AI Races Expand Too Slowly.

[Alpha Kodiak]

I also slowed the expnsion of the Rage because of complaints that they were too weak if met early. It is difficult to balance for either small or large quadrants.

I tried putting shipyards on most planets and ran into huge resource problems for the reason already mentioned: they all get tied up building ships instead of facilities, so you wind up with a big fleet and no resource production.

I'm getting better results now by putting shipyard base up early and trying to ensure at least one "Resupply Base" planet type with a shipyard in almost every colonized system.

I would like to get the AI to send a colonizer out to explore. As a human, I will frequently send a colonizer out a warp to see if there is a planet on the other side to colonize. The AI needs to explore the warp first with an attack ship before it will send a colonizer through.

In summary, I agree that the AI needs to expand faster. I am working on the Rage. as well as a couple of other projects, to improve that rate without making them a pushover in a small quadrant game.

[Phier]

I play large clusters with low bonus on hard with the tmd mod and other then the neutrals, the AI expands like a mother f...er. Dozens of colony ships and more planets then you can shake a stick at. Also they seem to have good facilities on them. Where the computer does fall down is research and population. While I'll shuttle my populations the computer just lets them build it seems or mostly which means they will have a lot of 34m colonies. Right now I have about 157B empire in population and #2 who controlls more planets has about 30B I think. The other thing I"m sure the computer doesn't do is use diff population types for diff atmospheres. If I capture an O2 colony and my guys are hydrogen I'll empty the pop off my O2 planets and replace with the O2pop for obvious reasons.

Research - about 2/3rds of my early planets are research, I'm always head of the computer here.

Other things, I've yet to see the computer try to capture one of my planets, its always glassing.

- Why would one turn after I take over an enemy home world they would be jubilent? I just destroyed 1/3rd of their population, bombed them from space, and they are acting like I'm their favorite uncle.

- Speaking of bombing from space, whats the point of planet bombs (not destroyers but normal damage types), I've never seen a use for them to date. In Moo1-2 they had a nice use cause beam weapons were like 1/3rd damage.

- Satalites are useless. Just thought I'd say that too.

- There should be some 'super massive' beam weapons you can put on planets to increase standard range or something, right now planet defenses seem like so much fluff after you get point defense and nullify all seekers.

- Now this REALLY annoys me. If you are moving from A-C and in system B you see an enemy ship your ship stops moving. I can understand why you might want that but there is NO warning, nothing to let you know it happened. Its been more then once I see a colony ship or fleet held up at a wp thats been sitting there for god knows how long because it saw a colony ship 3 turns ago on the other side of the system.

[Marty Ward]

There is a mod that increases weapons platform range, Dev mod includes it. You should try that, PPB with range 12, APB with range 15. Tough to get close to a planet with this mod. Also, in the empire window you can remove the check mark to clear movement orders when entering a system with enemie in it.
As far as AI's being slow to grow I think with the number of possible starting conditions that the only way to overcome this is to have different AI files for different types of play, ie a fast expansion Version, a strong military Version, etc. but that would be a lot of work to make and set up.
I would guess that the most common set up is large mid-life and most people seem to play large quadrant so the AI should be based on this.

[God Emperor]

As Daynarr and Alpha Kodiak have indicated, controlling the expansion rate of the AI is a fine balancing act. With the Romulans, Klingons etc, I ended up putting in an extended queue in the Construction_Vehicles file for Exploration state in order to get bases, colonisers and warships built in the right order. I also extensively modified the queues for the other AI states.
Also, the AI really does seem to need a low bonus as a minimum in order to operate well (even mod pack races), so anyone not playing without a bonus should consider doing so.

Finally, I also agree that planetary defense weapons are basically crap - hence the fact that I designed the Klingons not to use WP's, Defense Bases and Satellites. They do build lots of fighters instead though...
Might give Devnulls mod a try down the track though just to make life interesting....

[This message has been edited by God Emperor (edited 28 May 2001).]

As an Ancient race I know what is worth colonizing. So on the very first turn I plan what will be my first 39 colonies. As the AI explores, it should keep a list of the 20 (At least) highest production potential planets known, and update the list with every change to its map. Each entry is marked as pending with a note of the scheduled planet when production starts. Then in transit when built, and finally taken off the list when planted. That may require a code change to the colonization minister, but would not be affected by quadrant size and richness of the environment. It might also solve the problem of forced production on low quality minerals when it should be doing high quality organics or radioactives.

[Sinapus]

Actually, weapon platforms are useful if you have the mod that increases the ranges of platform-based weapon mounts, that is.

Of course, the main problem is that the AI doens't jettison obsolete platforms and build replacements with the latest tech for that turn. 30-50 turn old designs should get rid of the seriously outdated ones while keeping the obsolescent ones in place til the new ones get built.

That and maybe some way to get the AI to build planetary defenses in some way that doesn't overload their cargo storage.

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"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

[This message has been edited by Sinapus (edited 28 May 2001).]

[Marty Ward]

In a high tech game the AI can build some nasty Weapons Platforms, especially with the range increase mods. Neutrals build Large WP with 2 heavy WMG on each, range 17 damage 420. Try attacking a planet with 6+ of these, you WILL take some damage closing on with the planet. The Dev mod also increases the range of the Satellites. Between WP and Sats, attacking planets is no piece of cake anymore.
It would be nice if every so many turns the AI checked to see if their WP were in need of replacement with better ones. Maybe these units should be given the ability to upgrade like ships. It would certainly help the AI's defense ability.

Bump.
Have the AI for the newest TDM been modified to increase their expansion rate as requested here ?

[Mephisto]

Yes, at least my races.

quote:

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Originally posted by LCC:
Bump.
Have the AI for the newest TDM been modified to increase their expansion rate as requested here ?

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[TaeraRepublic]

While working on my Taera race, i made them to expand quickly, and infact they do.
Even though using the rare Ice planets, and even rarer atmosphere Oxygen, my Taerans expand quickly. Quicker than most races, as i've seen.
You might want to try them.

Not the best enemy, but still.

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Emperor Klis't of the Taera Republic.
Proud member of the League of Empires.

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