?? about SJ's AI patcher

dumbluck · #1 March 23rd, 2002, 08:09 AM

When it comes up with the message:

"Forced to decrement a characteristic in general.txt", what does that mean? Does it mean that the AI for that race won't work?

edit: And on a more serious note, why did every AI in my first patched game come up with the following messeges:

"Unknown value "Normal" for race option 1 adv. trait 1 in record phong" (or ukra-tal, etc. etc. etc.) It had copy of this message for race option 2 and for race option 3, for each AI empire. It didn't do this until I (finally) got around to putting the TDM races into P&N, and I ran them thru AI patcher 2.

[ 23 March 2002: Message edited by: dumbluck ]

Suicide Junkie · #2 March 23rd, 2002, 06:04 PM

"Forced to decrement a characteristic in general.txt".

In SE4 v1.49, and in Gold, the AIs will choose characteristics first, and then the Racial Traits. This allows negative characteristics to pay for more advanced racial traits.
However, if at any point there are zero points remaining during the advanced trait choice, SE4 stops choosing more traits, ignoring the fact that some modded traits can have zero or negative cost.
By decrementing one characteristic, the AI Patcher ensures that at least SOME amount of points is left at the end, so that the race can choose "Regular"

The "Normal"/"Regular" problem was due to confusion on my part as to how the Advanced Trait was referenced in the code.
It was fixed in the next Version of the patcher (Download Here).

dumbluck · #3 March 23rd, 2002, 06:39 PM

thanx. I'll try it out... sometime soon, i hope!

dumbluck · #4 March 23rd, 2002, 10:53 PM

Wow. What are all the other mods that the ai can be patched to?

P&N 2 is what I used, but I wonder if'n I shouldn'ta used General QNP instead, or maybes QNP type 45 (whatever that means). And what in the world is this AL-UVSM beta patch thingy???

Story Junkie · #5 March 23rd, 2002, 11:16 PM

General QNP lets you choose what value to use for "spaces per one" on the call to engines.
QNP - 45 uses spaces per one := 45.

QNP is only half of what P&N does: P&N also sets the AI_general to buy A.T. "regular" every time.

UVSM = a vehicle size mod, but its only partly done.
AL= Mr. Lescano.