AI modding question (running Proportions)

[Prince Xizor]

First of all, keep in mind that I have no experience modding the AI, other than AI_General.txt

Ok. When a race has the Natural Merchants trait, is something hardcoded so that the AI knows not to build Spaceports or do you have to specify this in the AI_Construction_Facilities? Same thing for Emotionless races for instance; they do not need happiness facilities. If I do need to edit the facilities file, how do I do that?

Thanks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[oleg]

Originally posted by Prince Xizor:
First of all, keep in mind that I have no experience modding the AI, other than AI_General.txt

Ok. When a race has the Natural Merchants trait, is something hardcoded so that the AI knows not to build Spaceports or do you have to specify this in the AI_Construction_Facilities? Same thing for Emotionless races for instance; they do not need happiness facilities. If I do need to edit the facilities file, how do I do that?

Thanks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Natural Merchants AI will still build useless spaceports if they are specified in construction facilities. You must purge that file !

[oleg]

Here an example of Natural Merchants Proportions file.

I made this AI for Dogscoff' beatifull KanesS shipset. But it seems he is not going to finish it any time soon http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

If you like, adopt files to your race. It is Ice homeworld race, if you want other planet types, modify construction_vehicles and research files. Ship design file should be OK, I think.

1060521147.zip (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1060521147.zip)

[Prince Xizor]

Thanks, oleg. These were helpful. I think I'll use them with Atrocities' new Ticon Consortium shipset in my game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Something I noticed when going through the Construction_Vehicles files is that for colony ships, some files will use Colony (Rock), Colony (Ice), Colony (Gas). While others have just an entry called Colonizer. Now I've never seen a design called Colonizer in the DesignCreation files. Is this a mistake, or am I not understanding something? (hopefully the latter http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )

[Fyron]

You can use whatever design types you want to (just add them when designing a ship http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ). AIs be programmed to use whatever design types the modder wishes.

[Prince Xizor]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
You can use whatever design types you want to (just add them when designing a ship http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ). AIs be programmed to use whatever design types the modder wishes.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Right. But what I'm not getting is that the Construction_Vehicles file is telling the AI to build a type called Colonizer. But in their DesignCreation file, there is no such type. So I'm concluding that the AI won't build any colony ships, but that doesn't seem right to me (since I also notice this seeming discrepancy in the unmodded game files). Basically I'm trying to understand the relationship between Construction_Vehicles and DesignCreation.

Also bear in mind that this is the first time I've ever looked at the contents of the AI files. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Prince Xizor]

Ok, after reading through this thread--Proportions AI without AI colony bug (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=008384;p=2)--I think my question about what "Colonizer" means in the Construction_Vehicles file has been answered. It's something hardcoded that allows the AI to evaluate which type of colony design to build, as opposed to just spelling out exactly what kind it should build.

Are there any other such hardcoded strings?