I won! Why does the AI keep coming stronger and stronger?

[Elestan]

I think you don't want to forced a sudden stop to the game, but neither do you want the AI to continue on its merry way as though nothing happened.  So, what would an appropriate outcome be?  Here's MHO:

• The exo-wormholes should close, and all exo-waves should stop, as the lore says they should.
• AIP should probably drop to zero permanently, since the alert status of the exo-AI is no longer relevant.
• It might be plausible to continue normal waves, CPAs, and reinforcements, under the premise that the AI still has some production facilities still left inside this galaxy.
• Arguably, it would be appropriate to convert all remaining AI ships to general threat, so that they will regroup and try to do something.

[Clasmir]

Imho as long as a new player can  connect the dots to an understandable finish then disillusionment can be avoided.  If the developers have the bandwidth for more, so be it.

[Kahuna]

When you win, you win. There isn't much more to understand imo. But yeah the lore not being correct is kind of weird. On the other hand the lore has never been the strong point nor the reason I play AI War so I don't really care.

[Jotto]

There's a pretty obvious way to resolve the camps - one wants the game to go on as before, and one wants a sense of concrete victory.  Make the inter-galaxy wormholes destroyable once you destroy the AI home command stations.

[Clasmir]

So I certainly can see why it is interesting in a morbid sort of way to keep the game going. I experimented with the fallen spire story line and after winning that way decided to capture every single planet and build Mongo defenses on each exo wormhole as well and to a lesser extent the nearby planets. I suppose one day far in the future the AI will still win but my PC is likely to come to a halt processing the 10k AI ships...

Having botnet golem, 3 resurrection(sp?) golems, 3 player dreadnoughts, screen fulls of fallen spire dreadnoughts and every single defense item possible within the direct planets - makes for a very difficult AI offense...

And that's all cool now that I know the game and the history.

If I hadn't searched and taken the time to ask WTF in regards to that first win disillusionment event, I might have stopped playing.

I still think it is worth while to make the default action upon winning the game - to stop the exo wormholes.

[MaxAstro]

I'm going to agree that it would be nice if winning had a bit more punch to it.

Especially for the desperate situation where you are scraping out a win by the skin of your teeth... it would be nice if something happened to the AI so that they didn't just finish killing you after you "won", it takes away some of the feeling of accomplishment. 

Just something as simple as killing the exo wormholes and hugely reducing AIP would be a nice little "congrats" to the player while still letting them mess around if they want.

[Clasmir]

I couldn't agree more. Thanks for the post.

[Kahuna]

Just something as simple as killing the exo wormholes and hugely reducing AIP would be a nice little "congrats" to the player while still letting them mess around if they want.

Making the x AI to stop sending waves would basically halve the AIP when you destroy the x AI's home command station.

[Elestan]

Making the AIs to stop sending waves would basically halve the AIP when you destroy the first AI's home command station.

Nobody's talking about changing anything when the first AI falls.  These suggestions are all for when the second AI falls.

[Kahuna]

Making the AIs to stop sending waves would basically halve the AIP when you destroy the first AI's home command station.

Nobody's talking about changing anything when the first AI falls.  These suggestions are all for when the second AI falls.

I know.

Making the x AI to stop sending waves would basically halve the AIP when you destroy the x AI's home command station.

Fixed that.

If the AIs shouldn't be able to send waves after they have been defeated then why should the first/second AI be able to send waves when it has been defeated.

[Elestan]

If the AIs shouldn't be able to send waves after they have been defeated then why should the first/second AI be able to send waves when it has been defeated.

In my opinion, they shouldn't; taking out an AI's home station should close its exo-wormhole.  If the game wants to keep the pressure increasing after that point, it should increase the AIP by whatever amount is needed to do so, and let the remaining AIs take up the charge.

But that's a bigger change than what was being asked for and discussed here.  I also think it would be an improvement to just shut down all the exo-wormholes when the last AI falls.

[chemical_art]

If the AIs shouldn't be able to send waves after they have been defeated then why should the first/second AI be able to send waves when it has been defeated.

In my opinion, they shouldn't; taking out an AI's home station should close its exo-wormhole.  If the game wants to keep the pressure increasing after that point, it should increase the AIP by whatever amount is needed to do so, and let the remaining AIs take up the charge.

But that's a bigger change than what was being asked for and discussed here.  I also think it would be an improvement to just shut down all the exo-wormholes when the last AI falls.

There already is a method to have the AI send double strength waves. I would imagine it possible that one AI HW falls that AI cannot send waves, but the other AI compensates by sending waves with twice the strength (which evens out to about half as often)

Could be a potential plot option.

[Clasmir]

Here is another instance of my frustration with the game.

For the first time I decided to use the random script features that uses all the expansions.  I've crawled my way to the point where I can win. I had to avoid planets that trigger the rocket corps. I had to tunnel deep into AI territory to get the final "A" shield.  I have the first AI home planet weakened and ready for the push and I'm near the second as well and this time around I've done it with just armored and regeneration golems.

However, now that I'm poised to win I've lost heart. I know that as soon as I do get the "You Win"...    Nothing really will change. I'll end up turtling if I want to keep playing and most of long line of planets I've captured will fall.

The only fun factor was seeing if I could engineer a win, but once I realized I could - the wind is knocked out of my sails because there isn't really ANY victory. What's the point to go on now that I know I can win.

For all of you holdouts, do you begin to see my point?   

[Mánagarmr]

You win once, you change up the game and make it harder. Rince and repeat. If you're not the guy who likes to replay a game, you don't. You win and you move on. That's how it is with pretty much every game ever.

[keith.lamothe]

Certainly the ending needs work, I've said that before.

That said, don't assume you've got a victory until both AIs are down. Depending on the settings and the difficulty things can get pretty crazy in the final assault.