AI Text Files Tips & Hints (Modders Please Read!)

[God Emperor]

I've set most %'s to 50 for my races with the occaisional 33's for inexpensive projects where a longer queue minimises wastage of research points.
I am quite happy for my races to have a really tight research sequence and to only have two projects in their queues at any one time.

As you said, the 100 setting is likely to lead to wastage of research points.

[Sinapus]

Yes, I noticed that as well. Had to go reread the history file before I started a topic on it. I ended up going into each research file and ran a find/replace on those entries so they were back to 25 percent.

I also tried setting "cargo storage" for must have on space yard ships and found that no, it won't make the AI use transport hulls. Oh well. (Considering I've also modded transport hulls so they are easier targets and poor shots that might help the AI.)

[Atraikius]

Sinapus - try setting the ship yard component as a must have, and cargo storage as the primary ability - the AI will place the required number of cargo components on, and if enough space is left over, it will pace the shipyard on.

[Rollo]

Great Posts everyone,
too bad this was not posted three months ago, so I had to learn most of this the hard way . The tip to turn “Ships should not move through minefields” OFF was very important, thanks.

Let me add a couple of things in addition to what the others have already said:

• Extra supplies are also good on defense ships. They will leave systems under your control and also attack enemy planets in neighboring systems.
  
• Check your designs when a new weapon becomes available that has a greater tonnage than the previous one and (even more important) check when a new mount is available. If you put too many weapons in the design, there will be no room for the other components (e.g. sensors. If your sensors are missing, your weapons are worthless). When the order of weapons is not so important, put only one primary weapon in. After all other components are added the design will be filled with the primary weapon (or any other primary component for that matter).
  
• Do not use atmospheric converters as the first facility to build. This can cause the AI to go broke very quickly, if every little dustball is converted.
  
• First thing in the facility queue should be the resupply depot, IMHO. This will not only help the AI to expand, but will also prevent a waste of resources of building a spaceport, if the only planet in the system is a tiny one (Hey, that happens).
  
• Read the Posts by Master Belisarius, Tampa Gamer, and [K126]Mephisto again. There is a lot of wisdom in their words .[/list]
  Hope I could be of some help,
  Rollo

[Rollo]

BUMP

Some more hints from me.

I think I have figured out how the research percentages work: Click here.

The most important things are that the 33s are not working, use 34 instead, if you want only 3 projects. If you want to make really sure that only one project will be added use a 99 instead of 50 (or make sure the 50 is followed by another 50 or greater). Also smaller numbers than 25 can help to add really cheap projects in the mid-game and late-game (adv mil sci and Null-Space come to mind), so these projects are researched "along the way". They won't be in the queue for long, but will prevent loss of research points.

Also I have some hints for "exotic" game situations:
1) Consider building not only a warp point opener in the "not connected" state, but also a "create planet" ship. The minister handles that ship well and a few extra planets can help your race. If there is an asteroid belt it will be more than just a few planets. Since you are researching stellar manipulation anyway (I hope), it is not much of a problem.

2) The AI will build monoliths, if the level of stellar manipulation is higher than the resource tech. If you stop researching organics extraction at level 2, the AI will build monoliths at the farming colonies in the late game (whether that is desirable or not is another issue). Anyway, if you don't want monoliths to be build on your mineral colonies, research mineral extraction3 as well in the "not connected" state.

Again, these are rather special cases, but as Tampa said, some people DO play with a not connected map. And also the monolith building can be used for normal games, if you want.
Take or leave this advice, it's for free . Also, if you have a different opinion, I would love to hear it.

Rollo

[Tampa_Gamer]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rollo:
BUMP

1) Consider building not only a warp point opener in the "not connected" state, but also a "create planet" ship. The minister handles that ship well and a few extra planets can help your race. If there is an asteroid belt it will be more than just a few planets. Since you are researching stellar manipulation anyway (I hope), it is not much of a problem.
Rollo

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Ahh.. great minds think alike Rollo as part of the rework on my races for the upcoming Version of the ModPack, I had added these to the "Not Connected" construction queue. I also added "Open Warp Point" and "Create Planet" to the "Exploration" queue for those huge galaxies that some people like to play with.

-Later

[This message has been edited by Tampa_Gamer (edited 06 November 2001).]

[Tampa_Gamer]

Awhile back, a lot of the modders starting using "Defense Ships" in their build queues and creating a unique Defense Ship design. We did this despite the fact that MM did not include the design type nor put any defense ships in the default AI queues. I have always wondered why and got a reply back from MM on this issue. I figured I would post it for everyone:

"Sorry it took so long to get back to you. As to your question, the answer is that they're not really used anymore. We had the concept in SE3 of defense ships, but in SE4, attack ships fill the same role. A fleet can be used for offense of defense, it just depends on the situation."

I would like to ask the AI modders out there to once again look at this and give the community any feedback you have. Personally, when using attack ships only, I have noticed two things (1) slightly bigger fleets, and (2) ships join fleets faster (probably because every fleet is a valid one to join). I still have one of my races using the old split attack/defense ship style and the other two using the attack ship only style, so I will continue to monitor this and give feedback.

-TG

[ 06 December 2001: Message edited by: Tampa_Gamer ]

[Alpha Kodiak]

quote:

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Originally posted by Tampa_Gamer:
Awhile back, a lot of the modders starting using "Defense Ships" in their build queues and creating a unique Defense Ship design. We did this despite the fact that MM did not include the design type nor put any defense ships in the default AI queues. I have always wondered why and got a reply back from MM on this issue. I figured I would post it for everyone:

"Sorry it took so long to get back to you. As to your question, the answer is that they're not really used anymore. We had the concept in SE3 of defense ships, but in SE4, attack ships fill the same role. A fleet can be used for offense of defense, it just depends on the situation."

I would like to ask the AI modders out there to once again look at this and give the community any feedback you have. Personally, when using attack ships only, I have noticed two things (1) slightly bigger fleets, and (2) ships join fleets faster (probably because every fleet is a valid one to join). I still have one of my races using the old split attack/defense ship style and the other two using the attack ship only style, so I will continue to monitor this and give feedback.

-TG

[ 06 December 2001: Message edited by: Tampa_Gamer ]

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I think I'm leaning toward it being better to just use the attack ships (though some of my races currently use defense ships). The AI doesn't seem to do a very good job of using defense ships most of the time. A few times I have seen a large fleet of defense ships just anchor itself on some out of the way resupply base and never move again. It just seems that if you build all attack ships, the AI can figure out when to use them for attack and when to use them for defense.

[Atraikius]

I've been seeing some benifits of defense ships, but that is only becsause I have been trying to figure out how to make the AI use kamikaze ships effectively and consistantly.

[Master Belisarius]

Hey Tampa, thanks for the tip!
I never used many Defense ships in my races... but now, now will remove all of them.