Distant Worlds AI

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Lihnit23

ORIGINAL: Icemania
Note to self: Try using DisallowedResearchArea tomorrow ... might be another way to improve AI Weapon Research focus.

A much better way to improve AI research is to use DisallowedComponentIDs. For example, I modded the Boskaras to only use rail guns and their race specific torps. They completely ignore all of the beams past maxos blasters (I need the maxos blasters to get to ion defenses), ion pulse, gravity stuff, fighters, non-race torps, assault pods, and assault missiles (I need earlier missiles to get point defense).

I put the line in as follows: DisallowedComponentIds ;1,3,2,106,110,115,116,118,119,113,117,114,108,5,6,7,8,16,105,11,12

Sounds great but I cannot get it to work.

I tried to do the opposite ... disallow a bunch of components so the AI would focus more on beams ... and ended up with a bunch of technologies on the disallowed list like Advanced Area Weapons.


'Disallowed ComponentIds: comma-separated list of component Id values that cannot be researched by this race
DisallowedComponentIds ;4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,24,26,27,106,107,108,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,126,127,128


I also set the following:

'Disallowed Research Areas 1,2,3: areas that this race cannot research: 0=None, 1=Torpedoes, 2=Missiles, 3=Area Weapons, 4=Ion Weapons, 5=Fighters, 6=Armor, 7=Hyper Disruption, 8=Sensors
DisallowedResearchArea1 ;2
DisallowedResearchArea2 ;3
DisallowedResearchArea3 ;5

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Tcby
Just got around to reading all this. Good work Ice for doing these tests and reporting the effects of minor changes. Big thanks to to Erik and Elliot for being open to suggestions and active in this area. The biggest problem I'm having at the moment is that I often lose incentive to finish my games after a somewhat early point. This is because I prefer to start in prewarp for thematic reasons, but the ability of the AI to keep pace in terms of research and colony growth is very limited. Because of this I tend to have more challenging (but less immersive) games from a classic start.

I do believe that the AI is fundamentally good; small changes to exploration priority, spaceport design, and taxation policy will surely make a great difference. As Ice has demonstrated.

As a side note, I got a very vivid image from Ice here:
"[puts head under the water and screams]"
...I laughed out loud.

Well said and thanks Tcby.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Tom_Holsinger
DW2 letting players similarly mod the AI would add enormous amount to the game's legs.

Agreed! At the very top of the DW2 design document please!

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Spidey
@ Ice
How about using player stunts? If players can have fun with labs on mines then why can't the AI? If we're cutting costs by throwing scanners on mines instead of state bases then why can't the AI? And wouldn't this also serve to ensure research capacity without resulting in the AI going bankrupt?

It's a good idea but it means a slow start to research. Spaceports get it going a lot faster simply because that is what the AI normally builds first.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Lihnit23

ORIGINAL: Icemania
Note to self: Try using DisallowedResearchArea tomorrow ... might be another way to improve AI Weapon Research focus.

A much better way to improve AI research is to use DisallowedComponentIDs. For example, I modded the Boskaras to only use rail guns and their race specific torps. They completely ignore all of the beams past maxos blasters (I need the maxos blasters to get to ion defenses), ion pulse, gravity stuff, fighters, non-race torps, assault pods, and assault missiles (I need earlier missiles to get point defense).

I put the line in as follows: DisallowedComponentIds ;1,3,2,106,110,115,116,118,119,113,117,114,108,5,6,7,8,16,105,11,12

Sounds great but I cannot get it to work.

I tried to do the opposite ... disallow a bunch of components so the AI would focus more on beams ... and ended up with a bunch of technologies on the disallowed list like Advanced Area Weapons.


'Disallowed ComponentIds: comma-separated list of component Id values that cannot be researched by this race
DisallowedComponentIds ;4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,24,26,27,106,107,108,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,126,127,128


I also set the following:

'Disallowed Research Areas 1,2,3: areas that this race cannot research: 0=None, 1=Torpedoes, 2=Missiles, 3=Area Weapons, 4=Ion Weapons, 5=Fighters, 6=Armor, 7=Hyper Disruption, 8=Sensors
DisallowedResearchArea1 ;2
DisallowedResearchArea2 ;3
DisallowedResearchArea3 ;5

I also tried the below in addition to the above. No material difference beyond the normal minor random variations. Can others please check this?


'Tech Focus 1: 0=None, 1=Beams, 2=Phasers, 3=Rail Guns, 4=Torpedoes, 5=Bombard Weapons, 6=Missiles, 7=Area Weapons, 8=Ion Weapons, 9=Fighters, 10=Armor, 11=Shields, 12=Reactors, 13=Main Thrust Engines, 14=Vectoring Engines, 15=HyperDrives, 16=Hyper Disruption, 17=Construction, 18=Damage Control, 19=Targetting, 20=Countermeasures, 21=Sensors, 22=Medicine, 23=Recreation, 24=Tractor Beams, 25=Assault Pods, 26=Graviton Beams, 27=Gravity Area Weapons, 28=Super Beam Weapons, 29=Super Area Weapons
TechFocus1 ;1

'Tech Focus 2: 0=None, 1=Beams, 2=Phasers, 3=Rail Guns, 4=Torpedoes, 5=Bombard Weapons, 6=Missiles, 7=Area Weapons, 8=Ion Weapons, 9=Fighters, 10=Armor, 11=Shields, 12=Reactors, 13=Main Thrust Engines, 14=Vectoring Engines, 15=HyperDrives, 16=Hyper Disruption, 17=Construction, 18=Damage Control, 19=Targetting, 20=Countermeasures, 21=Sensors, 22=Medicine, 23=Recreation, 24=Tractor Beams, 25=Assault Pods, 26=Graviton Beams, 27=Gravity Area Weapons, 28=Super Beam Weapons, 29=Super Area Weapons
TechFocus2 ;1

[Tcby]

Icemania, can you clarify what the issue is with those disallowed technologies (ie Lihnit23's approach)? I'm running a test game with 11 boskaran AI at the moment, and preventing them from pursuing entire trees does seem to have its benefits.

edit: although there is a slight problem with the list of disallowed components provided by Lihnit23. It disallows the first torpedo tech, thereby preventing boskarans from researching the prerequisite technology for their racial tech.

[Icemania]

Refer here Tcby. In short I haven't found a way yet for it to work ... at all. It researches disallowed technologies anyway!

[Tcby]

Ah! I'll keep my test game running and see if I can reproduce it.

[Icemania]

And in Empire Policy I also have: (i.e. prioritise beams!!!)


ResearchDesignTechFocus1 ;1
ResearchDesignTechFocus2 ;1
ResearchDesignTechFocus3 ;1
ResearchDesignTechFocus4 ;1
ResearchDesignTechFocus5 ;1
ResearchDesignTechFocus6 ;1

[Tcby]

4 years in, and all the races have performed more or less the same research:
pulse/maxos/improved maxos,
assault tactics + basic armour -> armoured ground assault->either battlefield sabotage or 2nd tier armour.
fighters->light interceptors->tactical interceptors

No research in disallowed fields yet.

edit: This is without specifying tech focus or disallowed research in the race.txt

6 years in, all AI continue to drill down into troop tech. No interest in rail guns or missiles (the only available weapon tech, except for the last improvement to the maxos) yet.

[Icemania]

Empire Policy Improvements

Now that Base designs have had comments please refer for observations on the Empire Policy Files intended to improve AI performance via a patch (not a mod as these are not specials).

1. Academies are not needed on every world and add no value en masse so they can set to a high population. Change 2-5M to 15M. Each Academy has a 2k maintenance cost!

2. The AI builds far too small ships and far too few large ships. I proposed inverting the proportions i.e.
(a) Capital Ships 7% change to 24%
(b) Carrier 8% change to 18%
(c) Cruiser 15% change to 20%
(d) Destroyer 20% change to 15%
(e) Escort 18% change to 8%
(f) Frigate 24% change to 7%

3. Large Spaceports are huge structures with high maintenance costs. Change 3B to 10B. Some worlds will only have a Medium Spaceport ... fine.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Tcby

4 years in, and all the races have performed more or less the same research:
pulse/maxos/improved maxos,
assault tactics + basic armour -> armoured ground assault->either battlefield sabotage or 2nd tier armour.
fighters->light interceptors->tactical interceptors

No research in disallowed fields yet.

edit: This is without specifying tech focus or disallowed research in the race.txt

6 years in, all AI continue to drill down into troop tech. No interest in rail guns or missiles (the only available weapon tech, except for the last improvement to the maxos) yet.

What is your Disallowed Components string?

Suggest restart a game with my Disallowed Components string or a variation?

[Tcby]

I'm using the string from Lihnit23's post:

;1,3,2,106,110,115,116,118,119,113,117,114,108,5,6,7,8,16,105,11,12

I'll restart with your changes.

[Icemania]

Changed ResearchDesignTechFocus to 0 (None) and DisallowedResearchArea to 0 (None) ... but kept DisallowedComponents ... same thing as the image above.

[Tcby]

So far I'm not getting any research into disallowed tech, but for some reason every weapon tech is now disallowed. So the AI can only research troop strength and armour related technology in that tree. Not sure what I did wrong there...methinks this is a problem for the morning.

[Icemania]

I just tried Lihnit's string and it's researched Ship Boarding, Gravitic Weapons and Torpedoes ... (very cheap research 4 year mark)

It's only 9.30pm dude ... [:)]

[Bingeling]

And you did not put a "comment" symbol at the start of the line? Not sure if it is ; or whatever.

[Tcby]

It's midnight in this part of the country

Who are you referring to Bingeling?

[Shark7]

With the noted upcoming changes, I'll be delaying any updates to my design templates till I see what changes. From my end, the project is on hold until then.

[Icemania]

Fully agree Shark