jlevans
Posts: 45
Joined: 2/14/2011
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Reproduced from Community Request - Customized Designs thread.
As promised, here is my zipped Boskara Design file. It needs to be unzipped in your .../designs/boskara/ folder.
The nomenclature I used (aka. BattleCruiser V) generally refers to the highest level tech (V) used in the design. This is usually the primary technology research area listed in the Race's tech policy. For Boskara its Torpedoes. Most of the support techs (engines, armor, etc.) I use in each design lag this highest tech level as they tend to be secondary or tertiary priorities for the race. With this approach I believe the design will get into the field earlier than it otherwise would.
I've simulated these designs scores of times now and discovered a few things that will probably require some additional work by Elliot to resolve, assuming my observations are accurate.
Some of my learnings:
1. Be cautious when optimizing very early designs. While it is attractive to use Torpedoes early with the Boskara, they use alot of Chromium. It can take quite a while to find sources, so you can quickly run out which will then clog your production shipyard waiting for Chromium that hasn't been discovered yet. For this reason, the first couple of designs shy away from Torpedoes. I discovered this through many rounds of simulation, so learning number 2 is:
2. Simulate many times.
3. When designing, start at Level 7 and make your designs for all levels there. Don't worry yet about getting the balance of components right. In fact, use more of each desired component than needed. That way, when you subsequently start a game instance at Level 1 or 3 or such, you can then remove components to optimize Hab/Life, speed, energy, power, etc. restrictions. You can always take components you haven't invented yet out of a design, but you can't put them back in when you haven't invented them yet. Try it out. You'll get the idea.
Some observed issues:
4. I would have thought that the AI would make its own designs to fill in gaps as technology progresses where there isn't an Optimized design. While I think this may happen infrequently for state ships and bases, I've never seen it occur for private ships and bases. The AI will create a private design to start the game if there isn't an Optimized design available, but doesn't create any more after it encounters an Optimized Design, even if that Optimized Design uses ancient technology. If you want your private fleet to use advanced tech, you'll need to create Optimized designs at the Levels you desire.
5. A related observation - I've never seen the AI obsolete an Optiimized Design. As a result all buildable optimized designs always appear in the list of available designs a space port can build. As technology progresses, it gets pretty cluttered and probably has something to do with the next observation.
6. I find it pretty common for the AI to continue to build ancient Optimized Designs (Level I) even when Levels II, III, IV, V Optimized Designs are all available at the space port to build. This may not be a new phenom though as there have been threads before (previous to Optimized Designs) discussing the ancient designs the AI continues to build even when it has invented and designed more advanced alternatives.
7. Related to the above, when beginning a game at an advanced Level of technology (Level V for instance), the game has a tendency to instantiate your starting ships and bases with the most basic (Level I) designs, even though there are optimized designs available at Level V. There are exceptions but this occurs more often than not.
8. Beware of including Pirates. Starting a game at Level I, I've found very advanced Pirate ships show up using my optimized designs right from the start. Try taking down a Pirate's Level VI Optimized Design Destroyer when all you have are Level I Frigates! Makes for a short game as your mines don't survive and your economy collapses.
I'm guessing Elliot's original game design acquired Pirate ship designs from the current design list of the player and AI competitors. Previous to Opt Designs, only designs that were buildable would appear in the list of available designs. This makes game design sense as it would keep pirate designs competitive with the player but not OP. However, now that we have Optimized Designs, the designs contained in the list include designs that are not yet buildable! I'm guessing the pirate ship selection algorithm is picking from that list, buildable or not.
Open Questions:
9. If one develops an Optimized Design to handle a Silvermist, will the AI know to use it?
10. To simulate without any required intervention, I automated all policies, retrofitting and eliminated all popups, including retrofit question popups. However, I still get these retrofit questions presented to me the observing player.
If I don't respond to the retrofit prompt question, after a timeout, does the AI assume they should retrofit as suggested and go do it? In other words, does auto retrofit really work without player intervention?
Even with player intervention (responding yes to a retrofit prompt), while I have seen retrofitting occur, I don't remember seeing the AI retrofit a unit to a more advanced Optimized Design. Not sure about this yet though.
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Boskara Design File - 
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