Intelligent AI

Intelligent AI — Smarter Empires & Archetype Overhaul

For Stellaris 4.5.x (Cygnus) · Current version 1.17.0

The galaxy's AI empires finally play like their archetype: researchers research, traders trade, warlords build war industry, isolationists turtle, hives feed their swarms, and diplomats build federations. No cheats, no free resources — just better decisions through the game's own AI systems.

Highlights

• AI empires need a real fleet advantage (40%) before attacking — no more suicide offensives.

• AI fleets secure their own war claims instead of losing the occupation race that decides status-quo peace.

• Peaceful empires band together: mutual-protection pacts and federations form inside the peaceful cluster — and fight as one when war comes.

• Galactic Community votes follow current needs: at war they back military cooperation, short on energy they back trade.

• AI empires repair the ruined megastructures they find or conquer (Dyson Sphere, Science Nexus, Mega Shipyard...).

• Nomad harvest ships collect what the empire actually lacks instead of hoarding everything.

What the AI does better

Economy & planets

• Archetype economic plans: research specialists, trade networks, military industry for conquerors, faith & unity, hive food security, machine energy grids, isolationist defense — plus a wartime mobilization plan (alloys + naval capacity) for every empire at war.

• Smarter budgets: warlike archetypes keep a standing military industry and invest influence into claims, so their wars win real territory.

• Need-based armies: invasion troops only while at war or under real threat — no peacetime resource waste.

• Planetary automation with foresight: crime is fought before events start (prevention at 20+ crime), Broken Shackles empires get their special capital building, and nomad harvests stop when stockpiles are full.

Research & technology

• Purposeful tech trees: researchers beeline labs & computing, warlords battleships & combat repeatables, traders their trade economy; rare-tech focus and bureaucracy techs against sprawl.

• Research focus policies for Technological Ascendancy empires; weapon preferences follow fleet doctrine (spearhead → energy, battleline → kinetic, stealth → torpedoes).

• Kiting fleets get the speed to hold range (afterburners + both techs), so maintain-distance computers actually kite.

• Late-game automated research weights repeatables sensibly; AI ship designs refit twice as often.

Expansion & construction

• The AI takes the ascension perks the meta rates (One Vision, Galactic Wonders, Master Builders, Colossus...) and actually builds the megastructures it unlocks (Dyson Sphere, Matter Decompressor, Mega Shipyard, Science Nexus, Ring Worlds).

• Starbase stewardship: deep-space citadels build defensive buildings (vanilla shipped an empty template), chokepoint orbital rings become fortresses.

• Restoration layer: ruined megastructures and habitats get repaired — Dyson Sphere, Science Nexus, Sentry Array, Matter Decompressor, Mega Shipyard, Art Installation, Coordination Center, Interstellar Assembly, Quantum Catapult, Arc Furnace, Stellar Cannon — without consuming the build limit.

• Origin follow-through: Knights of the Toxic God consecrate habitats/arkships, Shroud-Forged traitors entrap entities with a resource buffer, chokepoint systems are valued as relay/waystation junctions.

• Tradition trees match the archetype (researchers Discovery, traders Commerce, turtles Unyielding, diplomats Politics...) and unity ambitions get pursued (Grand Fleet, Architectural Renaissance, Scientific Revolution...).

War

• War wisdom: offensives need a 40% fleet advantage; outgunned fleets switch to fleet-preserving Hit and Run instead of dying to the last ship.

• War objectives: fleets prioritize securing their claimed systems and hold what they took — wars resolve around their goals.

• Real invasion forces: best-army recruiting on the offensive, monsters for purgers, standing army industry for warlike archetypes.

Diplomacy & community

• Archetype diplomacy: federation builders, befrienders and traders seek alliances; isolationists, hegemons and proud warriors stay out. Machine terminators attack neutrals like other total-war archetypes.

• Peaceful blocs: traders, harmonies, flocks, seekers and crusaders form mutual-protection pacts and federations; the right empires gravitate to the right federation types.

• Federations fight as one: joint fleet contribution is kept and raised when war breaks out.

• Galactic Community: votes follow ethics AND current needs (at war: pro military cooperation, anti war-restrictions; energy trouble: pro trade). Diplomat archetypes pursue the Custodian path.

• Espionage & quirks: research empires run more operations, slaver economies unlock Xeno-Compatibility, and the AI stops spamming 3000-unity relic activations.

Special empires

• Nomads: harvest ships target what the empire lacks (energy/minerals when low, specials when scarce), stop when rich, and never break active harvest contracts.

• Fallen & Awakened Empires regain market access and starbase recovery — they no longer starve on strategic resources.

• Machine and hive economies get their own plans and priorities.

Recent updates

• v1.17 — knight-decision resource guards fixed (they silently never applied); full play-session log review, no other mod-attributable entries.

• v1.16 — federations fight as one: joint fleet contribution at war; peaceful cluster type affinity.

• v1.15 — peaceful empires band together; Galactic Community votes follow current needs.

• v1.14 — war objectives: fleets secure their claims (status-quo occupation race fix).

• v1.13 — war wisdom: 40% fleet advantage before offensives.

Full changelog and verification notes: GitHub.

Design rules

• No cheating: no free resources, no AI-only bonuses, no fog-of-war tricks.

• Performance-first: zero new events, zero monthly scripts — only data the AI already reads. Measurable performance cost: none.

• Additive where possible: only the personality file is an override (changes marked with # AII: comments); everything else stacks with other mods.

• DLC-aware: works with the base game and all DLCs (Machine Age, BioGenesis bio-ships, Nomads, Shadows of the Shroud, ... — see the GitHub README for the full matrix).

Compatibility

• Stellar AI compatible — stacks cleanly with the "Stellar AI" overhaul. Load Intelligent AI last; the personality layer is merged and fully credited.

• Can be added to existing saves; removing it reverts everything.

• Conflicts only with other mods that replace common/personalities/00_personalities.txt — load order decides.

• Not ironman/achievement compatible (it changes the checksum, like any gameplay mod).

Author & license

• Author: Noa3 — GitHub repository

• License: All rights reserved. Do not modify, fork or reupload this mod (or parts of it) without written permission from the author — this also applies to automated tools and AI agents. Playing, subscribing and bug reports are very welcome!