Reasons for Which the AI Will Attack You

[Dead&Gone]

So, I have read several times on these forums and elsewhere that the AI will not attack you on difficulties up to and including Normal. Consider this disconfirmed, as I gave it a shot both yesterday and today (on Normal difficulty at Normal game speed), and both times the AI did attack me.

Apparently, there are specific reasons for which the AI will decide to attack you or refrain from doing so. For instance, today I was playing as the Broken Lords and kept peaceful relationships to the other three empires. I had just built two cities, focussed on accumulating dust and producing science, the latter of which would in turn allow me to quickly progress through the research eras. I had also already built a wonder and was about to finish the second one.
Then, although I had no common borders with them, although I had never crossed their borders, let alone done any harm to them or even so much as threatened them, the Wind Walkers declared war upon me and besieged one of my two cities with an army consisting of six units. Needless to say, I could not do anything about it, since I had not built up any army apart from adding two units to my initial army and improving the units’ equipment.

My question is, what, exactly, made the AI attack me: wealth, wonders, scientific progress, or the sum of all three put together? Keep in mind that I had not expanded much with only two cities, and I had not built up many armies or even singular military units, either.

(Let us set aside the fact that, ‘Oh, look! They are wealthy and progressive, we must needs destroy them!’, does not really make sense.)

[Jiks]

TBH it's rather hard to say exactly what motivates the various AI factions.

The most important thing not to do is expand wildly and have a weak military. Once the AI's are in contact with you they can see the status graphs and if greed>fear war is likely. You didn't do this however as you expanded sensibly.

The second thing to avoid is being last on the military power status graph. This might have been the case here and it's a case of "if you want peace, prepare for war."

Good relations help, if you don't attack their armies during cold war when you can it helps build trust. Closing borders really annoys them, often better to let them wonder around your territory as long as you tag their army with one of yours.

Expansion pressure and proximity increases the tension but their expansion is beyond your control.

Sometimes you can just be unlucky in that they get a quest that requires access to your territory, if borders are closed they will declare war in that case unless your military is far stronger. Or even worse, a quest that requires capture/destruction of one of your cities.

[Dead&Gone]

Originally posted by Jiks:

TBH it's rather hard to say exactly what motivates the various AI factions.

The most important thing not to do is expand wildly and have a weak military. Once the AI's are in contact with you they can see the status graphs and if greed>fear war is likely. You didn't do this however as you expanded sensibly.

The second thing to avoid is being last on the military power status graph. This might have been the case here and it's a case of "if you want peace, prepare for war."

Good relations help, if you don't attack their armies during cold war when you can it helps build trust. Closing borders really annoys them, often better to let them wonder around your territory as long as you tag their army with one of yours.

Expansion pressure and proximity increases the tension but their expansion is beyond your control.

Sometimes you can just be unlucky in that they get a quest that requires access to your territory, if borders are closed they will declare war in that case unless your military is far stronger. Or even worse, a quest that requires capture/destruction of one of your cities.

Thank you very much for you concise answer to my question! This is exactly the information I was hoping to receive. :)

[Supermarine]

Originally posted by DeadByDefault:

So, I have read several times on these forums and elsewhere that the AI will not attack you on difficulties up to and including Normal.

Well, those posts are obviously under the influence of selective bias. I play Normal, never ever declared war myself, and always end up in full-blown war on multiple fronts. I always win, but the AI surely goes to war.

Only once did I play on Easy-Fast (to test some game mechanics) and before turn 50 the AI had already declared war on me.

Originally posted by Jiks:

The most important thing not to do is expand wildly and have a weak military. Once the AI's are in contact with you they can see the status graphs and if greed>fear war is likely. You didn't do this however as you expanded sensibly.

Common sense but golden advice here.

The concept of the AI "being able to see" what you do/stats has always intrigued me. I don't really know if/how this is possible, or if it makes any difference at all. Interesting topic for sure.

As for that "greed>fear" assumption, how can you tell? Can you measure that, or monitor it in-game? Sounds pretty useful but haven't yet seen it.

That said, I always try to expand as aggresively as I can, actively blocking land bridges, bottlenecks and seizing quickly the most valuable places and resources. While the AI does declare war on me, their decisions most of the time are downright stupid, and that's what really makes the difference.

Their "strategy" is limited to throwing everything they've got at you, micro-upgrading and reaction-training. They don't carry this doctrine very far, and once you get your armies on the move the AI quickly falls, even when they outnumber human players. I see this all the time.

It's all about tactics, and maybe that's why people tend to say that factions like the Vaulters and the Walkers are easier to play. Teleport and Forest Rage are true tactical advantages that the AI just won't understand.

Originally posted by Jiks:

TBH it's rather hard to say exactly what motivates the various AI factions.

Also my conclusion. I understand why you would want to avoid war, but it will come, sooner or later. Be ready.

[Jiks]

The greed/fear thing used to a lot more clear cut than it is now.

*dons nerd hat* I ran a bunch of tests sometime ago with multiple Drakken factions (as they have contact from turn 1) and while there was no definitive number once I added that one region too many ... all the war decs. Then reload and add more military, then add the province, no war dec.

Since then many AI changes have been made and the AI, I believe, is attempting to be more subtle. While this leads to a less predictable game as yet the overall results are not necessarily better. Avoiding over expansion is still wise, though, just not the automatic receipe for trouble previously.

[Dead&Gone]

Originally posted by Supermarine:

Originally posted by DeadByDefault:

So, I have read several times on these forums and elsewhere that the AI will not attack you on difficulties up to and including Normal.

Well, those posts are obviously under the influence of selective bias. I play Normal, never ever declared war myself, and always end up in full-blown war on multiple fronts. I always win, but the AI surely goes to war.

Only once did I play on Easy-Fast (to test some game mechanics) and before turn 50 the AI had already declared war on me.

Originally posted by Jiks:

The most important thing not to do is expand wildly and have a weak military. Once the AI's are in contact with you they can see the status graphs and if greed>fear war is likely. You didn't do this however as you expanded sensibly.

Common sense but golden advice here.

The concept of the AI "being able to see" what you do/stats has always intrigued me. I don't really know if/how this is possible, or if it makes any difference at all. Interesting topic for sure.

As for that "greed>fear" assumption, how can you tell? Can you measure that, or monitor it in-game? Sounds pretty useful but haven't yet seen it.

That said, I always try to expand as aggresively as I can, actively blocking land bridges, bottlenecks and seizing quickly the most valuable places and resources. While the AI does declare war on me, their decisions most of the time are downright stupid, and that's what really makes the difference.

Their "strategy" is limited to throwing everything they've got at you, micro-upgrading and reaction-training. They don't carry this doctrine very far, and once you get your armies on the move the AI quickly falls, even when they outnumber human players. I see this all the time.

It's all about tactics, and maybe that's why people tend to say that factions like the Vaulters and the Walkers are easier to play. Teleport and Forest Rage are true tactical advantages that the AI just won't understand.

Originally posted by Jiks:

TBH it's rather hard to say exactly what motivates the various AI factions.

Also my conclusion. I understand why you would want to avoid war, but it will come, sooner or later. Be ready.

I do see your points, and I agree with them.

Of course, the AI can see everything on the map, regardless of fancy stuff like fog of war. In fact, the only thing you can do as a developer is to make the AI refrain from using that information to its advantage. To put it differently (and in more human terms), the AI simply pretends not to know everything.
Besides, the AI can only do that which has been pre-defined for it to do. It cannot think creatively and strategically, let alone plan several turns or hours ahead. For this reason, about every video game to date can only offer tougher challenges on higher difficulty settings by giving the AI unfair advantages as to obtaining and managing resources, as well as more health points, armour points, shield points, etc., and higher damage output.
The human player is the one who needs to find a strategy against these unfair advantages.

I was surprised by the AI's attack in the aforementioned game because there was no plausible pre-text for it: no aggressive expansion, no building of huge armies, neither direct nor indirect threats (such as crossing borders or closing borders). I had just built and upgraded my two cities, accumulating some wealth and making scientific progress. I had even received messages from the other empires that they see me as a peaceful leader.
Thus, the only (plausible) reason for which they could have attacked me is jealousy of my wealth. ('Jealousy' is also a human term, of course, but sometimes, the AI players are described as 'jealous' in the in-game diplomacy tab.)

[Supermarine]

Originally posted by DeadByDefault:

Of course, the AI can see everything on the map, regardless of fancy stuff like fog of war. In fact, the only thing you can do as a developer is to make the AI refrain from using that information to its advantage. To put it differently (and in more human terms), the AI simply pretends not to know everything.
Besides, the AI can only do that which has been pre-defined for it to do. It cannot think creatively and strategically, let alone plan several turns or hours ahead. For this reason, about every video game to date can only offer tougher challenges on higher difficulty settings by giving the AI unfair advantages as to obtaining and managing resources, as well as more health points, armour points, shield points, etc., and higher damage output.
The human player is the one who needs to find a strategy against these unfair advantages.

Very true. And that's what in the end we gamers do: adapt and conquer :)

Even against unfair odds and preprogrammed fake AIs. We like it or not, that's the state of the art ATM.

Originally posted by DeadByDefault:

I was surprised by the AI's attack in the aforementioned game because there was no plausible pre-text for it: no aggressive expansion, no building of huge armies, neither direct nor indirect threats (such as crossing borders or closing borders). I had just built and upgraded my two cities, accumulating some wealth and making scientific progress. I had even received messages from the other empires that they see me as a peaceful leader.
Thus, the only (plausible) reason for which they could have attacked me is jealousy of my wealth. ('Jealousy' is also a human term, of course, but sometimes, the AI players are described as 'jealous' in the in-game diplomacy tab.)

In that particular case, sometimes devs program a certain "personality" into each faction. The Civ series is a fine example of this, and an interesting one if I might add.

Now I don't know if each faction in EL behaves differently but according to its strengths (affinity), according to the user's settings (like the profiles "Turtle", "Defender", "Rusher", etc. from the first StarCraft) or even randomly (or combining both previous options).

For what I see, my answer would be: none. It generally behaves erratically.

[Laladen]

The AI attacked you because of your weaker army. It can see the same status report that you can. You expanded and were weak. Garrisoned troops count full strength for enemy AI consideration of your military strength however cost pennies on the dollar as long as they are garrisoned.

[batteran]

Note that you have a "A.I status" in the diplomacy screen (like: cold war, nervous, jealous, ect), and if you hang over your cursor, the "reasons" pop: better overall score, recents good contract, ect.

Maybe it can help?

[SpeedOfLight]

apart from this, it is possible that the AI forge alliances among them ??

[Supermarine]

Originally posted by SpeedOfLight-Original:

apart from this, it is possible that the AI forge alliances among them ??

Never seen any. They remain in cold war most of the time, and very rarely they wage war among themselves.

[SpeedOfLight]

Originally posted by Supermarine:

Originally posted by SpeedOfLight-Original:

apart from this, it is possible that the AI forge alliances among them ??

Never seen any. They remain in cold war most of the time, and very rarely they wage war among themselves.

It would be good to see that. They could probably introduce later!

[Foxfiend]

I'm not sure I understand it much myself, but from what I understand an proximity to an AI increases the likelihood of war. On top of that, if you don't have a strong army, thus an "easy target" they are more willing to go to war with you. If you have something they don't or have a lot more of something than they do they get Jealous and are less likely to be peaceful with you. If you suddenly look to be a significant threat they are more likely to close borders, and I think there are a few other factors, but I think I hit upon the high points.

[Sze]

The AI generally doesn't do peace and alliance treaties because it generally doesn't prioritize researching those techs. As far as I can tell, each tech is weighted and the military techs are weighted higher so the AI considers them more valuable and researches them first. You can tell the relative weights in the diplomacy screen by how much each one moves the bar.

This is offtopic, but what this means is that each faction researches the same things in the same order which 1) makes each game feel similar, 2) means the AIs aren't responding to the game being played or targeting a non-military win condition, 3) means the AI is not taking advantage of their faction strengths (Roving Clans don't research trade routes, Drakken don't research influence or treaty techs, etc.).

Back on topic, the AI will tend to declare war on factions that are too far ahead or too far behind militarily; keeping military score parity is the easiest way to avoid war (as well as not stealing pearls from their territories, not attacking their troops in neutral territory, not sharing aborder, etc..)

[mrmike_49]

Playing on Easy, weak army, expanding, had AI declare war