Computer's lack of capital ships?

from Sins Forums

After a long break I recently bought the entrenchment expansion and have noticed something i don't remember happening before, the AI seems to devote very little of its fleet logistics to capital ships.

 

Using the end game graphs, the computer had the same fleet size researched, as well as max number of capital ships, but consistantly game to game, it only uses between 1/2 to 3/4 of its max capital ship slots.  Considering a lot of the capital ship's abilities only get better as you have larger fleets, this seems like a very odd mechanic.

The example i have in my head is I beleive both the AI and I had a max fleet of 1360-ish, and 8 or so max capital ships.  This is where we fought, and even with the fight at the AI's planet and with a defenses, he lost about half of his fleet, and only killed about 9 of my frigates.  Looking at the graphs at the end, of his 8 max, he only had 5 capital ships.

I wouldn't even chalk it up to player smarts vs AI, as in this case, I essentially let the AI control my fleet, they were set up to auto stay in range of my healing ships, but other than that i didn't do anything, and my fleet still rolled over them.

 

Is this something where the computer reseraches fleet size first, and then just goes and uses up all of its fleet before it finishes capital ship crew research?

 

I like the larger games, which due to time reasons are often not realistic to do on multiplayer, so wondering why the computer makes such a choice.

10,908 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

After a long break I recently bought the entrenchment expansion and have noticed something i don't remember happening before, the AI seems to devote very little of its fleet logistics to capital ships.
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Really, I don't notice this.  I always see plenty of capital ships in the AI's fleet.

 

but consistantly game to game, it only uses between 1/2 to 3/4 of its max capital ship slots
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Now, I have noticed that it seems to research capital ship slots that it doesn't end up using. 

 

Considering a lot of the capital ship's abilities only get better as you have larger fleets, this seems like a very odd mechanic.
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Capital ships level up faster and many abilities scale well as fleets get large (others scale poorly or not at all, so this is really capital ship dependent).  However, they're also easier to kill and require more levels to be effective. 

 

The example i have in my head is I beleive both the AI and I had a max fleet of 1360-ish ...  Looking at the graphs at the end, of his 8 max, he only had 5 capital ships.
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The problem here is strictly unused capital ships.  Five is a reasonable number for a fleet that big, though the exact number should be based on the amount of experience you can get to level them up.  If you only have low-level capital ships, I'd probably stick with only 2 or 3 until I got them leveled up and then move on to 5 or 6.  In many cases I might eschew capital ships altogether and spam units.  Capital ships are a luxury that you often don't have when it comes down to a gritty war of attrition, and if you lose them it's often impractical to replace them.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

 

If the AI is building fewer capital ships and more LRFs and flaks then that's a good thing since it will make it just a bit tougher for the people who want a better AI opponent but who are afraid of human opponents.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Vs AI i just make capships and nothing else until i have a good economy. Its pretty fun actually, you dont lose any ships (aka no wasted money) and you get stronger and stronger ships as you kill more.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

It seems to be a random setting for each AI as far as I've seen.  I recently finished a long game and the final 3 AIs (out of 7) had a max of 6, 13, and 16 Cap ships.  Each had more than enough time and resources to research everything the AI wanted to so some just don't seem to have it set as a priority. 

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Try Diplomacy, the AI is better at building and researching. Last game it threw 250+ frigates and 12 caps at me in one attack, including several at level 10.