Why do the AI attack a month or two after meeting me?

[lathrix army]

I just had a game that i quit because the AI attacked me 1-2 months after i met them so i didnt even have a chance to have a fleet built and then force peaced me because war exhaustion
i also hate the force peace mechanic you shouldnt be able to force peace without holding a capital or atleast something important

[Rawlee]

What nation attacked you? Some of them are incredibly hostile, like Fanatic Purifiers, Barbaric Despoilers, Determined Exterminators and Devouring Swarms.

Also, the war exhaustion is there to prevent players from just playing the long game. You have to prepare appropriately.

[Jagothegamer]

That's why you passively build your fleet up before you meet anyone, cuz once you meet the AI they will probably have at least two full fleets already.

[yuzhonglu]

Democratic Crusaders are extremely aggressive against anyone not their ideology. Purifiers and other total war empires are EVEN MORE AGGRESSIVE.

If you're tech rushing, and get caught with your pants down, it's your fault.

[lathrix army]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

Democratic Crusaders are extremely aggressive against anyone not their ideology. Purifiers and other total war empires are EVEN MORE AGGRESSIVE.

If you're tech rushing, and get caught with your pants down, it's your fault.

Originally posted by Rox:

What nation attacked you? Some of them are incredibly hostile, like Fanatic Purifiers, Barbaric Despoilers, Determined Exterminators and Devouring Swarms.

Also, the war exhaustion is there to prevent players from just playing the long game. You have to prepare appropriately.

so they were just fanatic egalitarian militarists they werent a specifically aggressive faction and i wasnt tech rushing i had a fleet but theirs was more than my fleet limit allowed this was like 2230-2240 so i wasnt super high on tech

[Unimportant]

Originally posted by TheOrangeSkittle:

Game just inst fun to me anymore, you either min/max your build and insta gobble up everyone you come across or stagnate.

Just finished quitting a decent going game since first ai I met insta blew up my science ships then instantly rivaled and declared war on me upon official contact, it was a democratic crusader, was like 2230 or something and I had a 8.5k fleet x2 over naval cap and ai had 13k fleet and it was subjugation war. Game feels unplayable without going for a meta "build", thats on commodore with late game scaling btw. Spammed as many ships as my eco could handle and still the ai has twice the territory resources and navy nearly.

That's just wrong

[Edix]

Without seeing the game and what happened exactly I can only speculate.

One thing that does pop into mind is that when setting up a game you might turn off Advanced start AI. When that is on there are X number of AI that start with higher level of tech and as other people have already pointed out some of the AI empire types are quite aggressive and would cause some problems early in the game.

On a personal note I used to struggle at this game quite a bit and this is the common complaint that I see people make in my own social circles. That they just get steam rolled right out of the gate. Suffice it to say that after I played a learning game with them (the co-op mode is quite good for this and I love doing it) and watching them play they were making quite a few mistakes.

I know you already said that "I dont want to have to min/max" to win the game but just like in any game there are some optimal ways to play and sub-optimal ways to play. But then there are just plain old mistakes. Or at least in my opinion they are mistakes.

One of the mistakes I saw people, again who I played with in co-op not saying you are doing the same thing, is they would just straight up ignore First Contacts and diplomacy. If you are not engaging with your neighbors then what you are doing is letting their opinion slip. There are really only two ways to keep an AI from attacking you. Either have a bigger or at lest same size military than theirs. OR just make there opinion of you go up with diplomacy (envoys set to improve relations for starters)

Another mistake I would see is not using star-bases with the Anchorages. Build one star-base with shipyards only. Then the rest with Anchorages only and build star-bases to your max cap. Build them in systems with your planets.

Yes, building a "defense" star-base can be useful specially if you tech and spec into them but I have found that having a fleet is way more useful for defense than a star-base so don't over use defense star-bases. You can always just go take back your systems after you beat there fleet/s.

And lastly, not know how to manage planets/jobs/economy. This one has a lot to it so i wont go into it much but only build on a planet when you need to. There is no reason to build a bunch of buildings and districts if you don't have population on the planet to fill the jobs. Build up the planets slowly as pops spawn. And what you build should follow what you need at the time. Don't worry about specializing planets until much later in the game when it makes sense to do so.

And lastly, build ships and design them yourself. Don't let the auto generator do it. There are numerous guides out there that will help you design ships. But here is my advice if you don't want to go that deep. Build up to x20 Corvettes as soon as it makes sense to do so. Add more as needed. (your military rating does factor into the AI calculation to attack you so if you keep it about even or higher they are a lot less likely to attack)

(this is very basic but good enough for just about anything in the game)
Corvettes - All missiles (x3) until disruptors then put them on instead.
Destroyers - skip them
Cruisers - Swarm missiles x6 - Swap over to Cruisers soon as you can. No need to use Corvettes unless you want to keep them which is fine.

Battleship - X Arc, missiles, swarm missiles, PD beam, Strike Craft


Oh and set the game to slow instead of normal speed if you need to. The AI is churning along at the same pace as the game and it doesn't have limitations but by speed of the game. There is no shame is pausing the game and slowing it down to keep up with everything.

[madpraxis]

Heh.

"Hey, I met another intersteller empire, we are both competing for the same territory, to be the best, to rule the galaxy. I have no military, and I have no defenses, so why did they attack me?"

Aight. I would too in that scenario... It's like, asking why you painted a big target on yourself
and stood around doing nothing, and people then shot you in a FPS.

[Meewec]

i tend to neglect my fleet starting out but once i meet another empire and begin the contact process build my fleet to at least my capacity and upgrade a chokepoint starbase near them to keep the fleet at. odds are this is enough to keep you safe until you can build some more stuff.

[ggeymer]

In most cases, if the country does not have a xenophobic ideology, before the war you getting offer of vassal status without obligations, at most cases with an increased cost of land expansion(its nothing if you dont want to make british empire V2). Then when you make big army, just start a war for independence, thats all. In general, you are being attacked because your army is several times weaker. If you create a dozen corvetes from the start, then the chance of war from the start decreases significantly

[mss73055]

Opposing ideology is another reason.
Opposing ideology backed by military ethos makes it worse.
Opposing ideology backed by military ethos and superior fleet power makes instant war.

[Bermag]

Usually (it looks like that at least; not sure if it is coded that way) they don't attack until they have intel on your strength. If you are low compared to them and they dislike you for wahtever reason they will most certainly attack. Especially if you are a genocidal empire (including DA)

[mss73055]

AI wisdom apparently only involves ship count and excludes star base defenses.

In my current game I have 2 corvettes and a 10k star fortress at a black hole choke point. The democratic crusaders neighbours go willy nilly on it, as hopeless as sending 1.4k worth of corvettes against it.

Their loss rates are pretty Russian, with black hole and jammer adding up to -70% escape rate.

[HappySack]

If they dislike you, you're militarily weak, and their personality permits it then they will attack you.

[Fairin the Drakitty]

first contact will tell you what you need to know about your neighbors.

hostile neighbors means you should likely have some kind of deterrent fleet, although thats not always the case.

if your neighbors are all non-hostile, upon opening communications with them put your people to work increasing relations, **and send them some gifts** anything with a +100 modifier in the trade window.

you wont even need to build a fleet, they'll become protective of you and protect your independance, and occasionally ask to be your overlord but never do anything about it.

Even on grand admiral - assuming normal aggressiveness is set in the settings. you really only need one friend really...

there is no peace with a crisis empire, and in my experience the most warlike is the democratic crusaders. (disclaimer, i only play authoritarian empires as i extremely dislike picking a new ruler, ever)

i personally don't even build a fleet untill i can at least do crusier/carriers but i do keep enough alloys in reserve and 10 shipyards at minimum incase someone feels the need to get slapped.

[Willem]

Originally posted by lathrix army:

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

Democratic Crusaders are extremely aggressive against anyone not their ideology. Purifiers and other total war empires are EVEN MORE AGGRESSIVE.

If you're tech rushing, and get caught with your pants down, it's your fault.

Originally posted by Rox:

What nation attacked you? Some of them are incredibly hostile, like Fanatic Purifiers, Barbaric Despoilers, Determined Exterminators and Devouring Swarms.

Also, the war exhaustion is there to prevent players from just playing the long game. You have to prepare appropriately.

so they were just fanatic egalitarian militarists they werent a specifically aggressive faction and i wasnt tech rushing i had a fleet but theirs was more than my fleet limit allowed this was like 2230-2240 so i wasnt super high on tech

Sure sounds like a Democratic Crusaders AI Personality to me, Fanatic Egalitarian + Militarist is all but Guaranteed to be a Democratic Crusader, and if you are not a Democracy... well...
You get a -50 opinion for being an Oligarchy or Corporate, -100 for being Dictatorial or Imperial or a Rogue Servitor, and Driven Assimilators get -1000 opinion from them.
Honourbound Warriors is another possible personality, and those guys are bloody Warlike as their personality implies.