Attempting to improve the AI for Proportions 3.05 - Page 6

PvK · #1 July 5th, 2007, 03:27 PM

LOL! Thankfully not!

gosho mladenoff · #2 April 22nd, 2008, 01:50 AM

Dear PvK,
I'm a big fan of your Proportions mod in all formats (including AICampaign and Proportions for SE5 for which I'm waiting for the upgrade for 1.71). Just wondering if your going to add any new techs like single shot missiles, fighter missiles, zero-G troops (micro-fighters), missile PD and seeking PD. Also I'd really like to see FQM mod patched in. Is there any way of doing this without changing the mod significantly?

Regardless in my current game the (no warp points) the drushocka have been doing well, whereas the piundon seem to be stalled in colonization.

big fan keep up the good work.

ggm

Ironmanbc · #3 April 22nd, 2008, 11:06 AM

PvK is not the person that is making the SE5 ver. of Proportions (we ARE waiting for ver. 3.07+ from him through)

we can keep BUGGING him for an update for 3.07+ and SOMEDAY

he will give it to us

PvK · #4 April 22nd, 2008, 06:42 PM

What Mac said is accurate. Also, gosho, thanks very much for the feedback and interest. I do have _plans_ to add new techs to Proportions for SE IV, but which and when any of those plans will materialize in tested form remains the unforeseen future.

Ideas to add stuff did include single-shot missiles, fighter missiles and more seeker and PD variations. They didn't include zero-G troops though that's an interesting idea. Next plans include rebalancing the mounts and weapon platforms and fighters, reworking the sensor/cloaking techs, making smaller ships more viable and less expensive by applying scale mounts to more components (especially bridge/life support/crew), and more interesting mine warfare developments. Oh, and redoing the whole espionage system so it's much more useful and balanced but about actual espionage rather than sabotage and subversion. Heaps of ideas... but whether I'll do them or not and when, I don't know.

FQM can be combined with SE4 Proportions mod though there are effects. For example, Fyron combined them for a Proportions 2.x PBEM game, with the result of creating nearly-unlimited resources from mining. I don't have specific steps for combining them but it's not too tricky. The Proportions quadrant elements do get lost, of course, but they aren't essential.

PvK

PsychoTechFreak · #5 April 24th, 2008, 07:28 AM

You just replace 2 or 3 txt files:

quadrants.txt
systems.txt
planets.txt(?)

In my setup, I have taken those files from the AICampaign mod which includes FQM.

gosho mladenoff · #6 April 24th, 2008, 11:51 PM

Thanks for the info Psycho. I 'll give it a try.
Can't wait for the update PvK.

ggm

Arralen · #7 May 8th, 2008, 05:33 AM

Any news on the AI improvements .. and 3.07, maybe ? ;-)

PvK · #8 May 8th, 2008, 04:28 PM

I expect Proportions AI improvements will only happen in one of two cases:

1) Someone besides me wants to spend time coding and testing them. I am available to explain how things work and give ideas and guidance.

2) I suddenly decide to devote a bunch of time to doing it myself. Might happen some time, but my guess is not. It's not that it's entirely unappealing, just that I have so many other things I'd probably choose to do instead. Hearing about people who would actually play it does increase the odds, though, so thanks very much to everyone who's expressed interest!

Atrocities · #9 May 9th, 2008, 01:25 AM

SE IV AI sucks monkey balls. I have worked with it and worked with it and the best I can do is get it to piss me off. When the AI doesn't even follow the game rules, hard coded limits such as One Component Only, or there is no way to correctly tell the AI that you must have X amount of X type of specific type of component or ship, aside from major guess work that only works at X level then is ignored at Y level, modding the AI becomes an escalating source of absolute frustration.

PvK · #10 May 9th, 2008, 02:53 PM

Yes, it requires a lot of patience, guesswork and time for trial and error. We did figure out quite a bit, but still what was we ended up doing was watching what the AI did, then tweaking, then watching what it did, over and over in great detail. Which was actually fun but time consuming and sometimes (or often) frustrating. And yes there are limits on how good it can actually get, and to really challenge an experienced player, it probably needs some unfair advantages.