Stigmata AI targets ruins like a House AI, but has different behavior

[YeOldeEBM]

Description:

Probably for 1.6+ when the AI might be investigated more fully.

The Stigmata faction AI, active prior to any Houses gaining control of the Garrison, will go for ruins as any House would. However, it is unable to attack them and instead sits a stack on them as Rebels might. Once the ministry is claimed by one of the Houses the ruin will appear controlled by the Garrison (as seen in the image below). Nothing can be done with it unless the stack moves off and then attacks it. This clears the ruin without triggering any defending stacks or loot.

I don't know what would be best for a solution. Here are a few possibilities that come to mind:

1. Have the Stigmata AI ignore ruins so they wait until a House player can take them? A little dull, perhaps.
2. Allow the Stigmata AI to attack the ruins normally? This runs the risk of a mega stack spawning and giving the Garrison a hard time early in the game (amusing though it may be), but could offer normal loot.
3. Like 2, but ruin stacks triggered by the Stigmata AI are always Symbiot so they're at least fitting?
4. Remove ruins from Stigmata. Ugly, and does nothing for ruins on neighboring planets the Stigmata AI might beeline for with its transports.

Expected behavior:

The Stigmata faction doesn't have oddities with ruins.

Actual behavior:

The Stigmata faction attempts to claim ruins and partially, but not completely, neutralizes them. When a player gains control of the Garrison the ruins show as under their control.

Game version:

1.5g1

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start the game and end turns until the Stigmata AI attacks a ruin
2. Observe that it sits units on the ruin as if nesting
3. Gain control of the Garrison at the first election and see that the ruin is shown as Stigmata-owned
4. Move the stack off the ruin and attack, clearing the ruin with no other effect

I included a save folder where the player controls the Garrison.

Additional information:

SAV.zip

[HDIAndrew]

Good find. If we make any changes for 1.5, it needs to be simple, like attacking ruins normally or removing them. We can figure out a better solution for 1.6

[Matt-Caspermeyer]

Can you try a couple of quick solutions for me:

1. Set SkipPlayerTurn in PlayerTable.DAT to 1 for Stigmata. That will make them inactive, solving the Ruin problem; however, they will be inactive until assigned meaning they won't repel the Symbiots actively.
2. Set DoesPlayerBuildCities in PlayerTable.DAT to 0 for Stigmata. This should disable their movement AI, hopefully solving the problem (but I'm not certain). Note they won't build any new cities until they are Assigned to a Player by the Minister.
3. Set DoesPlayerProduce in PlayerTable.DAT to 0 for Stigmata. If 2 doesn't work, then this should... (same note as 2)
4. You can try both 2 & 3 together as well, if they don't work individually.

Let me know which if any of the above solutions works for you and if you have a preference as we can then set PlayerTable to the correct values to resolve this if any of these ideas works.

[YeOldeEBM]

That's a good idea, I didn't think of PlayerTable.dat. Here we go...

1. This correctly disables Stigmata so they're inactive like the other ministries and Guard.
2. This does not affect their movement (I wouldn't expect it to), but they stop building engineers and thus cities.
3. Nor does this affect their movement (also didn't expect it to), but they stop building units.
4. Both disabled leaves Stigmata active and going for ruins, but unable to build anything.

So only 1 offers any solution to the problem. However, this could turn ugly if no Regent is elected for one or more elections, leaving Stigmata helpless. It may not be an issue yet since the Symbiots aren't currently very aggressive toward Stigmata.

Notes: While testing 2 I found that Stigmata does spawn ruin defenders, as the stacks first reaching them suffered damage and losses (see screenshots). They will then garrison the ruins as they please, unable to clear them.

While testing 3 they attacked a ruin and captured a Raider ship from the stack that spawned, so they're able to gain one form of loot (third screenshot). Stigmata doesn't start with any Raiders, so it must have been captured from the ruin defenders.

====================================== The 14-stack is undamaged here.

Next turn they took some damage and lost the Officer.

A captured Raider sits on the ruin.

[Matt-Caspermeyer]

Thanks for doing this!

Now we know that it can be solved with a simple DAT file change.

Please post opinions on what should be done here - there is no AI specific logic for the various AI players and so that's why they play like a House or other AI player when it comes to Ruins.

Maybe it's okay as it is? They do have to repel the Symbiots and if the Garrison goes after ruins, is it really a problem? I think the Church and League would also do this if they had ruins on their planets (I'm pretty Leagueheim has none and I don't think Holy Terra has any, either) and, of course, the Symbiots do this.

Just curious to see what people think here, I think, personally, I don't have a problem with them going after ruins just like any other AI player. The only issue is that they gain control of the ruin since they are not a House (this is exactly what the Rebels do with Ruins as well, but since the ruin is already rebel-controlled, it's not a problem).

[HDIAndrew]

We make it clear in the FS literature that most of the office holders were useless and did nothing. An inactive Stigmata garrison is not a problem

[YeOldeEBM]

I like that they go after ruins, provided they don't garrison it like Rebels/Symbiots/Vau and pass control to a player later on. Better if the ruin is cleared when they move into it like a House AI would so it stops attracting their attention. Fixing that would be my preferred solution, perhaps in 1.6.

If desired, Stigmata AI could be disabled like the other ministries for 1.5. Easy enough for mods or players to reenable if they wish. It's fine leaving it active though since no crashes or other gamebreakers occur, just a little weirdness.

[HDIAndrew]

For 1.5, it is probably easiest to turn them off, Certainly should require the least testing. And the symbiots are supposed to spread :)

[Matt-Caspermeyer]

Okay sounds good - if anyone else has an opinion, please chime in and we can just make this part of the rebalance mod since that is dealing with all the DAT file changes anyway...

[Matt-Caspermeyer]

In V1.6 when we rewrite the AI, this should change...