AI Colonization Styles

Baron Munchausen · #1 October 6th, 2001, 04:23 PM

This is another area where the AI needs a lot of fleshing out. Not only does it seem to go for planet value over anything else, it will not 'give up' on a planet it has decided to colonize even when massive military force stands in the way and other planets are easily accessible. If you blockade a warp point into a system and destroy any colonizers that come through, it will keep sending another colonizer forever. I've often seen it send colonizers THROUGH a system with a half-dozen or more colonizable planets trying to reach another system. Once in a while it will send a warship through ahead of the colonizer, but it will never, EVER, fleet colonizers with warships as escort. Nor will it guard a colony once founded. Slag a colony and it sends another colonizer, unescorted, into the same system with your waiting warships, and doesn't bother to defend it even if it manages to refound the colony.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 06 October 2001).]

CW · #2 October 6th, 2001, 06:11 PM

quote:
If you blockade a warp point into a system and destroy any colonizers that come through, it will keep sending another colonizer forever.

Ask my allies in PBW, I colonised pretty fast yet I didn't build that many colony ships myself. All I had to do was to put a battery of sats with allegiance subverters on them at warp points. It costs me practically nothing yet I have a constant supply of new colony ships. What's even better the colony ships come with supplies of different atmosphere breathers.

Menschenfresser · #3 October 6th, 2001, 10:13 PM

Many thanks for your help.

I have seen that too Baron, where the AI sends colony ship after colony ship through a WP only to find several of my war ships waiting. However, forever is a long time. And I can remember two occasions when, after several attempts, it stopped completely. Almost as if losing all interest in my system.

As to the fleet sizes, yes, a fleet of 35+ is not something you want to meet, even if controlled by the AI. However, the Colonials I previously mentioned did far more damage with their smaller fleets, simply because their were more of them.

Two designCreation file questions that I couldn't find answers in doing searches:

What exactly is this good for? It's the Last entry in the instructions part of the file.

// STILL NEED:
Roles that each design type can be used for:
Type 1 Role Used in Attack := True
Type 1 Role Used in Defense := False

And since it will be a while before I am able to play test my empire, what happens if you put in more than one of a particular design...say more than one entry for "attack ship?"

Again thanks for the comments.

Baron Munchausen · #4 October 6th, 2001, 11:32 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Menschenfresser:
Many thanks for your help.

I have seen that too Baron, where the AI sends colony ship after colony ship through a WP only to find several of my war ships waiting. However, forever is a long time. And I can remember two occasions when, after several attempts, it stopped completely. Almost as if losing all interest in my system.

As to the fleet sizes, yes, a fleet of 35+ is not something you want to meet, even if controlled by the AI. However, the Colonials I previously mentioned did far more damage with their smaller fleets, simply because their were more of them.

Two designCreation file questions that I couldn't find answers in doing searches:

What exactly is this good for? It's the Last entry in the instructions part of the file.

// STILL NEED:
Roles that each design type can be used for:
Type 1 Role Used in Attack := True
Type 1 Role Used in Defense := False

And since it will be a while before I am able to play test my empire, what happens if you put in more than one of a particular design...say more than one entry for "attack ship?"

Again thanks for the comments.

Well, 'forever' is metaphorical. The AI doesn't respond to a rather obvious situation in any remotely reasonable time frame.

The comments from the header of the designcreation file are just that. Comments. Aaron seems to have been in the habit of keeping notes for himself in the headers of these files as he was developing the game. Many were deleted in the beta phase, but some of them got out into the finished game.

Putting more than one ship of the same TYPE (not name) in the design creation file results in ships of several types being built, if the requirements to build them can be met. There is no way to control how many of each type are built, though. It's apparently random. So, if you put both missile ships and beam ships in the Jraenar file, you'd change their style from missile ships only to a mix of both beam ships and missile ships.

I think duplicating the name as well as the style results in an error.