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Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

Version 1.07 of Small Systems has been uploaded:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod-extras.php

It now includes data file changes made in Balance Mod v1.19g. The correct order of installation is to install Balance Mod v1.19g first then extract the contents of the Small Systems .zip file to your Balance Mod folder.

I also correct an error in the movement values for Small Ion and Contra-Terrene Engines, which made fighters move slower than ships in combat.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

Thank you very much, Captain Kwok. :)

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

Some more troubles - this time with the sat layer minister:

Running fresh 1.19g with SmSys 1.07.

Found my 2 FF SatLayers sitting over the last worlds where they picked up sats (small amount of cargo space still empty, but another sat won't fit), with orders to move to exactly that planet - forever. If I delete that order, it comes back on the next turn.

As those designs where copied and modified from -IIRC- explorers, I thought the "wrong internal type"-issue struck again.

So I constructed and build a FF satlayer from scratch, and it started out picking up sats just fine, moved into the next system to pick up more - and suddenly decided to head back for the Yard/Depot where it started out (similar like the others did), presumably to stay there forever (though cargo space is 33% empty, and there where some more sats on a nearby planet to pick up, and supplies are at max.)

Only ministers active are sat layer and renaming.
Sat Layers seem to work fine for the AI, though?!

Any idea?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

Does the current cargo on the ship take up more than 50% of the cargo space?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

Yes!
Both the edited and the from-scratch design have 5 cargo bays, 1 satellite bay. Both fill up to 560 of 720 kt cargo (7 sats), then the vessels run away to sit right on top of the spaceyard/resupply depot planet, with 0% damage and 3375/3375 supplies - and no local sats to pic up. What they wouldn't try anyway, according to their orders.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

Update - played to turn 134, and I had a peek into some AI turns to look for troubles with ship designs, diplo etc. :

Minelayer didn't work correctly, either, yet gave a hint at what might be wrong! ;)
- minelayer FF gathered mines up to ~67%
- switched to "move to *yard planet*", and sat there
- I deleted that order, gave it remote load order for more mines
- issued a remote minelaying order
Ship did that, and tried to return to the yard, again, as the minister was still enabled, but then I got an declaration of war
- and suddenly the minelayer set out to mine some border warp point, all on his own !
=> might be that getting a "target hex" for satellite/mine-layers does not work for the player at least in peacetime!

Carrier on ministers worked -almost- as expected, switching to "Join Fleet" at 644/750kt cargo. Could have loaded some more fighters, even on the way to the fleet, but at least that one was chosen sensibly: nearest/biggest fleet without carrier

Plagues seem to kill "mechanoid" pop on the very first turn, when they appear. There's a plague message, but no "colonists died" message (if there's ever one?). Mood dropped from "jubilant" to "indifferent", though. And I'm pretty sure I had more than 98k pop on that planet, as the neighbouring colonies are of the same age and ~750k pop.
No visible effects in the next turns, though the planet condition still reads "Plague Level 3".

AI diplomacy is completely borked:
First offer is "Give us 5% tariff, and we both agree we won't shoot". Second, within 10 turns or so, is "Intersettle with us, .. (plus some goodies, or badies). Third is "intersettle, and exchange tech", or "Be brothers with us" straight away.
Sometimes in between, there seem to be random declarations of war, albeit very seldomly - with relations "amiable", both for player vs AI, and AI vs AI.
In general, relations ramp up to the best possible within short time, in 13 of 14 cases - only 1 AI somehow insisted on being pissed off, but it was never the one that declared war?!
Worst thing is, the AI players seem to agree to those treaty suggestion more often than not, resulting in redicolous research for the AI, and colonies scattered all over the map, which couldn't be defended if there was any war between the AI, what most times isn't the case.

Sorry to have so much to bicker about, but .. hey .. things can always get better ;)

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

I thought I had made this post a few days ago, but apparently not.

Copy this info into your DebugSettings.txt file in the stock data folder. It will generate condensed debug logs for each player's AI script per turn. This includes things like minister orders or AI anger levels etc.

Code:

=======================================================================================

*BEGIN*

=======================================================================================



Generate Game Debug Log                                 := TRUE

Generate Engine Debug Log                               := FALSE

Use Fast Debug Log                                      := FALSE

Debug Section Engine Startup                            := FALSE

Debug Section Creation                                  := FALSE

Debug Section Sound Base                                := FALSE

Debug Section Display Class                             := FALSE

Debug Section Sobj Ship                                 := FALSE

Debug Section Display Object                            := FALSE

Debug Section Formula Evaluation                        := FALSE

Debug Section Script Evaluation Detailed                := FALSE

Debug Section Script Evaluation Simple                  := FALSE

Debug Section Script Evaluation Debug Print Only        := TRUE

Debug Print Sections                                    := Colonies, Construction, Design, Enemy Analysis, Events, Intel, Lists, Planets, Politics, Research, Resources, Setup, Ships, State, System

Debug Section Compute Highest Tech Level                := FALSE

Debug Section Master State Machine                      := FALSE

Debug Section Order Execution                           := FALSE

Debug Section Combat                                    := FALSE

Debug Section Combat Speed                              := FALSE

Debug Section Main Drawing Loop                         := FALSE

Debug Section TCPIP                                     := FALSE

Debug Section End All Players Turn                      := FALSE

Debug Section Host Processing                           := FALSE

Debug Section Phased Movement                           := FALSE



=======================================================================================

*END*

=======================================================================================

I had commented in that post as well that I thought your layers weren't working because they didn't have any valid locations to drop at. This are usually marked as border systems or defense locations. If you don't have any enemies (or non-treaties) then typically you won't have these locations which is why the layers defaulted to their backup behaviour of going to the nearest SY.

Regarding the AI politics, I'll have to keep an eye on that. It looks like your games start overly friendly which increases the overall likability for everyone by giving anger reductions for having the same friends or signing new treaties etc. If there's no wars in the galaxy though, there is a modifier to cause distrust between unlike AIs.

I don't generally see the overly friendly galaxy though in my AI test games, so I'm interested in what kind of empires you're typically seeing in your games...

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Kwok (Post 735975)

Copy this info into your DebugSettings.txt file in the stock data folder.

Done.
Had to start a new game, because turn generation times became unbearable ;) Might be better anyway, as you'll get logs from turn 1 then ...
Btw., where am I supposed to send them ?

Quote:

I don't think this is desirable behaviour, as it
A) takes time (= several trips) to pile up those stacks of units which make a difference and
B) this puts the layers into jeopardy, as they tend to stop for one turn at the WH after dropping off their load - and there's a good chance that the enemy gets them there then.
I'd rather see the layers pile up those stacks over time at all border systems, and maybe even some around the home or other key systems (if there's a definition for that somewhere) .. pretty much like the stock ministers do.
Otherwise, I would have to handle all that by hand during peacetime (or war preparation), which mostly defeats the idea of having ministers ...

Quote:

Regarding the AI politics, I'll have to keep an eye on that. It looks like your games start overly friendly which increases the overall likability for everyone by giving anger reductions for having the same friends or signing new treaties etc. If there's no wars in the galaxy though, there is a modifier to cause distrust between unlike AIs.
I don't generally see the overly friendly galaxy though in my AI test games, so I'm interested in what kind of empires you're typically seeing in your games...

All 14 in 160 paradise systems, plus my own race.
I've played 57 turns into my new game, and the Sithrak are doing it again: I met them around turn 25, they signed my suggested non-aggression (in non-colony systems) treaty at "indifferent", and now they're at "amiable" (IIRC) and offer intersettling. Their attitude started to skyrocket as soon as the non-aggression was signed, despite the fact that I shot down one of their colonizers next to my colonies on the next turn. 2 other AI which I didn't have treaties with up to now stayed at "indifferent" over 10 turns or more. Now - "non-aggression in non-colony systems" shouldn't be anything to be that excited about, especially if you're the Sithrak, right?!

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

The debug logs are dumped in SE5's backup folder as text files. You can view them as you like. If anything weird happens, feel free to send them to the savegame e-mail.

I'll have to double-check the border identification scheme. I don't recall setting it up to be dependent on having known empires nearby. Maybe I've left a loophole or something.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

Emailed log files from a new game ...

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

Greetings!

The next update for the Balance Mod is finally available. I'm didn't really get a chance to play test the mod over the last few weeks, so hopefully the more recent changes are working well. I'm sure you guys will let me know if we need a few adjustments. That's why I put an v1.19i for early October. :P

You can grab the download here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

There's some fixes and lots of AI work across the board in version 1.19g. The changelog is listed below and many of the items I've already discussed in the Spaceempires.net forums.

v1.19h Changelog:

Code:

1.  Fixed   - Error in defense modifier for Troop vehicles

2.  Changed - Reduced damage amount for Power Leech Beam

3.  Fixed   - Self-Destruct Device wasn't working correctly

4.  Changed - Bridge and Master Computer components will allow vehicles to self-destruct, but won't prevent ship capture

5.  Fixed   - Massive Ionic Dispersers could potentially target bases

6.  Fixed   - Certain combinations of Fighter Bays/Drone Launchers would not satsify Carrier requirements when they should have

7.  Fixed   - Ships in fleets could be scrapped/retrofitted when the scrap/retrofit ministers were not activated

8.  Changed - Reduced AI's likelihood for accepting migration treaty elements

9.  Changed - AI will consider unexplored warp points for dropping units if there are no other determined locations

10. Changed - Improved AI's unit scrapping to be balanced across its colonies

11. Changed - The AI will scrutinize their treaty status with other empires more closely for anger determination

12. Changed - Attacking and defending AI fleets will vary their tactics more frequently

13. Fixed   - AI was sometimes constructing Robotoid Factories on planets without Space Yards

14. Changed - AI will always use its closest colonizer for a selected colony target

15. Changed - Improved AI's distribution of units on its colonies

16. Changed - Improvements to balance the AI's vehicle construction scheme

17. Fixed   - AI empires were too often swapping Intel for Research facilities (and vice versa)

18. Changed - Add extra anger for the AI for a turn's first combat with another player

19. Fixed   - Intelligence projects or events that affected happiness were not work correctly

20. Changed - AI transports and layers will attempt to use leftover movement points after dropping off their cargo

21. Added   - AI will attempt to add more troops to planets with decreasing happiness levels

22. Changed - AI empires will utilize unit hubs for distribution of units to launch locations

23. Added   - General combat performance history will now be kept by AI empires

24. Added   - AI will use recent combat performance history to modify diplomacy

25. Fixed   - Sometimes anger from an empire's relations with other known empires was incorrect

26. Fixed   - Sometimes AI players wouldn't recognize anger events from weaker empires

27. Changed - Anger for enemy ships/colonies increased based on enemy's priority

28. Changed - AI empires will are now more likely to maintain non-aggression treaties with lower risk enemies

29. Changed - AI empires will avoid war or breaking treaties with lower risk

30. Changed - Added more criteria for determining if an AI empire will go to war (or break its treaty) with another player

31. Changed - Made improvements to AI fleet's retrofitting

32. Added   - Diplomacy modifiers for AI empires to react more strongly to human players in weak or strong positions

33. Fixed   - AI fleets would sometime report no orders when in fact that had orders

34. Fixed   - Standalone AI Fighter or Drone groups weren't receiving any orders

35. Added   - Happiness penalty for populations that are disloyal

36. Changed - Increased intelligent project costs

37. Updated - AI Scripts

38. Updated - Event/Intel Scripts

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V

In case there is anyone left with an interest in the mod, the final v1.19i has been posted.

You can find it here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

The version history is here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemodhistory.php