Explorer ships and anomalies

[TheDespot]

I have noticed that AI explorers do not seem able to investigate secret locations. For instance when pirate factions sell you secret locations the AI never seems to attempt to explore those areas.
Has anyone else seen this problem?

[lordxorn]

That is because they are usually so far, and the AI has the priority of looking at places nearby. So you always have to manually order those missions, most of the time it is out of fuel range, but I still send mine anyways.

[the1sean]

They dont, and I think that range is one reason, and also those areas can occasionally be very dangerous. I personally customize my explorers at game start with tons of fuel pods and extra engines, and then retrofit the freebies, so that my exploration ships can get half-way across the galaxy in one jump early on. Also cuts back on time spent back and forth refueling and not just straight exploring...

[TheDespot]

I suppose what I am worried about is that AI opponents won't be able to discover and harness the power of these anomalies and thus fall behind the player who can personally send explorers.

[Fideach]

The AI looks at them; at least in my latest games I'm sure they do. Since they have those extra ships you only find in those special areas. As well as the fact I've had to sabotage the AI several times to stop them from rebuilding a World Destroyer ship.
I've also seen them steal from debris fields I was claiming.. And I've also ran into plenty of hyperspace blocked areas where all the ships were already gone and the AI was already attacking me elsewhere with them.

[the1sean]

ORIGINAL: TheDespot

I suppose what I am worried about is that AI opponents won't be able to discover and harness the power of these anomalies and thus fall behind the player who can personally send explorers.

Oh, well I've fought AI controlled World Destroyers and fleets led by discovered/repaired advanced capital ships. I have also seen them quite often possess hidden technologies that you can only get by exploring. They are definitely playing with the same advantages!

[sbach2o]

ORIGINAL: lordxorn

That is because they are usually so far, and the AI has the priority of looking at places nearby. So you always have to manually order those missions, most of the time it is out of fuel range, but I still send mine anyways.

This is at least partially wrong. Explorers seem to only go after potential resource targets and totally ignore ruins (the locations of which are also sold by pirates). I don't know about research bases, supply outposts and such, as I never wait for the AI to send an explorer there but take manual control immediately.

This can be seen when the special location is examined which 'explores' most of the galaxy for the player. This will make info about resources on hitherto unexplored systems/plants available but don't give details about ruins. After this event there is a high probability that resources of the entire galaxy are known (the locations of ruins also, of course). Anyway, the rest doesn't take long to explore.

After all of the galaxy is explored regarding resources, explorers doing anything but keeping tabs on AI empires you're at war with. They never go after a site with ruins when the resources at the place are known. The exploration of ruins only happens as a by-product of explorers looking for resources.

Edit: This refers to the game version 1.0.4.9 and earlier. I didn't check with 1.0.6, yet, but doubt this was changed.

[TheDespot]

This is the same in 1.0.6 and mainly what I was talking about. AI explorers will never explore anomalies outisde of a system and sometimes I swear the only reason they find in system anomalies is due to a chance encounter when exploring the system.

[b0mber]

The AI explores ruins because I've seen some empires with death ray and Large Ship yard 600 at a medium aged map where all the AIs started at a basic level of tech. However I have discovered unexplored ruins at systems colonized by others empires.

It doesn't seem that AI sends ships to combat giant kaltors at debris fields. I've played 3 complete games at 700 stars configuration at every time I found one debris fields it contains lots of ships and I'm the only one repairing them, though I have seen contructions ships repairing the world destroyer once.