Note from MM - AI MODDERS MUST READ THIS

[jpinard]

OK guys, I have 2 Messages I received from Aaron. Read them both below, and he'd like to hear back from me ASAP. Please, NO nasty comments here. Just the highest ranking AI concerns plus fixes we've created and they(MM) will include them in the next patch slated for the end of January. Respond below and I'll put together a comprehensive e-mail for Aaron.

E-Mail #1: You guys have been doing tremendous work in the development of new areas
for SE4. We applaud your efforts. Please spread the word that if there's
anything you need added to the game to help your developments, just email
us.

Aaron

E-Mail #2: Is there a list of the current AI concerns? We've got a ton of different
issues to sort through and we weren't aware that AI was a high ranking
one. Send it in and we'll get right on it. We're hoping to have another
patch out by the end of this month.

Aaron

[Dracus]

I have one issue with the AI.
They never seem to do anything they agree to:
ex---ask them to leave a planet, they respond that they will but they never do.
ask them to declare war on another AI, they say the will, but never do.

[DirkHowitzer]

It would be nice if the AI were generally more aggressive in several areas...diplomacy, offensive ops, colonization, etc...they seem very passive. And...I don't know if it is possible to do this or not, but could a water world be added to the world types?
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"He's dead, Jim."-- Lt. Commander Leonard "Bones" McCoy |Chief Medical Officer / USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

[This message has been edited by DirkHowitzer (edited 13 January 2001).]

[This message has been edited by DirkHowitzer (edited 13 January 2001).]

[Kimball]

I like to see the AI ally themselves with each other more. That would make the game a little tougher.

[Mephisto]

Ok, I focus on things that are important for me as a MODDER. "Fixing" these will greatly improve the MODs that I can do.

It's somewhat of a long list but most things are not very hard to fix and only need small code fixes if any at all.

1.) ECM/Combat Sensors broken. This is caused by a "misspelling" in all design files. It momentarily reads "combat to hit add" or "combat to hit dec" but should read "combat to hit offense plus" and "combat to hit defense plus".

2.) The RaceName_AI_Strategies.txt are not working, the AI will always use Default_AI_Strategies.txt even so a RaceName_AI_Strategies.txt is placed in the race folder.

3.) The name file (at least the “states.txt”) is to small. The AI runs out of names and stops building new designs altogether. Just increase the design name addendum from 10 to 20 and it should work again (or just add more states :-)).

4.) When the design AI should fill up with shields, it will do so with shield generators every time but should use phased shield generators if available.

5.) Make the AI fill up the Last free tons of tonnage with armor. Currently the AI sometime leaves 20 t of space empty because neither a shield generator nor armor above tech level 4 fits in.

6.) An option to tell the AI which armor to use in its designs would be great.

7.) Spelling inconsistency: All resources are plural (i.e. “resource generation mineral -s- “) except for the mineral storage where it is singular (i.e. “resource storage mineral”). A typo here provokes an “Index Error”.

8.) Add a line “Use master computer if available” in the design files. At the moment you cannot prevent the AI from designing ships with bridges, life support and crew quarters.

9.) Give us the ability to add a computer virus like a point defense weapon to a design.

10.) Fix the engine “bug”. Currently the AI does not invoke the design routine when researching new engines. This seems to be related to the roman numerals in the components.txt. Every more advanced engine needs a higher roman numeral then the engine before.

11.) The empire AI should scrap old units (fighters, weapon platforms) to gain cargo space making room for the new designs.

12.) Atmospheric Converter: The AI should check if the planet already has the desired atmosphere and skip building the facility. It should also scrap the facility if the desired atmosphere has been produced.

13.) A small routine that prevents the AI from spending more then 50% or so of its income on building facilities. Currently the AI can disable itself by upgrading large amounts of facilities and running out of resources. In this case the Ai will scrap/abandon its ships and that leaves them without defense.

13.) The AI should use all remaining points between the maintenance max. and the actually income to build units (if storage is already full). At the moment the AI stops building units if it has reached its maintenance max. even so there are resources left and units don’t cost maintenance.

14.) When assigning orders from the AI_Construction_Vehicles.txt, the AI should try to assign as many as production facilities and resources allow. I.e. when the AI should build 10 cruisers and has only 5 space yards it should order 5 cruisers and go on searching for a unit production and assign them in effect building both, cruisers and units, at the same time.

15.) Give WPs a range modifier like Bases.

[Daynarr]

Ok, here is some more:

1) Spelling for Kamikaze ship default tactic is wrong; it says Ram instead of Kamikaze (as stated in defaultstrategies.txt), which makes Kamikaze ships use Optimal Firing Range tactic instead.

2) Since AI makes a large number of designs, he often uses up all his available names and stops making new designs (as stated by Mephisto). I would propose that they change AI naming system from roman numeral (I, II, III etc.) to something like Mkxxx (where xxx would be a number from 1 to 255). E.g. 'Eagle I' ship will be named 'Eagle Mk1'. That will give AI much more room to make designs, and shouldn't be too hard to do.

3) AI should never build units on planets if there is no storage left on it. Right now, when there is no room on planet, all excess units are:
1- simply not built
2- put on a cargo hold of some orbiting transport or colonizer
As a result that transport just stands there whole time doing nothing, probably because the AI doesn't know how to handle that cargo.

4) Bases should always be placed between the closest attacker group and planet. The remaining bases should be symmetrically distributed around planet. Bases should be closer to planet (2 spaces away max).

5) There should be ability to place Satellites on legal spaces before combat (SE3 like), and should be able to split them in Groups (AI should be splitting them like fighters. The number could be specified in Races_Default_Strategies.txt for each race).

6) AI should be scrapping some facilities to make room for the new ones. I.e. he needs to scrap 1 research facility in order to make Central Computer Complex.

7) Combat initiative. Right now Player always moves first in tactical which puts AI in great disadvantage if the fleets are close at the start of combat. Initiative could be based on speed and initiative and should be separate for each ship in combat.

8) AI needs to choose it planet types better. He assigns too often low resource planets for mining, and high resource mining for research and intelligence. It really hurts AI.

[This message has been edited by Daynarr (edited 13 January 2001).]