Tale of a Game - from a play test perspective

[DirectorTsaarx]

First of all, let me say I'm enjoying reading these Posts. Good analytical work; I hope modders & MM are paying attention. I have yet to make time for modding my own AI, but I'm certainly taking your comments to heart!

quote:

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Originally posted by God Emperor:
Still not sure why Borg ships are not being equipped with Shields even though they have the tech. Something to do with boarding tech?

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Probably. ISTR a discussion about using armor for boarding party ships, at least until shield regenerators are available. Mainly because using the boarding parties drops YOUR shields, leaving an unarmored ship rather vulnerable. Once regenerators are available, of course, the shields will come back after a boarding action (at whatever rate the regenerators can handle), so shields become a bit more useful again.

[God Emperor]

Turn 70;
War against the Piundon continues to go well - have destroyed all 4 of their colonies in the Becrus system and built a resupply colony in the Gamma 2 Sgr system. Now have nine lt cruisers and one cruiser opposing them (destroyers have been reassigned to exploration duties). Again, I cant push any further forward due to supply difficulties.

Piundon ships are still very crappy - have destroyed a further 22 destroyers in 3 encounters for no loss. Piundon are now in 10th position.

Terrans are down to one planet somewhere and they still wont surrender.
Am still appeasing the Klingons, Rage and Colonials. Klingons have claims over two of my systems but have not taken any action so far. Rage have established a claim over one system and have dropped to cool. Have begun mining the warp point to them.

Mineral reserves now around 170,000 and ship building program (Cruisers)is in full swing. Have also just begun pumping out fighters and mines.

Player position Ratings;
1st Romulans 38 planets, 56 ships
2nd Me!! 40 planets, 43 ships
3rd Klingons 33 planets, 40 ships
4th Borg 36 planets, 49 ships
5th Rage 24 planets, 41 ships
6th Darloks 20 planets, 54 ships

7th Abbidon 12 planets, 29 ships
8th Shadows 21 planets, 38 ships

Darloks have jumped into 6th spot.

Diplomacy
Me At war with Terrans and Piundon
Borg At war with Norak, Shadows, Colonials and Abbidon!!!
Romulans At war with Darloks and Norak
Klingons at war with Narn and Sergetti
Abbidon At war with Borg
Darloks at war with Borg and Romulans
Rage At war with Pyrochette

Comments
Borg Lt Cruisers are now being equipped with Shields but not neural interfaces and repair systems. Sounds like a space problem.
Borg are at war with most of their neighbours and this is slowing their progress. They also appear to have just about colonised all available worlds.

Darloks are expanding well and have the two weakest races nearby Ships are of good quality - destroyers with Armour III, missile IV's and contra terrene engines. have four carriers in action.

Klingons are continuing to do well. Ships are very heavily designed - Cruisers are now equipped with 4xDUC IV's, 1xshield IV, contra terrene engines, 3xarmour III, 5xpoint defence IV and 1xSolar Collector III. Narn are under assault by the Klingon 2nd fleet (9 lt cruisers) and are in a lot of trouble. Klingons are one turn off of gaining Intelligence compounds.


Rage still looking very good and their Lt cruisers are packing Shield V's, PPB V's and PD V's. They have a good spread of planet types. Rage also have Intelligence and are generating more points than the Darloks!!
Their war against the Pyrochette appears to be going well.
No sign of the earlier No Storage Messages.

Romulans are still the meanest mothers in the valley. Are deploying Lt Cruisers with DUC IV's or Missile IV's, Shield IV's, contra terrene engines and 5xArmour III's. Have just acquired Solar Collectors.
Planet wise, they have a very good spread of planet types by virtue of the sheer number of planets that they have colonised. Still expanding despite their wars..

Shadows are continuing to slowly grow and have just begun building Intelligence centres.
Ship designs are good with Lt Cruisers packing Shield IV's, contra terrene engines, point defence IV's, Solar Collector III's and parasite or globule III's. The Shadows do not appear to be under much military pressure from the Borg so my earlier concerns may not be well founded.
Shadows have just gone Partnership with the Abbidon which may prove interesting.

Abbidon are doing very well. They dont have a lot of planets or ships but have very advanced tech (psychic weapons V, shields V, contra terrene engines, Lt cruisers).
These guys could be a serious contender for top AI in this game. They are friendly with most races (Partnership with Norak and Shadows) and are only at war with the Borg.
Just remembered that these guys are using the Filler Techs which explains their well focussed research (and high score - up to level 26 in Filler Tech 1 and 2).


[This message has been edited by God Emperor (edited 21 May 2001).]

[God Emperor]

DirectorTsaarx,
Thanks for the comments - particularly about boarding. I may need to hold off of shields for the Borg then - they will probably be ok without them due to the self repair systems that their ships possess. Only threat will be from races using armour piercing weapons such as the crystalline races and those using Null Space Weapons.
Regards,
GE


[This message has been edited by God Emperor (edited 21 May 2001).]

[Alpha Kodiak]

GE:

Just wanted to tell you that I am really enjoying this running story of the game unfolding. (And yes, I am paying attention to how the Rage are behaving - so far so good, it would seem.) It is very useful to get these perspectives on the various AI's so that I can improve both the Rage and future projects.

[God Emperor]

Alpha Kodiak,
Was hoping people might fight it interesting/useful. Am impressed with your work on the Rage - good expansion rate and good weapons selections. They aint no bunnies.

Up to turn 72 now, will report on turn 80, or before if something significant happens.

Turns are taking increasingly longer to complete (including the AI). Can now go to toilet, grab a drink and wash some dishes before the AI completes all 16 race turns. My wife is happy to see me out of the computer room though!
My poor old P233MMX is overdue for an upgrade - did upgrade it from 32 to 64 Mb of RAM which seemed to make a significant difference.
Anyway, enough of my ramblings, and back to the game!
Regards,
GE

[Tampa_Gamer]

GE - this thread is a great ideal. I am taking notes on what I need to change with the "crappy" Piundon ships, I am curious though - do they have the tech and are not using it or are they seriously lacking research points? On another note, I have not seen anything positive about the Darlok in awhile, so I am glad to see them survive in a game.

[This message has been edited by Tampa_Gamer (edited 22 May 2001).]

[God Emperor]

Tampa_gamer,
Apologies if my language got a bit too harsh on the Piundon (in a sense my wording reflected my relief that the 23 ships I had engaged were not from the Rage, Klingons, Abbidon etc).
Will do an in depth check on them later tonight and post any useful observations.
Regards,
GE

[God Emperor]

Piundon review:

At turn 67, the latest Piundon ships are as follows:
Destroyers with Shard Cannon III or Crystalline Torpedo III, Crystalline Armour I and Contra Terrene Engines.
The best ships that I have engaged to date had Shard Cannon I's or Crystalline Torpedo I's.
Piundon have just discovered Physics but Shields are of course 4th in their research queue.
The lack of Shields is what has made the Piundon ships so easy to defeat.

Piundon only have 3 Research colonies, 1 Intelligence compound, 1 Military Inst, 1 Construction Yard and 1 forced Mining Colony. They have 9 regular Mining colonies, 3 Refining colonies and 1 Organics colony.

An observation is that the Military Inst, Construction Yards, and Intelligence compounds have built Miners.
I would suggest that the Miners should be replaced in the Construction_Facilities file by Research Compounds and Intelligence compounds as follows:

Facility x Ability := Point Generation - Intelligence
Facility x Amount := 30
Facility y Ability := Point Generation - Research
Facility y Amount := 30

This will ensure that if you have Applied Intelligence you will build Intelligence compounds and if you dont, you will build Research Compounds instead.
As it is, the colonies are building Miners on planets with poor Mineral content and do not have enough Research Compounds.

This is the approach I took with my Klingons, Romulans etc....


[This message has been edited by God Emperor (edited 22 May 2001).]

[God Emperor]

Xi Chung review:

Xi Chung are suffering from a very slow expansion rate. They have few colonies and no Research Compounds.
This problem is largely is attributable to their Construction_Vehicles file which doesnt promote Coloniser production and which promotes ship production;

AI State := Exploration
Num Queue Entries := 9
Entry 1 Type := Colonizer
Entry 1 Planet Per Item := 40
Entry 1 Must Have At Least := 1
Entry 2 Type := Attack Ship
Entry 2 Planet Per Item := 40
Entry 2 Must Have At Least := 2
Entry 3 Type := Base Space Yard
Entry 3 Planet Per Item := 80
Entry 3 Must Have At Least := 2
Entry 4 Type := Population Transport
Entry 4 Planet Per Item := 200
Entry 4 Must Have At Least := 1
Entry 5 Type := Defense Ship
Entry 5 Planet Per Item := 60
Entry 5 Must Have At Least := 1
Entry 6 Type := Recon Satellite
Entry 6 Planet Per Item := 50
Entry 6 Must Have At Least := 0
Entry 7 Type := Troop
Entry 7 Planet Per Item := 1
Entry 7 Must Have At Least := 100
Entry 8 Type := Base Space Yard
Entry 8 Planet Per Item := 30
Entry 8 Must Have At Least := 2
Entry 9 Type := Attack Ship
Entry 9 Planet Per Item := 2
Entry 9 Must Have At Least := 4

I suggest that at the very least, another Coloniser line 30:2 should be inserted prior to Entry 9.

Xi Chung currently have two forced Mining colonies (triggered by maintenance exceeding production).

Due to their slow growth rate, it is difficult to draw any further conclusions.

[God Emperor]

Turn 77;
Am just about to resume the offensive against the Piundon - things have been quiet for Last 7 turns as I had to refuel my fleet and establish a new forward resupply colony.

Terrans are now dead - found their Last world and bLasted it out of existance.

Am still appeasing the Klingons and Colonials. Klingons have claims over three of my systems but have not taken any action so far.

Rage broke the Trade Alliance Last turn (Angry) without any provocation so I wiped out all three colonies of his in his border system (to get rid of any refuelling bases).
Have deployed 100 mines at the warp point to his (ex) border system just in case. have 10 Lt Cruisers and 4 Cruisers deployed against him. Will be interesting so see how it goes (he has PBB V's and I am way off of getting Phased Shields. I do have Null Space Weapon I's though coming through. May re-equip my entire battlefleet).

Mineral reserves are now down to 80,000 and I am researching Minerals III to offset a looming mineral problem.

Player position Ratings;
1st Klingons 34 planets, 68 ships
2nd Me!! 50 planets, 43 ships
3rd Romulans 41 planets, 56 ships
4th Borg 36 planets, 51 ships
5th Rage 24 planets, 45 ships
6th Darloks 23 planets, 56 ships

8th Abbidon 12 planets, 33 ships
9th Shadows 21 planets, 37 ships

Klingons have grabbed 1st spot.

Diplomacy
Me At war with Rage and Piundon
Borg At war with Norak, Shadows, Darloks and Abbidon!!!
Romulans At war with Darloks and Norak
Klingons at war with Narn and Piundon
Abbidon At war with Borg
Darloks at war with Borg and Romulans
Rage At war with Me and Pyrochette
Shadows At war with Borg and Darloks

Comments
Borg Lt Cruisers are now being equipped with neural interfaces and repair systems, but not Shields!!. Sounds like a space problem.
Borg are at war with most of their neighbours and this is slowing their progress. They also appear to have just about colonised all available worlds.

Darloks are expanding well and have the two weakest races nearby. Ships are of good quality - destroyers with Stealth Armour I, missile IV's and contra terrene engines. Still have four carriers in action.
Lots of No Storage Messages are back again.
Darloks are running short on Radioactives and now have one forced Refining colony.

Klingons are continuing to do well. Ships are very heavily designed - they now have Battlecruisers which are equipped with 2xNSP III's, 3xshield IV, contra terrene engines, 4xarmour III, 6xpoint defence IV, 1x Solar Sail II and 1xSolar Collector III.
Narn are under assault by the Klingon 2nd and 4th fleets (17 lt cruisers) and are in a lot of trouble. Klingons havent built any Intelligence compounds yet.


Rage still looking very good and their Lt cruisers are packing Shield V's, PPB V's and PD V's. They have a good spread of planet types. Rage also have Intelligence and are generating more points than the Darloks!!
Their war against the Pyrochette appears to be going well.
No sign of the earlier No Storage Messages.

Romulans have dropped back to 3rd place with Klingons looking tougher now. Their Lt Cruisers possess DUC IV's or Missile IV's, Shield IV's, contra terrene engines, point defence IV's, 5xArmour III's and Solar Collector III's.
Romulan 1st fleet (8 ships) is giving the Norak a hard time.

Shadows appear to have stopped growing. Havent built any Intelligence centres yet as they havent colonised any new worlds.
Ship designs are good with Lt Cruisers packing Shield IV's, contra terrene engines, point defence IV's, Solar Collector III's and parasite or globule III's. The Shadows are under some military pressure from the Borg but seem to have better ships in the area. They are in Partnership with the Abbidon who are at war with the Borg too.

Abbidon are doing well. They dont have a lot of planets or ships but have very advanced tech (psychic weapons V, shields V, contra terrene engines, Cruisers - discovered this turn).
They are friendly with most races (Partnership with Norak and Shadows) and are only at war with the Borg.