Daynarr, I hate you....
 

Not really, but your new Sergetti are kicking my arse big time.

They insult me every chance they get. It's like they can't stand the sight of me. I am not used to playing so defensivly but they haven't given me an option.

I built a colony on a planet in a system they had claimed. They wiped it out and the 3 ships I had defending it. It wasn't even a planet they could use. I'm rock and they are ice. They just didn't like me having it.

I don't know if it's the improved research scripts or the medium bonus, but they had destroyers with PDC and DUC IV! I said IV! Were not even to turn 20 yet for crying out loud. I'm still tooling around with frigates and CSM I.

I am so desperate I have actually had to build satelites to defend the planets in my home system. Now I know how all those AI I wiped out felt in my other games. These guys are merciless.

Currently I am 19th out of 19 races in this game. I am getting the feeling the only way I am going to move up in the standings is if one of the other races gets wiped out. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif

If I live through this I am so going to enjoy glassing the Sergetti homeworld...

Geo

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

I'll second that!

I'm quite unhappy with the destructive potential of ALL Daynarr's races. At least in my previous game, the Sergetti never recovered from a slow start next to a black hole. But now, I'm playing on a map without black holes, and I'm afraid for my very life.

I hadn't even met the doggone Xi'Chung before they declared war on me. (Yeah, yeah, I probably was dozing when a long range scout must have passed between one of their ships and the sun. That probably would have been enough to make this merciless race hate me.)

When they declared war, I really did feel like. Hey! Wait! I don't even know where you are! There is nothing quite so grand as seeing that the Xi'Chung have 100 ships... and you don't know what direction they are coming from! :-)

Help! I, uh, forgot that the Norak were a Daynarr race as well and declared war on them for the heck of it. I'm a fighter fanatic. If the AI race doesn't build PDC's, I'll send in 90 small fighters and destroy two or three planets a turn. I sent a total of 160 fighters to knock out the first Norak planet I came upon. I lost everything! I went back and watched the Combat Replay. It turned out they had 21 satellites with PD V cannons on them in orbit. The other half of their PD V cannons were on the surface in weapon platforms. Help! http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

BTW, I've found the best way to win against a TDM ModPack race is to ally yourselves with all but one and then try to make THEM fight the other one. It is quite lovely to watch the Xi'Chung fighting it out with the Earth Alliance while you sneak in the back door and start trashing all his big mineral worlds.

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

The AI Daynarr makes is definetely one of the best. And yes the only way I can beat one of them is if I ally with the rest. At least I know that someone else feels my pain.

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

I D/L the Rage ship set and AI from the shipyards and when my compuiter uses it my system locks (not responding) I placed the files in the race folder where i was toldto what am I doin wrong?
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...s/confused.gif

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mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

....NEWS FROM THE FRONT.....

Turn 42 and I'm still alive. Although I still haven't expanded beyond my home system and one other that doesn't border Sergetti space.

I think I have managed to avoid the wrath of the Sergetti because of two things. I am still 17th out of 19 races, and these guys hate everybody else just as much as they hate me. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif I have treaties with 3 races and the Sergetti are at war with two of them and the third (Darloks) they have a non-aggression pact with.

I did manage to destroy one of his ships finally. He made the mistake of sending a destroyer into my home system by itself. woo hoo!

I am also at war with the Sallega, but they don't seem too aggresive. I don't know where any of there planets are and all they have sent my way so far were 3 colony ships. Actually they are moderate towards me now so I am hoping to be able to sign a peace treaty soon.

I have managed to research troops and am trying to decide if I should try to take the Sergetti planets in the next system over. I am afraid if I poke him to hard he may wake up and decide not to ignore me anymore. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif

My other option is going after the Toron Confederation. They are my closest ally right now but they are in 18th place and maybe if I take them over I would be strong enough to face the Sergetti head on. I am trying to stay in role play mode so I probably won't do that though.

Anyway, currently the top five are...

1st Earth Alliance (haven't met them yet)
2nd Rage (not met)
3rd Phong (not met)
4th Darloks
5th Colonials (not met)

The Sergetti have slipped to 9th, although I can't see why. They have me sort of cut off from the rest of the galaxy so they must be picking a fight with someone big on the other side of their territory.

Geo

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mottlee:
I D/L the Rage ship set and AI from the shipyards and when my compuiter uses it my system locks (not responding) I placed the files in the race folder where i was toldto what am I doin wrong?
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...s/confused.gif

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I haven't heard of this happening to anyone else, so I'm not sure. Did you install the TDM Modpack 1.70 before installing the Version from the shipyards? The Modpack has a newer Version of the AI than the one from Universal Shipyards.

The only thing I can think of to suggest is making sure that the directory structure for the Rage matches that of the other races.

If anyone else can think of a possible cause, please feel free to chime in!

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

I had some odd problems when I put races in the SE4 race folder. They went away when I put the races in the mod pak folder. Don't know why though.

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

Thanks for great feedback. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Sergetti actually have a weakness that makes them very vulnerable to some races, and the weakness is their own weapon - PPB. Since there is increasing number of AI races that use PPB I seriously consider making them research armor early just like other races do. That is probably the reason that they have dropped in score - combat losses (and Rage or Toron are most likely responsible for it http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif).

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Daynarr:
Thanks for great feedback. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Sergetti actually have a weakness that makes them very vulnerable to some races, and the weakness is their own weapon - PPB. Since there is increasing number of AI races that use PPB I seriously consider making them research armor early just like other races do. That is probably the reason that they have dropped in score - combat losses (and Rage or Toron are most likely responsible for it http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually, it is probably a good idea to add a few more levels of standard armor as well. Armor III has the same amount of structure as a Shield Generator, 40kt. Which is useful since you can put 4 armor IIIs (10kt) in the place of one shield generator and have four times the protection against PPBs that a shield generator gives. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Adding heavier armor can increase that protection even more.

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--
"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>That is probably the reason that they have dropped in score - combat losses (and Rage or Toron are most likely responsible for it ).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Well it certainly isn't me.

I started another game at home Last night. (The game I have been talking about is on my machine at work) This time I started out next to the Norak.

THEY ARE EVEN WORSE!!!!!

(I'm gonna have to stop playing on medium bonus. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif )

This was the first time I actually started and lost a game in one setting. Those bastard Norak wouldn't let me do anything! And they didn't ignore me like the sergetti in my other game.

I manged to drag it out by playing my battles in tactical and using ships with sattelite bays to drop sats as they retreated. I think by doing that I manged to hang on an extra 2 years.

About turn 50 after beating me down to just my home planet, they popped into my home system with a fleet of 14 ships with CSM III and PDC. At that point I figured it was no use so I surrenderd to my ally the colonials and went to bed.

Very impressive work modpack guys and Aaron.

I used to bet the snot out of the AI even on medium bonus.

Geo

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

Medium bonus?!


I never use a bonus. I'm not that masoch^H^H^H^H^H^H, er good a player.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

------------------
--
"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

Well, I used to. So either I'm not that good anymore either or the Ai is better.

Geo

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

I'm still kind of new to SE IV; if I download the modpack, is there anything I have to do to make it work right? I seem to recall reading something about you have to manually pick the race for the AI to work?

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

The TDM ModPack includes multiple EMP files for several races. They are named similar to Xi'Chung 2000, Xi'Chung 3000 and Xi'Chung 5000. It is necessary to use these EMP files if you want to play against these races. These EMP files set some of your attributes below 100% in order to apply the points to other attributes. The current Version of the game does not support this in the text data files. I've heard this will be fixed in the next patch.

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

It sounds like these AIs are getting way ahead of us puny humans.

I suggest getting ship capture, and stealing some of those fancy missiles, shields, PPBs and PDC!

Just have one capture ship in each fleet, and every battle you happen to win, leave one ship to be captured. That helps most when you're much smaller than the enemy, cause you can then spend more facility space on mineral mines http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

Help! Someone forgot to tell the Xi'Chung that we're *NOT* using mines in this game. Just lost 25 cruisers and battlecruisers to his mine field. Uh, I didn't want those ships anyways! http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

Here is the item Richard posted regarding the upcoming patch:

19. Fixed - Characteristics in the AI_General.txt file would not be correctly
interpreted if they were less than 100.

In other news, I researched mines and swept the mines in a Xi'Chung system. Then, I sent in a small task force of 10 cruisers and battlecruisers to test the Xi'Chung defenses. This force was able to quickly destroy a few lightly held Xi'Chung worlds...before the Xi'Chung Defensive Fleet showed up. I looked and saw mostly light cruisers so I decided to engage them even though the numbers were 3-to-1 against me. After all... it was only 10 ships. I can build more. They will be remembered with honor for the intel they bring back....

Ooops! At least half the Xi'Chung fleet was CLOAKED. When I entered combat, I found that the odds weren't 3-to-1; they were 10!! to 1. Here is what the Xi'Chung fleet had:

31 Light Cruisers
36 Battle Cruisers
7 Dreadnoughts
14 Light Carriers
12 Carriers
1 Medium Transport

Oh, and I, uh, started the battle in Tactical. Arggh! (I went to Task Manager and ended the process. When I restarted the game, I decided it would be a quicker death if I just suicided my ships against one of the more well-defended planets)

I love Daynarr's Xi'Chung! (His Sergetti are in second place, btw)

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

About the game not supporting negative numbers, what happens when they are included?
Does the game stop adjusting the characteristics when it come to one?
Does it just ignore them or does it just use what is in the general file?
I hate that you have to manually choose them to get the race to work like it was designed to.

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Alpha Kodiak:
I haven't heard of this happening to anyone else, so I'm not sure. Did you install the TDM Modpack 1.70 before installing the Version from the shipyards? The Modpack has a newer Version of the AI than the one from Universal Shipyards.

The only thing I can think of to suggest is making sure that the directory structure for the Rage matches that of the other races.

If anyone else can think of a possible cause, please feel free to chime in!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No I have not used a Mod pack what would it do? where is it?


------------------
mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

The ModPack is a collection of player modifications to the AI that are known to be compatible with each other, along with several new races including the Rage. The mods are primarily improvements to the AI to make it more challenging. I highly recommend installing it.

To find it, go back up to the Shrapnel Games' Forums, then go into the Scenario/Mod Archive. Select Space Empires AI Races/Shipsets (or something like that). Look down the list until you find the TDM ModPack 1.70 posted by Mephisto. Download it and follow the instructions that come with it to install it.

In case you are wondering, the "TDM" stands for Tampa Gamer, Daynarr and Mephisto, who are the three guys that handle putting the ModPack together. They do an excellent job. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon6.gif

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

Well I agree the mod is a vast improvement over the other AI.
The defence is a major improvement, no more easily destroying planets with swarms of fighters or missiles.
Sadly thou the offence is poor. Nothing wrong with the ship designs or anything its just that they never get to do some trouncing with serious fleets. Early game they just keep getting wiped out by mines and my cheap defence means I can build up a big enough fleet to punch through their defence, and then they come crashing down.

Just wondering if having some of the AI's building a minesweeper or 2 in every ship (like they do pdc) will mean the larger 20+ attack fleets will actually survive the mine defence.

Keep up the excellent work!

Lefty

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

Lefty wrote:
"Just wondering if having some of the AI's building a minesweeper or 2 in every ship (like they do pdc) will mean the larger 20+ attack fleets will actually survive the mine defence."

Check the Rage, they are doing it.

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tampa_Gamer:
I think one of the items in the patch that will help is allowing mine sweeper components to be used while cloaked. This will improve the survivability of the AIs sweepers. A couple of the ModPack races were using cloaked sweepers and had to remove the cloaking ability (literally) at the Last minute due to this problem.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Because of the ease to defeat cloaking by scanners, which the AI uses quite effectively, I fear that this will not be enough. Only the inclusion of minesweepers into the fleets will give protection and efficiency.

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Just wondering if having some of the AI's building a minesweeper or 2 in every ship (like they do pdc) will mean the larger 20+ attack fleets will actually survive the mine defence.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Human players encounter a minefield, build minesweepers, sweep the field and then send their ships through. It seems the AI builds a preset number of mine sweeper ships and sends them out exploring the galaxy. At the same time, they also send our their fleet. If all goes well, the AI will get lucky and sweep the mines before getting their ships destroyed. So... even if the AI builds more mine sweepers per percentage ships in its fleets, it is *always* gonna act pretty stupidly where mines are concerned. (in my opinion)

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

Yeah, sometimes it appears that the AI uses his ships to sweep mines.

Re: Daynarr, I hate you....
 

I think one of the items in the patch that will help is allowing mine sweeper components to be used while cloaked. This will improve the survivability of the AIs sweepers. A couple of the ModPack races were using cloaked sweepers and had to remove the cloaking ability (literally) at the Last minute due to this problem.