Ai is reinforcing a MK1 system with MK2 units while at MK1 progress??

[cww256]

I am trying to understand how the Ai handles reinforcing.

Currently I have a system that borders a MK1 system and the Ai progress is also MK1, but the system is reinforcing in only MK2 units. The system borders two other systems, but they are MK1 and MK3 and neither are alerted.

I am fairly new to the game, and have read through the wiki on reinforcement, but I do not understand why these MK2 units are starting to stack up so quickly.

Is there any insight on this?

[allmybase]

If you are on difficulty 8 or higher, everything is one mark higher. What difficulty are you playing on?

It could also be one of those AI types, one of them might spew out 1 mark higher units, I can't remember.

[cww256]

Difficulty: 6
Ai: Fortress Baron and The Tank.

A quote taken directly from the wiki regarding Ai reinforcement and tech levels.

     "The tech level of the planet and the tech level of the AI doing the reinforcement (it uses whichever is higher)."

Also there are no special forces forts in the system so the units should not be part of a patrol from a higher tech system.

[x4000]

It may be that those are not reinforcements, but rather are the AI up-converting its units if there are more than around 70,000 units in the game overall at the moment.  Have you been playing that campaign for a large number of hours (15+ probably would do it)?  When there are too many units in the game for comfort, the AI will start exchanging out 2 mark I ships for 1 mark II ship, and so on.  But that doesn't happen for quite a while most of the time.

[cww256]

No only about six hours.

I'll attach a screen shot and the save.

[allmybase]

I haven't looked at the save but in my game the AI was already exchanging ships for higher tiers at the 7 hour mark, particularly noticeable on planets that I alarmed. I had MKIV planets upgarding to core units, and MKIIIs were shooting up to IVs.

[Garthor]

Only planets bordering your homeworld can be mark I.  Every other "mark I" planet is actually mark II.

[x4000]

Only planets bordering your homeworld can be mark I.  Every other "mark I" planet is actually mark II.

That's the one. The "no number shown" planets in difficulty 5 and up are all mark ii, except those right next to you. Since there are so many of those, and so few mark I planets, there was no reason to differntiate those -- would have just cluttered the map. Good catch, Garthor!

[Doddler]

It seems as though the AI will trade up or down ship levels depending on the situation.  My last game I played against The Core and Tag Teamer AI types, and was a little perplexed when the Tag Teamer would reinforce core ships, the core AI would sometimes use Mk 2-3 ships, and their cross planet attack (at 250 AI progress) contained a huge amount of Mk III and IV ships.  The AI just seems a bit unpredictable on what they will reinforce sometimes. 

[cww256]

Thanks for the replies. I am glad that we were able reach a conclusion.

I have been playing Ai war a LOT since I got it two weeks ago, and I am trying to recruit my friends too. They missed the Steam sale =(.

My only complaint so far is that I always feel rushed. Even if I turn off the ai progress over time option in the campaign setup.

I know a big part of that is that I am still a new player, but a big part of it is my play style. I like to have every little thing in its place, and in my experience so far, I feel that I have to CONSTANTLY be pressing directly toward the Ai home world or the reinforcement will begin to drastically outpace my army.

My last game, there was an MK4 planet blocking my path, and by the time I started trying to deal with it, there was 4500 units in it. About 3000 of them were core frigates. I threw everything I could at it over many different save reloads including using cheats. I could never break it and had to abandon the game.

It just seems that the more I learn about the game the more that it seems that a winning strategy includes CONSTANTLY pressing toward the home worlds.

[x4000]

Glad you have been enjoying the game so well.

Regarding feeling rushed, that really shouldn't be the case.  AI War really lets you set your own pace, and in fact I am like you and tend to want to play a much more relaxed, thoughtful game.  If you are playing on maps of any decent size (40+ planets), you should not have to feel rushed.  Honestly, if you want to have a more relaxed game one good tip is to play 80 planets or 100 planets.  That gives way more room to expand, and you are less likely to be next to targets that you don't want to have on alert when you are making strategic captures, etc.  Originally at release the game only supported 80-120 planets, but players were clamoring for smaller, faster-paced games, so here they are.

Regarding reinforcements, your goal is simply to make sure that the AI is reinforcing in places you don't care about.  If all the on-alert planets are planets you aren't planning to take, that's the best.  Then they are just forming a "crust" of massive defenses around you, but everything further out -- that you really care about -- is completely unaffected unless you leave it for just hours and hours.  And even then it is still winnable, but it just gets more grindy.  If you use transports to jump past the crust, then you're really easily bypassing that and it's not really doing you any harm.  The goal is always to take the AI by surprise on any planets you are attacking, but except on the smallest maps that in no way involves rushing on your part -- in fact, sometimes that encourages quite the opposite, since if you build up a decisive force and hit it all in one go you'll incur the fewest losses.

The game can really be played either way, and there are plenty of players here who will advocate one style of play or another.  My feeling is that a lot of them prefer things a bit faster than I do, and so a lot of the strategy discussion reflects that, I think.  But when I was designing this game, one of the specific things I was wanting was a game where you never had to feel rushed -- and that's a big part of why I came up with the AI Progress mechanic in the first place, actually.

Hope that helps!

[eRe4s3r]

The good thing is that, thanks to settings galore before starting a game, all playstyles are covered, if you don't want to feel rushed you can play with differing AI Difficulties (one 7 - one 5) , or decrease or disable the timed AIP increase altogether.

You can also give yourself a positive Handicap (which i often do, because i am just.. weird that way ,p) It makes the game go a lot faster where you need it while also not rushing you when you don't want to.

What should be really emphasized is imo that more planets means LESS difficulty overall because you have more choices. So more planets is actually better than less. a 40 planet game can become quite difficult very fast, because you don't have access to the research amounts you had on 80 planets.

[x4000]

What should be really emphasized is imo that more planets means LESS difficulty overall because you have more choices. So more planets is actually better than less. a 40 planet game can become quite difficult very fast, because you don't have access to the research amounts you had on 80 planets.

Quite so.  Though, conversely, all the goodies are closer together on a 40 planet map, too.  But 80 planets is definitely where the game has the optimal breathing room, I think.