"Mega Evil" in setting.txt

[Ratqueen]

Could someone explain to me exactly what the following lines in the settings.txt file do?

AI Uses Mega Evil Empire := True
AI Mega Evil Empire Threshold Score Thousands := 500
AI Human Mega Evil Empire Score Percent := 170
AI Computer Mega Evil Empire Score Percent := 250

I've read in MM's FAQ that they have to do with how soon all computer-controlled players break their treaties with our empire and declare war. They do so a little too quickly for my taste and I would like to modify the related setting. I'm just not sure which one it is.

What if I put "False" in the first field? Would it turn it off completely? (I'd rather just make it so they declare war a little later though.)

Thanks.

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Ratqueen:
Could someone explain to me exactly what the following lines in the settings.txt file do?

AI Uses Mega Evil Empire := True
AI Mega Evil Empire Threshold Score Thousands := 500
AI Human Mega Evil Empire Score Percent := 170
AI Computer Mega Evil Empire Score Percent := 250

I've read in MM's FAQ that they have to do with how soon all computer-controlled players break their treaties with our empire and declare war. They do so a little too quickly for my taste and I would like to modify the related setting. I'm just not sure which one it is.

What if I put "False" in the first field? Would it turn it off completely? (I'd rather just make it so they declare war a little later though.)

Thanks.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you set the first line to false you'll turn off Mega-evil completely.

If you set the second line higher you'll delay the time when it starts because it won't check until scores are over that threshold.

If you increase the other two lines you'll also delay it somewhat because that's the ratio of the leader's score to the 2nd place score that triggers it.

However, the line I think you are looking for is not IN the settings.txt file! The annoying way that the AIs just decide you are a threat and break off relations in 1 or 2 turns is controlled by a setting in each individual AI_Anger file.

Mega Evil Empire := 50

Tells the AI to get 50 points angrier EVERY turn after it decides you are Mega-evil. A bit excessive when the scale only goes from 1 to 100, isn't it? I changed it to 30 and it's still a bit strong for me. I'm considering setting it to 20 next. That's still a very, very strong push towards war. You'll have a hard time delaying the loss of all your allies and certainly won't be able to prevent it in the long run even at +20 anger per turn. But it is rather tedious to have to go and change that in 21 AI_anger files. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[ May 21, 2002, 18:13: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Q]

Yes you are right that if you put "false" the AI will not react at all if your empires gets really huge.
If you just want to increase the limit when the MEE takes place you should increase the "human empire percent" from 170 to some higher value e.g. 250. But still all AI will then very quickly break their treaties.
If you would like to increase the anger of the AI's slower you must go to individual AI anger files. You will find there a line about the MEE anger which is set to 50. As far as I understand, this means once the MEE level has been reached the anger will increase by 50 every turn, which is enormous. You could lower this to 10-20, but I never tried it myself so you have to experiment to find the appropriate value. If you give different values to different AI's you even should get different reaction times!
Hope this helps.

[Ratqueen]

Everything I needed to know! Thanks guys! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Rollo]

I just realized (again) how great this board and the community is. From the question posted to the 100% satisfactory answer it took only half an hour. Even if an answer existed in the manual (not sure if it does or not), it would probably taken longer to find the correct page http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .

Rollo

[Atraikius]

Speaking of MEE, could anyone let me know if they have seen the Zorians go hostile and break thier treaties after you go MEE. I changed the setting in thier anger file to -50, and the times that I have had a partnership with them before going MEE they have stayed brotherly, and have not broken their treaty.

[DirectorTsaarx]

What I've done in my games is set the MEE threshold to 1500 (since that's really in thousands, it equates to a score of 1.5 Million; fairly easy to acheive in a large (255 system) galaxy). I left the percentages as they were, though.

As others mention, it doesn't slow down the AI once they decide someone has reached MEE status, but at least it takes a little longer to reach MEE. And that may be all you need...

[oleg]

Different AI anger values gives me an idea for the scenario:

Let's make a super-powerful but benign race. It may have special racial techs for high production but restricted weaponry and very peaceful AI settings. Now, let's split races according to +50 and -50 MEE anger but otherwise very peaceful settings. Very soon galaxy will go into two alliances fighting each other ! Army of Light and Army of Darkness. Or more accurately suckers and rebels.

[Suicide Junkie]

I changed the setting in thier anger file to -50, and the times that I have had a partnership with them before going MEE they have stayed brotherly, and have not broken their treaty.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Try using a +50. I believe that "-50" means a big decrease in anger ... which would make them friendly towards the MEE player http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Rollo]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie.:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I changed the setting in thier anger file to -50, and the times that I have had a partnership with them before going MEE they have stayed brotherly, and have not broken their treaty.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Try using a +50. I believe that "-50" means a big decrease in anger ... which would make them friendly towards the MEE player http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If I am not mistaken that is exactly the point about the Zorians.

Rollo

[Q]

Originally posted by oleg:
Different AI anger values gives me an idea for the scenario:

Let's make a super-powerful but benign race. It may have special racial techs for high production but restricted weaponry and very peaceful AI settings. Now, let's split races according to +50 and -50 MEE anger but otherwise very peaceful settings. Very soon galaxy will go into two alliances fighting each other ! Army of Light and Army of Darkness. Or more accurately suckers and rebels.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not really, because there would be still a lot of treaties between the smaller empires on both sides. The mega empire would just have to fight alone half of the galaxy, because all Messages that demand aid against another empire, even accepted, will cause no actions at all.