Re: Balance Mod Improvements
 

well, it needs to cheat! lol

Re: Balance Mod Improvements
 

I'm starting to think the fog of war might've been more trouble than it was worth.

Re: Balance Mod Improvements
 

Then turn it off in your games..there's an option in game setup to make it work just like SEV. Or turn it off entirely. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Balance Mod Improvements
 

It should work like it does in many other games.When a planet is out of sensor coverage it should stay marked as the last known owner and become a A.I target.This needs MM to programme it.This is how GC2 works.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

In version 1.02, I would like to see large and heavy ship mounts having a greater range. This would make them more effective against the faster and more agile frigates which I tend to build in large numbers. I dont build any thing larger than a destroyer (with the exception of carriers) as large ships are too expensive and vulnerable.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Admittedly I have not tested this(and haven't noticed in combat), but the way Shield Regenerators are written it looks like they can only regenerate "Normal Shields." How about added some phased shield regen?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I tend to agree. The larger ships have a lot of trouble defeating a much smaller frigate with max engines.

I also, can see both sides of the argument. That smaller ships should be faster and harder to hit.

Tough call.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

you might want to test this.
se4 looked the same, but it did regenerate phased as well.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

How hard is it to write the AI scripts?

I would love to build a strategy for a few races, but unsure if my programming/coding skills match my desires.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Can you please add a new colony type to ColonyTypes.txt? I use small low value planets for storage, and would like to name them "Storage Compound" or something like that. "Resource Colony" doesn't fit, I am using it for planets that have the 3 resource values over 100%.

I've tried adding it myself, but either I have to start a new game for the change to take effect or we are limited to 13 colony types.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Does the A.I actually build a recon satellite on their planets?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Hi

Kwok whats the eta on the 1.02 version?

thanks

Drew

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

All of their combat satellites have basic sensors, so in essence they have at least basic coverage. Tachyon sensors on sats - not yet but soon.

It should be a few more days for v1.02 - lots of revising in the scripts which takes to test etc.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Don't put the tachyon sensors on the combat satellites, though. It takes up way too much space.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I have found a Massive Shield Depleter in some ruins. According to the description, it's a "Massive gamma radiation beam that saps all of a target's shields but does no other damage".

As I understand it one hit is enough to kill all of a ship's shields. Yet they come in many levels, each making more damage than the previous one, and being more costly too.

Why do these weapons have a damage rating at all? If the description is correct they shouldn't have one, and the next level should just be cheaper to produce and maintain that the previous one. And there shouldn't be any reason to put one in a mount.

Or is the description misleading and it works just like a regular weapon, with just a lot more damage (to shields only) for its cost in research?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Looks to me as if the weapon itself is misconfigured, because at level 1 the regular Shield Depleter weapon is about as good as the Massive one because of 1/5 the recharge time. So something's obviously broken there. Keep the 10 second recharge time but up the damage of the MSD to 10k or something, I'd say.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I don't know if this is happening just in the your mod or also in vanilla.I'm finding the combat ends just before the A.I ships retreat to another hex.So you have another combat round straight after when all that happens is the A.I retreats a few seconds into the round to another hex.You then have to fight again in the next hex.It causes a lot of wasted time.Why is the combat ending just before the retreat?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Is it doing this at 3 minutes? I forgot to extend combat back to 5 minutes after the fleet split fix was made. I think with the 3 minute limit and 2500 distance the ships just about approach the retreat barrier. If that is so, just adjust the value in settings.txt back to 300 seconds from 180.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Yes it was doing 180.

The plague bomb level 1 component report is also borked.It says
"Plague bombs create a Level[%LEVEL%]Plague"

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Another thing I have noticed with the balance mod is treaty's between the A.I's never go above trade agreements.My relations with the A.I's never go above indifferent.The relations settings need tweaking.I would like to see military agreements,alliances,etc and such in the game.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

They are treaties for military alliances (but they do require the AI generally to be at war) and partnerships. You probably don't see the AI offering because they don't propose treaties if they already have one and/or their mood is not that great towards you. It's something I've kind of change for v1.02...

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I'm still getting the fleets split in the mod! Is this fixed in vanilla?

A few thing I've noticed by the A.I.The A.I seems to build fleets of the same size attack ships,does it not use mixed fleets of smaller and bigger attack ships?

I have seen the A.I use defence ships for surveying systems,should it not use exploration ships?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I was referring to the crash that could occur with the split fleets - not the absence of.

There is the possibility of creating dedicated Explorers as I have the design types in place - but not sure how much it would help.

Mixed ship sizes is on the to-do list. I'm currently working on some scrapping functions and trying to get rid of a few script bugs that have popped up elsewhere. Maybe for v1.03?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I noticed that if you placed some new races in the empire folder of the main game (not of the game types folders), they are not only avalaible for a balance mod game as human controled race, but are also chosen as random created AI empire.
As they lack the modified AI scripts they will however almost completely be inactive.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I've noticed this too, Q.

I've also noticed that, becuase the Balance mod folder does not have it's own folder for created races, the races I've made for balanced are available for vanilla, and visa versa, which can be confusing if you've a lot of created races.(they're not compatible)

I went ahead and just made a folder for them in the Balanced mod folder, but you might want to put one in the next version.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Kwok

Hi, thanks for this fantastic mod, however on the latest version 1.01 if I change the default max number of planets in the large sectors from 100 to 255, the game freezes any ideas???

Thanks

Re: Balance Mod
 

Try changing it for both "Maximum Number of Systems" and the for the "Maximum Number Of Systems Large Quadrant" in Settings.txt...

Re: Balance Mod
 

kWOK

IM A DUFFUS!!!

Must have been having to many beers over the christmas period..... im so ashamed i missed that.... IDIOT!!!!

Thanks

Drew

Re: Balance Mod
 

The temporal weapons, especially the time distortion burst and the small time distortion burst, are IMO extremely weak if you compare them to standard weapons like the meson blaster.

Re: Balance Mod
 

I get an error when trying to load the latest version of the mod CK. It tells me that there are some files missing.

I have attached a screen cap.

Re: Balance Mod
 

That file was updated in v1.01 for the SE:V v1.20 patch. Are you sure you extracted all the files? Sometimes when unzipping you have only a single file selected and only that gets extracted. Anyhow I'd recommend you unzip the file again.

---

I'm hoping to get v1.02 out tomorrow. Besides the usual fixes and adjustments, some new AI scripting was done to get the AI to more actively pursue enemy targets. For example, if the AI has some free attack ships they should attack valid targets (ie enemy and approx. same strength or less) immediately in their visible space.

I've also got scripts ready to go for AI scrapping of obsolete vehicles and units in cargo, but some of the system functions for those orders are not working properly so I haven't been able to implement them yet.

Re: Balance Mod
 

Thats probably the problem. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I look forward to the next version. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I really wish Aaron would incorperate your modifications into the stock game.

Re: Balance Mod
 

And then fix the AI.

How much of it do you think is fixable with the modding files, Kwok? I know it's possible to alter how often the computer should do attacks, etc., but do you think those settings by themselves can fix the AIs aggressivenes?

Re: Balance Mod
 

The level of AI aggressiveness is completely controlled by the AI scripts. However, certain items like not remembering AI colonies when they are not in current sensor range could benefit from a few hardcode changes. Changes like that would help allow scripters to develop more finely tuned AI that can be intelligently aggressive.

Re: Balance Mod
 

The update is almost ready to go, but I'm still working out a few kinks with some of the changes to the AI. It'll probably be a bit later this weekend for v1.02 to be posted.

I also heard back from MM on some of the scrapping issues and fixes have been made for the next patch - which will allow me to have the AI smartly scrap obsolete units and ships - and keep the AI's defenses up to date. Another fix was made to a function that helps control planet unit launching in the mod - currently more units are being launched than should be. This makes it harder for carriers and other transports to pick up enough units from cargo.

Re: Balance Mod
 

Ready yet?

Re: Balance Mod
 

The update is almost ready. I have a few small changes to make based on some user feedback on vehicle costs/attributes and I still need to evaluate if some of the attack order items are working out.

I've made a few tweaks to AI diplomacy as well. They shouldn't spam you every turn with an offer if there is no treaty in place. They should also occasionally offer a new treaty in place of an existing treaty - something they didn't do before.

On another positive note, I through in some extra items I didn't intend to do for this update, including some tweaks to AI colony type selection that takes into account the available facility space and some retrofit fixes too.

Re: Balance Mod Custom Races
 

I've corrected this for v1.02 and the mod will no longer list each flag or shipset twice either. I've also added the following info to the readme.txt file for player's to use the custom races with the mod:

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
5. Adding New Races to the Mod:
================================

If you've downloaded a new shipset and would like to use in the Balance Mod, follow the steps
below:

1. Create a folder in the Balance Mod's Empires folder with the same name as the Race's default folder - it
is important to use the exact same name so the game will now where the pictures and models are
2. Copy the race's [Race Name]_AI_main.txt file into that folder
3. Edit the following lines in [Race Name]_AI_main.txt:

From:
AI Script File := [Race Name]\[Race Name]_Main_Script.csf
AI Script Empire Setup File := [Race Name]\[Race Name]_Setup_Script.csf

To:
AI Script File := Default\Default_Main_Script.csf
AI Script Empire Setup File := Default\Default_Setup_Script.csf

This will tell the AI to use the Balance Mod's default AI files with the ship set, making sure it works
properly with the mod.
</pre><hr />
At some point I will include some individualized AI scripts for the more popular custom races so they don't have to use the default script.

Re: Balance Mod Update
 

The next version of the Balance Mod is available. This version makes some fixes and adjustments, as well as lots of little AI upgrades. The AI shouldn't be spamming you anymore with treaty requests, but let me know if they ever propose a new treaty when an existing one is in place.

As usual, grab the update here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
Version 1.02 (07 January 2007)
------------------------------

1. Fixed - Error in allowable vehicle types for Ionic Pulse Missile
2. Fixed - Error in number of abilities for Massive Ship Mount
3. Fixed - Error in tech requirements for all Medium Freighters
4. Fixed - Error in exchange of trade items
5. Fixed - AI designs will no longer have 5kT of space remaining on some designs
6. Changed - AI designs will only add enough Life Support or Crew Quarters to fulfill requirements
7. Changed - AI will no longer retrofit Colonizers
8. Fixed - Occasional error for AI that sometimes resulted in a long delay during processing
9. Changed - Increased planet's population, supply, and ordnance amounts, but decreased cargo storage
10. Fixed - Error in ability amount description for Plague Bombs
11. Fixed - Error in Psychic Weapons tech area
12. Changed - Telekinetic Projectors increased to 11 tech levels
13. Changed - Tech requirement levels for Psychic Whiplash
14. Changed - Tech requirement levels for Stupifier
15. Changed - Increased damage amounts for Time Distortion Burst and Small Time Distortion Burst
16. Changed - Slightly reduced Organic regeneration rates
17. Fixed - Racial trait Drone hulls did not have the correct maintenance reduction
18. Fixed - AI flags and shipsets no longer listed in duplicate
19. Added - Additional mini flags (Thanks to Wayne W.)
20. Changed - AI players should occasionally offer new treaties in place of old ones
21. Changed - AI players should no longer spam other players with treaties
22. Changed - AI will no longer retrofit colony ships and will properly retrofit bases
23. Changed - AI will now issue attack orders against valid targets for attack ships
24. Added - Modifiers to tweak AI colony type selection based on available facility space
25. Updated - AI Scripts
</pre><hr />

Re: Balance Mod Update
 

Excellent!
Thank you for your work and the instruction about new races.

Re: Balance Mod Update
 

Sounds very promising! I'll be trying out at the first opportunity. Once again the effort is appreciated.

Re: Balance Mod Update
 

Kwok is: the man.

Re: Balance Mod AI
 

One item I forgot to mention is some of the new attack scripts I put in for Attack ships. Let me know if you notice a difference in the AI's aggressiveness when in a no-treaty or war state. The more aggressive AIs (Sithrak, Xiati, Sergetti, etc.) should be the most active.

Also let me know if the AI's research point levels remain competitive. I added some modifiers that should push them to make more research colonies, particularly on larger breathables. Other colony types like Resupply Depots and Construction Yards will appear more often on domed colonies or tiny breathables. Overall resource collection will be down a bit, but it will be mostly with Organics/Radioactives, which were always being made in excess anyway.

---

With the latest SE:V beta I've been able to implement a few new functions for the AI. One of them that works nicely is the scrapping of obsolete WPs on planets. Once a WP is obsolete and some time has passed, then the AI will scrap them (50% of them each turn) which will push up the demand for new WPs to be built. The overall effect will be the AIs planets should feature modern defenses.

The second item that should do better with the next patch is carriers. There was a bug in SE:V where a function that returned the units in space was always 0 - this would lead to planet's launching all but one of their sats/fighters/mines (rather than just 50%) into space leaving little for Carriers and Sat/Mine Layers to pick up and distribute.

A third item (not yet tested) is the scrapping of resource facilities on certain colony types (such Resource Colony or Mining-Farming Colony etc) when Monolith facilities become available. The AI will scrap 1 resource facility per turn on those planets, which will result in the planet building a Monolith instead.

I'm also going to create a new function for the AI to use remote mining ships. Essentially it will give orders to remote mining ships to go to an asteroid field and sit there. I suppose I'll have to put in some check to prevent more than 1 ship from mining a location but otherwise it's easy to do.

Re: Balance Mod AI
 

Sounds very nice Kwok, I'll take it for a spin. Hope you'll be able to further develop the war-AI. By the way, does the AI start scrapping frigates and such as he continues to develop ship sizes?

Re: Balance Mod AI
 

The scrapping of ships won't be until the next patch since the scrap order is not working in v1.20...

Re: Balance Mod AI
 

Hmm...that's okay. I usually take pleasure in scrapping enemy AI's elderly ships for them anyway. :-)

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Ahem ....
I started with all tech, just to check everything out http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
curious me ..
and there are 3 tech levels missing for the organic baseship .. its only TL3 while the normal BaseShip is TL6

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I have noticed that the AI attacks random ships more often when no treaty is present.

Good work Kwok, it's coming along great.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

And the AI does indeed propose new treaties, though it just proposes a whole new treaty rather than use the ammend treaty option, but I guess that's not a big deal.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I didn't think there was much need to duplicate the routine to determine the treaty components, but perhaps I will at least change the message header. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif