Which scanner is the best choice?

[Trachmyr]

Ahh... good point about the AI. Truth is I haven't really gotten to AI modding yet... It is quite possible that I might have to reduce the number of sensore/cloaks to let the AI have a chance. What I plan to do, is have the AI only research a few types of sensors and cloaks, thus they'll be less chance of confusion. The I'll have to find a way to make sure the AI uses the best sensors/cloaks available. One thing I'll do with sensors, is create a "Scout" and "Capital Ship" design for attack ships and a "patrol ship" for defense ships... thus only a few ships will have sensors. For cloaks, each race will have 1 or 2 cloak combinations that will be applied to all attack ships & special operation ships(i.e., deystroy star, minelayer, etc.).

For instance, take a "human" empire:

Techs available: Ladar, Hyper-optics/EM Band Scanner, Emissions scanner, Stealth Armor, Emissions Cloaking and scanner jammers

"Patrol" defense ships will have Passive scanning and scanners

"Scout" attack ships will have Passive/active/stealth/emmissions

"Capital" attack ships will have the same as scouts plus scanners and jammers

All other attack ships will have stealth/emmissions/jammers

This will give the "Humans" early cloak ability, that will not be effective in the later game (but it will still be armor), and good sensors.

I would like to give them more variety but that causes confusion because each type of componet that the AI_Design_Creation calls for requires one componet be built... for instance, lets say I give them CLOAKING DEVICES, when the AI reads that the ship needs 1 Passive cloak and 1 active cloak, it will build 1 cloaking device to satisfy each requirement (thus 2 cloaking devices will be built). So for race that use cloaking devices, I can only call for 1 cloak type to be built... which means in the early game they will not be able to use a combination of componets to cloak in multiple areas... I could allow them to research scattering armor, thus the call for 1 type of claok will build an item that provides multiple protection. It's gonna be really confusing to write the AI, and I have to seperate each cloaking/sensor type into seperate tech fields (with a few exceptions, like hyper-optics/EM Band scanners wich are direct "improvements")

Well, I'll just have to cross my fingers that I'll be able to get the AI to use 'em effectivly!

ARRRRRG! Just looked at AI_Design_creation.txt, and realized you can't make calls for seperate types of cloak/sensors! I'm gonna have to alter some things to make it work like I want. All hopes not lost, I can modify the way they research techs, make calls for armor instead of cloaks, or use some of the tags I through out to call for specific items (for instance I through out Emergency Resupply and Emergency Propulsion, I can add those abilities (giving 0 supplies/propulsion) to some of the sensors/cloaks and then call for those abilities (getting the sensor/cloak I want). Oh, well... looks like modding the AI just got a lot more difficult!

[This message has been edited by Trachmyr (edited 23 April 2001).]

[Marty Ward]

I use visible mines and it works good. I have some that are invisible unless you have a certain type and level of sensor. The basic, very crude, mine is visible to all.
You still get hit by them going through a warp point, which makes them useful even if you can see them. Once you got into a system you can where others are located, provided you have the right sensors.

[Marty Ward]

The AI actually doesn't have any more problem with partially hidden mines than regular mines, which isn't saying much. If they actually build and equip a ship with a sensor they may see a few more minefields than normal. It is definately better in a game with humans.