AI War:Neinzul Preservation Wardens

What Are Neinzul Preservation Wardens?

Neinzul Preservation Wardens are an optional minor faction introduced in the Children of Neinzul micro-expansion. This page is currently up to date as of version 5.016.

In-Game Explanation / What Do Wardens Do?

The Wardens are a group of long-wandering neinzul roaming enclaves that periodically wander through this galaxy and seek to eliminate that which is destroying the natural order. The AI apparently is not doing anything like this (in this galaxy, at least) so the wardens leave the AI alone. You, on the other hand, have the temerity to impinge upon the sovereign right of all asteroids to Not. Be. Mined. So the wardens will periodically come by and seek to liberate the rocks.

What's Actually Going On?

Global Spawn Check

Every 25 seconds into the game (by the in-game clock in the upper-left corner), the game checks for new warden spawns.

During the initial "grace period", this check does nothing. The length of that grace period is: 15 minutes * (10 - First' AI's Difficulty) / (First AI's Handicap Multiplier)

So if the first AI has Difficulty 7.3 and no handicap (handicap = 100%) it's 15 * 2.7 / 1 = 40.5 minutes. If the first AI has Difficulty 7.3 and a 200% handicap it's 15 * 2.7 / 2 = 20.25 minutes.

After that grace period, each check:

• Increments the global "PreservationWardenCounter" by the number of human controlled resource extractors.
• Computes the "threshold":
  • If First AI Difficulty is less than 5, low-threshold is 3400.
  • If First AI Difficulty is greater than 5 but less than 8, low-threshold is 2550.
  • If First AI Difficulty is greater than 8, low-threshold is 1700.
  • high-threshold is low-threshold multiplied by two.
  • threshold = a random number between low-threshold and high-threshold.
• If PreservationWardenCounter is greater than threshold:
  • Picks a random AI Homeworld and there spawns a number of Neinzul Preservation Warden enclave ships equal to the number of human players or human homeworlds (whichever is greater).
  • Sets PreservationWardenCounter to zero.

Individual Warden Behavior

Every game second, each warden goes through the following logic:

• Pathing:
  • If I'm performing some command other than "go through a wormhole", cancel all commands.
  • If I'm on a human planet and I'm not headed towards an AI homeworld, cancel all commands.
  • If I have no commands:
    • If I'm on a human planet, set course for a random AI homeworld.
    • If I'm on an AI planet, set course for a random human planet.

• Squadrons:
  • Increment InternalBuildPoints by 50 plus the number of human-controlled resource extractors.
  • Compute shipsThatCouldBeProduced: InternalBuildPoints / 1200 (on high caps, it's 2400 on normal and 4800 on low).
  • If shipsThatCouldBeProduced > 50 (25 on normal caps, 12 on low), then:
    • Check if I'm antagonized:
      • If there are enemy military ships (other than mines), then yes.
      • If I've been damaged in the last 10 seconds, then yes.
      • If I'm trying to shoot something, then yes.
      • If there are any hostile non-minor-faction non-fully-cloaked non-scout ships within 4000 range, then yes.
      • If the planet I'm on or any adjacent planet has any resource extractors, then yes.
    • If I'm antagonized, launch the full number of ships I'm capable of producing (max of 250 on high caps, 125 on normal, 62 on low) and set InternalBuildPoints to zero.
      • The launched ships (which are Neinzul Preservation Commandos and Neinzul Preservation Bombers, in roughly equal proportion) then behave like normal AI threat ships except that they're minor faction.