AI Races Expand Too Slowly.

Zarix · #1 May 27th, 2001, 11:26 AM

I've been trying to mod AI to colonize faster but there is quite a few problems with it. I'd really appreciate any thoughts from more experienced modders.
1. AI needs more space yards to be able build colony ships.
2. If you add more space yards AI doesn't build them immediately because it uses space yardless planets to build units.
3. If you remove units and AI builds space yards it stops building facilities to those planets because its busy with building ships.

[This message has been edited by Zarix (edited 27 May 2001).]

#2 May 27th, 2001, 11:34 AM

Speaking of space yards, on a high tech test game I noticed that new AI colonies just started building facilities per two turns rather than building a yard III first to make it a facility per turn. That is dumb except on tiny and small planets.

#3 May 27th, 2001, 11:41 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Zarix:

3. If you remove units and AI builds space yards it stops building facilities to those planets because its busy with building ships.

If the AI wants to build ships faster then it should build base yards like I am doing - see TDM-Modpack politics in really big game. If the problem of maintenance cost arises then the yards can always be mothballed. But that may create a problem with the limit on number of ships per player. So maybe the AI really just needs a better ship slot / scrap management algorithm.

capnq · #4 May 27th, 2001, 12:23 PM

quote:
If the problem of maintenance cost arises then the yards can always be mothballed.

I don't think the AI knows how to Mothball or Scrap, and I know it can't Analyze. I suspect it can't Retrofit, either, but I'm less certain of that.

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

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft

jc173 · #5 May 27th, 2001, 02:00 PM

quote:
Originally posted by capnq:

Quote:

If the problem of maintenance cost arises then the yards can always be mothballed.
I don't think the AI knows how to Mothball or Scrap, and I know it can't Analyze. I suspect it can't Retrofit, either, but I'm less certain of that.

Oh the AI can retrofit, but unfortunately it does it kinda dumb. I occasionally swap the AI's back to my control to debug/monitor their progress since most of my games are half for fun, half for testing mods. I see Messages about retrofits being completed on occasion, but I also see many Messages about how such and such ship cannot be retrofitted because it is carrying cargo or the retrofit design is the same as the current design. I'm not sure if the AI doesn't check to unload cargo or if it's a problem with the planet with the space yard having no cargo space remaining. I should probably pay more attention. As for the second problem, I still have yet to figure out why the AI constantly creates new designs that are exactly the same as the older ones. I guess some sort of flag variable that is supposed to be checked for making new designs isn't being checked correctly or is being reset all the time. The AI will scrap ships if it's maintenance is greater than its budget and it's running out of stored resources, but I can't be sure that it's scrapping obsolete designs.

Daynarr · #6 May 27th, 2001, 08:35 PM

I hear you loud and clear, guys.

I will try to make my races expand more rapidly for the next Mod-Pack.

The problem is, as some of you have guessed, that some people play small galaxies with small number of planets and some play large galaxies with large number of planets. It is very hard to make AI that will play both types of games good, so most of us make AI that prepares for war rather then colonizing.

Alpha Kodiak · #7 May 27th, 2001, 10:17 PM

I also slowed the expnsion of the Rage because of complaints that they were too weak if met early. It is difficult to balance for either small or large quadrants.

I tried putting shipyards on most planets and ran into huge resource problems for the reason already mentioned: they all get tied up building ships instead of facilities, so you wind up with a big fleet and no resource production.

I'm getting better results now by putting shipyard base up early and trying to ensure at least one "Resupply Base" planet type with a shipyard in almost every colonized system.

I would like to get the AI to send a colonizer out to explore. As a human, I will frequently send a colonizer out a warp to see if there is a planet on the other side to colonize. The AI needs to explore the warp first with an attack ship before it will send a colonizer through.

In summary, I agree that the AI needs to expand faster. I am working on the Rage. as well as a couple of other projects, to improve that rate without making them a pushover in a small quadrant game.