The Crisis should always attack the nearest, weakest, target, instead of going after a specific empire

[Tamwin5]

I think the Contingency needs a redesign in general. It doesn't actually benefit from expanding at all, so if it targeted weaker empires, it'd just fizzle out. Because of this, attacking the strongest opponents in an attempt to break the potent defenders of the galaxy is the logical choice for the contingency to make, but it leads to fittingly binary, yet boring, gameplay where you're either strong enough to defend yourself and win because there's no escalation of power in the crisis, or it immediately breaks your neck.

I will note that this didn't happen in the MP game I played where we made it to end game and fought the contingency. The strongest player being slowly taken out gave the other not-quite-as-strong players time to build up and have a fighting chance. Of course, in single player I doubt we'll have AI good enough to match up with a good player, but it was a fun and dynamic experience.

I wonder if there might be a way for the contingency to retarget, rather than fully kill someone. So if the contingency destroys your fleet, they then pivot over to a different empire to attack. That way it's not quite as binary, and being defeated doesn't mean instantly dying (or crippled to the point of being helpless).

 

[Miahp]

it doesn't seem like it would be a difficult thing to fix, you simply need 2 behavior pathways with a check. is overall power greater than or equal to say 60% of most powerful empire? if yes, then prioritize attacking them as they do now. if no, then prioritize weaker empires/build up. that way if they're too weak they will expand and build up, until the check says they're good to go on prioritizing the strongest empire and their behavior switches.

well, I say wouldn't be too difficult, but not sure if that is something that you could mod or if it would be a hardcoded behavior.