AI Ship Design Bugs.

[Leon Shirow]

I managed to trade/steal most of the unique techs playing as humans, but when I had a look at what the AI was designing for me I felt I had to take manual control. The AI seems to base its choice of components based on what has the highest Tech rating. this is not always the best component to use?

All my designs had NovaCore NX-700 Fusion Reactors when they could have been fitted with the HyperFusion Reactor HX300 which is cheaper, and nearly double the performance, 0.08 difference with fuel should not be a concern when you have the space for extra fuel.

NovaCore NX-700 Fusion Reactor Size 20 Tech 1500K Energy Output 110 Storage Capacity 240 Fuel Hydrogen 2.50 fuel units per 1000 energy units

HyperFusion Reactor HX300 Size 14 Tech 1390K Energy Output 210 Storage Capacity 580 Fuel Hydrogen 2.58 fuel units per 1000 energy units

With the Shields all my designs were fitted with the MegatronZ4 when they could have been using the Deucalios KT900. Is the recharge rate difference that important?

MegatronZ4 Size 8 Tech 2000K Strength 140 Recharge rate 1.5

Deucalios KT900 Size 8 Tech 1900K Strength 480 Recharge rate 1.3

Is there any advantage to using anything other than the Basic Command Center? The cost of the advanced versions seems to nerf any maintenance benefits they give.

[Bluestar]

If i remember correct, the ai goes for the newest techs in designs and not for efficience. You can see that at the tech stat.

[licker]

Well maintenance is over time, so it's not necessarily a trivial comparison to make.

But yes, the autodesign is pretty well foobarred in many peoples opinions.

I look at it like this. If the AI is forced to use it, I might as well just use it as well, otherwise my advantage would be that much larger.

[:D]

[Erik Rutins]

Just FYI, the Upgrade button does always choose the latest component. However, the automated ship design is smarter and the AI does full ship design, not just upgrade. It will use new components - but only if it thinks it should. Depending on the racial characteristics they may choose not to add components.

There is a Ship Design Focus attribute for each race in the races.txt file that defines what focus a race has when designing ships - some prefer speed and agility, others like raw power, others efficiency, while some just like a balanced combination.

[FerretStyle]

The autodesigner and upgrade button both tend to make designs with superfluous habitation and life support modules. I assume this is unintended because those modules don't seem to cause any negative effects when damaged, so it's pointless to have extras.

I started designing manually due primarily to these unnecessary added ship costs.

[Wonder Dog]

The issue with habitation and life support modules seems to be a calculation issue in the designer. The AI seems to be correct number as per that the Galactopedia, but the Designer allows fewer modules if more than 234 in ship size.

In my game v1.02 testing with series 100 and 200 modules the first 2 modules allow the ship to be the specified size + the size of the module. Each module above 2 gives twice the specified size. The designer may be adding the size of both the habitation and life support modules together.

Eg for the 200 series (suport 115) where 1 habitation and 1 life support modules is size 3

No Modules – Actual Size from game and is linear from 3 modules adding 233 size each step 1 – 118 2 – 234 3 – 467 4 – 700 5 – 933

No Modules – Expected size 1 – 118 2 – 236 3 – 472 4 – 590 5 – 708

[vanes]

if u want good shipdesigns... you have to do it yourself. ai just replaces old components with the newest ones. not taking into account if they are really better like partially mentioned before. not checking if the habitationsmodules are all needed or fully used. not checking if the powermanagement makes sense. not taking beam over laser weapons. the list goes on.. but what do u expect from an ai that wants to send a newly created fleet that scattered across the galaxy and not refueled into an offensive mission... since i design the ships myself they own. although my research for new tech is quite slow, so it's not superiority through technological superiority.

so yes the ai needs to be improved here too. these focus attribute seem like a step in the right direction, but it should be much more customizable than just a race wide variable. perhaps like this: explorationship guidelines example -as small as possible, so just 1hab module filled out -as fast as possible, so get as much engines on board as possible -quite reasonable fueltank size, so it doesn't have to refuel after every planet it explores -no weapons, 1-2shields, so that it's not a oneshotkill

these guidelines should be individually configurable for every ship design, because obviously you don't want your capital ship as small and maneuverable as an explorer.

[the1sean]

I think a lot of these odd tech leveling issues are being addressed in the 1.0.5 patch coming up within the next month, so hopefully this wont be an issue much longer.