Darloks 1.30 Posted (finally)

[Tampa_Gamer]

Tampa_Gamer Darloks Version 1.30
01/07/01
Space Empires IV Version 1.19

This AI race is the compilation of at least 100+ hours of tweaking and testing. Many thanks to Aaron and the rest of his team for this game. I have not spent this many hours on a 4x space game since the MOO days and even then there were only a handful of patches and very little interaction with the programmers! Also special thanks to Shrapnel for two great games (AoA:WDK2K and SE4) in one year!

This AI race can be added to both tweaked and "pure" games b/c I have not modified any components, facilities or research techs.

The zip file is set-up to extract the files to the proper directories and contains the following:

(1) A fixed Version of the "Default_AI_DesignCreation.txt" (the Last patch did not update certain abilities contained in this file, thus the computer players were not using Combat Sensors or ECM components. This will most likely be fixed in the next patch, but here it is for now. NOTHING ELSE WAS CHANGED IN THIS FILE.

(2) An augmented "Formations.txt" file that includes one additional custom formation for the Darloks. NONE OF THE ORIGINAL FORMATIONS WERE MODIFIED.

(3) A custom race called the "Darlok" based loosely on the infamous MOO race. All AI files have been built (almost) from scratch. Nyx from Twin Galaxies is working on a speech file for this race which will be incorporated in the next Version. The current speech file has some lines from MOO2 built in, but nothing fancy. I am not a graphics artist, so the graphics were slightly modified from the cousins of the Darloks, the Xiati.

(4) Three .EMP files called "Darlok 2000" "Darlok 3000" and "Darlok 5000" for their respective racial points used.

(5) New design name file with 750+ entries based on legal terminology (sorry, could not resist).

KNOWN LIMITATIONS: (many of these have already been posted in my "Bugs/Wish-List" thread on the Shrapnel Games Board

(1) The biggest advantage the Darlok had was their stealthy ships. I had originally included a new racial trait called "Stealthy" and correspending components available only to races with this ability. However, during playtesting it appears that NONE of the AI races use the cloaking ability at anytime, so it was removed temporarily until this is fixed in a (hopefully) forthcoming patch.

(2) The second biggest advantage the Darlok had was their Intel capability. Although I have given them a considerable Intel boost via racial %, the text files currently do not let you prioritize the Intel projects by a certain race. This leads to many projects. Most races have between 8-12 projects outstanding at a time with very long completion times. My suggested fixed was to have a file similar to the research file where races can have a priority order and % operating at a time (again similar to the research file). This would accomplish (A) specifying certain races to have aggressive, neutral or defensive projects depending on their demeanor and AI_State and (B) eliminate the current problem of inefficent use of Intel Points.

(3) A custom "Strategies" file was removed temporarily until a forthcoming patch causes the game to read custom strategy files in the individual races subdirectory. Currently, all races share the same default file and I did not want to alter all the races.

(4) The selection of planet types by the AI needs a lot of tweaking which is not currently available via modifying the text files. I have suggested a field to base the decision on "static" resource % amounts instead of "relative" to each other.

(5) Periodically all races (even the EA) will "pause" and not produce anything for a set number of turns even though there are sufficient resources. My theory is that they can only read so many "construction queues" per turn in the .txt file, but I will continue to tweak this.

(6) Still working on the designs to allow the Darloks to utilize stolen technology.

As this will be a continual work-in-process, please forward all tweaks, suggestions and bugs found to me at ctraber@ngn-tampa.com.

Have Fun!
-Tampa_Gamer


[This message has been edited by Tampa_Gamer (edited 08 January 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Tampa_Gamer (edited 08 January 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Tampa_Gamer (edited 09 January 2001).]