AI Improvement Mod (1.05 Extended Release)

[Blackstork]

Hey Icemania, i might need your help with tweaking Ergreagd values for Beyond mod pack. I copied some values from other races but i am not sure this thing was right to do.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: ParagonExile

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

Pardon me if this has come up (quite a few posts to read through). I thought since this was an AI improvement mod I'd ask.

Will you be adjusting AI tax rates at all? The reason I ask is because growth (money) trumps all IMO. When I play a game in absence except for tax rates (manual) I always dominate by mid game. The AI tends to overtax, overspend, and overbuild which hampers growth. By keeping taxes low (I do 14% for the happiness bonus just my way) until pop is close to max, the AI seems to be quite happy living within it's means.

The values where the AI starts taxing are hard-coded, but Icemania made it so low and medium populations have zero taxes.

Yes, there is not much more I can do.

With respect to overspending and overbuilding, a few other changes are worth mentioning. Firstly I found that on default some races underbuild (which makes them pathetic and easy to defeat) and some races overbuild (which cripples them). I've tried to balance out the extremes so there is still quite a natural variation between races. Secondly the AI massively overbuilds planetary facilities which I've changed as described in the OP.

Otherwise try the AI Improvement Mod on Extreme as you'll need a lot more than control over tax rates.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Tcby
What do people think of the new racial biases? I like the idea of them being higher values, but I'm not totally keen on the bloc format. I'm concerned it may make galactic politics too predictable.

I'm not convinced either.

The reason for the higher values (as well as some changes to WarWillingness) is that in Vanilla I find it far too easy to play every game peacefully and just go to war when I feel like it ... completely predictable.

In some test games with the AI Improvement Mod the galaxy has just gone nuts, before I'm ready for it. In other games, as you say, you get lucky in the strongest alliance, and it's fairly peaceful. This is less predictable.

Other than the Insect races (you'll find one surprise in their bloc) all the other blocs here are a mix of racial groups. Some races will hate races in their own racial group, some races will love races in another racial group.

The problem is that the Biases are fixed ... either in Extended or here. There is no ability to randomly seed the Biases.

One option may be to reduce the size of the Positive Biases. But then there is less chance of races ganging up on you or your allies ...

Help!

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Blackstork

Hey Icemania, i might need your help with tweaking Ergreagd values for Beyond mod pack. I copied some values from other races but i am not sure this thing was right to do.

I have no idea what Ergreadg values are but I'm happy to help. Please provide more information Blackstork.

[Blackstork]

Ok i will share with you some WIP files in PM
i used some mix of Zenox/Dhayut/Mortalen Policy.

What i need from you is to build Policy file for them and Designs files.
For now after i put what i did AI refuses to build military ships at all

they have very strong troops, and probably go shields/torpedoes as main ship focus.
for all details of race, its bonuses etc please check in Beyond post explaining things 2nd post: tm.asp?m=3657646
and also in files i will send to you
Thank You.

[Tcby]

How about increasing the values that pertain to empire reputation? IIRC these values were not quite working as intended anyway, but it could be a blessing in disguise.

Allow me to explain:
I played a game some time ago with Haree's Banoserit race. An interesting thing about that race is that it was designed around a government type that had very high values in the two fields that determine how much your empire cares about your own reputation, and that of other empires. What I noticed was that my own population happiness was barely affected by my reputation. Poor reputation resulting in only -1 happiness, which is definitely not what was intended. On the flip side, one or two independent takeovers gave me a very large malus with every other race I'd met so far. Suddenly empires were cancelling free trade agreements, going from +20 to ~-20, etc.

The way I understand those two fields, they should not have an impact on how other empires view you (their opinion should be derived from that section in their own government file). But, it seems they do. If these values were increased for certain races we may see a greatly increased chance of war, without forcing players to have a slew of -60 diplomatic relationships purely due to race. Similarly, this could make pre-established agreements more tenous, leading to unpredictability.

As a side note, I think that the reason my own colonies were not experiencing a poor reputation hit was because the Banoserit government type 'Authoritarian Eugenics' has an exceptionally high stability rating. That value is only meant to affect espionage incited coups, but it's the only reason I can think of.

[Icemania]

Ah thanks one of your new races.

If Torpedoes are the weapons focus then just copy the Kiadian Military Ships (and anything else you like) from my mod. Also have a look at the Kiadian Policy file. Basically I've put the fields I'm interested in changing on the right.

But still happy to look at the Policy files if that doesn't help.

[Blackstork]

ive sent you details.
There are also new Immersion package at Alien Immersion mod for them.
I will prefer if you design their policy/design templates, i mean you can neglect completely policy/templates files in file package - just mind race flavor/theme/bonuses/specifics when if you design it from 0.
AI dont build military at all now and i dunno why.
Also i added assault pods tech but i think its reundant.. their style is more come with big fleet with alot of shields, and land troops - disengage - capture planet.
they use 2 complex mechanics - 1 is 3 different house goverments (included in files i sent) - in help folder there also some descritpions, and other is custom 250+ unique character system (something that been developed thanks to Ergie's programming genius ) which is not ready yet.

[Icemania]

Blackstork, I've sent you a PM, but I see that you've publicly requested that I do the Design Templates and Policy files for you.

My next priority is to apply the AI Improvement Mod to Extended ... after I finish Vanilla. Please keep in mind I have not released the Mod yet, this is an Alpha.

After that I'll help do the AI for an integrated mega-mod team (e.g. say if you teamed up with Lurchi) but I'm not going to do it for multiple mods.

As mentioned above, since the Ergreagd, did you try copying the Kiadian Design Templates (Torpedo focused)? I'll review the Policy file you sent and comment publicly as it maybe useful for others.

[Blackstork]

ive replied to you with answer

thanks

[Tcby]

I'm not pushing you for a response Ice, but we both posted in this thread at the same time, so it occurred to me that you might have missed my reply.

Other thoughts: regarding random or semi-random racial bias seeding, I've started building my own biases for personal use. The idea is to make a bunch of them, then randomly select one before starting a game. WAY more effort than automated seeding, but them's the breaks.

I'd be happy to share the files with you or anyone else, but imo the value of the process is hampered by not having arrived at a decision regarding appropriate racial bias values, as previously discussed. There's also the issue of how random the numbers should truly be.

[Tcby]

Oh and another potential benefit to increasing the importance of reputation for certain governments is that random government seeding is something we already have. Thus identical actions by a particular empire may make them extremely unpopular or only mildly suspicious, depending on their random government seeding.

[Icemania]

As this may help others, not just Blackstork with his work in progress, the problem was that the Design Templates used were not from the Alpha but from a previous build of the AI Improvement Mod. For the Alpha I reduced the ship designs in size so they will build earlier and combined that with Size 650 Capital Ships which will automatically scale up, so it became much better at handling the full range of ship sizes.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Tcby
Oh and another potential benefit to increasing the importance of reputation for certain governments is that random government seeding is something we already have. Thus identical actions by a particular empire may make them extremely unpopular or only mildly suspicious, depending on their random government seeding.

This sounds like a really good idea Tcby.

Have you made changes to governments.txt for Vanilla and tested the changes to get a good balance?

If so, any chance I can apply that to this mod, and give you credit?

Would you then reduce the Racial Biases?

[Tcby]

The observations I described on the previous page with Haree's banoserit are the extent of my trials. I'm changing the vanilla governments now to see what happens in a game using your mod.

I'm not sure which governments it would be appropriate for, so I'm going to start by applying it to way of ancients, way of darkness, and technocracy. The idea is that they are all very powerful, and should either limit the player by forcing them to be careful about upholding their reputation, or cause an AI to be at a higher risk of attack. Both are good imo, albiet for different reasons.

Of course you are welcome to the changes if they turn out to be worthwhile.

[Icemania]

Thanks Tcby, keep us posted.

[Icemania]

Does anyone think Phasers are still underpowered? i.e. even with the Weapons Balancing Thread buff?

[Icemania]

Fighter Assault ...

[ParagonExile]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

Fighter Assault ...

That's it? That's all the fighters you brought?

lol, in my day, we had to use a stick and a rock to kill the enemy! And we didn't have a rock! You continue to disappoint me Icemania.

Seriously though, you've done a spectacular job so far. I've run into zero issues that I can identify and it improves the game ten-fold. I wish a tenth of game devs were as competent and thorough as you. Keep it up.

OR ELSE.

[&o]

[Icemania]

Beyond what is mentioned above, I'm struggling to come up with much to change for the Beta release.

I'm running a long game now to test the buffed Shakturi and the AI use of Death Rays and Super Lasers.

Let me know please.

Should I even bother with a Beta release?