An idea for AI ship weapons

[Sinapus]

In a game, I noticed that the Narn were using Anti-Proton Beam I's while having rather high tech. (Battleships with APB I's?!)

Upon checking the Narn's tech I found they had Phased Polaron Beam tech maxed out. I checked the datafiles and found that APBs are listed as the first pick for their weapons on attack and defense ships. Which reminded me of an annoyance I've found when making some basic mods here and there: switching to a new weapon type can get you a much weaker ship.

So here's my idea for things that probably won't get in in time for SE IV Gold but what the heck:

A 2nd flag for the weapon family pick, indicating the minimum tech level for that pick. E.g., if you pick Weapon Family 1 (Anti-Proton Beam) and have a minimum tech of 5, it should only add that weapon when you have that tech level.

Of course, this would only work so long as weapon families are grouped by the same tech area. I don't know if any have different technologies associated with them. Small weapons maybe. Maybe make the tech limit count the 1st tech requirement.

Any thoughts? ("What do you think, sirs?")

(Aside: I think the Narn got APB I in some ruins. Their research list doesn't start researching that stuff until waaay down the list.)

[ 09 December 2001: Message edited by: Sinapus ]

[Q]

Quite a time ago I proposed additional lines in the vehicle design, that would specify a certain techlevel at which the design would become valid or obsolete. Like that you could specify in your example that if you have APB level V technology the AI would no longer use the design with the PPB but a completely different design that is only used when exactely this tech level has been reached. I don't think this should be too hard to implement and you could then make completely different ship designs for the beginning of the game in contrast to later game stages.

[ 09 December 2001: Message edited by: Q ]

[Baron Munchausen]

Yeah, We've requested things like that in the beta forum. Dunno how difficult it would be to implment but it would sure be nice if the AI could be told to evaluate various weapons based on relative range, damage, or rate of fire instead of just using the listed choice in inflexible order. The sudden switch from level 5 or 6 of one weapon to level 1 in another always results in a period of weakness for the AIs fleets.

[Mephisto]

I hate when this happens. It would be a great addition to set the tech level before a weapon will be used. My poor Narns.

quote:

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Originally posted by Sinapus:
(Aside: I think the Narn got APB I in some ruins. Their research list doesn't start researching that stuff until waaay down the list.)

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[Rollo]

Yes, that would be convenient to have and make an AI modders life a little easier. I am not sure how easy that would be to implement.

However, something very similar can be modded already without any hardcode change. The answer is weapon numbers. Let's take the APB as an example. Currently it has weapon number 1 for all levels. If you'd break the levels apart a bit, say, give APB I-IV, APB V-VIII, and APB IX-XII weapon numbers 301, 201, and 1, respectively, the Narn (using weapon number 1) in the mentioned example would only use the APB, if they had level 9 or higher. You can introduce the APB in the mid-game at level 5 and skip the lower levels by using the 201. If you want to start with APB right away you'd use the 301. I have done something like this in Devnull Mod to break the high-energy weapons apart (Ripper-WMG). This way you can use Rippers without having to worry about them being "upgraded" to Incinerator Beams and you can also use WMGs without having to go all through the other weapons. You can even use Rippers and WMG at the same time, if you wanted.

Without any modding to the components there are some ways an AI modder can (more or less) prevent such things from happening, if he uses more ship designs. I assume the APB was meant to be used on the dreadnought and for full-tech games. So if the dreadnought had its own design (min. size 1000) and have the APB in the weapon list, while the normal design up to BB (max. size 800) didn't have the APB, then the battleship would still use the PPB. If the APB gets researched early enough to have a high level (maybe 9 or 10) before the DN is available, then the DN will start using a rather effective weapon right away. Another option can be "must have" abilities. For example, if Quantum Reactor is a must have for a design that uses the APB, then APB will only be used in the late game or at full-tech. Again, if the research takes care that several weapon levels of APB are researched before the Quantum Reactor, early levels of APB will not be used.

A combination of size restrictions and "must haves" can make an AI a little bit safer against unwanted tech either from ruins or from gifts of "benevolent" players. It can also be used to introduce a change of tactics and weapons for different ship sizes and use high levels of certain weapons right away (Ionic Dispersers and Null-Space, for example).

Rollo

[Captain Kwok]

I like that idea of breaking up the different weapons...