quote:
Originally posted by jimbob55:
In the AI constructionships file there is one entry that could lead to a planet construction ship...
Entry 22 Type := Create Planet
Entry 22 Planet Per Item := 200
The problem there is that it only covers making planets from asteroids. There doesn't appear to be any ship type for cooperating to make a ringworld / sphere world.
The AI isn't smart enough to do this. Think of what is involved. You have to put at least 11 space yard ships, or 21 for a ringworld, in a sector with a star in a secure location and be ready to spend MASSIVE amounts of resources for years to build the necessary components. If something goes wrong, and it will in two or three years of game time, and spending has to increase for more ships or some colonies are destroyed and resources drop below the levels needed to keep the space yard ships building, the whole thing will collapse. And this is skipping the problem of protecting the space yard ships while they are building. The AI is just not smart enough to do the kind of planning necessary to complete this operation, and probably never will be. I do wish that you could put ONE single random "artifact" ringworld or sphere world into a game map, though. Would be really cool to find one, and would give the AI a good boost if IT found one instead. Run into an AI empire that's colonized a ringworld and you'd be facing a real challenge!

This is the only way the AI will ever get a ringworld or sphere world. Except maybe by conquest from a player?
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 05 February 2001).]