Matrix Games Forums

Hi Guys.
Can't believe I still have to post this after reading like 50 threads on this topic. It's just so confusing and barely explained in game I guess.

I'm struggling with the (apparently) usual "Why won't the Ai retrofit to my latest design?", "Why does the AI ignore my manual design?", "How to get the Ai to upgrade/retrofit ... ?" - problems.

Before even trying to post on every subtopic associated with this, let me ask this first:

It is my understanding that the automation settings for ship/station designs are hirarchical:

1. Game options (Esc -> Options): Automation -> ShipDesign -> Checkbox
2. Empire Settings (F6 -> Set Empire Policy + Automation): Research + Design -> DropdownMenu Control manually/automate Ships Design -> -> Prompt for Retrofit Checkbox -> ShipType Checkboxes
3. Designs Screen (F8) -> Columns for Upgrade + Retrofit

If I even want a single design to be managed automatically, I would have to go from top to bottom and, first, enable the checkbox under game options, second, set empire policy dropdown to automate, third, decide on individual ship types if automate or not in the designs screen and/or via the empire settings checkboxes.

Correct?

If correct, would this apply to upgrading and retrofitting alike? I.e., even if it specifically says only "design" in the game options and/or empire settings, these general "main switch" settings extend to retrofitting as well?

Then, would a state ship have to be individually set to "automate" to even be eligible for auto-retrofit or does the AI pull them away briefly for a retrofit-run?



Thanks in advance. I find this double, triple, quadruple settings- and standards system quite confusing.

I am curious about the answer to this as well.

Visiting the old options screen (1) is not required, you can do it all form empire policy. When it comes to this, that is. In other cases the old option screen is handy, or required.

1: Turn automated design on (by either screen).
2: Disable the ones you want for yourselves by unchecking them in the empire policies (2).

The AI will automatically create its designs for the the automated ship classes. They are created as specified in the design files (but could be shrunk to fit size).

If you want to have a single design automated, you have to enable AI designer (either screen), and uncheck all but one ship class in Empire Policy.

Design screen settings are confusing to me, I keep forgetting the details... One of them (retrofit?) says whether the design is automatically retrofitted, if for instance in a fleet told to retrofit at fleet level. It says that "there is no upgrade path for this ship". The other one is probably about automatically obsoleting the design, but I am not sure... If you find an alien ship, the design will have the necessary settings to preserve them as is.

For a ship to retrofit, it will have to be given the "retrofit" order. The AI never touches a "manual" ship, except that they may automatically refuel if they are about to run out. If automated, the AI may retrofit it sooner or later if there is an updated design.

Understand that when the AI retrofits, or if you just give a general "Retrofit order", the latest, non-obsolete design of the class is chosen. So if you have manual alternatives to active AI designs (auto designed), you tend to lose due to AI designer being quicker about updating designs. And those that have the retrofit setting turned off in the design, will probably not retrofit in this case.

From the ship list, you can pick what design to retrofit to, if you only have ships of one class selected.

Also understand that the design template file is loaded when the game map is created. You can't change the design templates half way through a game.