Cheating AI? Explanations welcome!

[sunwalker0347]

I'm on the last few turns beating the AI one on one in a test game. The AI was firing a full dozen weapons somewhere around turn 6, which I don't think is cheating but felt like it. At the lowest difficulty it never built any intelligence and stuck to rails and the new upgraded rail for a long time, so I easily recovered with a blanket defense web.

I've made it to the end of the match taking my time, and now after stripping their weapons, power grid, and material production, I'm down to just 1 city on their side and the occasional solar power station or mine as the AI keeps trying to rebuild. Now however, I'm being hit by a half-dozen projectiles a turn that appear directly next to my planet. They're often ignoring my defenses, but I've blocked a couple. I'll clearly still be able to win still, but this is clearly the AI cheating as it has no weapons, right? The attacks state they're from the AI, so I'm not hitting myself (I even skipped firing and was still attacked).

I find it amusing that the game may have been programmed to cheat to discourage a player from drawing out the game, but I'm not assuming this is more than an unintentional bug. Can a developer shed some light on this? Am I missing a mechanic or such?

Thank you again for the amazing updates!

[Niilium]

Sounds like possibly a high stealth asteroid cannon. How good is your intel compared to their counter?

[sunwalker0347]

If it was telling me accurately, I had 100% with them having never built counter. They had no power or materials if that helped? But my kinetic defense was able to shoot down the attacks most of the time. Game froze about another 3 turns of drawing the game out (for science!). I have a save file of it, but getting issues after reloading a save (same as others are in general). Still was a fun, long game on launch of the enhanced version, and I could have ended the game with no bugs so good job so far :D

[Niilium]

No idea then...

[sunwalker0347]

If there really is a stealth asteroid producer that causes them to appear every turn directly next to my planet, I'd say that was it. Makes it easy to explain as a bug (either it was produced when it shouldn't be able to, or my info on them was bugged). It's also possible intel doesn't reveal they've deployed it ^_^ and they got it just before I got them locked down and I didn't notice it because they were still firing at me too.

[Team Jolly Roger]

That's definitely some kind of a crazy bug. Are the projectiles that appeared right next to your planet asteroids, like Asteroid Diversion has?

If you do have save files from that bugged match, could you send them to [e-mail]?

The saves are found at “\steamapps\common\Interplanetary Enhanced Edition\PlayerData\*SteamUserID*\Saves\”

[sunwalker0347]

Just got in, thank you for the reply. I will immediately mail you the files, but it was able to be intercepted by kinetic defense. Also if Asteroid Diversion is the same as the original unenhanced game, it wasn't that. They appeared about a fifth of a second from impact, about 6-12 projectiles a turn, and sometimes came from 2 different sides.

I've sent you that save now, titled the email "Crazy Bug Cheating AI"

[Morvana]

There is maybe the same bug in my game, the AI use some "ghost coil gun", with shots spawning in the void, far from the planet.

[Team Jolly Roger]

We tried the saves but haven't been able to reproduce the issue. The AI just sits there, waiting for its doom, no ghostly projectiles. Have either of you been able to make this happen again after this? Does it keep happening if you save, quit the match and load it again?

If possible, could you post you system information? Operating system, processor, memory and graphics card should be adequate.

[Morvana]

windows 10, I5-4460, 8Go RAM, gtx 970.

I tried to load the save to take some pictures, but loading a game seems to correct the bug, no more weird things in this game.

EDIT: I made a new game, but no more ghost shots for the moment.

[sunwalker0347]

Haven't actually gotten back on it since it crashed. Maybe the issue is in long term games without a break? I'll see if I can reproduce it if loading my save file doesn't work. Did you need system info here, or via support email again? I don't want to brag...

[sunwalker0347]

Loaded my save and played for many turns. Continued building while keeping the AI crippled. I had previously saved and sent you the file at turn 62 (it'd been firing invisible projectiles at me for a few turns at that point).

Turn 133 it has begun doing so again. About 10 turns ago I noticed a small bug I hadn't mentioned last time: when building new buildings, the footprint of the building (circle showing where it will be placed) was absent. Is this happening because I'm overloading the game over long periods without breaks? Will go a few more turns with it firing at me, and load game to see if that resets the ghost projectiles appearing next to my planet.

[sunwalker0347]

Played with a friend against 2 AI opponents (game of 4). We're all being hit by invisible projectiles that ignore Kinetic Defense, early-ish game (turn 30+). Coupled with easy AI that essentially never misses, it's becoming more clear the AI is just programmed to cheat. This isn't very fun, since we can see what the AI has and have defenses against it, but take a beating from an invisible opponent anyways every turn.

The damage started earlier this game and has been even more devastating, with me losing my entire power grid while the AI itself continues to fire at me. My friend is being hit the same way, regardless of if the AI fires at him or at all. We've seen the AI get hit at least twice as well, though we can't tell how badly it is affecting them.

[Team Jolly Roger]

It seems like we've actually found the issue, both the ghost projectiles and the missing building footprint. Still needs some testing, but a fix should be out soon.

Thanks for the reports, it was very helpful!

[sunwalker0347]

That's relieving, my next two games were completely unbeatable against the AI. Even when I wasn't fired at (multiple AI) my cities were getting rekt

[Neo]

I have this same issue (had for ages) and never found a post about it 'til now. TJR - have you ever fixed this and are you able to shoot an update out to us? Also - good work on Worbital... I'm looking forward to it! It looks much better than Interplanetary, plus it'll avoid all the Interplanetary bugs etc when I get it (although it may have its own!). Tell us more about Worbital!