0009079: Increase how much stuff the AI gets per planet, but make it harder to free AI defenders - Arcen Idea Tracker (Bugs and Features)

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0009079	AI War 1 / Classic	Suggestion - AI Behavior And Tactics		Jul 31, 2012 11:57 am	Sep 1, 2012 2:42 pm

Reporter	TechSY730	Assigned To
Status	considering	Resolution	open
Product Version	5.051

Summary	0009079: Increase how much stuff the AI gets per planet, but make it harder to free AI defenders
Description	The problem, attacking planets has gotten rather boring and/or grindy recently, in large part because the vast majority of planets tends to be a huge pushover. So, cross posting from http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,11242.msg113522.html#msg113522 However, I thought of something. The current "free everything if I am massively overwhelmed" logic is good, and smart play, but right now, planets are frequently too weak, so this logic gets triggered nearly all the time. Something I thought about is possibly increasing the amount of ships AI planets initially seed with by a good amount (but not so much that every planet becomes a grind), making it harder for ships to be freed (like not free a group of ships if only one of them gets shot at, but maybe only when what they are guarding <50% or dies, whichever comes first, instead of the as soon it is shot like it is now; or possibly have a large percentage of the defenders be permanent defenders (0001580) that will never be freed until the planet is lost). Reinforcement rates may need to go down some to ensure that planets don't get grindy too fast, or to prevent early game border aggression. The idea behind this change is to make each planet much better defended, thus making it harder to trip the "free everything you can" switch, but make it harder to put ships into threat in the first place, so you don't have to worry as much that the stronger planets will instantly kick your butt upon the first attack, and you don't have to micro quite as much to prevent your ships from freeing stuff unintentionally, as small amounts of aggression won't free as much. This would require a large amount of balance work, but it may be something worth thinking about. EDIT: Or if this is too much to balance and change, how about an easier variant of this idea? Like making it harder to free ships (like some of the ways suggested above), but increasing reinforcement rate some to compensate.
Tags	No tags attached.

Internal Weight	Feature Suggestion

TechSY730 Jul 31, 2012 12:09 pm reporter ~0027228 Last edited: Sep 1, 2012 2:43 pm	There are bascially two ways you can give the AI more stuff. You can boost the amount of stuff AI planets get while initially seeding, or by buffing reinforcement rates. Even though buffing initial game seeding would be trickier to balance, it has the advantage of keeping attacks interesting (though not overwhelming) even if you are clever about deep striking and alert management. (See the related issue (9080) for another way to keep deep striking and alert management from making the AI a pushover) The making it harder to free stuff is not as central to this suggestion. It's mostly there to prevent people from thinking "Oh, we are just going to make the game harder by giving the AI even MOAR". By tightening up the criteria for a ship to be freed some (or by giving some ships such a tightened criteria, 0001580), this opens up new strategies for offense, gives a more "battlefields within battlefields" feel, and make it seem like the AI takes defense seriously, rather than a larger amount of ships abandoning defense just because, say, one measly laser gattling shot at one of the fleet defenders, but got killed quickly. Long story short, it is to make AI defenders not be freed with a "sneeze", or at least not all of them. The making it harder to free stuff can be moved to a separate suggestion, though.

TechSY730 Sep 1, 2012 2:42 pm reporter ~0028117	Another relevant thread: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,11577.0.html

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Jul 31, 2012 11:57 am	TechSY730	New Issue
Jul 31, 2012 11:58 am	TechSY730	Description Updated
Jul 31, 2012 11:58 am	TechSY730	Summary	Increaes how much stuff the AI gets per planet, but make it harder to free stuff => Increaes how much stuff the AI gets per planet, but make it harder to free AI defenders
Jul 31, 2012 11:58 am	TechSY730	Summary	Increaes how much stuff the AI gets per planet, but make it harder to free AI defenders => Increase how much stuff the AI gets per planet, but make it harder to free AI defenders
Jul 31, 2012 12:02 pm	TechSY730	Relationship added	related to 0009080
Jul 31, 2012 12:09 pm	TechSY730	Note Added: 0027228
Jul 31, 2012 12:10 pm	TechSY730	Relationship added	related to 0001580
Jul 31, 2012 12:39 pm	TechSY730	Category	Suggestion - Campaign Management And Setup => Suggestion - AI Behavior And Tactics
Jul 31, 2012 12:48 pm	TechSY730	Description Updated
Aug 1, 2012 12:03 am	tigersfan	Internal Weight	=> Feature Suggestion
Aug 1, 2012 12:03 am	tigersfan	Status	new => considering
Aug 4, 2012 10:19 pm	TechSY730	Note Edited: 0027228
Sep 1, 2012 2:41 pm	TechSY730	Note Edited: 0027228
Sep 1, 2012 2:42 pm	TechSY730	Note Added: 0028117
Sep 1, 2012 2:43 pm	TechSY730	Note Edited: 0027228