AI construction queue problems (ship construction)

HreDaak · #1 February 3rd, 2001, 02:32 AM

quote:

But have you tested this a bit later in the game? The initial build queue could easily be different than the ongoing behavior of the AI. Empty all the build queues 10 turns into the game scrap all the ships that would prevent the build from happening and look again will it still build them then? I will have to try this because something is limiting the AI from building and this seems to fit the reality that I usually see.

Yep.. just finished testing this and the AI did build items from more than one line...
Just found out something interesting in one other game. I modified the construction.txt file so that all the AI states use same construction list, the exploration list (note that this does not prevent the AI from changing state). It's now turn 50 in the test game and so far none of the AI players are experiencing troubles in their building. All the space yards are full every turn. Almost all of them have made contact to several other races and wars are raging. So far so good...

Mephisto · #2 February 3rd, 2001, 12:14 PM

Ok people,
your are absolutly right. I have just tested it again. I will delete my previous crap so noone is confused by it.

HreDaak · #3 February 3rd, 2001, 03:31 PM

quote:
Originally posted by [K126]Mephisto:
Ok people,
your are absolutly right. I have just tested it again. I will delete my previous crap so noone is confused by it.

No no, all were valid points that had to be checked...

I think i now have another theory of what causes that elusive building problem. It must have something to do with different AI states. I think that the AI somehow fails to initialize it's build list when it changes it's AI state. The reason why i think that this might be the cause of the problem is that the AI is ALWAYS on exploration state until it makes contact to other races. This is the moment usually that these building problems start. I am now on turn 100 in my testgame (was on turn 50 in my previous post) and NONE of the AI players have experienced ANY shipbuilding problems. Changes in this games settings are:

1. Set the minimum empire storage capacity to 1000000
2. Set Empire Starting Percent Maint Cost to 0

Now with these settings there should be no limit on the number of ships the AI can build (except at game settings per player limit 2000).

Now, if you use the 'normal' construction.txt that has different lists for almost every AI state the building problems usually start when the AI makes contact to other AI empires (this usually causes the change in AI state). But if you modify this so that every AI state uses the same building list no problems appear... although this could use some more testing until one can be absolutely certain of this.

If someone else wants to test this please post your conclusions in this thread...

Mephisto · #4 February 3rd, 2001, 05:32 PM

My observations are that the AI is most of the time in "defense" so this should be the queue you should look for.
Can you attach a save game with the AI not building? This would make the whole process much easier.

Emperor Zodd · #5 February 3rd, 2001, 09:07 PM

I would advise you guys to e-mail Aaron whatever you discover immediately.

The patch will be ready soon, and I would like to see your discoveries added to it.

Q · #6 February 4th, 2001, 08:35 AM

Here it the savegave file Mephisto. All AI build very little, only one or to items per turn. The only exeption are the Sergetti! The Earth Alliance and Borg were also building not much until I turned the AI completely off and then one turn later on again. I use Mod Pack 1.01 plus the Borg race. I made some changes in the vehicle.construction.txt files of the Earth Alliance and the Borg, but not the other races. The Earth Alliance has now one identical list for all AI states, so I could better monitor the effects. But all the other race files are not altered. Maximum number of systems is 250. I made a few changes in some components (fighter bay, mine layer, satellite bay) but I don't think this will be important. Futhermore I use modified weapon mounts for weapon platforms and satellites. If you need them I could post them as well. Hope this works for you!
Thank you for your help.

Mephisto · #7 February 4th, 2001, 12:41 PM

O-ho! That are MANY systems.

I "solved" the problem for the EA in the game by building just one more mineral storage facility. They immediately begun to build fighters again.
For the Darlok it was sufficient to cancel their treaty with a neutral race to have them build their ships again.
I will have a look into this (especially the Last thing) but your game is so big that it takes forever to make one turn. Furthermore the Darlok use more ship classes then a "normal" race and your game is so big that even this can result in errors (I had a fatal RCE in the ship design menu with your game for example). So I can't pinpoint it exactly but I will have a look into it.