AI Improvement Mod (1.05 Extended Release)

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Icemania
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Icemania »

One more tip on the races biases ... you can easily change those alliances around if you don't like them with the Extended version of the Mod.

In the Excel spreadsheet "Extended AI Improvement Mod.xls" in the Extended AI Improvement Mod directory, go to the "Summary" sheet.

The Alliances in Column B uses 1, 2, 3 or 4. You can change them around to suit but make sure you stick with 4 groups with an equal number of empires in each group.

Now go to the sheet "raceBiases". Copy and paste that text into "raceBiases.txt" in the AI Improvement Mod directory.

Then start a new game and hopefully it will work.
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Icemania
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Icemania »

ORIGINAL: Blackstork
I actually like your idea with alliances, and i took in further in Beyond , swapped some races in alliances which fit more together lore-wise, and added all lore-based modifiers (like Human vs XHuman, etc.... ), and adding more spice into it with different values for A > B and B > A depedning on its lore.
Great idea so far, its modified and extended version will be part of upcoming release of Beyond. I going to call them Light, Dark, Blue and Red alliances in order to make it easier naviagation and race alliance allegiance iwll be part of its pedia eventually. All this spice game alot with my Dhayut fleets hyperspacing thru whole galaxy to help Gizzies, Naxxilians, Ketarovs to fight Kiadians, Securans, and other good guys :) GJ so far... Also please tell which files you going to change on 1.02 so i might do some preparations etc.
GJ
Cool

Even cooler would be a semi-random alliance generator for every new game!

With 1.02 I'll again include a changelog with the Mod. At the moment it is:

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 their Research Order.

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Tanaka
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Tanaka »

ORIGINAL: Icemania
ORIGINAL: Evan85
In my starting prewarp game, hard AI was kinda' completely eradicated by normal/normal pirates. In 20 years, 1 out of 8 empires was able to establish their first colony. Not that the challenge is gone, those lawless guys are though enough to fight.. I'll just win too soon. Does increasing difficulty helps, or should I tone down the pirates?
Yes I recommend increasing the difficulty and/or toning done the Pirates. The AI does not handle Pirates very well. All I've done with the Pirates is beef up the ship designs a little.

That said, I really enjoy playing with Pirates so I still play Extreme difficulty with Strong Pirates anyway. The AI's have got plenty of colonies up but the Pirates cause their share of trouble, it is the Age of Shadows after all ...
ORIGINAL: Evan85
Also... were sympathies of extended factions done by Hare? I just found it strange that Zenox very much liked my Lipid umm... people. Not that I can't imgaine a reason behind that, but it feels odd. Maybe I should take that discussion to his thread anyways..
I'm glad it feels odd, the idea was to mess with players expectations, with some unexpected Alliances!
ORIGINAL: Evan85
Anyways, nice job - I wanna suffer more! [:)]
I hope you do too! [:D]

Yes the pirates are definitely better! In one on one escort battles I am losing which I never used to! I would post screenies but again its early game and no one wants to see one on one ship battles haha. I play with harsh homeworld and slow tech so that every ship and battle counts. I also love playing with pirates so with this mod I recommend playing with very many pirates but lessening the strength to very weak or weak. I play with this setting and right now I am getting creamed by pirates. One faction has 30 military ships and I have one! Makes me think twice about offering smuggling missions because they have been fattening up off of 60,000 credits Ive paid them so far and Ive realized Im the reason they are so strong! For a real challenge play with a harsh homeworld and very expensive tech! And I play all my games on normal difficulty.

Edit: Im actually finding that its now much more difficult to play with a harsh homeworld and weak pirates with this mod ha. Im going to go up to normal homeworld and down to very weak pirates on normal difficulty! Excellent stuff!
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Hikikomori
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Hikikomori »

One of my first games i was fiddling around with my nice little empire, thinking no evil(mostly).

Suddenly a single pirate escort and a single cruiser appeared, advanced tech(all prewarp settings), in warp before i could make a dent, i was getting alarms every 20 seconds, i lost my nice little and utterly useless 10 ship-fleet, my space station was having a bad hairday...

I HATE PIRATES! [:@]

I am not switching them from very weak, very few. I am scared enough already. Normal/Normal my a**. [:D]
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Tanaka
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Tanaka »

ORIGINAL: Icemania
ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Another thing Ive noticed about the designs is that every base has a medical and rec center. Considering that only a planet with a colony needs one each from the spaceport and besides defense bases most other bases are built over gas clouds and anomalies would not the other bases benefit better by having extractors instead? Maybe just space ports and defense bases should have these? Just a thought!
This is unchanged from Vanilla. There are Medical and Recreation Centres on Research Stations and Resort Bases (but none on Mining Stations or Monitoring Stations). The maintenance cost of course is very low but I see your point. Let me see if I can find the motivation to update 248 design templates for 1.02!

Haha good point I actually thought you had redone all the designs! Did you do just the ships?

ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Also the medium space port seems to be missing 2 high tech labs if it is supposed to have 10 of each lab? And the bases only have torpedoes as weapons and no beams? Just nitpicking observations now [:)]
The number of labs varies a little between races. Energy research is important to everyone (but there is variation in the Research Orders). But aggressive races have a few more Weapons labs while passives races have a few more High Technology labs.

Gotcha thanks!
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Tanaka
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Tanaka »

ORIGINAL: Hikikomori

One of my first games i was fiddling around with my nice little empire, thinking no evil(mostly).

Suddenly a single pirate escort and a single cruiser appeared, advanced tech(all prewarp settings), in warp before i could make a dent, i was getting alarms every 20 seconds, i lost my nice little and utterly useless 10 ship-fleet, my space station was having a bad hairday...

I HATE PIRATES! [:@]

I am not switching them from very weak, very few. I am scared enough already. Normal/Normal my a**. [:D]

Yeah it really sucks when pirates find a high tech derelict ship. I wish it were possible to mod all derelicts out of the game! Its game breaking when you find it or they do!
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Jethro420
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Jethro420 »

Here's a thought... wouldn't it help if you could let the AI have these awesome starting systems and let the human select another option? Methinks that's a very simple one to implement. Might wanna put it on yer wishlist, amigo. ;)
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Tanaka
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Tanaka »

ORIGINAL: Jethro420

Here's a thought... wouldn't it help if you could let the AI have these awesome starting systems and let the human select another option? Methinks that's a very simple one to implement. Might wanna put it on yer wishlist, amigo. ;)

Well what I love about this mod is it is about improving the AI without any cheats. So I can play on normal difficulty because I prefer a non cheating AI. But you can always give yourself harsh homeworld and the AI's super homeworlds in the game options.
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Tanaka
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Tanaka »

Hmm maybe a bug in the mod I increased my homeworld from harsh to normal and I started out with 30 explorers! All settings on starting...

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Tanaka
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Tanaka »

ORIGINAL: Icemania

One more tip on the races biases ... you can easily change those alliances around if you don't like them with the Extended version of the Mod.

In the Excel spreadsheet "Extended AI Improvement Mod.xls" in the Extended AI Improvement Mod directory, go to the "Summary" sheet.

The Alliances in Column B uses 1, 2, 3 or 4. You can change them around to suit but make sure you stick with 4 groups with an equal number of empires in each group.

Now go to the sheet "raceBiases". Copy and paste that text into "raceBiases.txt" in the AI Improvement Mod directory.

Then start a new game and hopefully it will work.

What you have done with race biases has made the whole universe come alive diplomatically! More kudos! [&o]
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Icemania
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Icemania »

ORIGINAL: Hikikomori
I am scared enough already.

ORIGINAL: Jethro420
Here's a thought... wouldn't it help if you could let the AI have these awesome starting systems and let the human select another option? Methinks that's a very simple one to implement. Might wanna put it on yer wishlist, amigo. ;)
You can do that in settings already amigo!
ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Haha good point I actually thought you had redone all the designs! Did you do just the ships?
They were all redesigned but I didn't change every component and focused on those that would make a difference.
ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Yeah it really sucks when pirates find a high tech derelict ship. I wish it were possible to mod all derelicts out of the game! Its game breaking when you find it or they do!
I think it's great to have some "oh sh*t" moments. But the solution is easy, just pay them off temporarily, nothing game breaking at all.
ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Hmm maybe a bug in the mod I increased my homeworld from harsh to normal and I started out with 30 explorers! All settings on starting...
No bug, the priority of exploration has been increased. It's the first thing I do in a game as well ... there should be competition for the goodies around the galaxy.
Hikikomori
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Hikikomori »

ORIGINAL: Icemania
ORIGINAL: Hikikomori
I am scared enough already.


I think it's great to have some "oh sh*t" moments. But the solution is easy, just pay them off temporarily, nothing game breaking at all.

If the game starts to become too easy, by which i mean i do not have to struggle for bare survival, i tend to start anew with higher settings, new mods like yours and the like.

But pirates on a prewarp start are just too mean for me, and they bankrupt me sometimes with what they are asking for, especially combined.

With more experience in dealing with them i may upgrade them a little, but pirates should be a nuisance in my opinion, not rivalling empires in their strength, so i am not going to profit all that much from improvements there.
It is nice to have the additional difficulty modifier for later though.

When i have time i really need to play as one.

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Icemania
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Icemania »

It's a matter of taste Hikkomori.

I find a galaxy with Pirates to be very immersive, in fact it was the Shadows release that prompted really getting into the game. That said, I also enjoy Empire focused games, so it's nice for us to be able to mix it up to suit.

Do you cancel Pirate protection agreements as soon as they warp away from your systems?



Hikikomori
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Hikikomori »

ORIGINAL: Icemania

It's a matter of taste Hikkomori.

I find a galaxy with Pirates to be very immersive, in fact it was the Shadows release that prompted really getting into the game. That said, I also enjoy Empire focused games, so it's nice for us to be able to mix it up to suit.

Do you cancel Pirate protection agreements as soon as they warp away from your systems?

I started to do that a few games after the aforementioned, i usually wait a little. At first i thought they would come right back and show me the errors of my ways, but they are usually away for a while. I do not come far all that often on my settings, but i have already noticed that they tend to fall of later on, only getting on my nerves with their raids.

So yeah, i might challenge my fears after all and notch them up a bit.

If i get creamed again i will hold you responsible though! [:D]
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Icemania
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Icemania »

ORIGINAL: Hikikomori
If i get creamed again i will hold you responsible though! [:D]
If you get creamed again you SHALL post more screenshots! [8D]
Jethro420
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Jethro420 »

ORIGINAL: Tanaka

ORIGINAL: Jethro420

Here's a thought... wouldn't it help if you could let the AI have these awesome starting systems and let the human select another option? Methinks that's a very simple one to implement. Might wanna put it on yer wishlist, amigo. ;)

Well what I love about this mod is it is about improving the AI without any cheats. So I can play on normal difficulty because I prefer a non cheating AI. But you can always give yourself harsh homeworld and the AI's super homeworlds in the game options.

Is there a way to give me one kind of home system and the AI another? I only see one universal setting in the options.

I understand the AI more or less needs a good starting system because its resource acquisition is poor, especially in the early game. But, when I get hold of one of those systems, it almost feels like I'm cheating. Know what I mean?

I've been trying to get a good game from this mod for the last couple of days. I had some bad luck, though. In one game everything was cool and some pirates showed up with a capital ship before I even had cruisers. That didn't end well. In another, I had one of those research setbacks - when I had almost finished warp bubble research. I played it until I got Gerax drives and colonization. By the time I had my second colony up, one of my neighbors had 25. I decided that one was beyond salvage, also. So, I'm gonna give it another shot today.

I'm taking lots of screenshots and thinking of doing an AAR pointed at new players. We'll see...
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Tanaka
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Tanaka »

I think it's great to have some "oh sh*t" moments. But the solution is easy, just pay them off temporarily, nothing game breaking at all.

At some point the pirates do stop letting you pay them off though!




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Tanaka
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Tanaka »

ORIGINAL: Hikikomori

ORIGINAL: Icemania
ORIGINAL: Hikikomori
I am scared enough already.


I think it's great to have some "oh sh*t" moments. But the solution is easy, just pay them off temporarily, nothing game breaking at all.

If the game starts to become too easy, by which i mean i do not have to struggle for bare survival, i tend to start anew with higher settings, new mods like yours and the like.

But pirates on a prewarp start are just too mean for me, and they bankrupt me sometimes with what they are asking for, especially combined.

With more experience in dealing with them i may upgrade them a little, but pirates should be a nuisance in my opinion, not rivalling empires in their strength, so i am not going to profit all that much from improvements there.
It is nice to have the additional difficulty modifier for later though.

When i have time i really need to play as one.


This can be easily adjusted to what you want in the options by setting to very weak and very few pirates. They will then just be the nuisance you want. Unless they get a high tech derelict ship! Then there is not much you can do about that early game! [:(]
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Tanaka
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Tanaka »

ORIGINAL: Jethro420
ORIGINAL: Tanaka

ORIGINAL: Jethro420

Here's a thought... wouldn't it help if you could let the AI have these awesome starting systems and let the human select another option? Methinks that's a very simple one to implement. Might wanna put it on yer wishlist, amigo. ;)

Well what I love about this mod is it is about improving the AI without any cheats. So I can play on normal difficulty because I prefer a non cheating AI. But you can always give yourself harsh homeworld and the AI's super homeworlds in the game options.

Is there a way to give me one kind of home system and the AI another? I only see one universal setting in the options.

I understand the AI more or less needs a good starting system because its resource acquisition is poor, especially in the early game. But, when I get hold of one of those systems, it almost feels like I'm cheating. Know what I mean?

I've been trying to get a good game from this mod for the last couple of days. I had some bad luck, though. In one game everything was cool and some pirates showed up with a capital ship before I even had cruisers. That didn't end well. In another, I had one of those research setbacks - when I had almost finished warp bubble research. I played it until I got Gerax drives and colonization. By the time I had my second colony up, one of my neighbors had 25. I decided that one was beyond salvage, also. So, I'm gonna give it another shot today.

I'm taking lots of screenshots and thinking of doing an AAR pointed at new players. We'll see...

Its not in the main options its in the Other Empires setup. Uncheck the autogenerate box. Yeah Im facing some pirate capital ships right now and I can only build cruisers only because I have been able to steal tech at will. Cant really afford to build them though because I am playing harsh homeworlds. Pirates definitely seem to be able to research faster. Something I find that helps is to destroy all of their mining stations if you can find them. Their space station is another story though. I actually play with normal homeworlds or lower for all and I find the AI does just fine currently with all of the updates and this new mod. Back in the day the AI could not handle it though.
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Jethro420
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RE: AI Improvement Mod (1.01 Release)

Post by Jethro420 »

Yeah, I'm loving the challenge! Most games are easily mastered and quickly grow dull. This will play for years, though.

I'm in! [:)]
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