Balance Mod Available for SE:V

[Arralen]

Regarding the setting allowing colonization, that's intentional. It generally works out better for the friendlier AIs to get more planets.
Then the AI should at least check for colonsation tech/home planet type .. it does not make much sense to intersettle with someone who has the same planet type.
Btw., it's a PITA to have all those colonies scattered all over the map, if you agree to such a treaty, therefore I don't really like that ....


I was more concerned about the 30% trade level, full tech trade, or migration elements being offered too 'early' in relations. If you have a situation like that again, be sure to send me the game. This time, things got even worse ... got full cooperation treaty suggestion from the Terrans the very turn I met them .. when they shouldn't be able to send me messages at all, AFAIK.
I'm pretty much sure, though, that the Abbiddon in the last game send that message 2 or 3 turn after I met them, so that impossible message can't be the cause in itself ...
Email with savegame is on its way !

[Captain Kwok]

There does seem to be an issue that I'll have to look into. Maybe a few days from now though since I'm moving. :P

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Good luck on the move. And remember, nothing thanks movers like pizza and drinks.

[Arralen]

:?: Hope moving went well :?:

Regarding the setting allowing colonization, that's intentional. It generally works out better for the friendlier AIs to get more planets.
I agree the AI needs "more" planets because it's generally building quite ineffectively, and does not understand how plan ahead for balanced ressource production. But isn't this not as much a problem of "how many planets" but of "how many building slots", as the AI tends to fill up its planets quickly according to its currents needs, and therefore e.g. ends up putting rad extractors, and only those, on designated research colonies with 98% rad? And o.c. it does in no way understand that 2 tiny domed colonies in a star system have no economical value whatsoever and are only useful as a military base ...
I feel that it might work much better to give the tiny/small/medium planets a bit of a boost, especially the domed ones, instead of having everyone be nice to each other and settle in the very same star system ... :

AI treaty conclusions
Having the AI be friend and make treaties with everyone can detrimental to the game: Not only that all the scattered colonies because of intersettling are a MM-PITA, running 150 turns on a big quadrant with 14 full AI (no neutrals) always had only ~3 wars going on, triggered by the xhenophobes etc. And that with thousands of ships milling around (and worsening end turn times) - effectively doing absolutely nothing !
Where's the fun, the action ???!!!
We need some hefty negative diplo modifiers for having the same planet type/atmosphere, and o.c. more Gas Giant / Ice Planet dwellers, as atm it's gas - ice - rock 1:3:9.
Aren't there some nice shipsets out there which could be used - I would gladly try to write up some race description and make some design suggestion, but have no clue about doing the AI files :dk:

Research Treaties
While cutting down the research areas to a handful of levels (compared to the stock game) surely makes things more managable and fun, yet it looks like it's overdone in some regard: research treaties below the "exchange current tech"-level, which only should be offered at best relation levels, are basically worthless, as quite some techs never will be traded at "2 levels old" (mostly the "barrier" techs, but hulls/engines are generally only researched to lvl3 as well..), and basically no tech will be traded with the "4 levels old" agreement.
IMHO, some tech levels should be added in again. Maybe empty "dummy" levels to keep the number of different components low, like those already present in some tech areas. On the other hand, with formula-driven values having more tech levels does not make much of a difference in that regard, right?

Typo:
Components.txt is missing a "%" character on line 5150 :
"Ability 2 Description := Plasma Missiles have a [%Amount1%]% defense bonus,... "

[NTJedi]

Hello Captain Kwok... I agree with Arralen on the AI treaty conclusions and Research Treaties. I've also recognized another problem with the AI opponents which comes in two parts.

A) AI opponents should use Fighter Bays for transporting cargo instead of Cargo Bays. The reason is because the AI opponents will have ships with Troops and Fighters which almost always results in all the cargo being lost in battle. If the AI opponents were using the Fighter Bays instead at least some of those fighters could make a fighting difference before dying. The AI opponents just aren't smart enough to safely utilize the large size from cargo bays.

B) AI opponents with ships carrying cargo should drop off their cargo during battle for planets which belong to the AI opponents. In a recent battle at one of the planets belonging to the AI opponent, it had one of its cargo ships in space holding lots of fighters and troops. Instead of unloading those on its nearby planet it marched towards my 15+ ships with 50+ fighters. The AI opponent foolishly lost all those troops and fighters. I realize improving the AI opponent for the battlefield may be more difficult, but this would be helpful.

B)

[Captain Kwok]

Arralen,

Working on identifying what the issue might be. In that current game, the Terrans shouldn\'t be offering anything more than a typical non-intercourse type treaty based on their current anger level/mood towards your empire. I\'ve put on a thread at SE.net to gather any additional information on when this sort of behavior is encountered.

NTJedi,

I\'ve re-implemented the previous AI task force scheme for the next patch and future versions. It will send transport ships in fleets to flee when in a fleet.

[Arralen]

Kwok, are you a genius, did you achieve real AI or are there even more problems with the AI being that friendly to each other and the player ?!?!

AI treaty conclusions - again
Situation: I finally gave in and signed a intersettling treaty with the Urka-Tal, which are several systems away and ,like me, battling the Sithrak. And because I was a bit behind in tech to them (and had half of what the leading Abbidon had, which have a tech lead of at least 30% in every game), I added a "current tech exchange" to the treaty.
Next turn, I gave them 2 minor techs, got a couple from them and everything looked o.k., but unspectacular. But during the next 10 turns, more and more techs started to trickle in, up to the point that I switched to researching racial techs and still get>1 standard tech per turn.
So I logged into some AI turns and looked what happened: Obviously, the Abbidon have a good lead with 206K research and 173 tech levels. But the Ukra-Tal (43k research) signed tech exchange treaties with me (57k research, current tech exch.), the Norak (85k research, curr.t.e.), the Xi'Chung (18k,4 lvls old), Jraenar (28k, ALL tech!!), Drushoka (42k, ALL tech!!) ... totalling 256k research .. quite enough to equalize the Abbidon research lead in a reasonable amount of time!
Now I wonder if the AI did that on purpose. Sadly, I have the nagging suspicion that it happened just by chance ... and because the AI is too eager to sign exchange/intersettling/etc treaties.
Furthermore I feel this changes the nature of SE5 completely, turning it from a more-or-less militaristic strategy game into a game of diplomacy (pun? whats that?). Now if I was sure that alliances, especially with the AI, would work correctly, .. are all those issues worked out with the latest patch now? Even if they do - do we really want to change SE5 that much?
I think it would be a more "safe" route to let the AI prefer smaller groups which then fight each other for dominance - presumed that something could be done about the Abbidons being the leader in every game, which has to do with the planet type/atmosphere distribution between races and in the galaxies I guess.(I'll check both if I find the time and motivation ;) )

.. plus AIs colonists handling:
More on the situation: The Ukra-Tal wanted migration as well, and now colonists from all over the galaxy are starting to move in on my planets, allowing me to un-dome lots of colonies - is the AI able to do that, I'm pretty sure it isn't .. at least the Urka-Tal only have 2 obsolete small transports running, which are shuffling colonists out from the home worlds at a snails pace. No sign that they care about the immigrants.
IMHO, the AI still needs to build more pop transports. I'm not sure if something could be done 'bout the migration which strongly prefers the human player as long as the AI does not understand how to handle the different breathers.


AI (commanded) transports on the battlefield
AIs give Troop Transports a weapon to keep them together with the other warships when they are approaching a planet to capture it. It sometimes helps to avoid accidental glassings of the target or protect the troop transport.
...
I\'ve re-implemented the previous AI task force scheme for the next patch and future versions. It will send transport ships in fleets to flee when in a fleet.

Dunno what those latest changes will do, but at least for my fleets in simultanious mode the following works much better than arming troop transports:
Troop Transport
- small freighter hull for max speed
- min. number of cargo pods
- adding PD(1, better 2), combat sensors
- adding shields, armor
- setting "capture planet"

Task Force
- set to "attack: capture planet", "defense: don't get hurt"
- "capture planet" uses (break form. immediatly: false / core ships lost: true / drop troops: true / capture ships: false / launch units: true / retreat: move in group)
- transport as leader
- add 2-4 beam attack ships (those should have PD as well)
- 50% beamers into core, 50% beamers into escort
- formation "attack: flying V", "defense: **unsure, depending on no. of ships"

Other Task Forces
- set to "optimal/maximum range"

Every time I tried, the Ground Assault TFs headed straight for the planet to drop troops and retreated promptly afterwards, and the Combat TFs turned away as soon as there was no enemy unit left fit for fighting spaceborne targets. I'm not sure, but I think the GA TF even regrouped to "don't get hurt/defense" tactics/formation.
No planet was accidently glassed, though I presume that could happen if enough missile ships launch at a planet to kill the last assets present which could fire at ships. Nothing that could be done 'bout that I guess. S*** happens ...
And in no combat situation the troop transport (or the whole GA taskforce) tried to mingle with enemy ships, unless it found itself stuck within a group after WH transit. And even then the GA taskforce tried to retreat from the battle as fast as it could.
IMHO this is exactly the wanted behaviour for troop transports, isn't it?

[Arralen]

planet / atmosphere type distribution and gas giant dwellers
Why is it that the Abiddon are 1st in every game, unless the EEE are in as well - then both are leading the score list 90% of the time.

Well, let's asume the planet/atmosphere type distribution is 100% flat with the only exception that there are no planets with the combination of "gas giant / no atmosphere", for obvious reasons.
Because the %tage of planets with breathable atmosphere for gas giant dwellers therefore is 25% instead of 20% of planets, they get a facility space bonus of 11% for free !!

Furthermore, I'm not entirely convinced that the dstribution is entirely "flat", but the random factor seems quite high so I have to generate several max size "paradise" quadrants and count planets to get meaningful statistics.
Will take some time, if I ever finish that, because it's tedious and time-consuming work. Unless someone figures a way to dump the quadrant data to a file and run it through a script to grab the numbers ...

[Captain Kwok]

An AI that is behind in tech will seek out the treaty element for technology exchange. It's unfortunate though that SE5's treaty element is actually exchange of tech levels, it would be much better for the game if it were just a trade of tech points.

Both the Abbidon and EEE are friendly peaceful races, so they tend to make the most treaties and gain points through trade and tech exchange.

The AI does un-dome its planets and actually quite quickly as well. It spaces non-breathing population when a breathable population is on the same planet. It does know enough to not drop non-breathing races on un-domed planets afterwards. It also uses idle Cargo Transports or Colony Ships as population transports.

[Arralen]

An AI that is behind in tech will seek out the treaty element for technology exchange. It's unfortunate though that SE5's treaty element is actually exchange of tech levels, it would be much better for the game if it were just a trade of tech points.
Interestingly enough, the Urka-Tal only asked for "recent" tech, IIRC, it was I who switched to "current tech" and they agreed - and then within the next dozend turns they made tech exchange treaties with the other mid-level rated empires, just enough to beat the Abiddon.

Both the Abbidon and EEE are friendly peaceful races, so they tend to make the most treaties and gain points through trade and tech exchange.
Read carefully ;) ... the Abiddon do not have a single tech exchange treaty, but intersettle with everyone but me :) Yet they have the tech lead since the first few turns, simply they have 11% better planets (EEE are not in the game).
What amazes me most is that the Urka-Tal actually got an alliance together to keep up with the Abiddon ... if this is really deliberate behaviour of the AI, is great! (Even though they make no move to found a "real" alliance :( )
Now I wonder what happens if the Abiddons actually get "overtaken" .. will the AI nullify those tech exchange treaties? Guess it will take some time to find out, because turn generation times are >10 minutes now, and climbing :/

The AI does un-dome its planets and actually quite quickly as well. It spaces non-breathing population when a breathable population is on the same planet. It does know enough to not drop non-breathing races on un-domed planets afterwards.
- it does space pop o.k., it seems. What is a shame,btw., but can't be helped *sigh*
- wasn't able to check if it does not re-dome, because those 2-4 small pop transports always seem to run between the homeworlds and some outlying colonies. Chances to "catch" one that is about to drop on an undomed colony seem slim ... especially if that "wrong" pop gets spaced again next turn ;)

It also uses idle Cargo Transports or Colony Ships as population transports.
Sorry to disappoint you here, but it doesn't.
Might be because it always builds so many troops that it simply has no idle troop transports, and it seems it tries to colonise worlds which have been empty 100 turns ago, then after a flight time of 15 turns or more finds them taken already and assigns the next colonisation target, again 15 turns or more away - so the colonisers never get idle as well, or maybe only very late in the game. (but by then planets have been glassed, and the whole thing starts again).
However, I looked through the AI turns and did not find ONE troop transport or colony ship that did pop transport runs ... .
And with e.g. the Abiddons having 3 homeworlds with maxed out pop, 114 colonies and 4(!) small pop transports, their pop movement capacity is clearly way too low. More in order IMHO would be one ship per 10-15 planets.

[Captain Kwok]

Yet they have the tech lead since the first few turns, simply they have 11% better planets

The Abbidon use the Advanced Storage Techniques trait, which gives them 20% more facility space. Fyron\'s generally balanced out the distribution of facility space amongst planet types.

\"Spacing\" population is crude, but it\'s very effective. Dome planets generally have low populations and slow growth, so the population increase from migration and population growth of native breathers makes up the loss (and probably results in a net gain of population) versus transporting the population. There\'s no reason why I can\'t make the AI do it the long way, but it is less effective.

Sorry to disappoint you here, but it doesn\'t [use Cargo Transports / Colony Ships to transport population]

It surely does, but the prerequisite is that the ships have to be idle (ie excess Colony Ships) or if there is a zero population planet (hijack Cargo Transport). In general, population migration is faster for moving breather populations around. The AI\'s primary strategy with their transports is to get their domed planets to the 40/50M level for 100% production efficiency. If anything though, a small boost is probably needed in the overall numbers of population transports.

[Arralen]

Yet they have the tech lead since the first few turns, simply they have 11% better planets
The Abbidon use the Advanced Storage Techniques trait, which gives them 20% more facility space. Fyron\'s generally balanced out the distribution of facility space amongst planet types.
Generally speaking, it pretty much ****** it up - and I ran test games and counted the planets, and found the following not only theoretically, but actually true:
While ice/rock dwellers have "Oyxgen", "None", "Methane", "Hydrogen" and "Carb.Diox." as atmospheres to chose from (and each one has a 20% probability of occurence), there are no gas giants of "none" atmosphere type, giving each other type a 25% of occurence.

Therefore, for the first 2 race types 20% of planets are breathable, while for gas giant dwellers 25% of planets are breathable.

This gives them a -theoretical- planet size advantage of 11%, or even 28% with "Advanced Storage Techniques".

This could have been accounted for by making gas giant smaller on average, but that would not only be counter-intuitive, it doesn't not seem to be the case anyway. Though I must admit that planet sizes seem highly random, and counting 961 planets does not result in sufficiently "obvious" results.


Sorry to disappoint you here, but it doesn't [use Cargo Transports / Colony Ships to transport population]
It surely does, but the prerequisite is that the ships have to be idle (ie excess Colony Ships) or if there is a zero population planet (hijack Cargo Transport).
I didn't say the AI isn't able to, but I said I never found it actually doing so, most likely simpy because it never let's the ships in question go idle ...


small missile weapons
The numbers on the Small Rocket Pods and Small Anti-Matter Missiles are off; while all other small weapons (ok, those I checked ..) are 10% size, 20% damage of their bigger counterparts, this is not true for the missiles. SAMM has double size, and damage numbers are way too high, especially compared to special weapons like bombs and kamikaze warheads, which are thoroughly outclassed and useless therefore.
Furthermore, SRPs are classed as "direct fire", what is a bug obviously carried over from Vanilla ...

weapon mounts
Is is possible for a weapon mount to
- add a negative "to-hit" modifier, while keeping a positive "to-hit-at-range" modifier, to simulate the biggers guns being harder to aim at small targets, but the bigger shell/beam being more "steady" ?
- take away a target type from the list; no more shooting of extra heavy main guns at flimsy fighters?

fighter balance
I found fighters seriously lacking, unless one uses the ridiculously overpowered SRPs ... and that with the 100% boosted damage in BM :(
But this doesn't seem so much a damage thing but a survivability thing: even small fighters (max def bonus) with up-to-date ECM are easily shot down at max range by main guns it seems - and against those all shields and armors you can slap on a fighter are quite useless.
Therefore, a big def bonus seem to be in order, combined with an att bonus on PD, which in turns makes the seeker needing rebalancing as well ... :(
Could understand if you're not that happy with this proposition ;)

edit: PS: Tried to fix those small weapons issues myself, but I'm running into trouble with that damage-over-range thingy ... . If I get it working, I'll post the lines from components.txt here.

[dumbluck]

This could have been accounted for by making gas giant smaller on average, but that would not only be counter-intuitive, it doesn't not seem to be the case anyway. Though I must admit that planet sizes seem highly random, and counting 961 planets does not result in sufficiently "obvious" results.

Another way to compensate for that advantage would be to make gas giants slightly less numerous than their icey/rocky counterparts. I suspect that this is probably the method Fyron used in balancing his systems mod.

Just my highly overpriced 2 cents.

[Arralen]

This could have been accounted for by making gas giant smaller on average, but that would not only be counter-intuitive, it doesn't not seem to be the case anyway. Though I must admit that planet sizes seem highly random, and counting 961 planets does not result in sufficiently "obvious" results.
Another way to compensate for that advantage would be to make gas giants slightly less numerous than their icey/rocky counterparts. I suspect that this is probably the method Fyron used in balancing his systems mod.
Isn't the case - my test sample yielded 31.8% rock, 34.3% ice and 33.8% gas type planets ...


Oh, how long 'til the next part of your story is ready and posted? ;)

[Captain Kwok]

The numbers on the Small Rocket Pods and Small Anti-Matter Missiles are off; while all other small weapons (ok, those I checked ..) are 10% size, 20% damage of their bigger counterparts, this is not true for the missiles. SAMM has double size, and damage numbers are way too high, especially compared to special weapons like bombs and kamikaze warheads, which are thoroughly outclassed and useless therefore. Furthermore, SRPs are classed as "direct fire", what is a bug obviously carried over from Vanilla...

Small Rocket Pods have traditionally been direct fire weapons in the Space Empires series, so it's intentional. However, that is changing to v1.20 of the Balance Mod with the introduction of the small seekers...

Brief summary of changes are listed here:
http://home.spaceempires.net/ftopict-6632.html

Currently, you'll notice both the SRPs and SAMTs have different firing rates than their regular counterparts, while most other small direct fire weapons have matching rates. In the classical comparison of dmg/kT/sec, they're a bit lower than most of the other direct fire weapons. They do have good upfront damage versus ships with emissive armor. Previously SRPs weren't able to target fighters, but they can know. Although in this respect they are a little overpowered, but that's part of the reason for the small seeker overhaul for v1.20. The higher level of ordnance usage does make them a bit more management intensive when used in large numbers.

Regarding fighters it general, I've found through feedback over the last few years that it's really about how they are being used. Some claim they are too strong, others not strong enough. As with many SE:V strategies it seems to be a matter of "dedication" to the strategy. For fighter or seeker weapon strategies to work well, it has to be a full commitment or the results won't be there etc.

Is is possible for a weapon mount to
- add a negative "to-hit" modifier, while keeping a positive "to-hit-at-range" modifier, to simulate the bigger guns being harder to aim at small targets, but the bigger shell/beam being more "steady"?
- take away a target type from the list; no more shooting of extra heavy main guns at flimsy fighters?

You can't change the valid target types using a mount. You'll notice that some of the biggest damage items don't target them at all for this reason. While I can provide a gross bonus/penalty to the to-hit value, I can't alter the to-hit at range decay using a mount.

[Captain Kwok]

Fyron will have to comment on the planet aspect. I believed they had been balanced from a facility total perspective based on balance work done for SE:IV using SJ's planet distribution tool...?

[Suicide Junkie]

While there are no none-atmosphere gas giants, all the gas giants are medium or larger.
You also need fewer colonizers to grab more facility slots, which helps during the initial rush, but you'll get fewer ruins too.

Best to fire up the map analyser and look at all the pie charts and tables yourself :)
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/MM/SE4/Tools/rar/SE4mapstats.rar

[Captain Kwok]

It doesn't work with SE:V's data files SJ. File name differences I guess. :P

[Arralen]

While there are no none-atmosphere gas giants, all the gas giants are medium or larger.
This is not true in SE5 - check the attached graphic.
Numbers are from an actual game, and show some interesting things:

- atmosphere distribution for rock/ice is nearly exactly 20% each, but 25% for gas giants
- planet types appear with 33% probability each
- size distribution is either highly random, or totally ****** ** for some type/atmosphere combinations
- there's nothing to be seen of some special balancing for gas giant to counter the effect of the missing "no atmosphere" type

[Fyron]

Moons have "any" for planet type, which will explain most of the discrepancy in the planet type totals.

I don't believe SE5 does anything to make sure each atmosphere or planet type ends up with a balanced distribution of sizes. It is supposed to keep each individual aspect distributed closely to the percents at the top of SystemTypes.txt (for planet entries with "Any" attributes), but nothing checks to see how they come out together. Individual maps can be quite skewed by size distribution, as you can see in your data.

Yes, it is true that there will initially be more breathable gas giants than other types due to the lack of gas/none. It is also true, however, that it is entirely possible to start in a position on the map that is devoid of breathable planets, or saturated with them. Reducing the number of gas giants actually gets fairly complex, due to how the data files are generated.

[Arralen]

Yes, it is true that there will initially be more breathable gas giants than other types due to the lack of gas/none. It is also true, however, that it is entirely possible to start in a position on the map that is devoid of breathable planets, or saturated with them. Reducing the number of gas giants actually gets fairly complex, due to how the data files are generated.
So much I figured after a glance into SystemTypes.txt - quickly dropping the idea to fiddle with it. Guess it would take a thorough mathematical/statistical analyses that is way beyond my capabilities :(

Easier tweak to reduce the imbalances would be to simply make the small, domed colonies bigger ... what about that?

[Arralen]

Ok, here's my suggestion for tweaking the size of domed planets:

Make them size 2/4/6/8/10 instead of 1/2/3/4/5, that would reduce the gas dwellers average facility space advantage from 11% to 6%, and from 28% to 23% with "Advanced Storage Techniques".

Furthermore this will strengthen the AI, which cannot really cope with having e.g. only 1-3 tiny (size 1) planets in a system, and does not show sensible building behaviour there. With doubled the number of facility slots chances are better that it builds something it actually benefits from!

[Fyron]

That sort of change would be wildly inappropriate for FQM, at least. It represents a change to the actual game mechanics, rather than just fiddling around with which planets gets placed on the map.

==0==

The main problem with reducing the number of gas giants the mod scripts generate in each system in SystemTypes.txt file is that it would have to depend on the distribution of said systems in each class of quadrant in QuadrantTypes.txt. Right now, every quadrant type uses the same distribution of system type by planet number*, but the scripts are designed to be easy to modify to recreate FQM SE4-style "Sparse" and "Dense" quadrant types (which have skews towards systems with fewer or more planets in them). I can't just make each class of planet have a rock/gas/ice ratio like 5/4/5 (or whatever it needs to be to average out the breathability problem).


* The mod totals up the number of Standard systems with each base planet count. When the quadrants are generated, the total percent chance for Standard systems is the distributed amongst each group according to the following chart. Within each group, the available chance value is evenly divided into each system type.

Planets : percentage
5: 5%
6: 10%
7: 20%
8: 35%
9: 20%
10: 10%

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings!

A new patch is available for the Balance Mod. The v1.19a update corrects a few bugs and adds more improvements to the AI including better resource management, unit distribution, and some refinements to colony ship and fleet handling.

Please note you need to have v1.19 already installed before applying the patch!

It's savegame compatible. I'll be posting an update for the Small Systems add-on to bring it up to date with v1.19a changes later today.

You can find the patch here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

The changelog:
1. Changed - Updated description for Self-Destruct Device
2. Added - Set percent chance for Self-Destruct to trigger when a ship is captured
3. Changed - Reduced repair rate for Space Yard component
4. Fixed - Removed "diminishing returns" abilities from Research Center
5. Changed - Reduced Fighter Bay/Drone Launcher component requirement for carriers from 30% to 20% of hull space
6. Changed - Boosted the maintenance reduction effect of the Crystalline Restructuring Plant
7. Changed - Increased the shield modifier amount of the Energy Transmission Lens facility
8. Changed - Allowed all sensor components to be used on Weapon Platforms
9. Changed - Shield Regenerators can be placed on Weapon Platforms
10. Changed - Revised damage modifiers for damage from ramming
11. Changed - Adjusted costs and damage amounts for all warheads
12. Changed - Revised the animations and increased differentiation in warp point appearance
13. Changed - Decreased distance between ships for all formations
14. Fixed - AI wasn't using the right strategy for Kamikaze Attack Ships
15. Changed - Reduced AI's use of armor on some non-combat designs
16. Changed - Made improvements to AI's Scout Ship/Explorer Ship design type
17. Changed - Made improvements to the AI's ship distribution amongst their task forces
18. Changed - Boosted AI friendliness to non-MEE (Mega Evil Empire) players when the MEE status is triggered
19. Changed - The AI will be more efficient with colony ship target selection
20. Changed - AI players will make more of an effort to bring defensive units on Colony Ships for planets in dangerous areas
21. Fixed - The AI won't try to convert the atmosphere of Gas Giants to None
22. Changed - Number of improvements to the AI's building and distribution of units amongst its colonies
23. Changed - AI will no longer recover launched mines above its colonies
24. Fixed - Xi'Chung were sometimes using the wrong weapon on their Defense Ship designs
25. Fixed - The AI would sometimes attack with a ship that had no ordnance when it needed ordnance for its weapons
26. Fixed - The AI sometimes offered the wrong tariff element
27. Fixed - Sometimes the AI entered a low resource state when it wasn't necessary
28. Changed - Improved the AI's criteria for identifying low resource conditions and when it should build storage facilities
29. Changed - Made imporvements to allow the AI to expand their maintenance expenditures when trade income is available
30. Changed - The Construction - Facilities minister when used by human players will adhere more strictly to colony type designations
31. Updated - AI Scripts

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings!

There's another quick update available for the Balance Mod. The v1.19b patch makes a couple of improvements on v1.19a for the AI's resource and facility management functions. There's also a couple of small changes to Drone functionality and a reduction in combat speeds for freighters.

The patch contains v1.19a already, so if you're still using v1.19 you can just download the v1.19b patch.

BM Small Systems users should remember to re-apply the add-on after updating to v1.19b!

You can download the v1.19b patch here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

Changes:
Version 1.19b (3 July 2009)
---------------------------

1. Changed - Drones can now be recovered, self-destructed, and added to fleets
2. Changed - Restricted Emissive Armor to 1 per Weapon Platform or Drone (Temporary Restriction)
3. Changed - Reduced Freighter and Colony Ship combat speeds
4. Fixed - The AI would scrap and replace a facility with Monolith Facilities when it wasn't intended
5. Changed - Made improvements to the AI's colony facility management
6. Changed - Updated AI design creation to follow new emissive armor limits for Weapon Platforms and Drones
7. Changed - Improved the criteria for AI empires to remove items from their queues due to low resources
8. Updated - AI Scripts

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings!

The v1.19c patch has been posted. It has some more refinements to the AI's resource and facility management routines along with a few fixes for other things. I also added some flags you can use in ship names to give the ship naming minister more functionality for human players.

Next up is the big v1.20 update. I've already done most of the data file work already, but there's a lot of AI details to work on.

Find the v1.19c patch here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

Here's the list of changes:

1. Changed - Restricted Emissive Armor to 1 per Satellite (Temporary Restriction)
2. Fixed - Sometimes the Construction - Facilities minister would skip facility construction in favor of units/ships when those ministers weren't activated
3. Changed - AI players will update their resource status each time they make a decision involving resources
4. Fixed - The AI wasn't always identifying when it was in a disconnected state
5. Fixed - AI players were sometimes added Intel facilities in place of research facilities when intel is disabled
6. Changed - Further improvements to the AI's facility management functions
7. Fixed - The AI wasn't checking for sector limits when launching units from planets
8. Changed - Made improvements to the AI's scrapping and mothballing functions
9. Fixed - AI players were breaking their treaties in unison versus the mega evil player
10. Changed - The AI wasn't taking into account Shield Depleter usage in its enemy design analysis
11. Changed - Tweaked some of the AI's design type demand modifiers
12. Changed - Added new rules for the Ship (All) - Naming minister:
- If the ship name contains *, the ship will not be renamed at all
- If the ship name contains ^, the ship will retain any text before the ^ (ie Endor V ^ Yard I 0001 -> Endor V ^ Yard II 0001)
- Note: Names should follow SE:V format "Ship Name ####"
13. Updated - AI Scripts

[NTJedi]

All great stuff Captain Kwok! As soon as the 1.20 update arrives my brothers and I will start a new game.
:)

[Q]

Thank you again Kwok for your continuous work.
I like the way you solved the:
"9. Fixed - AI players were breaking their treaties in unison versus the mega evil player"
very much.
I tried the same by only letting the anger increase against the MEE, but for empires with huge fear this did't always work. Your solution should probably result in breaking all treaties within about 10 turns, which seems optimal IMO.

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings.

Just another quick patch to tie up a couple of loose ends. Most of the changes are self-explanatory from the change entry listed below. The migration rate change is only takes effect in new games.

You can get the patch here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

1. Changed - Reduced reproduction rate bonus of Medical Lab facility
2. Changed - Reduced starting migration rate
3. Fixed - AI empires were sometimes adding multiple Robotoid Factory or Time Shrine facilities
4. Fixed - The AI was not constructing Ultra-Recycler facilities
5. Changed - Weak AI empires were not able to declare war against much stronger empires
6. Fixed - Error in AI's demand for Missile Satellite design type
7. Fixed - Potential for Organic AI empires to not equip their ships with enough armor
8. Fixed - Sometimes AI players were scrapping ships when it was not required
9. Changed - AI empires will react more angrily to negative events committed by human players than by other AI players
10. Fixed - Sometimes AI empires were scrapping facilities when it really wasn't necessary
11. Fixed - Sometimes a ship would have the wrong internal design type and would not be properly used by a minister acting for a human player
12. Updated - AI Scripts

[EJ]

Captain Kwok,
Where can I find your small systems mini mod? Can you post the link please? Thanks......:)

[Captain Kwok]

It's on the Balance Mod extras page:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod-extras.php

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings!

Ok, so there's one more patch for BM v1.19. It contains a few fixes, mostly regarding the AI's trade and gift routines.

Small System users just need to re-apply the current Small Systems extra after updating to v1.19e.

You can download the v1.19e patch here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

Other v1.19 patches are on the Balance Mod download archive page in case you need them.

The changes:
1. Fixed - Only Shield Generators damage type was not working correctly
2. Changed - Made some improvements to the AI's Defense Base design
3. Fixed - The AI was accepting bad trades
4. Changed - Made improvements to the AI's analysis of trades and gifts
5. Fixed - Some AIs starting tech selections were invalid
6. Fixed - The AI wasn't correctly replacing "Any" items in trades and gifts
7. Updated - AI Scripts

[PsychoTechFreak]

Thank you :)

Balance Mod Research and Pollution Events Combo v1.02 gave me a home planet pollution at turn one. Conditions went from good to un... (I don't remember). Is it intended to get this in such an early stage?

Oh and how do I allocate Research Points? I clicked the arrows, double-clicked the area, right-clicked, clickedy-clicked everything. Turn 1 (displayed 50,000 RP). Then I took the next turn to see if I have to wait one turn, without success. The next turn even displayed zero RP, so the 50,000 seem to have been jettisoned.

I don't like the GUI. SE4 has been much more user-friendly.

[PsychoTechFreak]

Forget about the last portion. I accidently started a game with everything researched. :doh:

[Captain Kwok]

The homeworld always takes a quick hit at the beginning of the game with the pollution events extra because it's already fully loaded with facilities. Other planets experience the effect more gradually as they build facilities.

There is lots of UI shortcuts (right click menus, custom layouts, hot keys etc.) that will help alleviate most of the initial extra work with SE5's interface.

[PsychoTechFreak]

Aye, Captain, thanky! I will get used to the hot keys. SEV+Balance Mod almost is like a new game to me, which is good.

PS: While trying to add Tampa's Sound mod, I noticed you use your own SoundEffects.txt. Do you have other than stock sounds?

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings.

Sorry it took a bit longer than I anticipated, but v1.19f is now available. It has a critical fix for the self-destructing AI empires bug introduced in v1.19e along with a number of other fixes and tweaks. The changelog has the details below...

You can get it here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

It's savegame compatible.

Small System mod users should give me a couple of days to post an updated version that incorporates the data file changes in v1.19f.

1. Changed - Description for Energy Refractor component since it does not stack
2. Added - New images for warheads
3. Removed - Weapon Delivery Type Damage Received Modifier Percent from Crystalline Hulls as it was not functional
4. Added - Shield Generation From Damage ability to Crystalline Hulls
5. Fixed - Error in ground combat accuracy modifier for Point-Defense Beam
6. Changed - Small increase to damage amounts for Meson Blaster
7. Changed - Re-balanced Boarding Parties and Security Stations
8. Changed - Increased Shield Generation From Damage amount for Light and Heavy Crystalline Armor
9. Fixed - Errors in some combat bonus amounts from experience
10. Changed - Reduced experience point thresholds for some ship and fleet experience levels
11. Changed - Increased experience received from Fleet Training Facility
12. Changed - Increased experience received from Psychic Ship Training Facility and Psychic Fleet Training Facility
13. Fixed - Some Stellar Manipulations were not working with all types of stars
14. Changed - Reduced resource cost of Solar Generator facility
15. Changed - Increased damage amount for Shard Cannon
16. Changed - Increased value improvement amount for Nature Shrine facility
17. Fixed - AI players were not correctly accepting treaties from Alliances
18. Fixed - The AI was building Space Ports when it had the Natural Merchants trait
19. Fixed - Sometimes the AI would scrap all its facilities and population
20. Fixed - AI players were not adding Supply/Ordnance components to their Carrier designs
21. Changed - Crystalline AIs will no longer add multiple Energy Refractor components
22. Changed - Made improvements to the AI's Colonizer designs to better protect against boarding actions
23. Added - AI players now check ships for damaged functional components for their current orders (such as sensors for surveying)
24. Updated - AI scripts

[Captain Kwok]

I made a couple of quick changes to v1.19f, so if you downloaded it between the time stamp of this post and my previous one, I'd advise you to grab it again!

[Leternel]

I found that only damage engine damage type has 100% damage against Scattering armor type instead of 100% penetration.
It may be an error, since it doesn't make sense.

[Captain Kwok]

Thanks for catching that one! Fortunately it only affected the Only Engines damage type, often errors like that get copied and pasted to other entries. I'm currently preparing another patch for v1.19 to get rid of these sorts of bugs. :P

[Arralen]

I'm having a little bit of a problem with a movement point calculation oddity:

(My) Small Fighter, 2x SmallIonEngine I, says (4,10) on the construction screen - and ends up with 8km/s in combat.

Sithrak FF, 5x IonEngine I, says (8) on the construction screen (7 from engines, 1 from racial trait) - and ends up with 11km/s in combat, outpacing the fighters !

Am I overlooking some factor?

[Captain Kwok]

Is this using the small systems mod?

[Arralen]

Is this using the small systems mod?
Ooops, yes, I'm using BalanceModv119f and BalanceModSmallSysv106.
Should have mentioned that I guess ...

[Captain Kwok]

It seems I made the movement amount for the fighter engines too low in Small Systems. A new version of the mod is being posted tonight, and I'll have an update for Small Systems in a day or two with a fix.

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings.

Version 1.19g for the Balance Mod is available. A little late, but better than never!

Hopefully there's no more errors with the vehicle hull modifiers. I also made some tweaks to a few weapons and added a couple new images.

Cooperative intelligence was improved as the points were not always available for the current turn.

The AI got some more attention. I focused on adding more flexibility to the AI's designs and their vehicle distribution, which will be expanded greatly in v1.20.

It's savegame compatible.

Download it here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

The changes:
1. Fixed - Some vehicle hull modifiers were incorrect
2. Fixed - Unit maintenance modifiers for racial trait vehicle hulls were not being applied
3. Changed - Increased range for Wave-Motion Gun
4. Fixed - Damage amount for Stupifier was too low
5. Changed - Damage amount for Allegiance Subverter was too low
6. Added - Descriptive text to note if timed-effect weapons did damage in milliseconds or seconds
7. Fixed - One of the portrait images for warp points was incorrect
8. Added - New images for Point-Defense Blaster and Point-Defense Beam weapons
9. Changed - Designated Colony tech areas as unique
10. Changed - Increased cost for Shield Implosion tech area
11. Changed - Increased reload time for Shield Imploder
12. Changed - Made improvements to the AI's use of Shield Regenerators
13. Changed - Improved AI's design response against enemies using long range seekers
14. Changed - The damage amount for planets damaged by intel or random events was too small
15. Changed - AI or Minister designs for the Recon Satellite design type didn't include Basic Sensors
16. Fixed - Sometimes AI players would add multiple Stealth Totems
17. Added - Improvements to AI ship distribution based on enemy ship speeds and basic weapon usage
18. Fixed - AI players in team mode would sometimes accept a treaty from a human player
19. Fixed - Cooperative intelligence points were not being transferred in some instances
20. Changed - Improved AI's design response to empires heavily using shields or armor
21. Changed - Made some adjustments to how/when AIs mothball or scrap ships
22. Changed - Small tweaks to design type distributions for AI empires
23. Changed - AI's will be more aggressive in obtaining cultural achievements to address empire deficiencies
24. Fixed - Sometimes ships/bases wouldn't drop their cargo before retrofitting
25. Changed - Improved AI empires use of Resource Converters
26. Fixed - AI players were often building more than one Ultra-Recycler per system or planet
27. Fixed - Remotely mined resources were not being considered in AI's resource budgeting
28. Fixed - AI would sometimes try designing units with multiple Emissive Armors, which is currently restricted
29. Updated - AI Scripts
30. Updated - Event/Intel Scripts

[Arralen]

Yeah, great !

I'm sorry to say, though, that most likely you'll have to do another version :( ;)

Just tonight I stumbled upon what seems to be a regression to around 1.15 (i vaguely remember reporting such a problem around then):

AI (Norak) offered alliance, with intersettling and complete(!) tech exchange, and all goodies on turn 41.

Thing is: I'm not bordering them, I don't "see" them on the map, I may have shot down one scout 20 turns earlier. No trade, no previous treaty, relations are "unknown".

Either the AI is (again) too fond of intersettling/alliance treaties, or this is that "errenous treaty message in the turn of meeting them" bug, which I had once before as well. Might actually be a indigenous SE5 vanilla bug, don't know... .

Savegame appreciated?

[Arralen]

Nearly forgot - and the forum didn't let me make any more changes to the above posting ...

AI scoutships (e.g. Phong, Norak) use only 1 main gun, but no PD; Layout is essentially the same as the attack ship (at least with minimum-size FF in the beginning), just the PD is exchanged for a large supply store.

I think this layout is unadvisable, as these ship are easily killed by missile sats or gun fighters.

I would suggest reducing the armor (2x heavy, 1x light) to fit a PD gun, especially as it is available to all races from start.

[Arralen]

Upon applying my tweaks to 1.19g, I found you added and removed some values from settings.txt vs. 1.19f, but I don't find that mentioned in the readme!? Deliberate or an editing error?

Added:

All Shipsets Get 360 Degree Center Firing Point := TRUE

Removed:
Combat Fighter Group Amount := 20
Combat Mine Group Amount := 20
Combat Satellite Group Amount := 20

Number Of Space Combat Turns := 50



PS: I love Winmerge !! ;) :)

[Captain Kwok]

I noticed that the Balance Mod settings.txt file was missing the firing point line and was carrying some extra lines versus the stock file. The edit didn't effect the mod in anyway, purely cosmetic so I didn't bother mentioning it.

If you have the turn available where the Norak offer the treaty that would be useful, savegame at captainkwok dot net.

[Captain Kwok]

Forgot to mention that if the AI suspects you're using seeker weapons, then it'll start adding PD to its scout ship designs.

[Captain Kwok]

Version 1.07 of Small Systems has been uploaded:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod-extras.php

It now includes data file changes made in Balance Mod v1.19g. The correct order of installation is to install Balance Mod v1.19g first then extract the contents of the Small Systems .zip file to your Balance Mod folder.

I also correct an error in the movement values for Small Ion and Contra-Terrene Engines, which made fighters move slower than ships in combat.

[Kamog]

Thank you very much, Captain Kwok. :)

[Arralen]

Some more troubles - this time with the sat layer minister:

Running fresh 1.19g with SmSys 1.07.

Found my 2 FF SatLayers sitting over the last worlds where they picked up sats (small amount of cargo space still empty, but another sat won't fit), with orders to move to exactly that planet - forever. If I delete that order, it comes back on the next turn.

As those designs where copied and modified from -IIRC- explorers, I thought the "wrong internal type"-issue struck again.

So I constructed and build a FF satlayer from scratch, and it started out picking up sats just fine, moved into the next system to pick up more - and suddenly decided to head back for the Yard/Depot where it started out (similar like the others did), presumably to stay there forever (though cargo space is 33% empty, and there where some more sats on a nearby planet to pick up, and supplies are at max.)

Only ministers active are sat layer and renaming.
Sat Layers seem to work fine for the AI, though?!

Any idea?

[Captain Kwok]

Does the current cargo on the ship take up more than 50% of the cargo space?

[Arralen]

Yes!
Both the edited and the from-scratch design have 5 cargo bays, 1 satellite bay. Both fill up to 560 of 720 kt cargo (7 sats), then the vessels run away to sit right on top of the spaceyard/resupply depot planet, with 0% damage and 3375/3375 supplies - and no local sats to pic up. What they wouldn't try anyway, according to their orders.

[Arralen]

Update - played to turn 134, and I had a peek into some AI turns to look for troubles with ship designs, diplo etc. :


Minelayer didn't work correctly, either, yet gave a hint at what might be wrong! ;)
- minelayer FF gathered mines up to ~67%
- switched to "move to *yard planet*", and sat there
- I deleted that order, gave it remote load order for more mines
- issued a remote minelaying order
Ship did that, and tried to return to the yard, again, as the minister was still enabled, but then I got an declaration of war
- and suddenly the minelayer set out to mine some border warp point, all on his own !
=> might be that getting a "target hex" for satellite/mine-layers does not work for the player at least in peacetime!

Carrier on ministers worked -almost- as expected, switching to "Join Fleet" at 644/750kt cargo. Could have loaded some more fighters, even on the way to the fleet, but at least that one was chosen sensibly: nearest/biggest fleet without carrier


Plagues seem to kill "mechanoid" pop on the very first turn, when they appear. There's a plague message, but no "colonists died" message (if there's ever one?). Mood dropped from "jubilant" to "indifferent", though. And I'm pretty sure I had more than 98k pop on that planet, as the neighbouring colonies are of the same age and ~750k pop.
No visible effects in the next turns, though the planet condition still reads "Plague Level 3".


AI diplomacy is completely borked:
First offer is "Give us 5% tariff, and we both agree we won't shoot". Second, within 10 turns or so, is "Intersettle with us, .. (plus some goodies, or badies). Third is "intersettle, and exchange tech", or "Be brothers with us" straight away.
Sometimes in between, there seem to be random declarations of war, albeit very seldomly - with relations "amiable", both for player vs AI, and AI vs AI.
In general, relations ramp up to the best possible within short time, in 13 of 14 cases - only 1 AI somehow insisted on being pissed off, but it was never the one that declared war?!
Worst thing is, the AI players seem to agree to those treaty suggestion more often than not, resulting in redicolous research for the AI, and colonies scattered all over the map, which couldn't be defended if there was any war between the AI, what most times isn't the case.

Sorry to have so much to bicker about, but .. hey .. things can always get better ;)

[Captain Kwok]

I thought I had made this post a few days ago, but apparently not.

Copy this info into your DebugSettings.txt file in the stock data folder. It will generate condensed debug logs for each player's AI script per turn. This includes things like minister orders or AI anger levels etc.

================================================== =====================================
*BEGIN*
================================================== =====================================

Generate Game Debug Log := TRUE
Generate Engine Debug Log := FALSE
Use Fast Debug Log := FALSE
Debug Section Engine Startup := FALSE
Debug Section Creation := FALSE
Debug Section Sound Base := FALSE
Debug Section Display Class := FALSE
Debug Section Sobj Ship := FALSE
Debug Section Display Object := FALSE
Debug Section Formula Evaluation := FALSE
Debug Section Script Evaluation Detailed := FALSE
Debug Section Script Evaluation Simple := FALSE
Debug Section Script Evaluation Debug Print Only := TRUE
Debug Print Sections := Colonies, Construction, Design, Enemy Analysis, Events, Intel, Lists, Planets, Politics, Research, Resources, Setup, Ships, State, System
Debug Section Compute Highest Tech Level := FALSE
Debug Section Master State Machine := FALSE
Debug Section Order Execution := FALSE
Debug Section Combat := FALSE
Debug Section Combat Speed := FALSE
Debug Section Main Drawing Loop := FALSE
Debug Section TCPIP := FALSE
Debug Section End All Players Turn := FALSE
Debug Section Host Processing := FALSE
Debug Section Phased Movement := FALSE

================================================== =====================================
*END*
================================================== =====================================

I had commented in that post as well that I thought your layers weren't working because they didn't have any valid locations to drop at. This are usually marked as border systems or defense locations. If you don't have any enemies (or non-treaties) then typically you won't have these locations which is why the layers defaulted to their backup behaviour of going to the nearest SY.

Regarding the AI politics, I'll have to keep an eye on that. It looks like your games start overly friendly which increases the overall likability for everyone by giving anger reductions for having the same friends or signing new treaties etc. If there's no wars in the galaxy though, there is a modifier to cause distrust between unlike AIs.

I don't generally see the overly friendly galaxy though in my AI test games, so I'm interested in what kind of empires you're typically seeing in your games...

[Arralen]

Copy this info into your DebugSettings.txt file in the stock data folder.
Done.
Had to start a new game, because turn generation times became unbearable ;) Might be better anyway, as you'll get logs from turn 1 then ...
Btw., where am I supposed to send them ?

I had commented in that post as well that I thought your layers weren't working because they didn't have any valid locations to drop at. This are usually marked as border systems or defense locations. If you don't have any enemies (or non-treaties) then typically you won't have these locations which is why the layers defaulted to their backup behaviour of going to the nearest SY.
I don't think this is desirable behaviour, as it
A) takes time (= several trips) to pile up those stacks of units which make a difference and
B) this puts the layers into jeopardy, as they tend to stop for one turn at the WH after dropping off their load - and there's a good chance that the enemy gets them there then.
I'd rather see the layers pile up those stacks over time at all border systems, and maybe even some around the home or other key systems (if there's a definition for that somewhere) .. pretty much like the stock ministers do.
Otherwise, I would have to handle all that by hand during peacetime (or war preparation), which mostly defeats the idea of having ministers ...

Regarding the AI politics, I'll have to keep an eye on that. It looks like your games start overly friendly which increases the overall likability for everyone by giving anger reductions for having the same friends or signing new treaties etc. If there's no wars in the galaxy though, there is a modifier to cause distrust between unlike AIs.
I don't generally see the overly friendly galaxy though in my AI test games, so I'm interested in what kind of empires you're typically seeing in your games...
All 14 in 160 paradise systems, plus my own race.
I've played 57 turns into my new game, and the Sithrak are doing it again: I met them around turn 25, they signed my suggested non-aggression (in non-colony systems) treaty at "indifferent", and now they're at "amiable" (IIRC) and offer intersettling. Their attitude started to skyrocket as soon as the non-aggression was signed, despite the fact that I shot down one of their colonizers next to my colonies on the next turn. 2 other AI which I didn't have treaties with up to now stayed at "indifferent" over 10 turns or more. Now - "non-aggression in non-colony systems" shouldn't be anything to be that excited about, especially if you're the Sithrak, right?!

[Captain Kwok]

The debug logs are dumped in SE5's backup folder as text files. You can view them as you like. If anything weird happens, feel free to send them to the savegame e-mail.

I'll have to double-check the border identification scheme. I don't recall setting it up to be dependent on having known empires nearby. Maybe I've left a loophole or something.

[Arralen]

Emailed log files from a new game ...

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings!

The next update for the Balance Mod is finally available. I'm didn't really get a chance to play test the mod over the last few weeks, so hopefully the more recent changes are working well. I'm sure you guys will let me know if we need a few adjustments. That's why I put an v1.19i for early October. :P

You can grab the download here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

There's some fixes and lots of AI work across the board in version 1.19g. The changelog is listed below and many of the items I've already discussed in the Spaceempires.net forums.

v1.19h Changelog:
1. Fixed - Error in defense modifier for Troop vehicles
2. Changed - Reduced damage amount for Power Leech Beam
3. Fixed - Self-Destruct Device wasn't working correctly
4. Changed - Bridge and Master Computer components will allow vehicles to self-destruct, but won't prevent ship capture
5. Fixed - Massive Ionic Dispersers could potentially target bases
6. Fixed - Certain combinations of Fighter Bays/Drone Launchers would not satsify Carrier requirements when they should have
7. Fixed - Ships in fleets could be scrapped/retrofitted when the scrap/retrofit ministers were not activated
8. Changed - Reduced AI's likelihood for accepting migration treaty elements
9. Changed - AI will consider unexplored warp points for dropping units if there are no other determined locations
10. Changed - Improved AI's unit scrapping to be balanced across its colonies
11. Changed - The AI will scrutinize their treaty status with other empires more closely for anger determination
12. Changed - Attacking and defending AI fleets will vary their tactics more frequently
13. Fixed - AI was sometimes constructing Robotoid Factories on planets without Space Yards
14. Changed - AI will always use its closest colonizer for a selected colony target
15. Changed - Improved AI's distribution of units on its colonies
16. Changed - Improvements to balance the AI's vehicle construction scheme
17. Fixed - AI empires were too often swapping Intel for Research facilities (and vice versa)
18. Changed - Add extra anger for the AI for a turn's first combat with another player
19. Fixed - Intelligence projects or events that affected happiness were not work correctly
20. Changed - AI transports and layers will attempt to use leftover movement points after dropping off their cargo
21. Added - AI will attempt to add more troops to planets with decreasing happiness levels
22. Changed - AI empires will utilize unit hubs for distribution of units to launch locations
23. Added - General combat performance history will now be kept by AI empires
24. Added - AI will use recent combat performance history to modify diplomacy
25. Fixed - Sometimes anger from an empire's relations with other known empires was incorrect
26. Fixed - Sometimes AI players wouldn't recognize anger events from weaker empires
27. Changed - Anger for enemy ships/colonies increased based on enemy's priority
28. Changed - AI empires will are now more likely to maintain non-aggression treaties with lower risk enemies
29. Changed - AI empires will avoid war or breaking treaties with lower risk
30. Changed - Added more criteria for determining if an AI empire will go to war (or break its treaty) with another player
31. Changed - Made improvements to AI fleet's retrofitting
32. Added - Diplomacy modifiers for AI empires to react more strongly to human players in weak or strong positions
33. Fixed - AI fleets would sometime report no orders when in fact that had orders
34. Fixed - Standalone AI Fighter or Drone groups weren't receiving any orders
35. Added - Happiness penalty for populations that are disloyal
36. Changed - Increased intelligent project costs
37. Updated - AI Scripts
38. Updated - Event/Intel Scripts

[Captain Kwok]

In case there is anyone left with an interest in the mod, the final v1.19i has been posted.

You can find it here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

The version history is here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemodhistory.php