Give AI super-traits to overcome player skill

[pharmswede]

So it's established that it's very difficult to write AI to outsmart players, but it is generally unsatisfying to just give them numerical bonuses to make up for their poor management.

What if opposing AI races got specific super-traits that aren't meant to be fair. This could feel very sci-fi, your race encountering truly different aliens but somehow being scrappy enough to make it through. Like an AI empire that is good at space combat is VERY good at space combat due to a natural sensorium for geometry has a trait that gives them large bonuses. I stole that from good old Master of Orion. The Vulcans have VERY high stability. Etc. Would make your opponents more unique, generate more stories. Specific strategies necessary to deal with each opponent, not the sameyness of currently. Higher difficulties would enhance the bonuses and/or give another trait.

Yeah, another thing for the Devs to have to balance and keep track of, but it feels to me that this could be satisfying.

 

[Mavkiel]

Right up to the point where the player gets refugees, abducts population or buys a slave. Then those bonuses are the players and ugly things happen.

 

[pharmswede]

Right up to the point where the player gets refugees, abducts population or buys a slave. Then those bonuses are the players and ugly things happen.

No, these are empire specific, not race specific. Just like difficulty setting bonuses currently, hand-wave that away however you like.

 

[Mavkiel]

No, these are empire specific, not race specific. Just like difficulty setting bonuses currently, hand-wave that away however you like.

Then my question is how is it really any different then what we already have? The AI gets some rather insane bonuses on harder difficulties. Or at worst a lesser form of fallen empires. Not trying to sound like a dick, just trying to wrap my mind about how this would function differently from what we already have.

 

[Spawnof2000]

theres no need, on the hardest difficulty setting the AI already gets +60% naval capacity and +100% resources. NPCs receive +17% ship weapon damage and hull/armour/shield.

https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Settings#Difficulty

 

[pharmswede]

Then my question is how is it really any different then what we already have? The AI gets some rather insane bonuses on harder difficulties. Or at worst a lesser form of fallen empires. Not trying to sound like a dick, just trying to wrap my mind about how this would function differently from what we already have.

Currently all AI opponents get the same suite of general bonuses. This would give a large and specific bonus that is different empire to empire. Seems more interesting to me than the gamey everyone getting the same vague bonuses. But this seems like an intensely unpopular idea, so at least we understand that aspect of it!

 

[Maethendias]

ehrm... thats pretty much what the "boni" for the ai are.... "super traits"... they are just hidden

 

[Bankipriel]

theres no need

That's pretty subjective. With the 2.2.x economy, I find Grand Admiral no scaling to be pathetically easy with the galaxy settings I prefer, which are x1.5 research speed & x.25 habitable planets, with 0 guaranteed habitable worlds at start. These settings make early empire building more fun for me, but the AI is simply incapable of using the game's systems to build an empire from such a beginnings. The AI is also incapable of making strategic decisions around which technologies to prioritize, and whatever weighting there is doesn't seem to take into consideration the availability of planets. With very few planets, the tech gap snowballs super hard in the 2300's (when I usually find myself 12-20 planets, and the incompetent AI's are still sitting on 1-5 planets because they still don't have terraforming, or gene modding, or habitats, and they don't use low-hab worlds to grow their pops, meaning I am usually 1k pops ahead of the next largest empire by 2350. It's pretty disappointing in ways that even the grand admiral bonuses do nothing to help. The AI relies of brute force, but brute force bonuses don't mean anything if the AI can't build an empire. If they don't have the planets to build up early, they just stall out, regardless of their bonuses. Extended research times also totally screws the AI, because they'll spend the first 50 years researching techs that would be great if they had 12 planets, but are totally worthless while sitting on 1-3 planets. Sadly, I have felt forced to give up on 1k and 800 maps, and instead play 600 with x1 planet density so that the AI can put up a fight.

Anyway, all of that to say, unless you are playing with x1 or greater planet density, the AI is garbage even on Grand Admiral. The OP's suggestion is actually the best way I've found to help the AI be competitive on maps while keeping the planet density at x1, i.e. build several dozen forced start empires with custom traits and 6-10 extra trait points, making sure many of them are also empires that cannot have their pops migrate (e.g. fanatic purifiers, devouring swarm, inward perfection, machine empires, etc.) This could be cheesed with N. Acquisition or Barbaric despoiler, but I'm looking for ways to make the AI perform better, so I don't have a problem ignoring cheese mechanics.

While the OP's suggestion has been a very viable way, in my experience, to help the AI empires be more competitive, we really need better AI programming that actually colonizes, terraforms, gene-mods, goes to war to *claim* planets (not just humiliate neighbors), and has better tech weights to help them avoid poor research choices.

Edit: for anyone itching to recommend Glavius, I intend to go back to using it once it is more polished for 2.2.x and not troubled with (IMO) massive bugs/problems of its own.

 

[Arutar]

I don't see the need for these.

Simply give us more difficulty options in the setup, in particular with respect to scaling difficult (which at the moments is much too weak).

More flavor is always good, but there are already these special, very powerful empires, which an unique flavor each, called fallen empires.

 

[Sigma 582]

Just fix that AI - if AI modders could do that, PDX should be able to borrow their findings and incorporate them into vanilla game.
It doesn't matter what bonuses AI empires have if they never use them to actually build stuff and fight wars.

 

[UltimateTobi]

Yes, instead of inflating the AI with bonuses and cheats, Paradox should rather fix it.
As above poster said it; modders can do it to a degree in soft code, so Paradox should be able to as well do it in hard code.

 

[pharmswede]

I don't see the need for these.

Simply give us more difficulty options in the setup, in particular with respect to scaling difficult (which at the moments is much too weak).

More flavor is always good, but there are already these special, very powerful empires, which an unique flavor each, called fallen empires.

Good point. And if the AI were just better, you wouldn't need a sign-post ability telling you how a random empire was cool. They would become cool due to their many other unique abilities and wielding them in a properly threatening way. Though I still wish that when sizing up an individual empire I needed to look at more than their size and civics to determine how to deal with them.

 

[Adolf - Finite War]

Species 8472 mid/endgame, post endgame crisis (hunters for the galaxy hoppers)?
They like the other crisises pops wouldn't be available to players.