Having to tediously modify AI files by hand is really... tedious.
How about an AI file "compiler" that will take rules/settings and then re-write the AI files to suit those rules? This would save a lot of manual editing. For example, if I want to change the research behavior of an AI now, I have to edit the AI_Research file for that race, cut-and-paste things around, create any new entries I think it needs and delete anything that I don't think is necessary anymore. It can take 20 minutes to adjust the file for one conceptual change. What if I could type in the techfields that the AI should research and assign both a 'priority level' and a 'step size' (number of levels to research at a time) to each tech? Then click a button and the program would write out a text file with all the techs in order. It might take some imagination to design something like that to work like you would expect it to. Maybe more rules are needed then I have thought of in the example. But that's the direction that SE utilities need to go. Automation of the chores of managing the huge amount of text.
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 18 September 2001).]