Plot: Increase AIP when defenses are too strong

[Traveller]

A few different thoughts at once gave me the idea for this total dick move of a plot.

So, the AI is trying to wipe you out.  That's its goal in this part of the galaxy.  It's got other objectives too, surely it's fighting other wars at the same time, so it's committing the minimum required to get the job done in human space.  That's why humans can win: the AI underestimates them until it's suddenly too late.

When humans put up a big fight, the AI shouldn't keep underestimating them.  AI forces warp into a system and get totally annihilated?  That should be cause for alarm.  If the AI thinks it should be able to pass through a few human worlds on the way to its target, then getting stopped cold at the first line of defense should be disturbing.

To that end: some kind of disincentive to vastly overpowering the AI.  When you use ships of too high a mark, the AI gets its jimmies rustled: deploy mark IV ships against mark I waves and it freaks out and boosts AIP to compensate.  Don't let it meet a quota of damage done per attack, and its waves grow unnaturally large until it breaks through.  Wipe out its threatfleet too often and it gets very concerned, and starts guarding the fleet with extra Special Forces in its own territory.  Instead of a whipping boy planet, you might need a sacrificial planet, a command center that the AI can destroy...because if you resist for too long with no planets lost, the AI starts thinking about sending a warhead to get the job done.

Some of this is partially covered by Red Queen level AIP progression, but there's more intent behind it.  I feel like the AI needs more personality, and you should actually need to trick it... not just on a tactical or strategic level, but more trickery on the same cross-galactic theater that AIP exists in.  The punishment doesn't have to be AIP, just an honest assessment of how threatening the player really is, and most importantly an assessment that the humans can trick by hiding their strongest resources.  On a planetary level, take Threatening Eyes and go a little farther: if a subcommander loses a planet in an even fight, that's fine, but if it feels like the player is unnaturally overwhelming, it sends a message to the core world that the player might not be what they seem.  Just think about what it would be like if your Mk.I and Mk.II ships were valuable because they look so weak.

I guess it would be a pretty big game-changer on the same level as hybrids.  And it would be insanely difficult with the Shark plots...in fact, in a way it's the exact opposite of Shark.  Instead of the AI picking up speed when it's successful, it picks up speed when it's not.

Just tossing it out there.

[Imago]

The tricky part of implementing it is finding metrics that are interesting to game in the same way AIP and HaP are to begin with.

How exactly do you measure whether a player conquered a system easily or with difficulty? The time it took? I have my fleet sit around and not attack anything for a while before killing the station or the last guard post. Casualties taken? I split off my mark 1 ships and suicide them into the command station guards while killing guard posts.

[Traveller]

Well, this is the difficulty the AI had.  So yes, you could game it, but that's kind of the point...you're giving the AI what it wants, manipulating it so it keeps thinking you're a minimal threat.

Still not sure if there's actually fun in this idea.

[Radiant Phoenix]

Just make threatfleet sit further back the scarier the defenses are, making it harder to clear them, so they just build and build. Combine with Warp Relays to force the player to step out and fight. Maybe make Preservation Wardens get angrier (stronger) the more scrap is floating around...

From a Watsonian perspective, you also need to compare the strength of the humans' defenses to the sheer overwhelming ZOMG that is what the AI is fighting in other galaxies.

[Shrugging Khan]

Not really much fun, I fear. It just comes down to wasting time and clicks doing seemingly pointless things.

IMHO when you have the tools to overpower the AI, then should either just go ahead and win the game or pick a higher difficulty.

Just make threatfleet sit further back the scarier the defenses are, making it harder to clear them, so they just build and build. Combine with Warp Relays to force the player to step out and fight. Maybe make Preservation Wardens get angrier (stronger) the more scrap is floating around...

From a Watsonian perspective, you also need to compare the strength of the humans' defenses to the sheer overwhelming ZOMG that is what the AI is fighting in other galaxies.

This sounds good though. Smarter Threat storage, yep.

[Kahuna]

Increase AIP when defenses are too strong

Why not increase AIP when the player's fleet is "too" strong (Fallen Spire for example)?

Not really much fun, I fear. It just comes down to wasting time and clicks doing seemingly pointless things.

IMHO when you have the tools to overpower the AI, then should either just go ahead and win the game or pick a higher difficulty.

I agree. When the player has the "tools" the player has already paid the price for them. The price is increasing AIP and/or spending HaP and losing metal.

And yes if one wants to punish oneself more one can always increase the difficulty level. Unless one can already win 10/10 without cheese.

[Kahuna]

Just make threatfleet sit further back the scarier the defenses are, making it harder to clear them, so they just build and build. Combine with Warp Relays to force the player to step out and fight. Maybe make Preservation Wardens get angrier (stronger) the more scrap is floating around...

From a Watsonian perspective, you also need to compare the strength of the humans' defenses to the sheer overwhelming ZOMG that is what the AI is fighting in other galaxies.

It's not the player's defenses that destroy the threat fleet. And if it is it means the AI is too eager to attack. The AI already wont attack unless it has superior fiepower. The limit when the AI decides to attack can be balanced though. In the mean time you can always set Cowardly as the secondary AI type.

[Pumpkin]

(...) It's the exact opposite of Shark.  Instead of the AI picking up speed when it's successful, it picks up speed when it's not.

Interesting. There is pros and cons.
I just wanted to add my slight pro. Only a feeling. Anyway, more plots to make the AI more subtle/vicious sounds a good idea at first.