The Do Nothing Test

[FrozenFallout]

So I did a test where I did nothing for around 300 or so turns just to see what the AI does when you don't interact with them at all. For the first 200 turns or so I didn't even tech up communication. One thing I was interested in seeing was, would I ever be able to communicate with Aliens checking to see if they had a Communication Tech that would allow you to interact with out you having the Tech. I find it interesting that even though I had many planets right next door to me we never talked. This made me wonder if the AI had the Communication Tech and followed the same rules as the Human player when it comes to communication with each other and the player and I don't think they do, so that makes me wonder what their rules are.

The other thing I found very interesting is when I did get Communication Tech all the races I could talk to, the Har'k, Kamz, Varaian and Tankik all did not have any Allies or Enemies. So after 300 or so years Im not sure if anything actually happened in the galaxy with out my intereactions. The bar graphs went down for some races at the start for Population Im guessing this is due to some story mechanic to kill off a bunch of these races at the start but other then the starting dip they all just went up.

The fact that no one seems to be fighting or Alliancing up with each other and also Im not able to check what the races trade or other agreements. If Races cant talk to me unless I Level up the Communication tech, makes me wonder about the game mechanics behind how Races communicate with each other. Do they have a Tech that they level up for it? Do they all start with the ability to talk to each other regardless of distance from each other. Do they have the ability to form alliances and have their own agendas with out Human interference? I also notice that in the 300 years or so with about 100 or so of communication no one ever came to attack me or even demand anything from my poor weak homeworld. They basically acted like I wasnt even there, kinda like how they interact with each other from what I have noticed.

Im also wondering if the News thing that comes up if it could do more then just give us line graphs about stuff we already have access to. Would be cool if they reported on battles and information the Player doesn't have access to. I think this would help allot when it comes to things going on in the galaxy out side of your sensor range. If they told you about colonization, battles, exploration, AI interactions with each other beyond War and Alliances. It would also be nice to know what other AIs feel about each other. Besides Allie or Enemy. Like are their any base line reasons why they don't like each other and past actions they have had with each other (this information could predate the start of the game if Races have a history that goes farther back then the start of the game.

I feel that if races are all going to start on different levels there should be a history to the galaxy that we as a player should be able to see and understand while we are inside the game itself with out need to reference something outside the game.

Last think that Im wondering about as a sort of side note. Is it possible to input a sort of Wiki in game for us to reference while we play. Many games such as Civ 5, Moo3, Distant Worlds, all have this and I find it really useful in those games.

[CellNav]

Hiya Frozen,

Apparently you discovered the "monkey-see-monkey-do" level of the AI ... Perhaps later, when the AI realizes that the player is "doing nothing" it will grow a set of proverbial balls and begin playing the game without the player

After a few builds I will look forward to Part 2 of the do nothing test ... Great test btw! ... I would never have thought to do this ... Right now, we can think of the AI as a new born baby, place the baby on the floor in the middle of the room and ask : "Will he walk later?" (I hope so, I'm tired of carrying him around every where we go!)... It would be nice to not carry the AI around or hold it's hand