New component and screwy design

[Kammak]

Here's what I did: I added a new component called a "universal colony" that lets one colonize any ice, rock, or gas planet. It is only available if you have all three techs, and it doesn't replace anything but is an additional component.

It works great, saves on my paper notes during a game...but I found a really odd AI ship during the first game with this component:

The ship had like 6 master computers, plus a bridge and life support, and one of these universal colony components, all loaded on a destroyer or some such hull (not a colony ship). The AI was on medium difficulty, so is this just a medium-AI designed vessel, or did I mess up something by adding this new component?

Edit: below is the exact entry in the components.txt file:

Name := Universal Colony
Description := Materials needed to start a colony on any planet type.
Pic Num := 108
Tonnage Space Taken := 200
Tonnage Structure := 200
Cost Minerals := 2000
Cost Organics := 1000
Cost Radioactives := 1000
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base
Supply Amount Used := 0
Restrictions := None
General Group := Colonizing
Family := 5004
Roman Numeral := 0
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 3
Tech Area Req 1 := Gas Giant Colonization
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Tech Area Req 2 := Ice Planet Colonization
Tech Level Req 2 := 1
Tech Area Req 3 := Rock Planet Colonization
Tech Level Req 3 := 1
Number of Abilities := 4
Ability 1 Type := Colonize Planet - Gas
Ability 1 Descr := Can colonize a gas giant planet.
Ability 1 Val 1 :=
Ability 1 Val 2 :=
Ability 2 Type := Cargo Storage
Ability 2 Descr := Provides 20kT worth of cargo space.
Ability 2 Val 1 := 20
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Ability 3 Type := Colonize Planet - Rock
Ability 3 Descr := Can colonize a rock based planet.
Ability 3 Val 1 :=
Ability 3 Val 2 :=
Ability 4 Type := Colonize Planet - Ice
Ability 4 Descr := Can colonize an ice based planet.
Ability 4 Val 1 :=
Ability 4 Val 2 :=
Weapon Type := None

[ August 05, 2002, 06:41: Message edited by: Kammak ]

[Pax]

I don't see anythign on the surface that'd do that ... but it might have to do with the AI getting confused, thinkign it's designing multiple ships at once, sort of.

BTW, I'd suggest removing the cargo capacity, and/or possibly making the whole thing a 300kT or 400kT module. By the time anyone's building ships with those, they have Medium Transports or larger, to put them on. 8)

[Fyron]

Each race is given the Last colony module available in the order of the comps file that it has the correct planet type to use for it's HW. Adding a universal colony comp after the 3 normal ones has always caused problems. But if you place it before those 3, the AI won;t use it.

[Rollo]

There is nothing wrong with the component itself. But you have to start a new game after changing the components.txt. Looks to me you stuck the Universal Colony between the standard colony tech and bridges. That altered the order of the components. So for existing designs all the components have been shifted by one. For said destroyer the bridge became the uni colo, life support became bridge, crew quarters became life support, and engines became master computers.

Also, like Fyron said, you must place the universal colony above the standard colony techs in the components.txt to avoid problems at game start. The AI will use the universal colony on their colony ships, even if it placed before the other components.

Fyron, your Last statement is incorrect. The AI will use the uni colony, because it has a higher tech requirement. For abilities without a value like armor, point-defense, and Colonize Planet - XXXX the AI will use the component with the highest tech requirement (total number of tech levels needed to get that component) first, in case of a tie it will use the component that is further down the list of components.

Rollo

[ August 05, 2002, 10:38: Message edited by: Rollo ]

[Kammak]

Thanks all. That makes sense, also explains why all the AI ships were toasted so easily in that game!

[Kammak]

Spoke too soon...

I moved the component to the bottom of the components.txt file so as not to screw up any compnent-order issues. No biggie if the AI doesn't use it - its only a memo saver for myself.

But after making that change and starting a *new* game, all the AI had Gas Giant colonization tech but not their native colonization tech. This was a low tech game, so an Ice race would start with Ice colony tech, etc...but that didn't happen. All the AI races had Gas tech and nothing else, and wouldn't built gas colony ships, even though they designed them! I finally switched the computer control off for the AI to figure out what was happening and discovered this.

As soon as I removed the uni-colony component from the bottom of the components.txt file and started a new game everything went back to normal.

This is no biggie - I was just trying to save on notes during the game, but can someone explain what I did wrong?