Lieutenant Commanders confirmed

If you control-K (delete) the AI's com, maybe it should stop intervening at that point, right?

I personally trust a human partner better, but I'm willing to try it.

The one thing about the human though is that they can troll.. a computer, unless otherwise programed... by a human troll, can't troll.. Think of it as a completely submissive human player.

I'm not sure that PA gameplay will escalate to the point where you are actually having to split your attention between 10 different planets. 10 orbital bodies perhaps where you control asteroids and moons and a few planets but you are likely to have full control of the small orbital bodies and then you don't need to pay much attention to those.
The Galactic War, as I have understood it, is a metagame where the players take turns to attack different systems. It's not actually an ingame battle in several different systems.
We are yet to see how much micro it takes to battle it out when players control several different planets and contest several different orbital bodies at once as it is mostly a game design decision.
It could require quite little micro if it is all decided by orbital supremacy as the winner of the orbital layer can bombard everything from space with impunity and then take full control of the planet.
Also controlled planets might not require a lot of management as powerful UI tools can allow the player to easily overwatch the status of the planet and order new production on the planet without even selecting a single unit on the planet.

Anyway, creating a very complex AI to aid the player is a hard thing to do and it is also hard for a player to predict and understand the actions of a complex AI. This means that the AI might make seemingly dumb decisions according to the player or that the AI doesn't do what the player wants it to do.
I support automation, smart unit AI and unit group behaviours.
I think that an all encompassing helper AI however is too complex to develop on the fly and have to be developed thoroughly or even modified for the individual players themselves.
Creating better UI tools and implementing smarter unit AI can be done in small steps and is easier for the player to use and learn.

Does this mean i was correct?

I agree that there is too much micro currently in PA but rather than implementing an AI as proposed by you I think more automation and a more powerful UI would be better because it can be implemented in small steps while a subcommander AI requires much more effort and if it doesn't turn out well then players might simply not use it.
I could see the automation slowly getting closer and closer to becoming more like an adaptive AI as players, modders and Uber devs further develops more automated behaviours and I think that could turn out to be pretty cool.

I picked up a sub commander AI perk in galactic war earlier today. You have another AI as your ally in every battle.

SUB COMMANDER

Priority command system
Limited command range
Limited 'orders per second'
Human Commander overrides orders

Priority command system:
Combat:
select the type

ground (and navy)
air
orbital

and then select in priority order as many or as few overall orders

scout (sends scouts to find enemies)
light raiding (sends small groups of units at resource areas)
heavy raiding (sends many small groups from many angles)
light attacking (builds up medium forces and attacks straight on)
heavy attacking (builds up a large force and attacks straight on)
light defending (reserves a medium force to defend)
heavy defending (reserves a large force to defend)


Construction:
select the type

economy
production
defenses

and then select in priority order as many or as few overall orders

cluster buildings
spread buildings
(WIP)


Limited command range:
you can set priorities for each sub commander for each of the 6 areas and he will follow those priorities within its command range. sub commanders can order units to move out of its operational range but cannot give them any more orders once they leave. the commander cannot build outside of its operational area..

by giving a sub commander a patrol order you can effectively expand its operational area at the cost of time and efficiency.

Limited 'orders per second':
sub commander can give 1 order to a unit group or factory group every 1 seconds. can queue multiple orders on a single unit or group but each order queued takes a second.

Human Commander overrides orders:
sub commanders cannot override the orders of another commander including other sub commanders. they can however change the orders that they give to units they control depending on the situation.





Useful as a support tool to help manage large bases and multiple bodies.

you can set sub commanders to only base build and eco as you micro your units and production

or you can sim city the perfect eco and base and set a bunch of sub commanders near your factories with multiple attack order priorities as you build them units.

or you can mix and match and play with them however you like.


they also add a great late game focal point of attacking and defending as killing sub commanders demands the player's attention as they must now give orders to the area.


I know this is probably asking for a bit much on release but god damn this would make this game and the ones it inspires explode in potential scalability into the future.