AI overhaul and balance mod...

[Jorgen_CAB]

I'm currently working on a mod that include allot of rebalancing of modules, facilities etc... with a high focus on how AI use these things. It also include a complete overhaul of the policy settings for each race and how they approach their economy, construction etc...

Ground Combat
In order to help the AI and make defending colonies a bit more viable I have done a few balancing things with ground units and ground unit facilities. All facilities tied to ground combat or planet defence have had their maintenance cut in half. They need to be cheaper to keep around to really be worth it, especially for the AI. In addition to this all units attack values are slashed to 1/3 and unit maintenance also cut in half. This will certainly help the AI economy and overall game balance.

I have also done allot of AI play testing so they can perform successful invasions and they seem perfectly OK doing so with these changes.

Component size changes
Due t how the AI designs ships and how it add components to ships I have had to rearrange and introduce a few new classes of weapon components. There now are eight different weight classes.

Size 14 - Tiny (These are for intercept and tiny direct fire close-in weapon mounts)
Size 19 - Tiny (This is for very small seeking, stand-off weapon mounts)
Size 28 - Small (This is for regular direct fire, close-in weapon mounts)
Size 39 - Medium (This is for regular seeking, stand-off weapon mounts)
Size 49 - Large (This is for larger direct fire, close-in weapon mounts)
Size 69 - Heavy (This is for heavier direct fire, stand-off weapon mounts)
Size 99 - Super Heavy (This is for very large seeking, stand-off weapon mounts)
Size 120 - Enormous (This is for anything just stupidly large...)

There are strong reasons for why I need to have these more rigid weight systems as it have to do with how the AI put weapons on ship designs using the template designer.

I have also rebalanced all the hulls and made them quite more interesting and also in many ways a bit more restrictive with fire arcs in particular, especially for heavier mounts.

Weapon research and race limitations
In order to make the AI more competitive I have had to really narrow the focus of research for every race. So every race now have roughly three weapon technologies they have aptitude for, this will also limit the player to these three weapon technologies. If you want other technologies you need to get them from other means than researching them yourself.

As an example, the Zenox are focused on Beams, Missiles and Ion weapons and start with the first tech in all three areas. Zenox is therefore locked out from researching any other type of weapons.

Here I have a bunch of Zenox ships in various stages of technology development that is created by the AI.

TL1 Frigate


TL2 Frigate & Fleet Frigate



TL4 Heavy Destroyer


TL5 Battle Cruiser & Light Carrier



And here is a modified Star Beam to function with the new rules of design...


I will post more information as I work through all the races...

[AKicebear]

This sounds like a ton of work - thank you. As I read through I found myself nodding at how much it made sense. Looking forward to giving it a try when available - no rush.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Yes... it is indeed a huge job to make all these changes and test them out. So it is a long term project of mine to make it happen.

Here is another change that I did to help the AI.

All troop transports now have at least a single heavy slot for bombardment weapons. The AI will only use troop ship for bombarding planets and likely this is what the player should use these slots for as well, although they can use it for whatever they want. But this is the intention of this slot on troop ships.

TL3 Medium Troop Ship

[Sierra245]

Yes... it is indeed a huge job to make all these changes and test them out. So it is a long term project of mine to make it happen.

Here is another change that I did to help the AI.

All troop transports now have at least a single heavy slot for bombardment weapons. The AI will only use troop ship for bombarding planets and likely this is what the player should use these slots for as well, although they can use it for whatever they want. But this is the intention of this slot on troop ships.

TL3 Medium Troop Ship

I would be very interested in the weapon types limited by race! I know this is an old post and the you might have stopped working with the mod. But it would be super cool if that part is done and you could release it!

[Sierra245]

I made the mod for allowed starting weapon techs myself. It wasn't too hard. Trying it out now.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I have continually been working on this mod, but I'm sort of waiting for some expanded mod features. They also expanded some on the ways to guide the AI since I started with this work so some things have changed.

I don't have a huge amount of time to work on it so up until now it has mainly been for my own pleasure. If I do manage to finish all the faction and balance all the techs I might release it on Steam eventually.

My main problem is maintaining it with a limited amount of free time to work on it with updates and such. As I tend to play the game in waves and also mod in waves I might not be able to update things in a timely fashion.

[fruitgnome]

Try xl mod. AI can handle it very nice.