AI aggressiveness

[Antiochos Epiphanes]

Hallo, can anybody point me to or explain what "intense rivalry" actually does? I have found this: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=4211.15 and if I understand correctly then I'm quite happy that what's being said there seems to support my (until I read that almost paranoia-like) impression having intense rivalry active does not only affect AI aggressiveness but also other things like research (and quite significantly?).

My problem is that I experienced the AI as too cooperative and even friendly when not selecting intense rivalry, but on the other hand choosing it seems to really cripple me in an overly artificial manner. I'm using Scient's patch 2.1 and Thinker mod, and for the better balance, I like using time warp. I'd be the happiest player if only the AI was a bit more aggressive just by normal settings. Any recommendations on that? I admit I perhaps should keep playing for longer and maybe things would shift, but I have quit some games now because I felt it was already much too much of a cakewalk - so to keep things short I'm looking for a middle-ground regarding AI aggressiveness.

[Nexii]

I don't have much to add on how it works.  But you could try with Intense Rivalry off and putting all factions to "Aggressive" flag. I'm not sure if Intense Rivalry does anything above and beyond that.

As an example I set CyCon to Aggressive rather than Pacifist:
before (pacifist): The Cybernetic Consciousness, The Algorithm, Consciousness, F, 1, Aki Zeta-5, F, -1, 0, 1, 0, 1,
after (aggressive): The Cybernetic Consciousness, The Algorithm, Consciousness, F, 1, Aki Zeta-5, F, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1,

The bolded part is agressiveness flag. -1 is pacifist, 0 is erratic, and 1 is aggressive.

I often wondered if a more aggressive AI is necessarily harder. I mean it usually is, because it does a better job of warring than building. That is to say, an AI that signs pacts and just builds/researches could be harder to beat in theory. Especially if it was more willing to pact amongst other AI players than the human. Just food for thought... I know this is all stuff that probably can't/won't be modded easily

[bvanevery]

My experience is that making a faction Aggressive, will change what it does.  And that those changes, are not always optimal to actually winning the game.  For instance if you throw lots of cannon fodder directly in the face of an enemy who's well prepared to slaughter big stacks of your units, you are actually throwing all your productivity away.

I believe that if you play an Alien faction, all the human factions are Aggressive towards you.  Which results in some odd differences compared to normal game behavior, I think.  I'm a little unclear on whether the human factions become Aggressive towards you the Alien or towards all factions.  The latter IMO would not be a desirable de facto game behavior.  For instance, picking the wrong fights with the wrong enemies, just because one is a hothead.

In short, raging like a bull is not a feature.  It's stupidity.

I'm a little unclear on whether you think Thinker Mod on Transcend is too hard or too easy.  And also, what aspect of it is challenging or not?  Like of course in practice, the AIs are going to achieve massive resource bonuses, due to a better early spread strategy and massive exploitation of Boreholes and Condensers.  But is it actually any better at combat, nowadays?  I haven't played it in a year.

[Nexii]

Yea it's a fair question. I feel like the flag is only how the AI behaves to the human player but this is just a feeling. It'd only take watching some test games setting them all to Pacifist to see

[Nexii]

To follow up on this the aggressiveness flag definitely does affect AI vs AI relations. I trialed a game of 7 pacifist AIs. They only had the rare war break out, 95% of the time they sit in Treaty status with one another. Most wars seem to break out because of Probe team actions, rarely declared or surprise attack.

Oddly the AI only likes to Pact when it's to gang up on someone. Though they did vote for Global Trade Pact and that really sped up the game

[bvanevery]

That's not the question though.  We know that under normal circumstances, AI flags affect AI vs. AI diplomacy.  The question is when you the human player are an Alien, and all the AIs have been set Aggressive because of that, are they also Aggressive to each other?  Or do you merely perceive them to be Aggressive because the game has goosed the readouts for you?  It's one thing to be inherently Aggressive, it's another thing to be Aggressive only to an Alien.

[Antiochos Epiphanes]

Thanks both of you, I think I just had a few odd games in a row when I got friendship treaties with everyone and was leading in tech (as Spartans) easily, it just reminded me of games back then when I wasn't using Thinker mod and Scient's Patch.
Now I'm relatively sure that my dominance wouldn't have lasted if I had continued those games... anyway I refrained now from intense rivalry.