AI Improvement Mod (1.05 Extended Release)

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Icemania
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AI Improvement Mod (1.05 Extended Release)

Post by Icemania »

EXTENDED 1.05 RELEASE (RECOMMENDED)

VANILLA 1.04 RELEASE

Overview
The AI Improvement Mod includes a variety of changes to assist the AI including specifically designed Research Build Orders, improvements to Ship and Base Design Templates, Race and Policy File improvements (which have a wide variety of effects), select Technology Tree changes and select Weapons Balancing. Wherever possible those changes have also been applied to Pirates.

Installation
Both downloads are structured as a new Theme i.e. stand-alone. Extract as a new folder in the "Customization" folder, then run the game and switch to the AI Improvement Mod theme.

- The "Vanilla 1.04 Release" file contains the AI Improvement Mod for Vanilla.
- The "Extended 1.05 Release" file is an "all-in-one" package, including both the AI Improvement Mod for Extended, and Haree78's sensational Extended Universe Mod 1.03.

Refer to Das's How to Install Mods Video if required.

Recommended Difficulity
The Mod is recommended for use on higher difficulties i.e. at least Very Hard. That said, it will work on Normal and Hard, but there are limitations in how well the AI can be improved, so the benefits only become significant at higher difficulties.

Use in Other Mods
Please feel free. No permission or credit is required or expected.

Research
Each race has specifically designed research orders using focus areas in weapons, energy, wonders and colonisation.

For example the Ackdarian focus on Torpedoes, Speed and Agility, Research Wonders and Science Academies. In each download there is a file "AI Improvement Mod.xls" refer to the Summary sheet for further information on each race. The AI Empires use as much variety as possible whilst ensuring the strategy is coherent.

To provide more consistency in AI research:
• Medium and Large Spaceports contains labs sufficient for a race appropriate balance
• Research Priority is set to Normal (so Stations will be built at locations with bonuses) but with only 2 Labs per Station (to avoid upsetting the balance).

Racial Technologies get a high focus to ensure those advantages are used more quickly by the AI in game.

Francoy's Colonisation Rebalanced Mod has been integrated and includes changes to Research Orders, Race Files, Research Costs and Policy Files. As a result the AI will focus research and therefore expansion on colony types where it has advantages as a priority.

Gerax hyperdrive speeds have been reduced while late-game hyperdrive speeds have been increased. This helps prevent the AI from sending ships and fleets unreasonable distances before they are ready to do so, while late game mop-up operations can be done more quickly. It should also help the Shakturi if the human player has not given hyperdrive research sufficient focus.

Available ship sizes have been increased in each class to avoid AI ship design problems. The design templates use a fixed number of components so without this change the larger designs used in this Mod can be problematic early game.

Advanced Fighters Bay no longer have Medium Torpedo Bombers as a pre-requisite i.e. so the AI can focus on either Missile Bombers or Torpedo Bombers, without an excessive handicap, providing variety for the human opponent.

Death Rays and Super Lasers are included in the Tech Tree to provide more of a late game threat. Many AI races will research Death Rays once their Primary focus areas are completed and the Insect Races will research Super Lasers (restricted).

Ship and Base Design Templates
The templates have been changed to generally have a primary weapon type aligned with the AI research focus, providing more of a threat than the vanilla designs which often use a wide variety of weapons (requiring more research and also in some cases tactical conflicts).

Ship sizes have been increased wherever possible as follows:
• Escort template designed for Size 230 (should be buildable at Size 160 however)
• Frigate and Troop Transport template designed for Size 300
• Destroyer template designed for Size 400
• Cruiser template designed for Size 500
• Capital Ship template designed for Size 650 (they scale up automatically as larger sizes become available)
• Carrier template designed for Size 975 (buildable once Size 650 is available noting the 50% size bonus, also they scale up automatically as larger sizes become available)
• Cruisers, Capital Ships and Carriers include Troop Compartments to buff AI fleet ground invasion strength
• Exploration Ship template designed to ensure always available immediately from a pre-warp start
• Many other improvements across all ships and bases including the private sector
• Designs for the Ancient Guardians and Shakturi have also been upgraded

The Ship designs for each race apply the appropriate tactic for the weapons selected e.g. Point Blank etc.

Weapons Balancing
Changes as per the OP summary in the Weapons Balancing thread.

The primary intent is to ensure that races which focus on particular weapons are competitive. Some weapons such as Rail Guns and Phasers are underpowered at default settings.

Racial weapons provide a strong advantage early game, limited advantage mid-game but it should be possible to catch-up by late game with enough research effort.

Missiles and Rail Guns should provide an advantage early game, be at parity mid-game, but be relatively weak late game. However, they should not be ridiculously weak so that races that use them still have a chance.

Pirates
All Private Ship & Mining Stations designs improved e.g. increased extractors and more speed which should help them.

All other Pirate Ship and Base designs have been aligned with Race Weapon selection, a slight size increase for some designs, and there has been a general tidy up e.g. removed items that they will never realistically research.

Empire Policy Changes
In the Policy Files I have made only changes that improve the AI, otherwise the characteristics of each race have been preserved.

To encourage the AI to build more large ships the following ratios were set:
• Capital Ships 50% (0% for Fighter focused races)
• Carriers 50% (0% for non-Fighter focused races)
• Cruisers 12%
• Destroyers 8%
• Frigates 6%
• Escorts 4%
• Troop Transports 20%

To ensure the AI prioritises selected Wonders for each race are applied in PrioritizeBuildWonderId.

As the AI typically overbuilds facilities leading to excessive maintenance costs:
• Each race can only build one or two Academy types as appropriate to the race.
• 500M: Cloning Facility, Fortified Bunker, Terraforming Facility
• 5B: Ion Cannon, Planetary Shield, Armored Factory
• 10B: Regional Capital, Selected Academies
• Robotic Troops and Troop Training Centre disabled i.e. in favour of Cloning Facility.

Any race with Low Military Construction Levels was set to Normal (as some races are far too weak otherwise).

Any race with Low Troop Recruitment Levels was set to Normal (as some races are far too weak otherwise).

All races have Exploration Priority increased to Maximum (since the AI massively underbuilds Exploration Ships at default).

All races have Trade Priority increased to Maximum (which means an early focus on Construction Ships to get mines going quickly to help prevent shortages ... to an extent).

Large Spaceports take quite some time to Construct so changed to build at 6.5M rather than 3M (helps the AI speed up the start of researching).

General increase in number of ships assigned to Fleets (20), Strike Forces (6) and the proportion of ships assigned to Fleets (75%).

Invasion Overkill Factor increased for all races (to help the AI invade with sufficient strength, otherwise there are too many attacks that have no chance of success).

Ship Battle Caution Factor increased for all races (to help the AI attack with sufficient strength, otherwise there are too many attacks that have no chance of success).

All Insect Races can build Planet Destroyers and will Destroy Planets at every opportunity.

All Insect Races will Bombard Planets at every opportunity. They are meant to be Nasty after all!

War Willingness generally increased and better aligned with racial characteristics i.e. so passive races still have a low War Willingness, but aggressive races have increased War Willingness.

Some races now do not flee from Battles, they fight to the death!

Willingness of all races to control Restricted Resources increased as the AI generally gives this far too little focus otherwise.

Captured or recovered ships are always disassembled for technology and resources (while set per the Modding Guide note that it does not work).

Medium Size Colony Tax Rates are now set to Zero to assist AI growth.

Increased Troop Garrison Levels where possible.

Racial Biases
Racial biases are much more often negative for races in other alliance / racial groups.

Positive racial biases are now more strongly aligned with racial groups.

Racial biases now include a modifier for friendliness of the race to better align with their racial characteristics.

My Favourite Screenshots!
The Shakturi getting pawned by the larger Empire AI ship designs...
Image

Some races now have a genuine focus on Fighters...
Image

Late game threats...
Image

Upgraded Shakturi... (as of patch 1.9.5.10)
Image

Developer Support Wishlist (Outstanding)
• Ships using Gravity/Area weapons should be able to avoid their own gravity wells, at the moment they often do as much manage to themselves as they do to others.
• Tractor Beams on Spaceports pull in troop transports until they get very close and then hold them. Spaceport tractor beams should push away, not hold, as soon as a troop transport is in range. This should apply for all diplomatic relationships except for a Mutual Defence Pact (where there should be a massive diplomatic penalty for a surprise attack). This could be used to help prevent sneaky invasions by human players (which is an AI exploit). Maybe improved in 1.9.5.10, testing required
• The AI should attack homeworlds far more frequently with multiple fleets as often they attack with a single fleet which does not have sufficient invasion strength. Any competent AI commander would combined with other available fleets (including Allies). The result would be that human players would be defeated more often and strong AI's would become more dangerous as the game progresses.
• Even with the correct Construction Size technology and plenty of available cashflow there is a delay before the AI will build Resupply Ships. Please advise what the trigger is or remove the delay if hardcoded.
• There are some fields in the Empire Policy Files that I cannot get working. Specifically the AI does not disassemble recovered ships (even when set correctly per the Modding Guide). Note: some problems previously mentioned appear to have been fixed but are not in patch notes.
• Could the AI build more Construction Ships very early game? To help the AI with Research Shortages. Maybe improved in 1.9.5.11, testing required
• Could the AI retrofit ships that are not in fleets and Construction ships (particularly around Warp Drive) more proactively? Often ships remain without upgrades for extended periods even when plenty of cash is available.
• The AI will sometimes retrofit fleets during a mission (e.g. just about to reach a target) or even in the middle of combat. Retrofits should occur when the mission is complete and hostiles in the immediate system are cleared.
• Could the AI use Protection Agreements with Pirates more often when they are too weak to defend themselves? And then cancel those agreements as soon as the Pirates leave their systems? This would help the AI better handle Pirates.
• With the Securan (and other happy races) the AI does not optimise tax rates. Happiness is often set more like +50, suggest a target more like +20. They would remain a Happy race as designed but will improve income.
• Use Research Build Orders when games are built that are not pre-warp starts.
• Allow the AI to use troops on fleets to destroy Pirate structures. When Pirates build structures the Empire AI only seems to use the troops on that planet to attack Pirate facilities. On small worlds the AI rarely has enough strength and so Pirate facilities flourish. The idea was to allow friendly fleets to land troops and attack those Pirate facilities, just as human players do, so the AI is at less of a disadvantage. The probability that fleets are used to attack Pirate structures should maybe increase for more advanced Pirate structures. Maybe improved in recent patches, testing required
• Occasionally some Troop Ships would not fire at enemies. Just attempt to flee, or hang around twisting and turning. Some turn up at well defended planets without support.
• Fix the Double Population Growth Rate bug as reported in Tech Support.
• It's not possible to modify the time it takes Damage Control technologies to repair a component. As this is part of the Modding manual I've reported it as a bug in Tech Support.
• Gravitic Weapons do little damage to Space Monsters such as Giant Kaltors but from the description in Galactopedia they should, so reported in Tech Support.

Developer Support Wishlist (Completed and Thanks Erik and Elliot)
• Fix the Bug which prevents improved Shakturi Design Templates being used for the Return of the Shakturi as reported in Tech Support. Resolved in Patch 1.9.5.10
• Add the ability to configure the Ship and Base tactics in the Design Templates. The default AI settings for Stronger Opponents and Weaker Opponents leads to suboptimal choices and this setting could vastly improve performance particularly for Short Range Weapons. A ship with Titan Beams should attack Point Blank where it has the highest DPS. A ship with Torpedoes should attack by Standing Off. A ship with Phaser Lances should attack at mid-range (as it has no loss) to minimise enemy DPS. In that test Long Range Weapons were clearly superior. This change would allow Short Range Weapons in particular to be more competitive (depending on speed etc). Resolved in Patch 1.9.5.8
• Add the ability to configure the Tractor beam tactics (i.e. push / pull) in the Ship and Base Design Templates. Refer Post 189-200 for discussion of test performance and benefits. Resolved in Patch 1.9.5.8
• The game automatically designs Capital Ships to expand to the largest available Construction Size, but not Carriers. Please implement the same for Carriers so the Fighter focused races are not at a disadvantage. Resolved in Patch 1.9.5.8
• Even with the correct Construction Size technology and plenty of available cashflow there is a delay before the AI will build Capital Ships. Please advise what the trigger is or remove the delay if hardcoded. Resolved in Patch 1.9.5.8
• Allow Civilian Ships to be shrunk (again with minimum settings to ensure useful ships are built). Resolved in Patch 1.9.5.8
• Fix the Energy Collector bug as reported in Tech Support. Resolved in Patch 1.9.5.8
• Some Military Ships are built with no weapons (note I have a lot of larger sizes in the Design Templates) when they are shrunk by the game. There should be a minimum amount of weapons (say 50%) in the design before the AI should be allowed to build that ship. Significant improvements in Patch 1.9.5.7
• In the Design Templates Fighters Bays should be counted as a weapon. I’m trying to design a Fighter focused race but to avoid a crash I need to include another weapon that is not the focus for that race. Resolved in Patch 1.9.5.6
• In monitoring the AI across various races, Helium Resource Shortages are very common, and Osalia Resource Shortages are common for Beam races (almost nothing is in stock). Could starting stocks of these resources please be increased to assist the AI? Resolved in Patch 1.9.5.6

Changelog: 1.05 Release (Extended Only)
1. Patch 1.9.5.10 introduced the ability to flee at 50% Armour or 20% Shields. Aggressive races with Short Range Weapons which were previously set to Never Flee now use the new setting.
2. Shifted Caleph Special Weapons Research Technology in the Tech Tree to match other races Special Weapons, otherwise the Caleph get to high tier weapons too early.
3. Shuffled Colonisation tree design based on feedback on the relative benefits and costs of each tier.
4. The AI now builds Planetary Shields at 1B population rather than 5B and Massive Shield Projection is researched much earlier. To ensure this change does not effect AI cashflow the maintenance cost of Planetary Shields has been reduced.
5. Zenox Shield Technology is nw an optional pre-requistite for Massive Shield Projection (so the Zenox don't need to research weak shields just to get pre-requisites for Planetary Shields).
6. Added Banoserit Special Technology for Long Range Scanners to their research build order.
7. Fix made to Kiadian Research Order which sometimes meant they would not research their Special Technology.

Changelog: 1.04 Release
1. Spaceports now use the Evade Stance (except for races that require Point Blank for their chosen weapon type). This effects Tractor Beams, pushing away ships, hence making it more difficult for Pirates to land raiders.
2. War Willingness generally increased and better aligned with racial characteristics i.e. so passive races still have a low War Willingness, but aggressive races have increased War Willingness.
3. Racial biases are much more often negative for races in other alliance / racial groups.
4. Positive racial biases are now more strongly aligned with racial groups.
5. Racial biases now include a modifier for friendliness of the race to better align with their racial characteristics.

Changelog: 1.03 Release
1. Corrections made to Colony Construction Speeds
2. Corrections made to Research Colonisation Costs and Colony Construction Speeds for Shakturi
3. Extended race graphics applied to modified help files for Vanilla races

Changelog: 1.02 Release
1. Escort Ship Designs for Keskudon and Zenox changed to Size 230 to align with other races and to ensure buildable early game.
2. Keskudon Ship Designs include Bombardment Weapons to align with their Research Order (Extended only).
3. Carriers for races that do not use Fighters/Bombers now use the updated designs i.e. that are used by Figher/Bomber races. While they are not use by the AI those designs maybe used by human players.
4. Resupply Ships now have 20 Docking Bays.
5. Ship tactics added for details refer to the "Extended AI Improvement Mod.xls" Summary Sheet. Carriers are always "All Weapons", however.
6. Tractor Beams added to all Spaceport designs.
7. Tractor Beams added to Capital Ships for all races using Point Blank Tactics i.e. to pull them in.
8. Tractor Beam research added for all races (except for Gravitic Weapons focused races that researched Tractor Beams already).
9. Galactopedia updated to include the Weapons focus and Energy Research preferences for each race.
10. Increased Troop Garrison Levels, where possible.
11. To resolve problems with Freighter shinkage, changed ResearchDesignOverallFocus to 0 (Balanced) for the Ackdarian, Gizurean, Kiadian, Wekkarus and Jintus. This should have no other effect as the Research Orders and Design Templates are customised anyway, but please report any problems.
12. Increased construction sizes by one class at each technology level. This resolves problems with Civilian Ship shrinkage and means larger ships are available for the AI earlier.
13. Resupply Ships now available at Enhanced Construction with designs optimised for Size 1200, which helps the AI with early game resource shortages.
14. Increased the number of docking bays on Gas Mining Stations.

Changelog: 1.01 Release
1. Fixed some design templates with Gravitic Weapons races to ensure that there was a mix of Gravity Beams and Area Gravity Weapons. As it takes a little time to research Area Gravity Weapons, some designs in the previous releases had no weapons until Area Gravity Weapons had been researched, putting those AI's at a disadvantage.
2. Advanced Colonisation Research is now completed by the AI much earlier in the Build Order i.e. so the AI uses the largest colonisation module more quickly. Inserted Optimized Cargo Storage in High Tech Research Orders to ensure Advanced Colonisation is researched, this was an error in the previous release.
3. Reduced Gerax hyperdrive speeds and increased late-game hyperdrive speeds. This helps prevent the AI from sending ships and fleets unreasonable distances before they are ready to do so. Pirates will be a little less effective which helps the AI Empires. Late game mop-up operations can be done more quickly. It should also help the Shakturi if the human player has not given hyperdrive research sufficient focus.
4. Modified AI Energy Research Build Orders to more strongly reflect the styles of each race i.e. balanced / speed & agility / power / efficiency. In the previous release, while Special Technologies always had focus, the Energy Build Order was fairly generic since I always felt AI Empires that focused on speed/agility were at a disadvantage. However, now that the benefits of hyperdrive research are greater, there is more balance.

Changelog: Alpha to 1.0 Release
As the community feedback to the Alpha was positive a decision was made to go straight to 1.0 Release. There were not a large number of changes from Alpha to 1.0 but they are important:
1. Changed Troop Transports so that they can be built at Size 300. It appears changes to how the game shrinks Troop Transports were made in the 1.9.5.6 Beta as this was definitely working earlier. I’ve added Troop Compartments to the larger ship designs to compensate for the smaller Troop Transport design templates. We'll have to keep an eye on what happens with future patches as well and I'll update as needed.
2. Fixed the upgraded Pirate Ship Designs to ensure they include Assault Pods. My bad on that one, too much testing without Pirates, given the AI is poor at dealing with them effectively.
3. Implemented a temporary change so that Size 230 is available at the start of a pre-warp game. This way the mod's upgraded Civilian ships can be built immediately and I’m not forced so put out two versions of the Mod i.e. one with seriously nerfed Civilian Ship designs for Expensive or above Research settings on a pre-warp start. As a result the Mod can now also be played on any Research setting. Note Civilian Ship Shrinkage remains on the Developer Support Wishlist as this would be the better solution.
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Icemania
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Icemania »

Just completed testing a similar approach to the Wekkarus. After 12 game years they had built Traders Bazaar and Trade Guild with 4 times the military strength of the nearest AI default empire.


hewwo
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by hewwo »

awesome work! Although combining this with any kind of balance mod would be... a lot of work. Oh well:)
Efaferal
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Efaferal »

IceMania [&o]

You just saved me a ton of work!
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PsyKoSnake
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by PsyKoSnake »

Looking foward to this change apply to all race vanilla + extended:)
Sithuk
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Sithuk »

@icemania: great to see you've finally jumped / been lured into becoming a modder. You are one of a select few whom I'd pick to lead an AI modding effort. I am very much looking forward to what you come up with.
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Tanaka
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Tanaka »

Thanks how would you apply this to all AI races?
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Icemania
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Icemania »

With the standard improved research order developed it will just require minor adaptations to be race specific. For example, the Gizurean are next to test, they will focus on Growth Wonders, Beams and Bombardment (I know I said one Primary Weapons but a bug race has to have Bombardment), will add a few more Weapons laboratories on their Spaceports and focus on Naval Academies.

Other ideas are welcome and I'll just progressively work through the races as time allows around work and family.
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PsyKoSnake
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by PsyKoSnake »

Dont forget to play:P
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mensrea
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by mensrea »

Great ideas, man. This is definitely the ideal use for these new modding features and its opened up my eyes to a new world of possibilities when it comes to meaningful AI changes.

I actually think this would work even better with a weapon balancing mod as the way it works in vanilla seems to favor torpedoes and lasers while railguns, missiles and graviton weaponry occupy more of a niche role.

I hope you will grant rights to other modders to draw on your works (properly cited of course). I personally see this kind of stuff as the most difficult and time consuming work there is, modding wise, and would hate to replicate it from scratch.

Question: will you make some races prefer numerous small ships, or medium sized ships, etc, just as you have the Quameno favor capitol ships?
hewwo
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by hewwo »

Yeah there should be a bit of weapon balancing of course, but not sure if an AI mod is the right place for that. It would be nicest if we can keep mods a bit modular:)
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Tanaka
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Tanaka »

ORIGINAL: Icemania

With the standard improved research order developed it will just require minor adaptations to be race specific. For example, the Gizurean are next to test, they will focus on Growth Wonders, Beams and Bombardment (I know I said one Primary Weapons but a bug race has to have Bombardment), will add a few more Weapons laboratories on their Spaceports and focus on Naval Academies.

Other ideas are welcome and I'll just progressively work through the races as time allows around work and family.

Thanks will you be doing this for extended as well?
Image
Sithuk
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Sithuk »

@mensrea: the more a race builds small sized ships the more it is handicapped. The changes that icemania has made to the much greater proportion of larger sized ships is one of the best tweaks for creating a challenge for the human player.

@icemania: can you make available any files that could help those of us who want to contribute to roll out the changes to the other races? Or at least the "baseline" changes and leave it to you to make the "race specific" tweaks. Is the "DW-Generator" mod tool a benefit for altering whatever files you are changing?
ORIGINAL: mensrea

Great ideas, man. This is definitely the ideal use for these new modding features and its opened up my eyes to a new world of possibilities when it comes to meaningful AI changes.

I actually think this would work even better with a weapon balancing mod as the way it works in vanilla seems to favor torpedoes and lasers while railguns, missiles and graviton weaponry occupy more of a niche role.

I hope you will grant rights to other modders to draw on your works (properly cited of course). I personally see this kind of stuff as the most difficult and time consuming work there is, modding wise, and would hate to replicate it from scratch.

Question: will you make some races prefer numerous small ships, or medium sized ships, etc, just as you have the Quameno favor capitol ships?
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Icemania
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Icemania »

Sithuk:

Your offer to help is very welcome!

I'll test the Gizurean this evening and then post a link to a Zip file for the working Mod when done. At this point the changes will have been made for the Quameno, Wekkarus and Gizurean. After that the plan was to do the other Insect Races next. Which races did you want to focus on (to ensure we do not double up)? Please test each race where changes are made to see what else could be done.

In the Zip there will be an Excel file "AI Improvement Mod" which presents a far easier to read summary of the Research Order Changes and Research Items. Please update this with new tabs for any additional races that are completed. Then it should be easy enough to consolidate the changes.

All:

Feel free to download and test the races changed so far. Comments are welcome.

mensrea:

I was planning to ensure that some races focus on railguns, missiles, gravitic weapons and area weapons ... important there is a lot of variety and distinctiveness amongst the races rather than the current weapons smorgasboard.

As Sithuk mentioned the intent was very much to avoid small ships for all races and I consider them a significant handicap.

Regards,
Icemania
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Icemania
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Icemania »

ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Thanks will you be doing this for extended as well?
Vanilla first then either happy to work with others and help or for other Modders to use the content and adapt at their discretion.
xepooqu80
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by xepooqu80 »

Awesome work!

While i won't expect to contribute much to the creation itself at this stage i definitely look forward to provide you some feedback
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Icemania
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Icemania »

[SUPERSEDED - refer latest link in the OP]

Races updated include the Boskara, Dhayut, Gizurean, Quameno, Shakturi, Sluken and Wekkarus. Ideas to further improve the Race, Policy or Design Templates are welcome. Probably the best way to do this is to select one of these races, play on full auto, and note any observations in this thread.

Note it's setup as a theme.
t1it
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by t1it »

Looking forward to test this [:)]


I guess the No Pirates option has to be turned on? Got in the the game once I turned it off (although I got in with pirates on in a small galaxy with 3 other empires)
xepooqu80
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RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by xepooqu80 »

Started test game as Wekkarus with full automation (ruler in absence setting), playing a standard start (no-prewarp)
The first thing i notice is that no ship except constructor are buildable, escort is size 367 so won't be buildable for a very very long time.. and no exploration ships too.
I will let it play on to see if AI autodesign something or won't build anything for the first 10 minutes

This was done overwriting files from my theme.. this actually make the game work with pirates too!

2151.05.01 First construction tech is researched and explorers are buildable.. no military ships yet
2152.02.01 There is an indipendent colony nearby , but the ai doesn't have military ships to clear it nor is building colony ships (smart it would be shut down).
Wekkarus has 14 explorer, 3 construction ships. Planet and shipyard are idle
2154.06.01 Wekka can now build Escorts! 3 are under construction now.
Other empires already have 4 colonies, Wekka is stuck with the HW and now 3 escort.. no troop transports are buildable and no plan to conquer the Indipendent colony are in motion apparently
2155 Indipendent was colonized! pirates likely buyed off not to attack it. Wekka now has 9 escorts and 1 cruiser found by explorer.. finally we are getting back in track
In research we are at 20% to discover the trade bazaar
2157 AWWWW i found out that if in my previous game i had some design to "manual upgrade" it did carry on this setting for that specific subrole!! now i put everything in automatic and the AI redesigned a Frigate of size 390 which is buildable... still no tropp transport though and the design doesn't exist at all...
Since it was my fault for those settings i will recreate completely the game from scratch and retest

New game with no pirates and AI improvement mod Theme only
2154.05.01 Still only constructor buildable, AI is not redesigning exploration ships nor Escort
2155.01 Terrible start.. Ai is building 2 defense base and we have no energy research (sitting at 30k from the space port) , at this rate wekka is going to be completely crippled since won't build explorers for 10 years
2158 Out of pity i built 2 research base
2165 Empire is going well and at war with Humans... there are no transport deisgn available at all


New game with Quameno
2154.01 Same as Wekka, only construction ships are buildable and no exploration ships
2155 Exploration ships are built, transport ships are completely missing
2161 Quameno have researched Rusan and Casidor, Quameno have 200k+ (but close to 0 cashflow) and the wonders are not built. No transport design at all


My observation:
I guess this is optimized for pre-warp start? In my opinion Explorers should be immediately available
Two races do not have transport design available at all... don't know why
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Icemania
Posts: 1847
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:14 am
Location: Australia

RE: Possible AI Improvement Mod

Post by Icemania »

acantoni, please test again Pre-Warp.

I tried to replicate Standard start and the sequence I had with Wekkarus was:

2150.06: 240k Weapons Research, 480k Energy Research (2 Research Stations), 240k HighTech Research.
2150.10: Size 300 Research Completed. Only now Escorts and Exploration Ships become buildable and Construction starts.
2151.01: 3 Firepower 91 Escorts have finished Construction.
2152.01: 14 Exploration Ships are now in Operations.
2152.07: Size 400 Research Completed. Frigates start Construction.
2154.09: 20 Exploration Ships, 24 Military Ships (the smallest is Size 291).

A slightly different outcome!

Observations:
1. The AI started with a Medium Spaceport and did not upgrade to Large until mid 2153. I do not understand why given the Policy file threshold is 5M.
2. I had a look in game editor and it appears Dhayut Rail Gun research does not work on a Standard Start even though it works exactly per the Race file Research Order with a Pre-Warp start. There is clearly something strange going on here so maybe other issues also.
3. You mentioned 30k Energy from Spaceports. The Spaceports I've designed have 0 Energy Labs. Research Priority is 2 so in my pre-warp tests normally 2 Energy Research Stations were built (sometimes 1 but never 0).

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