Some AI mod questions

[Chad]

So, I'm trying my hand at playing around with the AI files. Mostly I'm just looking and thinking in order to figure out what does what - can't seem to find any concrete guide that explains what is what.

Some specific questions:

the .emp file. I understand what it is, but how does it link up with the AI files? Does it? I mean, if I use the .emp file to add the 'rage' to a game what AI files does it use. If the game uses the AI files from the race folder, how does i t know to? I can't seem to find anything that says 'use xyz.emp'.

I'm looking over pirates & nomades mod. I'm wondering if I could just import the race files that I have into that mod and if they would work ok. I understand that I would have to add 'regular' and increase the number of traits (I think that is what it is called) by one. But other than that, is there anything that needs to be done?

What makes an AI 'hard' to beat? Why is the rage from TDM considered harder than the eee from the base game? Just looking for some opinions here. Really just suggestions I can use to go over the races I have collected and see if I can do some fast tweeks here and there.

What mods out there are AI friendly? That is, improve AI performance. I'm looking for things that make changes to the map for improved AI performance. Maybe a few tech changes that spotlight stuff the AI does vs things that humans do.

I'm mostly a single player kind of guy - or with just a few closer friends. I've collected about 80 race files and what I would like to do is improve them a bit. Do a pass through the .emp file or the AI_general (if that is the right file) to powergame up the designs a bit. Make some adjustments to the politics and other files as well. finish it off with some game mods to improve AI performance accross the board.

I would appreciate any help yall could give

[Atrocities]

You should visit the MOD WORKS at SE.net

And read the Modding 101 tutorial by Fyron.

[Atrocities]

Chad said:

Some specific questions:

the .emp file. I understand what it is, but how does it link up with the AI files? Does it? I mean, if I use the .emp file to add the 'rage' to a game what AI files does it use. If the game uses the AI files from the race folder, how does i t know to? I can't seem to find anything that says 'use xyz.emp'.

EMP files are basically memorized Race_AI_General file set up. 2k represents the 2k portions of the General file, 3k the 3k part, and the 5k the 5k portion of the Race_AI_General file.

I'm looking over pirates & nomades mod. I'm wondering if I could just import the race files that I have into that mod and if they would work ok. I understand that I would have to add 'regular' and increase the number of traits (I think that is what it is called) by one. But other than that, is there anything that needs to be done?

No they would not work.. You would have to set them up to work. Each mod has different technology and or racial traits and or may not use stock racial triats. This would cause a conflict thus making your AI files not work properly.

What makes an AI 'hard' to beat? Why is the rage from TDM considered harder than the eee from the base game? Just looking for some opinions here. Really just suggestions I can use to go over the races I have collected and see if I can do some fast tweeks here and there.

It is the way the AI was optimized.

What mods out there are AI friendly? That is, improve AI performance. I'm looking for things that make changes to the map for improved AI performance. Maybe a few tech changes that spotlight stuff the AI does vs things that humans do.

Improved AI? Well that depends... mods make changes to files and the AI will behave differantly for each mod.. Most mods have optimized AI for that mod. One such mod is the STM. Although STM AI will not work in stock, and stock or another mods AI will not work in STM.

I'm mostly a single player kind of guy - or with just a few closer friends. I've collected about 80 race files and what I would like to do is improve them a bit. Do a pass through the .emp file or the AI_general (if that is the right file) to powergame up the designs a bit. Make some adjustments to the politics and other files as well. finish it off with some game mods to improve AI performance accross the board.

You can optimize the files and make changes as you wish. Playing with the characteristics and racial triats as well as setting up the research file to research the way you like, might improve the AI's performance.

Good luck.

[Captain Kwok]

The AI_General file contains options to basically create an "empire file" for a on the go for a randomly generated AI. The last entries (i.e. Opt 1, Race Charactertistic 1 etc) correspond to 2000, 3000, and 5000 racial pt starts. The other fields in that file select the culture, demeanors, and add race descriptions etc.

The TDM mod contains races that are enhanced in terms of ship design, and research pathways - which makes them more competitive especially when given a bonus.

The AIs in the P&N mod are adapted to use some of the traits in the mod and function somewhat, but are not exactly optimized for it. You can easily add space for extra traits in a race's General AI file, just be sure you don't overspend points. The best way to ensure you don't overspend points, is to design an empire file for that AI - then copy those traits, values, and characteristics into their general ai file.

Aside from the TDM mod, there is one called the AI Campaign mod - it uses AI only tech areas to make them more competitive.

Tweaking the other AI files will help improve AI performance, but that hasn't happened all that much due to the time required to mod and test them.

[Captain Kwok]

It seems Atrocities beat me to responding this time - although I did hammer him twice at SE.net over the last two days.

[Suicide Junkie]

I did write a program that will do the basic Stock->P&N conversions for you though:
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/...IPatcher2b.zip

It will get them to pick the normal race trait, as well as using a decent number of engines per ship in their designs.

[Fyron]

Atrocities said:
And read the Modding 101 tutorial by Fyron.

It does not cover AI, so the basic AI modding tutorials stickied in the SE4 AI FAQ forum at modworks are a good place to start.

SE4 AI FAQ

[Chad]

Thanks for the info guys. The links especially helped. After looking around a bit more, I'm not sure just how much effort I want to put into this. With SEV being talked about, it kind of robs my motivation to work on SEIV (although not to play it). If that makes any sense.

Still, the info provided will help me debugg some problems I run into. Not to mention it is just kind of fun to read anyhow. Hehe, wish I had read the post on updating SEIV Ai's to Gold earlier. Would have saved me alot of trouble.

[Tampa_Gamer]

Chad-

I think one of the best ways to understand how to mod the AI is to read the "readme.txt" files accompanied by an AI mod. Most of the authors in the TDM Mod put one in there. If nothing else, for a roadmap for what they tried and are still trying to accomplish. I know for my AI races, I tried to describe each change I made from version 1.00, etc. so that I could go back and fix something if it proved to be not beneficial to the AI. I think another thing to consider is that certain racial picks/planet preferences are going to do better depending on the type of game/galaxy you are playing. Similarly, some races really are not designed to be an aggresive combat race - like my Dra'kol. They are intended to stay true to their form similar to their distant cousins the Darloks, even though the intelligence system in SE4 will not give them any significant edge, they still poor most of their efforts into it. Anyway, do check out those readme's as I still learn a lot by reading what other fellow modders have done.

-TG