My AI Design Q&A

[cybersol]

Originally posted by JLS:
This appears conflicting, if you Modified the se4 Default setting of = False to true...
Will the AI player (1) actually? ~ “ once the first ship enters that square and does not blow up then it will most definitely clear the minefield marker and move on to the next one.”

It may be recommended with base se4, that you set Mine Sweeper availability to be a high priority tech to Research, if you wish your AI to expand?

Well, by definition in creating a AI, I am modifying the AI files of a race. So all changes to the AI files of that race are fair game. "Ships don't move through minefields" is in xyz_AI_Settings.txt so I can change it to whatever I want. But I am not changing the data files, thus in essence the goal in a competitive AI for the unmodded game. This is similar to the goals of the TDM Modpack for instance, only on the scale of only one race for me right now.

Now their is a trade-off to both settings of ships don't move through minefields. If it is true, then only "Mine Sweeper" Design types will move into marked minefields. Predictable and since they travel alone, they could be prey to an intelligent human opponent. If it is false, then the behaivor is less predictable but the AI acts as though it doesn't know about the minefield. So it sends innocent ships without minesweepers to their demise.

So to answer you question explicitly, the AI will move a "Mine Sweeper" design type into the mine field even when set to true. At that point if at least one ship survives, my experience so far is that it will clear the marked minefield. It may be smart and clear these marked minefield when making a treaty, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Yes, ship construction, an early weapon, point defense, and then mine sweepers are early research priorities for the AI IMHO.

[Suicide Junkie]

It may be smart and clear these marked minefield when making a treaty, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Even if it dosen't, as soon as a ship enters that sector and dosen't die, the field marker gets cleared.

[cybersol]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Even if it dosen't, as soon as a ship enters that sector and dosen't die, the field marker gets cleared.

Thanks SJ, that is what I was trying to say the sentence before that.

Any thoughts on questions 1-7) from the P&N Master?

[JLS]

Originally posted by JLS:
(1) Why would you want the AI to invest the Resources for a cloaking BSY, as opposed to a shield and PD?

~~~

Originally posted by Master Belisarius:
Good question. My oppinon is that the Armor Cloak is good because give the bonus and a little protection while cloaked. Anwyay, a lone space shipyard usually is dead meat...

Great tip, MB. I am going to use Armor Cloak more for my AI Designs


[ June 12, 2003, 22:26: Message edited by: JLS ]

[Master Belisarius]

Originally posted by cybersol:
More questions:
6) As a human player I can design a ship with a small transport hull that has 5 mine layer components. Since their secondary ability is cargo storage and 150/300 >= 50% then this is a valid design. Is there a way to have the AI design this ship, or is a transport hull forced to have eight cargo storage components for the AI no matter what?

The AI select the hull, in basis of the ship design. For example, you will see that my AIs never use the "Transport" hull.

Originally posted by cybersol:

7) Does anyone know how to fix the fact that the AI retrofits ships and then leaves when they are only half done repairing?

Nope. Think the only way is to include repair ships in the fleets...

[cybersol]

Originally posted by Master Belisarius:
I think the AI always check the 1-11 every turn. My guess is that the AI always start from the number 1 in the queue and check if need to build the item or not. One after other.
For this, if the queue is very large, the AI have problems to reach the Lastest items in the queue... because always is building trying to replace the loses in the first places of the queue.

Well, I finished testing this and you (as usual) are correct. It seems to start at the top of the queue for that ai state every turn looking for something to build. If the requirements are satisfied then it moves down to the next item. So redundant lines really will not help. Now I have to revisit all my queues.

Originally posted by Master Belisarius:
The AI select the hull, in basis of the ship design. For example, you will see that my AIs never use the "Transport" hull.

Yeah, selecting the small transport hull is easy (via majority component). But getting it to use 5 mine layers as the required components instead of 8 cargo storage seems impossible. Bummer.

[cybersol]

Thanks, guys for answering my questions.

Summary of what I have learned from the questions so far:
1) If you use a cloak on ship space yards, don't expect any production. But this might be a good thing.
2,3,4,6,7) These are all slight imperfections in how the AI works, you can't do anything about them except live with them.
5) I was just plain wrong. The construction_vehicles file reads from top to bottom inside the current state everytime it wants to construct something.

New Question:
8) Most ships seems to understand when they are running out of supply EXCEPT colony ships. Those are really important ships not to stop off and resupply before travelling across the entire quadrant. Is there any trick (before solar collectors make it unecessary) to get them to stop and resupply at a forward system and then go off and colonize. (I'll probably have to live with this one too, unfortunately).