[JLS]

Originally posted by Grand Lord Vito:
What do you mean by AI Strategic State is in?

Oleg is correct.
Also to elaborate on what I was posting:

AI State: Prepare to Attack (A nearby system is ripe for takeover. Prepare a fleet and get ready to attack that system)
Systems conquered -> Infrastructure State
Build Up system not valid -> Infrastructure State
Enemy in Territory -> Defend Short Term State
Target System cannot be conquered -> Infrastructure State
Not enough ships to attack -> Infrastructure State
Target system not good anymore -> Infrastructure State
Forces ready to attack -> Attack State
Too long preparing -> Infrastructure State

If the AI in the above example goes back into the Infrastructure state at a late point in attack ship construction and does not actually make its attack then it may have put itself in a deficit until it starts taking ship loses or starts/upgrades a new resource colonies!

In that post I mentioned Resource degradation: What I meant by this, was to try to answer the players question on when the AI cant compete. At some Point in SE4 where the AI is really stuck: the best example would have been when the AI gets 20 to 30 kt maintenance per turn Dreadnoughts and Base ships, where there are no more facility upgrades to support such a large fleet.

Now with AI Campaign I can give a (no maintenance cost) to ALL AI ships and with this the AI can build practically unlimited amounts of ships. but this gets real tricky with play balance. Example: Lets say a ROCK AI starts building Cruisers and this would be based on (Planet Per Item Entry), as it is now; his Last limiting factor is maintenance. At many points in a game the AI will go into and out of a Resource deficit similar to a Human player.
(Actually the very Last overall limiting factor is total game ship count from setup)

AI Campaign can and will address the LATE game wows of Resource deficit with more play testing and Player input� I can have the AI make 100 Baseships at no cost but that would do little for play balance. I feel I helped the AI in Finite resources, at least well enough were he can now compete, but I did not address Combat Ship maintenance to a large degree yet.

In AI Campaign I wanted to address some AI issues in regards to better handling mine fields, point to point re-supply, faster ship training, sector scanning, Stellar manipulations, combating Plagues and Planetary weapons. To help make the AI challenging but not where it cant loose. This in its self gets tricky, I kept it a little challenging this way most can enjoy it, when the experienced players wants more of a challenge beyond (Computer player bonus), they know how to tweak the AIC files to there tastes.

[ February 28, 2003, 19:43: Message edited by: JLS ]