AI construction problem

[Q]

I noticed in a late game (turn 300-400) that some races (but not all) only start to construct one item per turn. I may be blind but I just don't see the reason or the difference between the races that do this and the ones that construct on many planets at the same time.
Can anyone give me an explanation?? Your help is very much appreciated.

[jc173]

Could they be hitting their maintenance cap either that or they have all the items they need specified in the AI_vehicle_construction.txt file? I'm assuming you say one item you mean ships/bases/units etc and not facilities.

The maintenance cap is specified either in the AI_general file or AI_settings file I think. Can you elaborate a little further on what you are seeing?

[Q]

I thought first as you did, that the maintenance cost limit was reached. But that turned out to be wrong. Then I changed the AI construction vehicles file from a race that continued to build several items per turn to a race that only built one item per turn: no effect. I switched off the AI for one turn and then on again: no effect. And yes I am talking only about ships/units and not about facilities. It's a mystery to me!

[Master Belisarius]

Yes Q, I have detected the problem... and really I don't know the reason.

[Q]

I might have found the cause of the problem:
It seems that this happens, if the stored resources are less than the maintenance costs!
I do not know if this was done on purpose, but it's not good for the AI performance and should be chaged IMO. You already have the limit of the maximum maintenance cost in the race settings file which refers to the resource production. This should be enough to limit the overproduction of ships.

[capnq]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>You already have the limit of the maximum maintenance cost in the race settings file which refers to the resource production.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>It's been reported in a couple threads that this setting isn't working currently.

------------------
Cap'n Q

[Master Belisarius]

Nope Q... I saw the problem in games with all the tech from the start, and 10 starting planets...

[Q]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Master Belisarius:
Nope Q... I saw the problem in games with all the tech from the start, and 10 starting planets...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

How much was the resource storage(!) capacity in your case and the maintenance cost? It's not the resource production!

[Master Belisarius]

The AI's that I'm talking about, had a lot of resource production, and a lot of storage capacity...

[Q]

That's curious! In my game I tried everything I could think of without success. Then I just built two more mineral storage facilities (organics and radioactives storage were more than the maintenance cost): The AI promptly began to build several items every turn. And I did this with two races so this can't be just coincidence.

[This message has been edited by Q (edited 02 May 2001).]

[jc173]

That's interesting, maybe I should watch the AI's closer in my games. In some ways it makes sense to have a reserve in case something happens, but having a reserve buffer equal to your maintenance cost is probably overkill. I haven't run into anything like this, but I have a lot more storage modded into my game. Using ideas from another thread I set it up so that the resource extracting facilities, space ports, resupply depots, and space yards can store resources in addition to the dedicated storage facilities. Works out pretty well and now the AI gets some decent storage without needing to build a lot of resupply bases or extraction colonies on large planets.