Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion

[Rollo]

Thanks for you feedback Mac. I appreciate it.

I will look into the designs of the Sonne. 12 turns for a DN is a long time indeed, esp. since they should use Temporal SY. Perhaps they use too many expensive weapons. But also from the other observations, maybe they just had a bad start. That would explain why they underperform in so many issues.

Your observations about the AI is correct. I often have them use BB as ship-of-the-line for some time. Each of the AI goes through different stages and a new ship size often goes hand in hand with a change of weapons and/or combat tactics, but they should all build DN and Super-DN eventually. About Monitors and Supermonitors, I am not so sure. Could be that I didn't do designs for them, but it has been a while since I Last worked on them. My new (yet unrealesed) temporal AI does use them, though.

There is always a certain element of chance, whether a race is doing good or not. Depending on the planets the AI finds early in the game. This especially true for Devnull Mod, where the chance of the AI lacking a resource is higher compared to unmodded SE4. This is not meant as an excuse and I have already improved the AI on that issue. I take your feedback seriously and will look into that.

Last but not least I like to say that I attempted to make the AI really different from each other: different weapons, tactics, priorities, and use of units. Not all of these choices are maximized to efficiency and make the AI as strong as possible, but I feel they make the game richer. (Heck, when I did the Flora, I just thought I had a nifty and different concept. It wasn't my goal to make them a killer AI. Just try something new.)

Last item: I am curiuos. What bonus do you give the AI in your SP games usually?

Rollo