quote:
Out of curiosity...won't AI design files need to be appended/overhauled to include designs for the larger and in-between ships? Do enlighten me...I'm a graphic designer, not a programmer.
The AI_designcreation.txt specifies a design pattern, and has entries for max and min hull size.
So, any attackship between, say 150KT and 300KT gets design A, while those from 400-600KT get design B.
For example; Design A includes minimal defenses, and cheap to research weapons, while design B adds lots of shields and stealth armor and powerful, expensive weapons.
The AI will typically use the largest hull available in the design range, so if there is an entry for 10,000KT- 60,000KT it will be used to build anything from battlemoons to large death stars.
The designs tend to specify "minimum of x components with this ability", and "Y% of the ship should be components with this ability"
That way, its scalable.