The obvious is non-human encounters should be just that 'non-human'. In most games humans seem to be on the winning side most of the time. It would be nice to have a game where the alien race can kick your ass out-right and either your struggle is to try to live peacefully or build up the relations with other races to collectively take on the more superior race. We just see too many games where human race does win the day when in most cases if we have alien life coming to see us is that we would be the inferior.

Maybe we just can't communicate or know a alien language so we just fight until we find a way to communicate. Maybe via research we can start to unscramble communications to maybe prevent attack. More spies in the game to make you feel like you have to always be watchful and recruit and befriend correctly.

I just want AI to stay true to the alien races description. If the race is aggressive towards certain races then let me see them just go out of their way to destroy them and any allies they may have. Use racial tension that evolves between all of the races to put yourself in a better spot to come out on top. And out course i'm sure the AI can have better attack plans than your avg gamer. So its ok to beat down the real player and make them learn how to actually formulate tactics.

Just some thoughts...

Disclaimer 😳

I'm using the not capital g god just to point an incredibly clarketech advanced capability, no disrespect or comparison with the capital g one is intended.

Short version 😀

If the A.I. can upgrade themselves as quickly and dramatically as we are upgrading our playing rigs and even (Singularity meme to be addressed in another thread) quicker how comes that they have not yet conquered the all universe?

Long version 😯

The Fermi paradox says that if technological civilizations were common and moderately long-lived, then the galaxy ought to be fully inhabited.

Our experience with computer system and the Moore Law (The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years) tells us that when the Artificial Intelligence will be born it will evolve quickly.

Combining the two thought we have the question: why the A.I.s has not yet conquered the entire universe?

One answer is that a real A.I. is not possible but it is a little depressing for us geek in any case and not really useful if we want to put the A.I. in our games.

In the game reality the A.I. is possible and the question still stands.

Another depressing answer is that the speed of light is really insuperable and there are not shortcut available. Possibly true but again a 4X space game without any FTL while possible is not something that we are looking at and in any case it will be dramatically different than what we have now and probably than what we want to play in the foreseeable future.

So in our games FTL is somehow possible and the question still stands.

One possible answer (mine, the table will be open for your take on the argument) is the sublimation.

Let's say that the A.I. are evolving fast, so fast that, before they have conquered a too big portion of the space around their point of origin they will out-evolved the need of conquest and of resources. They are just too advanced to be bothered about expansion and exploitation, they can turn their exploration need toward other frontiers away from our three (or four or... well you get the gist) dimensional universe and possibly find there even more exiting challenges that the good old let's exterminate the strange looking neighbourhoods.

What this answer will leave us from our games point of view?

It really depends when we will meet the A.I..

If they are evolving from our informatics infrastructure we will have to content with baby then youngster then adolescent A.Is.

I have experienced as a father the first two stage of human growing and while beautiful they can be sometimes not pretty at all, I have not experienced adolescence from a parent point of view yet but friends of mine's testimony tells that the best is still to come.

Add that with the powerful capability that an A.I. will have at his disposal and all the bets are off.

On the other hand an encounter with an adult A.I. can also be quite humbling be it before or after the sublimation.

If it is before it means that we have found on our path an almost unbeatable concurrent in our path of interstellar domination, if it is after it can be anything, well… all the bets will be off again (meaning that the only limit will be the sparkling creativity of the game designer!).

In any case A.I.s, from my point of view, can't be treated like just another alien race, they will be born in a different way than usual life (if something like 'usual life' exists) and their evolution path will be quite different also.

Short version 😀

When the game start the A.I.s are already part of the player society, the overall impact at the social level is non-relevant and game wise they are the front-end of the various advisor: there to offer suggestions or take charge of the systems automations if they are available and the players uses them.

Long version 😯

In this A.I. use scenario the game just say that the A.I. exists but they are not an important part of the setting.

They can show off in a few event, mostly for comic relief, and their main visibility will be as the face in front of the advisor system.

We can see something like this in Galactic Civilization II where the robot advisor is there almost only to say: 'This is not Sid Meier's Civilization'. While there they took on also the visual clues about how the moral alignment of the player is going changing chassis and colour schemas accordingly.

Both of this uses has nothing to do with the meaning and the probable consequences of the apparition of the A.I. in a society but, at the least, bring some colour and some SciFiness to the game.

Will this be enough?

It depend a lot on the game the designer want to propose, a more realistic take on the A.I.s will become extremely visible and possibly too important for a game that can have completely different goals and focus.

As I said, and this is valid for all the more outlandish ideas that will pop out in this forum, even just a bunch of standalone events can be enough to make the game spicier (SciFicier?) without the need of complex systems and game mechanism.

Example:

A baby A.I. has broken out from his Elementary school closed network!

The rogue aware-code is now prowling the capital planet network doing damages and putting lives in peril.

Option A: the cat is out of the bag, let's work together to make it grow in a responsible adult. Three non-wonder building destroyed three information technology bonuses toward the next related tech discovery.

Option B: bad boy, bring it back in the cage. Two non-wonder building destroyed and one technology bonus toward the next related tech discovery.

Option C: snuff it and the idiots who let him escape. One building destroyed (non-technology dependant wonders excluded)

Another option to make the A.I. more relevant without making them too important is, if they are the frontend of the advisors, to make them targetable by a cyber-attack.

This will give to the intelligence system of the game a new and interesting option to wreak havoc on the enemies or to gain reserved informations. It will also make it more important for to prevent that this kind of event could target the player empire.

Let's say that the game propose, at the right technology level, to sue A.I.s instead of your fellow specimen as possible advisors. They will front the system automations with precision and speed if with a little less originality.

Will they be happy to be kept as faithful servants, never being really in charge? They are intelligent and they are becoming more intelligent at each technology improvement.

They are probably marching toward the singularity at a brisker speed that their organic creators.

What will happen when they will decide that time has come for an hostile takeover?

It will start in a gently, almost unassuming way. Maybe the queue of starships in construction will change with more constructors and fewer cruisers.

Then the player will find that the research budget is higher than the one he remembered deciding and the technology researched are not the one chosen by him.

A lot of deep space automated research bases are being constructed in unlikely places. If you send a ship to check there will be no construction in sight.

Diplomatic exchanges will mention proposals that you never made.

The overall empire computation capability then will become a state-wide priority.

Finally they will act: 'Sorry guy but for the best of the state it will be better leave to us the management'.

What then? Will the player let the A.I. hijack his empire and become a passive spectator? Probably not.

Will he and the organic citizen of the interstellar state fight to keep their independence? Probably yes but it will be hard and taxing.

Fleets of unmanned (well un-your specie-ned) starships will try to seize control of the space and a lot of utilities will just crash.

Some planets can even throw their allegiance toward the A.I.s and the full civil war will start.

This is not meant to be a simple event: the player empire will be profoundly shaken and a lot of his infrastructures will be destroyed or deeply damaged.

Lot of people will die.

In the end, probably, the player will won and the A.I. will run with maybe some organic allies toward the unexplored space.

The empire capability has been severely damaged and for a while it will be a difficult road the one that will bring it back to his former strength and his place between the Known Space Super Powers.

But if the game manages to surprise the player it will be worth it.