Hello, everyone. If you're reading this, you're probably (hopefully) here because you're looking for an answer to why the AI does things that you feel is cheating. And if you're looking for those answers, you've come to the right place. If there is anything that I have not answered here or you're wondering about a particular thing please comment and ask. I will see to answering it and adding it here as soon as I can.



Do note: All the answers to these questions are based on my personal observations, a summary of other people's replies to these questions in the past as well as a small helping of guesswork. I also can't answer anything about programming or the game's code, and I do not work for Amplitude, so nothing written here is an official statement by them. This is also my first FAQ, so any suggestions for improvement are much appreciated.



Let's get to it:



Why does the AI invade my systems after a ceasefire?



It can't invade your empire's systems. There is a difference between Outposts and Empire. An outpost is a system you've conquered or colonized within the past 30 turns. So the AI is attacking these outposts of yours. This is also the very reason why the AI is so eager to ceasefire with you once you conquer one of their systems, so they will have 15(?) free turns to try and take it back without retaliation. They're quite sleazy and crafty, these AIs.



HOWEVER! There is still a bug, or I hope it's a bug, where once a ceasefire is struck, fleets that are currently busy invading a system continue to do so regardless. Of course this goes both ways and you can abuse it for your own ends. The fleets in your own systems (Empire, not Outposts) cannot attack your fleets, so you can stack several fleets there before you attack and nuke the AI's fleets out of orbit. They can't run away either, so they're basically free XP for your heroes. I tend to think of it as an offering by the AI.



Why can't I move into an enemy/ally/neutral system?



It's because the system you're trying to enter is either on the other side of the wormhole and you do not have the required tech to travel there (research in the bottom tech tree), or it's a system that is part of another player's Influence Range. The IR is emitted by Empire systems, NOT outposts. You can freely move through your opponents' outposts, and they can do the same. They can also invade, as can you. But without a declaration of war, or an open borders treaty/alliance, you cannot move through their empire systems, and neither can they move through your own.



A sub-note on this is: The AI can freely move to systems they have not yet discovered, regardless of whether they have an influence ring or not. But that is a one-time deal, they can't return back to those systems. Same goes for your own scouts and fleets.



ps: If you're allied with someone, and both of you are at war with someone else, then your ally might agree to a ceasefire with the enemy, in which case you're forced into that ceasefire with NO notification or option to say no thank you. At that point, all the issues regarding influence and all that crap will begin happening and it will seem like a bug. Whenever you cant move your fleets while you're warring with someone, check your diplomatic status first and foremost.



My fleet is stuck, how can I save it?



If your fleet is stuck, chances are it is surrounded on all sides by systems emitting influence from empires you do not have an open border treaty with (or you're not at war with them). If they are being attacked by the fleets of that empire, you're basically screwed. The enemy fleets will keep your ships locked in that system while they continously spam attacks at you, so you cannot even leave by forcing your ships to fly through empty space. (granted, only if you have that tech mind you. You force your ships to fly through space by holding down the ctrl button after researching how to in the bottom tech tree.)



tl;dr You can't save those ships.



Why is the AI spamming fleets?



The AI is spamming fleets because it abuses the way combat works. A single fleet can only attack once each turn, so by having multiple fleets of ships, the AI can attack multiple times per turn. It gets really crazy some times, with over 30 fleets in various systems. The AI also abuses the "forced merging" of fleets. It's a feature that was introduced to prevent someone from spamming 30 single ship fleets. Instead, ships are merged into a single stack if there's room for all the ships in both fleets (or several fleets if possible). So the AI makes fleets that are just one above the half-way mark of their max number of ships possible in a fleet, meaning if their max is 15, their fleets will consist of 8-9 ships each.) Then they will merge the strongest ships into a powerhouse and crush your fleet, OR burn it down through sheer numbers alone. The key to defeating them is to counter what weapons they use.



HOW is the AI spamming fleets?



As to how they're doing it, the AI get large resource bonuses (percentage-bonuses to an empire wide effect). I do not know the exact numbers, but they're pretty crazy. This is done to counter-act human versus AI intelligence. Why they don't make the AI tougher instead, I do not know. It's probably hard to do.



The AI is also famous for spawning dozens of ships in a single turn. This is rather simple, and you can do it too. What the AI does is, because of it's massive FIDS bonus, it never uses Dust to buy-out any structures, and just save up a gazillion dust. The second the AI declares war or is attacked, it will use up all that dust to create ships built specifically to counter yours. They'll usually build these ships in 2-3 systems and send them down the pipeline towards your invasion fleets. There's a couple of tricks to prevent this.



- Declaring war early on, as this will make the AI waste all it's dust in the early game. It's risky though, since you're also weaker at the start. If you expand really fast to several systems before declaring war, you should get enough FIDS to back you up. Hopefully.



- Forcing two AIs into war with each other by allying with one and declaring war on the other, then breaking alliance and bribing a ceasefire. This will cause both AIs to waste all their FIDS bonus fighting each other, leaving you to come mop up the mess when one of them falls.



- Attack all systems at once. This takes careful planning and cunning. First you need an open border treaty with the AI. Then you need at least 2 fleets per enemy system filled with invasion modules and heavy fleets to be placed in the systems where the AI stacks it's own fleets. Then declare war, invade all systems simultaneously and smash his fleets to bits before he can recover.



Why can't I attack the AI when he can attack me after a ceasefire?



This is closely related to influence and the answer to Q3. Simply put, your fleet is stationed in a system controlled by the enemy. That fleet is forced to be peaceful due to the ceasefire. But the AI is under no such obligations since your fleet is in the middle of their empire. If the AI had a fleet in the middle of your influence ring and a ceasefire was struck, they too would be stuck there without possibility of escaping or attacking, and you could attack freely.

Moved into FAQ section. Most of this is probably covered in Raptor's FAQ.



I am relatively sure that the AI does not rush-buy huge fleets. Instead, I am pretty sure it buys those fleets one by one starting from the beginning of the game. However, it stores them on one interior planet. So when you attack, it moves the existing fleets towards you. You can verify this by jailbreaking a game from 10 turns before you attack, and looking on all their planets.

That would explain why late in war after I have crushed most of the AI fleet they send very crappy outdated ships at me.

Thanks for the quide, it explains a few things.



Regards