Monster AI

See thread Colonization Minister Secret Revealed for what has gone before. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/For...ML/003169.html
Discuss my Clays MonsterAI here.

First topic - I will change the Clays back to Carbon Dioxide Gas Giant like the Eee in the next game. Atmosphere None races cannot convert Gas Giants to breathable because there is no such thing as a Gas None.

That means that I WILL make another map with Co2 planets in the center of the nexus systems rather than Nones....

Possibly if people really like the challenge of a Nexus map, Aaron could be persuaded to have the game build nexus style quadrants automatically rather than each being a hand crafted work of art....

Possibly he could be persuaded to add Giant style size 200 planets along with sizes 50, 75, and 100 to the regular game so that people do not have to mod. Until then change all references in Clays_AI_Planet_Types from small to tiny then medium to small, then large to medium then Huge to large, and finally Giant to Huge. That is, if you do not like the bottomless pit giants...


[This message has been edited by LCC (edited 18 July 2001).]

Well, it did not take that long to play, but there was a lock up and I had to figure out why. What I have learned :

Turn 72 - 3.8m/3.0m/60.0/6.5/316/10/469/256.3/1569/202/0
Learns Last tech next turn by leaving the nexus to plant colonies...
Turn 73 - 4.0m/3.1m/58.6/6.5/370/35/545/270.9/1569/214/0
Turn 74-75 took 12 minutes! 4 new systems 114 colonies planted...
Turn 77 - 4.3m/3.2m/59.0/7.0/370/49/912/348.2/3430/293/0
Turn 88 - 6.7m/6.2m/61.0/44.1/370/49/1182/542.9/3556/38/0

1) The increase in units is a call to build mines for colonies 349 to 545 done on turn 73.
2) It is obvious that the game is skipping the calls to build warships, perhaps because it already has some and is still in exploration state.
3) Turn 72 is already posted. I am uploading turn 77 and 88 now.
4) Turn 77 is near bankrupt again with the ship queue about to halt. Also it is building lots of atmosphere modification plants, getting into bankruptcy on organics and radioactives as well as minerals and having lots of forced farming/refining colonies. What the AI needs to do is have the colonization manager rethink its orders and select a different destination to plant rather than forcing the colony type of a low productivity planet.
5) Turn 88 is just before a lock up on the transition turn 89-90. When Clays are switched to player there is no problem. It turns out that since all tech has been learned, the research colony on Aye XVIII A wants to build a solar generator III. Under AI as I said it locks up, but player controlled with full AI on starts the facility.
6) Another thing I noticed is that one and only one of the 30 Research colonies ever was allowed to build research facilities. Is that because the Clays research ability is nonexistant ? If so, then NEVER go nonexistant!
7) Since all tech has been learned the AI should have scrapped the research facilities to build something else. Research colonies ARE being run, they have lots of facilities just no research centers. I checked, only the one colony had research centers before the Last tech was learned....
8) I waited an hour to get turn 90 then finally and reluctantly did CTRL ALT DEL. After thinking about it I checked. There IS A QUICK AND EASY way to determine if the game is locked up. Just click the little window icon in the upper right hand corner to go back to windows. If it does not take you to windows within a minute, the game is locked up! To get back to the game click the game name on the windows bottom screen bar. When the turn is complete it will pop you back up to the game.
9) Most turns executed in 3 minutes or less. But when the AI reluctantly decides to colonize in new systems, it takes a LONG time to decide which ones to use. This needs some execution time optimization.
10) In turn 88 sorting the colony list etc takes a minute or two. Just give it time, there is a lot to sort.....

I am going to bed after doing the uploads. Today I created a monster AI that if unchecked will plant 1000 colonies before turn 80! A GOOD DAYS WORK!!!!

I just posted a new patch and map10 in scenario/mod archive SE IV maps and scenarios. I changed Clays to be Co2/Gas instead of Rock/None. I added new planet sizes NexusTiny, NexusSmall, NexusMedium, NexusLarge, and NexusHuge to replace the single Giant size. As with the Huge, a regular Large can be created as NexusLarge on random planet creation etc. This means that home planets can start with very different sizes even though they are all supposedly Medium or Large, because some will be Nexus style. It should be an interesting challenge for those who usually use AI bonuses. The new map also has a better distribution of ruins and more nexus feeder and destroyed nexus buffer systems. It will take me a few days to break up the map into clusters and post again...

The attached zip creates a new subdirectory "test" containing the new Clays empire files, a patchsys3 file containing patches to make a nexus quadrant, and Clays_AI_Planet_Types which is required to get minimal usage of the new planet types.

The Clays are an evolved Eee with Organic, Crystalline, Religious, and at 5000 points Temporal picks. They are NOT a space monster, my choice of description "Monster AI" is unfortunately confusing given the other thread about "Space Monsters".

It is taking a LONG time to build my latest map10a from map10 in the Map Editor because I want it to be my LAST map for a long time. Another couple of days should see it done. Then I will do the research tree and ship design. Until then the AI is on hold, but the planet types file alone should be useful to get better AI colonization and recovery from bankruptcy for ANY race. Just change Small to Tiny, Medium to Small, Large to Medium, Huge to Large, and NexusTiny to Huge.

Map10a is posted at Last - See Map10a and Really big games Version 3
I will rip off ship designs from other races and not worry about research for the moment since the AI gets tech off the ruins really fast...

[out_law]

You wont a moster race??? Watch this space I've nearly made my first one, you'll love it!