While I fully realise that the AI in the game needs a major overhaul, something the BOTF community as yet cannot do, it is still nevertheless quite frustrating to have computer controlled empires act totally out of character. Of particular note is the Federation. As seen on screen, they are supposed to be an empire where diplomatic skills take precedence over military force. Every major war involving the Federation has the Federation being attacked first. (the one exception may be the Dominion War, which I’ll address in a later article).
With multi player games involving human opponents, the situation is not so bad, since the various Federation race penalties (ie against orbital bombardment, declaring war etc) at least force the player into some semblance of canon Federation behaviour (ie more diplomacy, less overtly aggressive behaviour). You can still take over the galaxy, bit with the spoken word rather than the sword.
Once a computer takes control, the prime directive is just thrown out the window! Think you are safe with a non aggression treaty with the Federation? Think again! First they’ll be making demands for money because they don’t like the way you’re running your empire (at a time when they’re not supposed to be using money anymore). Then before you know it you have Federation invasion fleets attacking you like rabid Klingons!
The Ferengi are another play travesty. Now, while I appreciate that giving them military power would help balance them against the other player’s military forces, it just doesn’t feel right to see massive, and I mean MASSIVE Ferengi fleets coming at you in endless waves of destruction. Especially since on screen you never get to see more than one major Ferengi warship at any one time.
In fact, the AI, despite controlling supposedly vastly different empires, always seems to follow a particular pattern. It begins by making monetary demands and then attacks without warning. If the particular empire has a high espionage rating (ie Cardassians and Romulans) you get sabotage and espionage attacks as well.
Either the programmers put a common program for all empires to put the game out in a hurry, or they just didn’t bother researching the various races and were unwilling or unable to give them unique AI characteristics.
So, in anticipation of that glorious day when the BOTF community will finally be able to do something about this AI oversight, I’ve put together an initial little wish list of how the computer controlled players are supposed to act.
Federation
Lots of diplomatic exchange. Will diplomatically protest at invasions etc. Won’t attack first but will retaliate strongly to getting attacked. Likely agree to a peace treaty to end hostilities. Will keep agreements a long as the other party behaves ‘correctly’. Strong research base. Will conquer by diplomatically convincing races to join them.
Hmm, can’t think of any viable game alternative to the current credit system, so may have to keep it for now.
Ferengi
Weak initial military force, but long ranged ships. Will trade with anyone they come into contact with (as in vanilla BOTF). Initial strengths in economy, stealing other races ships, and bribery. Will always take a bribe but just as easily break an agreement for a bigger bribe. Will conquer by bribing their way to dominance.
Klingons
Strong initial military. Will attack first and ask questions later. If met by strong opposition, may enter into non aggression treaties which they’ll keep. Will conquer by fighting their way to the top. Vulnerable to ‘dishonourable’ espionage.
Romulans
Average initial military, helped by the cloak advantage. Strong research and espionage. Can keep or break agreements at will. Will develop strong military given time.
Will conquer by a combination of military and espionage action.
Cardassians
Average military initially but strong defensive characteristics (ie better orbitals than others and strong ship armour). Will always break agreements when the other party is in trouble ie: being attacked or generally weak. Very strong espionage. Will conquer by espionage and backstabbing their way through the opposition
And when the Borg and Dominion are added…
Dominion
Strong initial forces. Strong research, diplomacy and espionage. Can conquer by a variety of ways…diplomacy, military, espionage or a combination of all. Will keep their agreements (note how they kept the Bajor agreement when attacking DS9, despite Cardassian protests).
Borg
Extremely powerful initial military which just gets more powerful. No diplomatic skills whatsoever! Likely have the whole galaxy against them. Extremely vulnerable to espionage. Will conquer by sheer power.
Again, they don’t use credits, but I can’t think of a viable alternative at the moment.
Any other suggestions from the community are heartily encouraged!!!!
Regards
Geon
Empire AI wishlist
Moderator: thunderchero
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cleverwise
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Re: Empire AI wishlist
This is an old thread but I agree! The AI behaves the same regardless of the race it controls. As stated maybe this was due to time constraints but it is annoying.
What is the Federation doing demanding money? I can understand the Feds demanding a player stop assaults or quit getting to close to their border. Unless the Feds have a friendship or alliance treaty I think they should be able to bride ANY minor. After all Feds are masters of diplomacy.
The Klingons shouldn't break treaties so easily either. They should be slow and cautious of entering into them but once in a treaty it would be dishonorable to break it, unless the other side breaks it of course.
I can see the Romulans as about right. After all Romulans are dishonorable and use their cloaking technology for cowardly attacks. I know I know I will take some flack.
Cardassians seem about right to me too.
The Ferengi do seem a little over powered. I recently played a game and fairly easily conquered the whole galaxy with them. It seems the Ferengi act more like Klingons. I realize war is good for business. Plus peace is good for business but the Ferengi aren't ones to rush into battle as they do in BotF.
I do remember one of the original complaints of the game was the races don't act much like their on screen counterparts. That is really unfortunate. I still enjoy BotF, most of the time - damn Romulan cloaked ships, but I do find the lack of character by the major powers diminishes the game play. On single player its like you are fighting the same power times four.
What is the Federation doing demanding money? I can understand the Feds demanding a player stop assaults or quit getting to close to their border. Unless the Feds have a friendship or alliance treaty I think they should be able to bride ANY minor. After all Feds are masters of diplomacy.
The Klingons shouldn't break treaties so easily either. They should be slow and cautious of entering into them but once in a treaty it would be dishonorable to break it, unless the other side breaks it of course.
I can see the Romulans as about right. After all Romulans are dishonorable and use their cloaking technology for cowardly attacks. I know I know I will take some flack.
Cardassians seem about right to me too.
The Ferengi do seem a little over powered. I recently played a game and fairly easily conquered the whole galaxy with them. It seems the Ferengi act more like Klingons. I realize war is good for business. Plus peace is good for business but the Ferengi aren't ones to rush into battle as they do in BotF.
I do remember one of the original complaints of the game was the races don't act much like their on screen counterparts. That is really unfortunate. I still enjoy BotF, most of the time - damn Romulan cloaked ships, but I do find the lack of character by the major powers diminishes the game play. On single player its like you are fighting the same power times four.
Hailing frequencies close,
Jeremy
Whether you rise or fall depends on... you!
Jeremy
Whether you rise or fall depends on... you!
Re: Empire AI wishlist
The basic AI behaviour for the Romulans and especially the Cardassians is pretty much spot on, nowithstanding the usual dim-witted battle tactics/can't beat the Borg for cack/generally idiotic building policies that blight all empires equally.
Federation is the worst, as mentioned about a billion times now. They're good at defending themselves via their ships and through intel (as we know they have Section 31 watching on that front). The only real problem is their going to war so often they make the Klingons look like pacifists.
Using the existing game mechanics I did try to blunt that by making the morale penalties for wars and bombardment obscene, but all this did was doom the AI into destroying itself as all their systems promptly rebelled. The other option is severely blunt how much damage the can do when bombarding a system by weakening their weapons and TT's, though weakening their ship armaments eave them vulnerable in a fight and knackering the TT's made building outposts harder to do.
Klingons were reasonably balanced. Their ships hit hard but do badly in a prolonged fight as their weak defences soon give out if whoever was left standing after their onslaught stands and fights back. As for intel, I don't mind seeing them trying to fight on that front. For all their bluster about honour we've seen a few times where they'll happily get in the mud a play with the best of them, (case in point Arne Darvin), though I'd still weight them towards defence than offense on that front. They're vigilant and make no bones about what they do to enemy spies.
The Ferengi are a bit like a fish out of water within the context of the game. They don't go to war. They don't have the stomach for it, and they're more content with sitting back and watching the latinum roll in. How they get said money to roll, they're not that fussed about. They've always been there but they fly under the radar as the Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians see them as of being no military threat and not much use as a slave labour force, while the Federation have the odd bit of grief when they meet a crew who resort to piracy or theft of ships or components.
If push ever came to shove though and someone were to attack them. The Ferengi would either bribe them to get them to sod off (though not to an extent that would bankrupt the coffers), or they'd hire a mercenary fleet. Certainly they have the contacts to do so and a vast network of arms dealers to call upon.
Winning the game with the Ferengi should be hard, though not impossible if given enough time and money to buy their way to the top. To that extent, I'd change things so they'd be able top make a few ships, but it would take time via industry to make their appearance as rare as we see in the series, or buy the majority of their ships and make a rag-tag assembly of mercenary vessels.
Intel is pretty well spot on though. They'd like to know what is going on and only resort to sabotage if they can't buy or bribe whatever it is they are targeting for themselves, and they'd do this by paying someone else to do it, as we see in game already.
The Dominion are strong, too strong really. Too easy to win with and very hard to oppose without an alliance. For the sake of game-play they'd have to be toned down unless you can easily strike an alliance with another power and get them to actually help you if war broke out.
As for the Borg. Give them their supersized and highly powerful cubes, but make them ridiculously hard to build and maintain. In the Borg mods their research was nuked to zero so they HAD to advance by conquering (assimilating) other races and using THEIR facilities to advance as they have shown they can't advance by conventional means. I liked this approach. This made them hard to start with, hard to expend with, but a wicked force to be reckoned with if they weren't stopped in time.
I'd also knacker their credit output, seeing as they have no need for cash, other than for fleet maintenance. They again would have to conquer others and use their industry to maintain a decent sized fleet.
Federation is the worst, as mentioned about a billion times now. They're good at defending themselves via their ships and through intel (as we know they have Section 31 watching on that front). The only real problem is their going to war so often they make the Klingons look like pacifists.
Using the existing game mechanics I did try to blunt that by making the morale penalties for wars and bombardment obscene, but all this did was doom the AI into destroying itself as all their systems promptly rebelled. The other option is severely blunt how much damage the can do when bombarding a system by weakening their weapons and TT's, though weakening their ship armaments eave them vulnerable in a fight and knackering the TT's made building outposts harder to do.
Klingons were reasonably balanced. Their ships hit hard but do badly in a prolonged fight as their weak defences soon give out if whoever was left standing after their onslaught stands and fights back. As for intel, I don't mind seeing them trying to fight on that front. For all their bluster about honour we've seen a few times where they'll happily get in the mud a play with the best of them, (case in point Arne Darvin), though I'd still weight them towards defence than offense on that front. They're vigilant and make no bones about what they do to enemy spies.
The Ferengi are a bit like a fish out of water within the context of the game. They don't go to war. They don't have the stomach for it, and they're more content with sitting back and watching the latinum roll in. How they get said money to roll, they're not that fussed about. They've always been there but they fly under the radar as the Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians see them as of being no military threat and not much use as a slave labour force, while the Federation have the odd bit of grief when they meet a crew who resort to piracy or theft of ships or components.
If push ever came to shove though and someone were to attack them. The Ferengi would either bribe them to get them to sod off (though not to an extent that would bankrupt the coffers), or they'd hire a mercenary fleet. Certainly they have the contacts to do so and a vast network of arms dealers to call upon.
Winning the game with the Ferengi should be hard, though not impossible if given enough time and money to buy their way to the top. To that extent, I'd change things so they'd be able top make a few ships, but it would take time via industry to make their appearance as rare as we see in the series, or buy the majority of their ships and make a rag-tag assembly of mercenary vessels.
Intel is pretty well spot on though. They'd like to know what is going on and only resort to sabotage if they can't buy or bribe whatever it is they are targeting for themselves, and they'd do this by paying someone else to do it, as we see in game already.
The Dominion are strong, too strong really. Too easy to win with and very hard to oppose without an alliance. For the sake of game-play they'd have to be toned down unless you can easily strike an alliance with another power and get them to actually help you if war broke out.
As for the Borg. Give them their supersized and highly powerful cubes, but make them ridiculously hard to build and maintain. In the Borg mods their research was nuked to zero so they HAD to advance by conquering (assimilating) other races and using THEIR facilities to advance as they have shown they can't advance by conventional means. I liked this approach. This made them hard to start with, hard to expend with, but a wicked force to be reckoned with if they weren't stopped in time.
I'd also knacker their credit output, seeing as they have no need for cash, other than for fleet maintenance. They again would have to conquer others and use their industry to maintain a decent sized fleet.
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RomSurprise
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Re: Empire AI wishlist
I wonder if the Federation AI could change the number of times it demands credits, before attacking. Right now the Federation definitely uses demands first, then war. If the things which anger the Federation could be greatly reduced, it might lead to more demands and fewer wars. That would at least be closer to Federation style.
I just got an idea for the Ferrengi, but it's well beyond the game's capability. The Ferrengi would use "bounties". They wouldn't declare war with the Cardassians, they would just post a bounty for each Cardassian ship destroyed. So if I'm the Romulans, I might attack the Cardassians because the Ferrengi paid me to! But this isn't just a war pact - it's incentives set by the Ferrengi player. A war by spending credits. That same bounty approach could be used for other actions like intel or bombing.
A Ferrengi bounty system has two major hurdles. First, you have to be able to set bounties and pay them out. And more important, you need other players to change behavior based on the bounties. If nobody switches their attacks to gain the bounty, it doesn't mean much. And if an enemy of the Ferrengi doesn't sue for peace because of the bounty on their ships, it's not much good either.
But wouldn't it be sweet if the Ferrengi could engage in war without ships - solely by their bank account?
I just got an idea for the Ferrengi, but it's well beyond the game's capability. The Ferrengi would use "bounties". They wouldn't declare war with the Cardassians, they would just post a bounty for each Cardassian ship destroyed. So if I'm the Romulans, I might attack the Cardassians because the Ferrengi paid me to! But this isn't just a war pact - it's incentives set by the Ferrengi player. A war by spending credits. That same bounty approach could be used for other actions like intel or bombing.
A Ferrengi bounty system has two major hurdles. First, you have to be able to set bounties and pay them out. And more important, you need other players to change behavior based on the bounties. If nobody switches their attacks to gain the bounty, it doesn't mean much. And if an enemy of the Ferrengi doesn't sue for peace because of the bounty on their ships, it's not much good either.
But wouldn't it be sweet if the Ferrengi could engage in war without ships - solely by their bank account?
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cleverwise
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Re: Empire AI wishlist
That is interesting using bounties. True the game isn't setup that way but I like the concept. It is something the Ferengi would do.
Hailing frequencies close,
Jeremy
Whether you rise or fall depends on... you!
Jeremy
Whether you rise or fall depends on... you!
Re: Empire AI wishlist
Closest thing the Ferengi have to the bounty idea is the war pact. I can't remember if you can give credits to those you are proposing to sign a pact with, but failing that, you could gift the heck out of them till they have a high standing then, get them to sign a pact and watch them dismantle whoever you want eliminated. 
Re: Empire AI wishlist
with the feds would it not be possiable to change the demands so that they arnt asking for credits but giving you a diplomatic telling off with 0 credits and then you can just accept it and change the message.