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For those interested in AI Mods for other Space 4X games, we are currently finishing up an AI Improvement and Balance Mod for Stardrive 2, refer here for details:

Stardrive 2 AI Improvement and Balance Mod

ORIGINAL: Icemania

For those interested in AI Mods for other Space 4X games, we are currently finishing up an AI Improvement and Balance Mod for Stardrive 2, refer here for details:

Stardrive 2 AI Improvement and Balance Mod

I will try it, thank you [:)]

May I ask a question of someone who's played a bit?

The mod suggests I play the game at very hard, at least. I just want to know if I will still receive an improved experience playing on say normal with this mod as opposed to playing on normal with the vanilla extended races mod.

the mod is also playable at the normal difficulty level and in my opinion it is anyway an improved experience respect to the vanilla version played at the same difficulty level.
that say it shines at the harder difficulty levels [8D]

Thanks, one more question, I know that designing your own ships is a huge advantage over the AI so I avoid it. I know that this mod gives the AI better ship designs but does that mean that MY default ship designs are better too or will I still be using the vanilla ones?

Yours will be better too, unless you're playing with a custom race, which isn't included in this mod.

So I've been reacquainting myself with the game and spent some hours playing the lower difficulty levels.

I just went from hard to very hard for the first time after getting the hang of the game again to the point where I was far more powerful than anyone else for it to be interesting on hard mode.

Wow! The AI keeps up with me so much better on Vhard, at least 2-3 times more effectively than on hard. I also love the new default ship updates and how race relations are divided a little more sharply by racial differences.

So double thumbs up for this mod from me.

Icemania - just wanted to say thank you for your mod and all of the many hours you put into it. Your mod (combined with the extended races mod and my own personal mods) keeps me coming back to DW:U for a long game about every 3-4 months - despite far newer, shinier 4x games on my drive (including Stellaris).

Thanks for the feedback!

I bought this game a few weeks ago and decided to give this mod a try.
When I checked the weapons tech tree I noticed that the expensive "Super Area Weapons" tech doesn't have any prerequisites and can be chosen as the initial tech in this tree ? I wonder if this is intended.

FYI I'm using version 1.9.5.12 of the game and 1.05 of the mod.

ORIGINAL: AVN

I bought this game a few weeks ago and decided to give this mod a try.
When I checked the weapons tech tree I noticed that the expensive "Super Area Weapons" tech doesn't have any prerequisites and can be chosen as the initial tech in this tree ? I wonder if this is intended.

FYI I'm using version 1.9.5.12 of the game and 1.05 of the mod.

Hey AVN, welcome!

Yeah if you really must know it's basically a Trojan Horse. It doesn't come cheap and if you aren't very careful, and use it in very specific circumstances, you'll likely do more damage to yourself than the enemy.

So ... feel free!

Icemania
Thanks for your explanation [:)]
It makes sense now ...

Coming back to this amazing game and this great mod after it is still King over Stellaris and everything else. I saw in Research Unleashed and Unleashed Extended that there were discussions about all of the different size freighters in the AI Mod having the same stats and that small freighters were not available to be built early. Could you refresh me on the reason for this Icemania?

Also...

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Unbroken
The pirates seem to also have spent their time researching Colonization techs. I have no idea why. Overall, their tech is better in some ways than the empires, but worse in others.

The race files are common for Pirates and Empires. Modders have no way to set a different research path using the Research Build Order approach this Mod is based on. Otherwise, I can assure you, I would have!

Looks like this has changed

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ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Hi Osito interesting to see how you changed the Pirates. Does this affect the way you play them or how the AI plays them? Or is everything the same except for Pirates just having specific ancient warp drives? The reports that more Pirates become empires in your mod that may be a cool feature depending on how you look at it. The way you did things seems like this would open up a lot of interesting possibilities of Pirate specific techs.

ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Coming back to this amazing game and this great mod after it is still King over Stellaris and everything else. I saw in Research Unleashed and Unleashed Extended that there were discussions about all of the different size freighters in the AI Mod having the same stats and that small freighters were not available to be built early. Could you refresh me on the reason for this Icemania?

It could use more analysis but was based on this old post.

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Coming back to this amazing game and this great mod after it is still King over Stellaris and everything else. I saw in Research Unleashed and Unleashed Extended that there were discussions about all of the different size freighters in the AI Mod having the same stats and that small freighters were not available to be built early. Could you refresh me on the reason for this Icemania?

It could use more analysis but was based on this old post.

Gotcha thanks for the link!

Just my two cents about freighter sizes: The AI has to have the ability to make freighters asap or you hurt their start game. One example is what if the AI homeworld is a moon? A fuel mine will be placed on the gas giant quickly, and with no freighters means no fuel collection until who knows when.

I would suggest altering just the small freighters so the AI has something at the start.

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970
Just my two cents about freighter sizes: The AI has to have the ability to make freighters asap or you hurt their start game. One example is what if the AI homeworld is a moon? A fuel mine will be placed on the gas giant quickly, and with no freighters means no fuel collection until who knows when.

I would suggest altering just the small freighters so the AI has something at the start.

The AI with the mod has small, medium and large freighters available at the start. Your concern is quite right and is one of the reasons the following change was made to the tech tree:
"Available ship sizes have been increased in each class to avoid AI ship design problems. The design templates use a fixed number of components so without this change the larger designs used in this Mod can be problematic early game."
Plus the freighter designs have more engines so they are faster. And have more cargo capacity for small and medium (as they are the same as large).

ORIGINAL: Icemania

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970
Just my two cents about freighter sizes: The AI has to have the ability to make freighters asap or you hurt their start game. One example is what if the AI homeworld is a moon? A fuel mine will be placed on the gas giant quickly, and with no freighters means no fuel collection until who knows when.

I would suggest altering just the small freighters so the AI has something at the start.

The AI with the mod has small, medium and large freighters available at the start. Your concern is quite right and is one of the reasons the following change was made to the tech tree:
"Available ship sizes have been increased in each class to avoid AI ship design problems. The design templates use a fixed number of components so without this change the larger designs used in this Mod can be problematic early game."
Plus the freighter designs have more engines so they are faster. And have more cargo capacity for small and medium (as they are the same as large).

I think they were talking about Pre-Warp starts and the freighters not showing up until you researched construction?

ORIGINAL: Tanaka
I think they were talking about Pre-Warp starts and the freighters not showing up until you researched construction?

But they do show up before you've researched construction with this Mod. It was problematic during Beta testing for the Mod but ultimately decided to increase the sizes one class. At the start of the game you have one class larger size available.