So there was an... interesting exchange between my Riftborn and an AI Sophon faction.

First, my scouting fleet of 4 Explorers stumbled onto the Sophon's systems. The Sophons immediately attacked them and I retreated. Mad that they attacked my scouts, I had my defense fleet attack their Explorer, who was currently in orbit around my homeworld. Their Explorer retreated.

The Sophons immediately contacted me and chewed me out for attacking their ships, apparently wanting me to tolerate their attacks against my ships without seeking retribution. Their attitude dropped to Hostile, apparently because I "destroyed defenseless civilian ships" (it retreated) and "leeched their population" (no rival outposts with them, and they were at least 5 systems away from me).

A few turns later, they gave me what appeared to be a war declaration (talked about going to war with us, attitude dropped to Aggressive), but their status in the Diplomacy screen is still "Cold War".

What gives?

Hi,

Thanks for the report! This is an intended reaction of the AI, although I'm surprised it logged the "destroyed defenseless civilian ships" for an attack on an explorer (it's supposed to be for the logistics ships). If you still have the save I'll take a look.

What was your overall feeling of the encounter? From what you say I gather you weren't expecting to be attacked when you went over their system? Were you really surprised they went hostile after you attacked them in retaliation?

The last message you got was indeed the AI warning you it is considering war. You could've avoided it by making a gift to them when they were still hostile (you know, a diplomatic gesture to appease tensions :)).

Thanks,

I don't have the save anymore, although I've encountered it often enough.

Their attack on my scouting ships over their system wasn't surprising, but I found it ironic they were blasting my explorers while their scout was smackdab in the middle of my space. Their hostile declaration right afterwards just showcased the AI doesn't handle (or know how to avoid) retribution well. It was more amusing than frustrating.

I wish there had been more ways to approach that situation: a diplomatic warning I was encroaching on their space before blasting me. A choice to bribe them to let my ships pass safely. Or just the AI being smart enough not to blast my scouts while their scout is in my territory.

The Sophons' "thinking of war" message needs some editing, then; the wording sounded like they were declaring war.

This is the sort of thing where A.i faction personality should come into it.The UE,Cravers would attack while the Sophons possibly not.Or maybe even the political parties in charge of said nation would be part of it.

Ashbery76 wrote:

This is the sort of thing where A.i faction personality should come into it.The UE,Cravers would attack while the Sophons possibly not.Or maybe even the political parties in charge of said nation would be part of it.

The problem with the latter is the player has no clue what political parties are in charge of an AI nation, and thus party-based reactions would be indistinguishable from "completely random".

Alright, hit another example of this in the same game. I recently got this message from the Vodyani.

Note the message explicitly states closed borders, but there's no demand for Closed Borders, so I'm guessing it's just a change in status to Hostile.

In addition, they chew me out for not reconciling with them with gifts. However, just 10 turns ago, I gifted them 1000 Dust. When I did that, they turned Insulted for "trying to bribe them", so I decided never to gift them again. At this point, I am utterly confused what they want me to do. They feel Insulted if I gift them and then grow Hostile because I didn't reconcile with gifts. It all just feels... haphazard, like switches flipping on and off instead of dealing with an AI.