Stellaris Dev Diary #24 - AI

[Wizzington]

The style of responses is great. I wonder how long it would take to have read them all.

'May your nation always be at peace, humans.'

'Have you looked into the mirror? I'll better return to Tumbleweed before you eat me, and eradicate you later.'

'Please, think before you act.'

There's a fair bit of it. I'm planning to spend some time writing more diplomatic dialogue specifically for the personalities.

'Experience bij, human'.

 

[Wizzington]

About threat, will attacking a pacifist empire will generate a bigger amount of threat than attacking an expansionistic one or it will be the same ?

Also, are personalities unchangeable or can they be changed through special events ? For example, can a xenophile nation become xenophobic if their empire have been devastated by aggressive invaders ?


Very interesting DD anyway, looks awesome !

AI personalities are mostly static but if a country changes so radically that the old personality would not be a possible pick for it anymore, it will pick a new one. IE: If they're Despotic Slavers who stop wanting to have slaves, they won't remain Despotic Slavers.

 

[Wizzington]

Will insults alone in Stellaris really lead to tangible responses? Compared to EUIV, where insults are mostly ego-inflation?

The Stellaris AI is much more opinion-driven, because the opinion system was designed from the very start to be usable for it. So you won't have the case where an empire with +50 opinion rivals you, or someone with -100 opinion secretly likes you. Not to say the AI won't ever try to repair bad relations, but it's very much WYSIWYG with the opinion they currently have.

So yes, insulting someone can have consequenses. I don't recommend insulting Fallen Empires early on.

 

[Wizzington]

Can outpost stations do anything other than claim territory, can you e.g. put sensor packages or weapons on them?

They will mine any resources in the star they're built around, otherwise no.

 

[Wizzington]

Another question: Do leaders have any influence on all of this, if at all? I understand the personalities and ethos are per empire right? But leaders can have their own traits (and ethos?). Do they influence how their empire behave?

At the moment, no. It may be something we look into later, but honestly leaders just aren't front in center in the way they'd need to be to be primary drivers of AI behaviour.

 

[Wizzington]

Does this mean that changes to ethos are possible? Can you end up with a total of more than three?

Well, it's supported by the system at least. I honestly don't know how much it actually occurs ingame, but if it *can* happen (even just through modding) then the AI should be able to handle it.

 

[Wizzington]

How does improving relations work? Is it like EU where we can send diplomats?

You send an embassy, which improves relations mutually. You are limited in how many embassies you can have at a time (pacifists can have more), and they decay faster than they work.

 

[Wizzington]

Debatable. Surely militarists can have equally many embassies or even more, they just employ a bit more aggressive diplomacy when they arrive on a foreign planet, and the embassy's new domain is all of it.

The realism argument isn't relevant, the point is to make pacifist a little more attractive.

 

[Wizzington]

I added the images to the image gallery.

though Wiz, I got a question: can the Ai list you the player as a rival without you first rivialing them?

For sure.

 

[Wizzington]

There's a personality type called 'Fanatic Purifiers', whose primary goal is to purge the galaxy of all aliens. They're not the most diplomatic people around.

 

[Wizzington]

Is the number of Embassies modified by number of AI players or size of galaxy at all?

No.

 

[Wizzington]

It's weighted random with emphasis on weighted (if one personality fits way more than another, the other has zero chance to be picked etc). Otherwise yes, pretty much.

 

[Wizzington]

That would be a good question for the devs. Does each of the 112 possible combinations have the same chance of being selected?

There are not that many, if there were they would become indistinct to player.

 

[Wizzington]

Does each personality have one and only one valid ethos combination that will result in it?

Some do, most don't.

 

[Wizzington]

Well I must admit some part of me is sad knowing that not all ethos combinations are valid choices for the AI. I am, however, sympathetic to the design concerns that make it this way though, and am fully aware that this isn't something that I'm likely to notice in play.

There will be fanatically xenophobic pacifist AI empires in the game though, right? Because I think cutting them would be a deal breaker for a lot of people.

You misunderstand - the AI can have every ethos combo but most personalities are valid for more than one combo.

 

[merni]

Just a curiosity, why isn't @merni set as a dev or mod?

I'm a dev, just don't have all the correct settings yet