Automated fleet decide to pass through nebula without reason

[100thMonkey]

Platform: Steam
Build version: v1.1.7.3 Beta (started with earlier version)
Severity: Low
Annoyance factor: Medium
Saved game:

The Culture - Ackdarian - 2811-05-29.7z

(4.92 MiB) Downloaded 16 times

I just checked on 4th Fleet, an automated attack fleet of acquired ships (more advanced than my native ships), to see what it was up to (it’s been mostly going after space creatures for a while). It’s going back to its home base (Sarafor 3; Desperate Fist, the ship that’s low on fuel, is refueling because I’ve manually ordered it to do so). I don’t remember ever seeing space creatures in a nebula where there’s no system. So if I’m right about this, it means that the fleet had no good reason to pass through the nebula. It could have gone around it very easily (see green path in this screenshot):

Around nebula.png (321.31 KiB) Viewed 596 times

But it didn’t. With the result that it’s going at 93K instead of the 861K that it’s capable of with its torrent drives. A close to 10-to-1 speed diminution factor (very rounded-up figure; not a math guy ).

[MaximKI]

Thanks, we'll take a look. Nebulas do sometimes have an interesting impact on fleet decision-making so this is a good example.

[100thMonkey]

"interesting" is one way to put it.

Let's say that there would be no problematic behaviors left in the game for automated fleets, and let say that I'd be so good at the game that it would have become too easy (needless to say: I'm not there yet), then a slider in the game options that would add some unpredictability might be nice.

In fact, and I know this is off-topic, but something that would be absolutely amazing is a slider that would allow the player to dynamically adjust the difficulty level, not only in the game setup, but also during a game! That would eliminate the snowballing effect plaguing most 4X game, including DW2, by allowing the player to adjust, at will, the difficulty / challenge level to what is most fun for the player. As I said: that would be absolutely amazing!

... But for now, I highly value predictability.