AI Improvement Mod (1.05 Extended Release)

[Icemania]

A Keskudon versus Gizurean Fleet Battle during a test game. Point Blank Torpedoes versus Point Blank Beams. Tractors pulling in on Capital Ships. There is only one word for this ... LETHAL!!!

[AKicebear]

Playing as Boskara and appear to lack an automated Troop Transport design (build-able or otherwise) - is this intentional?

[johanwanderer]

ORIGINAL: AKicebear

Playing as Boskara and appear to lack an automated Troop Transport design (build-able or otherwise) - is this intentional?

It happens from time to time, in the vanilla game as well, when some condition wasn't met for the design to be created. Just create a new design and set it to automatic. Then the game will figure it out for you.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

Oh man this is meant to be my time off work ...

Just tracked down an undocumented feature of the new freighter shrinking introduced in 1.9.5.8.

The observation was that at the start of the game the modified (larger) freighters in the Mod were available to most races. However, this was not the case for the Ackdarian, Gizurean, Kiadian, Wekkarus and Jintus. The freighter designs were exactly the same. Why just these races? What do they have in common?

They all have a Speed/Agility Energy Research Focus. But so do the Sluken, Enton and Riktoh ... yet they worked fine?!

The problem was the field "ResearchDesignOverallFocus". If this is set to 1 (Speed/Agility) then the shrinkage algorithm changes. In order to reach the size limit needed, the number of thrusters in particular needs to be reduced by the game, which this setting prevented. When I changed it to 0 (Balanced) the freighters for the remaining races all shrunk to align with the others.

I don't think changing this field matters otherwise, but I don't really know, as there is no detail in the Modding guide about exactly what it does (as is the case for the majority of fields). Since the Research Orders and Design Templates are customised anyway, hopefully not, but please report any problems with 1.02 once it's released.

While civilian ship shrinkage looks good for pre-warp it remains problematic with 1.9.5.8 with a normal start. The game will reduce the number of thrusters to an extent but then give up. It doesn't reduce the number of cargo bays, for example. As you all know I don't want to kneecap the civilian economy but going back to the slow / limited extraction Vanilla designs.

What I'm doing is increasing construction sizes by one class at each technology level. This was already done for Orbital assembly (Size 160 limit increased to Size 230) for similar reasons. Changing Space Construction from a Size 230 limit to a Size 300 limit will resolve the problem. But it will also mean larger ships are available a bit earlier generally.

With Resupply Ships, I like the suggestions made previously to make them available earlier, helping the AI with early game resource shortages. If they are made available at Enhanced Construction the design size limit would be 1200, still quite beefy.

Accelerated Construction is still an appealing technology as it grants access to an important Wonder relatively early in the Technology Tree.

[AKicebear]

ORIGINAL: johanwanderer
It happens from time to time, in the vanilla game as well, when some condition wasn't met for the design to be created. Just create a new design and set it to automatic. Then the game will figure it out for you.

Thanks, this worked.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Icemania
• 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.

This wasn't mentioned as fixed in the 1.9.5.8 Beta patch notes but is anyone else seeing an improvement here? Looks like it's been fixed.

Definitely fixed. Through a few test games now and Capital Ships were built without delay.

However, there must be a similar undocumented trigger for Resupply Ships, because after making them available earlier in the Technology Tree, and the designs clearly being shown as Buildable, many years later not a single Resupply Ship has been built by the AI ...

[Cauldyth]

I wonder if the AI does some sort of more sophisticated check to see if there are potential opponents at a distance which would require the use of Resupply Ships.

[Icemania]

Hey All:

EXTENDED AI IMPROVEMENT MOD 1.02 BETA

With the new battle tactics I would appreciate comments, I'll give this a week and then release.

Changelog: 1.02 Beta

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.

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.

Cheers,
Icemania

[Blackstork]

Hey Mate, GJ, ![&o]
I have few questions about compatibility/integration process:
Do you have update package without unchanged base (only files that you changed without files which was not changed, which possible to copy as update? )
Does race.txt files have another updates except research weapon queue for non-gravitic races?
Are there any changes to research.txt except change of Resuply ship tech?
Thanks and cheers!
I perhaps will wait for final release for integration, tho i want to prepare myself and see and mark all the changes and things.

[sayke]

Icemania, this is bloody fantastic! Thank you =)

One question, though: Because my computer chokes on the massive space battles and fighter swarms in this mod, I would like to reduce the size of all fleets generally. Is increasing military maintenance cost for all governments, or all races, the best way to do this in your view? Thanks again!

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Blackstork
Do you have update package without unchanged base (only files that you changed without files which was not changed, which possible to copy as update? )

Parts of the design templates, help, race and policy files have been changed.

Items 1-7 in the changelog changed the design templates. Hopefully you can just copy and paste the folder?

Item 8 in the changelog changed the race files. Hopefully you can just copy and paste the files?

Item 9 in the changelog is the updated help files. Hopefully you can just copy and paste the files?

Item 10-11 in the changelog changed some policy files. Hopefully you can just copy and paste the files?

Item 12-13 in the changelog changed the research file. The project numbers changed are 106-112 and 280 i.e. Construction technologies beyond Space Construction.

ORIGINAL: Blackstork
Does race.txt files have another updates except research weapon queue for non-gravitic races?

No other changes except to add Gravitic Weapons -> Tractor Beam research.

ORIGINAL: Blackstork
Are there any changes to research.txt except change of Resuply ship tech?

Yes refer Item 12 as well (resupply ship is Item 13).

[Hikikomori]

[&o][&o][&o]



Can't wait to try supply ships and invading with sneaky cheesy tactics.

I hope i get myself slaughtered. [:)]

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: sayke
One question, though: Because my computer chokes on the massive space battles and fighter swarms in this mod, I would like to reduce the size of all fleets generally. Is increasing military maintenance cost for all governments, or all races, the best way to do this in your view? Thanks again!

Oh man I love those Fighter Swarms! You should see Carriers now they stretch in size, when you get to late game ...

You could increase maintenance costs. That might mean less fleets but it sounds like you might have trouble on a specific fleet anyway.

Another option comes to mind. You could reduce the number of fighters and bombers per Fighter Bay in components.txt and increase the damage of each fighter and bomber in fighters.txt by the same proportion.

A factor of 3 perhaps. In components.txt, look for items 26, 27 and 130 (Extended). See the 60's? Change them to 20. fighters.txt should be pretty self-explanatory. Then check the Tech Tree in a new game.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Hikikomori
Can't wait to try supply ships and invading with sneaky cheesy tactics.

I need help with observations in-game.

Capital Ship Tractor Beams work great but please have a close look at Spaceports.

(1) There are more Tractor Beams on Spaceports than Vanilla but are there enough?

(2) Are Tractor Beams powerful enough or do I need to buff them?

(3) Do you find the Spaceports use their Tractor Beams on multiple targets or do they focus on one?

If (1) or (2) this is easy to change for 1.02 release. If (3) we will need more help from Erik and Elliot.

[Blackstork]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Blackstork
Do you have update package without unchanged base (only files that you changed without files which was not changed, which possible to copy as update? )

Parts of the design templates, help, race and policy files have been changed.

Items 1-7 in the changelog changed the design templates. Hopefully you can just copy and paste the folder?

Item 8 in the changelog changed the race files. Hopefully you can just copy and paste the files?

Item 9 in the changelog is the updated help files. Hopefully you can just copy and paste the files?

Item 10-11 in the changelog changed some policy files. Hopefully you can just copy and paste the files?

Item 12-13 in the changelog changed the research file. The project numbers changed are 106-112 and 280 i.e. Construction technologies beyond Space Construction.

ORIGINAL: Blackstork
Does race.txt files have another updates except research weapon queue for non-gravitic races?

No other changes except to add Gravitic Weapons -> Tractor Beam research.

ORIGINAL: Blackstork
Are there any changes to research.txt except change of Resuply ship tech?

Yes refer Item 12 as well (resupply ship is Item 13).

Big thanks, very informative. cant wait for final one. Cheers.
For policy and designs i can copy-paste for all 40 extended races, 8 races of Beyond will do by myself basing on new files set.

[Hikikomori]

You also removed the token weapon on the carriers.

[Tanaka]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Icemania
• 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.

This wasn't mentioned as fixed in the 1.9.5.8 Beta patch notes but is anyone else seeing an improvement here? Looks like it's been fixed.

Definitely fixed. Through a few test games now and Capital Ships were built without delay.

However, there must be a similar undocumented trigger for Resupply Ships, because after making them available earlier in the Technology Tree, and the designs clearly being shown as Buildable, many years later not a single Resupply Ship has been built by the AI ...

Hey Ice could you request the devs fix this like they fixed the capitals not being built?

[Tanaka]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Here's your dang defeat screen! Darn bugs attacking my home planet! Ive lost my main space port! Now if you could get the AI to invade planets more we would really be screwed!

Cool dude! In a test game at the moment, I'm watching an AI that started larger than the other empires. They have 4 fleets. Individually they don't have the forces to invade the homeworld of an enemy nearby (they wiped everything else out) but if 2-3 of those fleets combined, the homeworld would have been conquered long ago. One for Erik and Elliot I would suggest.

I've updated the Developer Support Wishlist in the OP accordingly.

Thanks! The AI really needs a lot of improvement in planetary invasion coordination!

[Tanaka]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Icemania

Oh man this is meant to be my time off work ...

Just tracked down an undocumented feature of the new freighter shrinking introduced in 1.9.5.8.

The observation was that at the start of the game the modified (larger) freighters in the Mod were available to most races. However, this was not the case for the Ackdarian, Gizurean, Kiadian, Wekkarus and Jintus. The freighter designs were exactly the same. Why just these races? What do they have in common?

They all have a Speed/Agility Energy Research Focus. But so do the Sluken, Enton and Riktoh ... yet they worked fine?!

The problem was the field "ResearchDesignOverallFocus". If this is set to 1 (Speed/Agility) then the shrinkage algorithm changes. In order to reach the size limit needed, the number of thrusters in particular needs to be reduced by the game, which this setting prevented. When I changed it to 0 (Balanced) the freighters for the remaining races all shrunk to align with the others.

I don't think changing this field matters otherwise, but I don't really know, as there is no detail in the Modding guide about exactly what it does (as is the case for the majority of fields). Since the Research Orders and Design Templates are customised anyway, hopefully not, but please report any problems with 1.02 once it's released.

While civilian ship shrinkage looks good for pre-warp it remains problematic with 1.9.5.8 with a normal start. The game will reduce the number of thrusters to an extent but then give up. It doesn't reduce the number of cargo bays, for example. As you all know I don't want to kneecap the civilian economy but going back to the slow / limited extraction Vanilla designs.

What I'm doing is increasing construction sizes by one class at each technology level. This was already done for Orbital assembly (Size 160 limit increased to Size 230) for similar reasons. Changing Space Construction from a Size 230 limit to a Size 300 limit will resolve the problem. But it will also mean larger ships are available a bit earlier generally.

With Resupply Ships, I like the suggestions made previously to make them available earlier, helping the AI with early game resource shortages. If they are made available at Enhanced Construction the design size limit would be 1200, still quite beefy.

Accelerated Construction is still an appealing technology as it grants access to an important Wonder relatively early in the Technology Tree.

A bit confused about the ship size changes you say you increased size 230 to 300 but I looked and see that escorts are still 230?

[Tanaka]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

Hey All:

EXTENDED AI IMPROVEMENT MOD 1.02 BETA

With the new battle tactics I would appreciate comments, I'll give this a week and then release.

Changelog: 1.02 Beta

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.

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.

Cheers,
Icemania

Awesome changes! [&o] Love that tractor beams are capital and base only and not wasted on small ships. Very epic and star wars like! The garrison improvement will really help the AI against invasions and pirates! The resupply ship is very useful now helping the AI as well!