AI expansion ratio

[Bansheedragon]

I played about 10 game since the last major update.
Only a few of them have reached mid-late stages of the game.
One thing that seems to be consistent with all the game though is the AI expansion ratio.

No matter how I customize my race or what AI races I choose there is always 1 race that soars ahead of everyone else.
They are expansing so fast that nobody has even an outside chance of even trying to compete.

I'm currently playing a game thats at around 50 turns and I have 1 race that have a population, production and economy score thats about twice that of the next one and seems to be expanding at an increasing rate for each turn.

At this rate this one race will likely have colonized the majority of the galaxy before I have a chance to explore, much less survey, more than 1/3 of the total galaxy.

All other races seem to be going at more of less the same rate I am, only one race seems to be doing this.
Its like that particular AI race has near infinite resources and faster ships than anyone else.

So I was curious if this is intended design, as it makes it feel pointless for me to even try to explore and expand, and makes me just want to give up and start over.

[keller]

I have noticed that sometimes races expand to only have one or two systems as well. In my current game the warrior race have only 1 planet. The gargals also only had 1 planet as well before I exterminated them. Difficulty setting ? ?

[Bansheedragon]

I had it on very easy in these situations.

In all of those games my relations with that race kept deteriorating, seemingly for no reason at all, and in some of them eventually that race ended up declaring war on me and then overwhelmed me with a massive fleet attacking multiple systems at once.

I didnt even have a snowballs chance in hell to defend myself as I didnt have the resources to build a fleet fast enough to counter the attacks, leaving my only choice to start a new game.

The previous game I played I was at war with the Lezgoon, which controlled at least half the galaxy, and they kept building a massive fleet in one system.
They never attacked me with it, only with smaller 2-5 ship fleets, but eventually I gave up on that game as the Lezgoon just kept expanding at what looked to me like an exponential rate.

[keller]

Its beginning to sound like to me that this was done by design so that each game is somewhat different as in every game there is appears to be one or two races (random) that expand. This actually adds replay value because no two games are the same. Perhaps the next game I play the gargals will be a little more powerful

[eidolad]

Like in Sword of the Stars (prime): location, location, location. The randomizer that builds the galaxy is a major decider of that empire's expansion potential. In Horizon, I've found: based on the homeworld type for that AI empire...how nice, large, and close are the best planets for them? That AI empire with the best relative position for them = best start, I would think.

Scout out their starting location, and take a look at their homeworld type. Just how many planets were there for the taking, and which ones did they choose first?

To counter the AI seeming to expand fast: I might also suggest customizing the AI empires and setting them all to something other than "expansionist".

[keller]

off topic a little but I love sword of the stars and know exactly what you mean. Sometimes when playing as the humans you have to invest in engine tech because there are no planets in range to colonize. Likewise, in Horizon it pays to develop the logistics level a bit as this increases supply lines - which allows you to go farther.

[Bansheedragon]

Like in Sword of the Stars (prime): location, location, location. The randomizer that builds the galaxy is a major decider of that empire's expansion potential. In Horizon, I've found: based on the homeworld type for that AI empire...how nice, large, and close are the best planets for them? That AI empire with the best relative position for them = best start, I would think.

Scout out their starting location, and take a look at their homeworld type. Just how many planets were there for the taking, and which ones did they choose first?

To counter the AI seeming to expand fast: I might also suggest customizing the AI empires and setting them all to something other than "expansionist".

I only play in mission mode, its the only mode that interests me.
Classic mode is ok, but I find mission mode more interesting.
You cannot customize AI races in mission mode, only play against the default.
But its not just expansionist races that expand like this, it seems random which race it is each game I play.

[Bansheedragon]

off topic a little but I love sword of the stars and know exactly what you mean. Sometimes when playing as the humans you have to invest in engine tech because there are no planets in range to colonize. Likewise, in Horizon it pays to develop the logistics level a bit as this increases supply lines - which allows you to go farther.

I usually get Logistics to 2 or 3 at the beginning, but rarely higher because of the time it takes to research.
But it dont really help much what the AI seem to be able to travel and survey systems faster than I can.
I have noticed that the AI races tend to be able to survey and colonize 3 systems in the time I can survey 2 systems, especially early in the game, which mean its not a matter of having range, but resources to build ships fast and fast ships.

[keller]

A question for you. When building ships that you use to scout the galaxy do you use aux pods and stack the ship full of supply pods ?

Remember auxillary pods give you a decent amount of extra space on the ships.

[Bansheedragon]

I use the small scout ships for souring because they are cheap and fast to build.
I do indeed use aux pods, but it dont give much extra space for supply pods, at best I might be able to fit 2.
But since I dont like sending them out unarmed I dont have space for more than one.

But as I said before, my problem is not so much the range as it is the speed.
The AI seems to have the speed and resources to expand 2-3 times faster than me almost from the start.