AI Anger Data File

[Sultan]

I was wondering if I save a game at what I feel is a key turning point, change the AI settings in the AI anger file and The AI politics file, then reload the game I could fine tune the AI to at least put up more of a fight.

Does this sond like it will work?

Also in the AI Anger Data File there is a line "Regular Decrease -3". Anyone know if this is yearly or every turn?

[Repo Man]

I'm not sure what the units are for the anger file, but I changed it to -1. AI got really angry in a matter of turns. -2 seems to make them gradually drop, but they do recover. My main problem right now is that AI choices seem unrelated to anger. A brotherly race who has not fired a shot in a decade will not accept a peace treaty, while a murderous race keeps sending me alliance proposals.

I have been experimenting with the declaration of war settings, but its too early to tell what they do.

[Noble713]

quote:

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Originally posted by Sultan:
I was wondering if I save a game at what I feel is a key turning point, change the AI settings in the AI anger file and The AI politics file, then reload the game I could fine tune the AI to at least put up more of a fight.

Does this sond like it will work?

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I think saved games retain the data of whenever they were firs created, so if you change something in a major data file and restart the game, you will still have to create a new game.

[Ebonyknight]

I have to agree with that. It seems to read the files when the game starts, then never again. "Tweaking" during a game doesn't seem to be possible.

[Talenn]

No, thats not completely true either. I was playing a game where I had fighters galore and decided to make a change to the fighter cost to make them a bit more expensive. I restarted my game after making the change and the fighters created afterwards all had the new cost. The old ones listed as the old cost. The game crashed out once one of my carriers was carrying some of both (same class of fighter, different costs). I assume some sort of internal checking error caused it.

So, I *THINK* it can be effected by changes to the data and that it might re-read the data for something every time the game is launched.

Talenn

[LintMan]

At least some things can be changed mid-game. I changed the research points granted by research facils mid-game, and that worked. I also changed the "remote mining depletes asteroids" mid-game, and that also worked.

[Talenn]

Lintman:

I've been toying with the idea of changing the number of RPs that Research Centers generate too. Out of curiousity, what change did you make (up or down?) and why?

Thanx,
Talenn

[Baron Munchausen]

Changing data files and then reloading an old game is tricky. The game seems to use tables built on-the-fly when it loads the data files, so changing tech levels or components can make things "shift" and produce very weird results like armor components replacing engines in a ship design or something like that. Small changes to the abilities of components (weapon damage, shield strength, cargo storage) don't seem to be a problem, but changes in cost or size usually will be. I think you can change the AI files without the game getting screwed up, but many of the changes won't have an effect on an existing game. It's generally better to start a new game when you change the data files.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 04 December 2000).]

[Jubala]

Sounds like the game needs a convert function to convert a saved game to use new datafiles without going bonkers. When you load it says something like "This is being played with a different dataset then the active one. Do you wish to convert the game to this dataset?"

It would also be good if the game asked at startup which dataset I want to use based on which ones are available somewhere in the gamefolder. Since all tweakable data isn't in the data folders alone (AI's for instance) maybe some way to tell the game what files to use for a specific dataset would be good. Like dataset.txt in which all datasets are listed with names of textfiles, like mydataset.txt in which all modified files are listed and their path. Any file not listed gets to be the default file instead. I hope I made any sense there.

[LintMan]

quote:

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Originally posted by Talenn:
Lintman:

I've been toying with the idea of changing the number of RPs that Research Centers generate too. Out of curiousity, what change did you make (up or down?) and why?

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I bumped the numbers up to 700/800/900 (I think - but it might have been 800/900/1000 - I changed it to match the mineral facil output) for research levels I/II/III.

I bumped it up because when I applied the patch during my current game, I lost 20% of my total research points due to the computer facils becoming non-cumulative, and also some techs had skyrocketed (more than tripled) in cost. I started my game at low tech, and wanted to see the whole tech tree. I already had a huge empire going with 40-50 planets, and I was barely managing to get 200K RP's/turn post-patch. It seemed that at my current rate, the game would be over (the AI players were way behind) long before I got to the coolest techs.

I don't know if I'll keep the points at this higher level, but it does seem to me that in a low-tech start, you'll never get up to those highest techs in a game with the research points set at 500/600/700.

There's just so many techs to get and not enough research points to get them. What I'd really like to see is the amount of research points doubled, but only if you spread your points among several fields. I.e.: if you research 3-4 techs at once in different areas, you'd get a big bonus percentage that you'd lose if you put all your research into one area. That way, it would encourage wide coverage of more tech areas (instead of narrowly following just one branch at a time), while allowing decent progress to be made in all the areas.