Adamant Mod Discussion Thread

[brianeyci]

Fyron, the Space Monsters aren't working properly in my Adamant 15.02 game.

I'm pretty sure their AI is not set up correctly. Which AI files they use
is determined at empire setup by either your choice of minister style
(aggressive, backup, defensive, or neutral) or shipset (if Use Race
Minister Style is selected). Now, considering their behavior (instantly
declaring war), the cloaking bases, and their monster tech research, I'm
guessing you selected Use Race Minister Style with some shipsets that were
designed for monster races in a different mod. If I'm correct, they can be
fixed with the help of a PBW admin. You'll have to get the three shipsets
copied into the Adamant mod directory we're using and have their AI files
overwritten with the Adamant Monster AI files.

Douglas Miller

I got the monster AI somewhere, copied it to the Adamant folder, and when creating the monster races selected the "monster" ai from the folder I created. Here is the AI I used. Is this the correct Adamant Mod monster AI, and if not is there a way to fix it without trashing the game? Appreciate help Fyron.

Brian

[Fyron]

That looks like the Space Monster AI directly from Devnull Mod... It was modified and adapted (really just the AI_General.txt file) when I added the Space Monsters to Adamant. However, all of the other AI files are the same as the originals from Devnull...

When you manually added the space monsters, did you choose to use an AI minister style ("Using Selected Style"), or to "Use Style from Race?" Either way, it can be fixed. It just gets really messy if you did not select "Using Style from Race..."

[Aiken]

brianeyci, I have a pretty stupid question to you, but such things used to happend to me, so: have you changed names of the AI files from Monster_AI_something.txt to, say, MokAkah_AI_something.txt after you've copied them?

[brianeyci]

Fyron, I used the AI minister style "use selected style" option. I created a folder for the monster AI alongside "agressive" "neutral" and "defensive" called "Monster"

Aiken, I didn't change the name of the AI files because I chose "use selected style", not "use style from race"

Brian

[Aiken]

brianeyci, I'll post here your reply to my email. I hope you don't mind.

Yes, they have researched tiny space monster hull and created an "attack base"
with a ****load of monster PD, monster beam weapon, monster armor, etc.

Brian

So does it mean that AI is ok? Probably they were lacking good monster designs because of absence of suitable ship sizes? Smallest monster design is Attack Base (290 kt), demanding Tiny Space Monster hull, which is not available from start, since it requires Monster tech lvl 2.
Probably it looked like this:
Monster race decided to build Attack Ship design ("Entry 2 Type := Attack Ship" in AI_constructionvehicle.txt), but nearest monstrish attack ship design requires 410 kt hull.
It didn't have such ship hull.
So it took AS design from another AI set (from other generic AI or from actual race directory).
And we've seen monster scouts armed with DUCs.

To avoid this situation in the future, one could make separate attack ship design for hulls less than 410 kt, and probably make Tiny Space Monster ship size available from start.

[brianeyci]

Hrm. So when does the AI decide to create new designs? The problem is that the AI has researched monster tech II, but has started researching nuclear propulsion and standard armor tech, meaning the monster AI is not working (they should be researching monster tech I believe).

Will the AI continue to use default AI, or start designing monsters and researching like monsters?

Brian

[brianeyci]

Well I took another look. You need monster level 3 to build tiny space monster, and they can't make them yet.

Right now they are designing hybrid ships, mostly with monster organic armor armed with DUCV. (Yes they have DUCV now). They also use normal armor as well.

Quite an unexpected turn, and not totally unenjoyable. Lets see how the AI runs for a few turns before we "fix" it. Maybe they'll eventually research small space monster and start making them -- although I doubt it, because level 3 monster tech requires 900000 research and the AI only has 50k research.

Brian

[Aiken]

brianeyci said:
Hrm. So when does the AI decide to create new designs? The problem is that the AI has researched monster tech II, but has started researching nuclear propulsion and standard armor tech, meaning the monster AI is not working (they should be researching monster tech I believe).
Brian

I don't know why this happens. Ideally they should research Monster tech only (as monsters). But from another hand, default AI will never research Monster tech, because this tech is excluded from default_research file.
So our monsters have neither default AI nor monster's AI The only reason I can think about is the influence of the Physical trait (which grants access to a bunch of phys techs). Normally devnull monsters (unlike our monsters) have no access to common weapon and components.

Will the AI continue to use default AI, or start designing monsters and researching like monsters?

I can hardly answer this question I'd suggest to resume game [twas imo], but keep an eye on monster's development.
As a Last resort, we can always arrange small civil war amongst platers to balance things

[Fyron]

brianeyci said:
Fyron, I used the AI minister style "use selected style" option. I created a folder for the monster AI alongside "agressive" "neutral" and "defensive" called "Monster"

Aiken, I didn't change the name of the AI files because I chose "use selected style", not "use style from race"

Brian

PBW can not use race styles that do not exist in the mod files on PBW... A new AI folder would need adding...

[Aiken]

brianeyci said:
Well I took another look. You need monster level 3 to build tiny space monster, and they can't make them yet.
Brian

Nope.
Name := Tiny Space Monster
...
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Monster Tech
Tech Level Req 1 := 2

Hmm, why so little research points? Did you count AI bonus multipliers?