The ship design minister is actually the only one that you have a very high degree of control over. It depends totally on the contents of the DesignCreation file for your race, or the default one if you don't have one for your race. Some of the modders have managed to make the AI design ships very nearly as good as a human would design. If we had the same level of detail in scripting available in the tactical combat stategies we'd probably be facing a really tough AI by now. If we had the same level of detail avilable in the diplomacy minister we'd have some really distinctive AI personalities and some really exciting games.
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 06 June 2001).]
You can always use the minister to get the base designs down and the customize them.
You can also check different race designs out by switching them to human control at various points of the game and studying their designs, they may use a component combination you haven't thought of, particularly the modded races.
A question for you old hands: do most of you design your own ships or rely on the minister? Does the minister do a reasonable job compared to the designs you come up with on your own?
I love it also started with SE3 I myself do not use ministers I did one time to move POP around but I could do it 1 faster and
2 better
------------------ mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"
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Kill em all let God sort em out