playing a genocidal empire where everyone hates you. Assimilators too in the early stages

 

[Kahldris]

It actually wasn't that long ago, I a little after 2.1 came out I went looking for a ai mod as I was frustrated at how bad the ai was and how not scary the FE and AE were. I found glavuises mod. Didnt help the FE and AE much but helped the regular empires ALOT.

I played my first game with his mod on GA difficulty and uh was surprised at how hard the beginning really was. And mid game some of the empires were really keeping up. That was a wild game. I have 600 hours in stellaris now! Crazy....

Before 2.1 it had been a bit if we dont count any AE back when they were still somewhat scary.

 

[FonVegen]

Mine would be yesterday, when one bad mistake by me and an event chain left me seriously vulnerable and I needed to rely on AI empires to protect me from my enemies while I recovered.

Long story short: While trying to build a city district I got distracted and didn't read through the confirmation alert that followed. Which was a bad move because that meant that my capital system was suddenly a backwater colony with only the reassembled ship shelter, and I lost access to my 1k trade value for a while, which caused every last empire to break their commercial pacts with me while my economy and consumer goods also tanked.
And then the AI uprising happened and started with my consumer goods world, my tech world, and my forge world. That was beaten back, but since retaking a planet from the uprising destroys all nexus dustricts and doesn't give you any cities, stability collapsed and crime ran rampant while the economy collapsed a second time. At this point, recovery efforts are still ongoing because I saved and quit the game at that point.

 

[PanzerMan7]

Last night, actually. I was playing the beta patch on admiral difficulty with my communist race. Shared Burdens and Byzantine Bureaucracy.

We spawned in a central location. To the north and northwest a ruthless capitalist megacorp with another behind it. To the southwest, reactionary "elective" monarchs. To the direct south pacifist liberals, liberals whose commercial pact with my northern capitalists meant pursuing profit over peace.

To the northwest, mauraders.

We were encircled. And they just kept coming. The capitalists declare war early, around 2240, and press their difficulty advantage before I can snowball. We stopped them, barely. The monarchists attacked right after. Swinging around, The People's Sky Navy stopped them cold. The capitalists rebuilt stronger than ever and the liberals started threatening us! We emphasized harmony for the collective good of 33% fire rate and did some realpolitik.

To the southeast, another pariah. A crime syndicate. I fixed a clothes pin to my nose and accepted the defensive pact. We would fight with any means neccesary. Clean and dirty didn't matter. This was the logic of survival and we wouldn't let the pigs snuff the revolution out. Never.

In 2060 they came. The liberals struck at the syndicate with all their might while the capitalists focused on me. Our fleet was frantically shuffling around trying to secure our partially fortified borders. Platforms frantically were constructed at critical chokepoints all the while the economy started to suffer. Food was running low. Consumer goods were running low. Every last toothbrush was collectivized and rationed.

5 years later with our neck of woods alight, the monarchists exploited the situation with a surprise declaration. We were lucky because our syndicate allies had just struck a blow against the liberals and we had just struck one on the capitalists. In the nick of time the Sky Fleet arrived to smash the blockade of our border world just as the capitalist blew through my defenses on the other end! The exhausted and damaged ships once again took to the lanes and drove back the invaders.

Finally, the capitalists and liberals agreed to ceasefire and the combined might of those who crushed capitalism and those who exploit it easily shattered the border fleets of our monarchists friends. We seized some systems and a whole planet of production means! New workers too to colonize new world types.

I don't think we'll feel threatened much longer. But we're scarred. And were pissed.

 

[A Cat]

The last time I was threatened by an AI empire was right after the Megacorp patch. Long story short, I did no guaranteed habitable worlds with minimum habitable worlds, and got dropped right next to fanatic purifiers, who lucked out into three habitable worlds to my one. That was pretty threatening.

Then a nice NPC fleet sold me 5 cruisers for some minerals, and those five cruisers pretty much trashed the fanatic purifiers.

Note that this was with no AI cheats as it was my first game with the new economic system. Generally I give the AI scaling cheats which keeps them in for a good bit longer.

 

[Attitude Adjuster]

So the consensus so far is that it only poses a threat if you're drunk, playing an intentionally difficult start, are a filthy space commie or exceptional early game bad luck.

 

[shandou]

The scariest AI empire I have ever seen was in a multiplayer game. It was a single-planet, single-system rebelling machine race at around 2600ish.

I was curb-stomping the galaxy by a tall-build psionic race, fallen empires were already "Pathetic" before my unbeatable armadas wiped them off the galaxy map. My fleets alone were as strong as everyone else combined including my friend I was playing with. We decided to end the game, so I joined up to a federation with 3 other AI races and my friend. The federation fleet alone was over 2 million fleet power. Anyway, you get the picture.
Now to fulfill the victory conditions I have started forcefully integrating other empires into the federation. At one point I declared war on the last remaining "strong" empire. With that empire's falling and being integrated into the federation, victory was bound to be ensured.
That last big empire was easily beaten but then, a robot rebellion flared up in one of the federation empires. Since the federation was in a war I could not invite the newly "liberated" empire. So being also the current leader of the federation I decided to stomp the newly sprung machine empire because I didn't want to wait for the feeble AI empire to crush it. But soon after I realized, why bother, its one planet anyway, noone needs it, so I surrendered to the small machine empire. Then it was game over. The shiznit machine empire received the ENTIRE federation space, with all planets, habitats, ringworlds, fleets, everything. Then it won because single empires only need 40%. That was my biggest WTF moment in Stellaris.

 

[Alblaka]

At the start of the game I just finished.

I had previously dabbled a couple decades in a Megacorp, but was only now going for a 'real' Megacorp game, meaning I was playing something new I wasn't entirely familiar with in terms of optimization.

Start at the edge of the galaxy. Good, less people able to attack me. Start scouting, first thing I find is a Devouring Swarm 4 systems off my home planet.
That was a real threat to ending my run, and even after I threw all my allows into fortifying the single border we shared, I think I might have lost the war if not for the AI getting stuck and not moving any of it's 3 overpowering fleets.

Funny, to look back at being scared over 3x800 fleets, right after closing the game that earned me the Giga-Engineering achievement, where I started building stacks of 800k fleets for funsies and to avoid wasting alloys on the stockpile cap

 

[soylukan]

guys try grand admiral.ı was bored like that before 2.2 and grand admiral made my game cool.Especially in grand admiral ai is aggresive and rushy. One time one of my neighbors attacked me again and again and i felt that fear of annihilation. but i agree al l about ai idiotic moronic actions.

 

[MaP_Prime]

It depends. Sometimes I will start a game and I will have a really good start and start strong and remain strong. Other times I will have a not so great start and i will be boxed in very quick, making it hard to maintain a proper fleet with bigger neighbors. Sometimes federations are very concerning, but it's been a while since I've faced a federation like that. I actually really miss it as it always provided some good stories.

The last time I felt threatened by the AI is when they did something super cool and unexpected. So I controlled most of the northern regions of the galaxy, with a massive federation that controlled pretty much the eastern half of the galaxy, like twelve members and just a huge fleet. My empire and this federation were constantly at war, trading worlds back and forth with me usually coming out the winner as I slowly pushed the federation back and brutalizing the two closest neighbors to me. Eventually the crisis hits and the Swarm invades the southern regions of the galaxy, plowing into the members of this massive federation and a smaller federation that was a more local power. Everyone opens their boarders as the galaxy turns to fight the Scourge. At this time I was making heavy use of strategically placed jump gates and I got nervous when the Scourge took control of a system with a gate in it. So I decided to take the majority of the navy, four full fleets, and jump through the gate to fight the Scourge. I was building up a fifth fleet that wasn't ready for combat at this point. So I beat the Scourge, but as soon as the end of the crisis event fired everyone shut their boarders to me. Locking me out of the gate I used to get down to the southern part of the galaxy because it was in the smaller federations territory. Then my big federation enemy declared war while the bulk of my fleet was on the other end of the galaxy. My small, unprepared fifth fleet then had to hold the line as I tried to get the rest of my navy home. So I had to fight my way through the enemy federations southern territory, rushing for a jump gate in the middle of the territory, stopping just long enough to crack an enemy capital world here or there, or to screw them up. I get to the gate system, take it, but for some reason I can't use it. So I then have to fight my way deeper into enemy space until I was in range to use my jump drives and jump back into my own space, repair my damage fleets and rush them to the front. My fifth fleet was almost gone by this point, and all though my shipyards were working over time my navy got hammered, and I did lose some unpopulated systems I was able to hold the AI off to fight them to a white peace.

This was probably the best game of Stellaris I have ever played and since then I have loved it when a bunch of my enemies formed federations against me to challenge me. It just feels so epic when this stuff happens, I just wish it wasn't so rare.

 

[Arutar]

While I don't say I disagree entirely, curiously my current 2.2 game (despite all problems of 2.2.) so far is one of the best ones I can remember.

I am sittings sandwiched between a federation of 3 xenophobe empires. I am fighting these basically since early game, and have only survived the early game (this is grand admiral, aggressive AI) because I have a defensive pact (for over 100 years now) with my democratic crusader neighbor.

So far have had 5 wars (all declared on me), but only managed to make any small gains in the last one (the other 4 were status quo or minor losses), Itching for the inevitable sixth round, as it should be able to score the first actual decisive victory.