I did a quick test of my idea of three seperate Fighter Tech Areas instead of one area with three levels. Works fine for the components. The only change required there is the Tech Area Requirement as I expected. Now all I have to do is repeat 500 times for all the other components.
To make the AI play well in this universe you only have to worry about two files. The AI_General file and the AI_research file. The general file is where you would chose particualr starting techs for the AI race in question. Not really a problem, just have to rewrite the files and make sure you have the points calculated right. If we prefer, or are lazy we can even leave the general files the way they are. The AI just won't "buy" and starting techs and will have to research them the regular way.
The research file has to be changed obviously, but like the components file I think it won't be so hard, just take some time. The way the file works is there's a list of techs and Tech levels desired based on what AI state it is in currently. So if the file has an entry for Ship Construction, level 4, you ould replace that by four entries, Ship Con I, lvl 1, Ship Con II, lvl 1, Ship Con III, lvl 1, and so on. It should ignore the ones it already has researched, and ignore the ones it doesn't have the pre-requisite tech for. So it work the same, just be a much, much longer file.
Once that's done, the AI should operate as normal.
Geoschmo
[ 20 December 2001: Message edited by: geoschmo ]