quote:
2) The "Max ship size tonnage from start" in the settings.txt file doesn't work (or I don't understand it correctly). I set it to max size 410 for the first 15 turns, but the AI nevertheless builds cruisers from the start in a full tech game.
If that setting turuly wasn't working, I would expect the AIs to build all BaseShips form the start, not Cruisers.
It seems to me that the obvious answer is that the tonnage is rounded up to the next larger hull size.
(IE: 410 -> 500 = cruiser)
Starting out with hulls of cruiser size allows the AI to build SYSes.