State of the game: experience reports (long)

[Jourin]

I have found that the AI is a terror at the beginning but strangles itself through poor resource management in longer games. I think the reason is that it does not build storage facilities and the default 50,000 storage is not enough of a buffer for late game facility or ship builds. If I can Last through turn 100-150, the AI dies through economic strangalation. The AI gets locked in a catch 22. It can not build more colonies, ships, or facilities because it has no resources and it can't get more resources until it builds more colonies and facilities. In a test game, I set a value of 10100000 for the empire storage. I lived with the 100000 level by rush buiding initial storage locations, while the AI used the 10,000,000 storage to stockpile supplies that resulted in the AI being tough till the end and eventually beating me, and it only had a low bonus. At low bonus this has never happened before. I posted some suggestions on legally increasing the AIs storage ability.

[Lucanos]

Again, Jourin. I don't agree - I understand and see the problem - but I don't agree to the solution. Instead the AI should learn how to build and manage resource storages.

About the catch22:
In the Race_Ai_Settings.txt there is a line:

Maximum Maintenance Percent of Revenue := 80

Maybe if there was diffrent lines for different types of construction options, like:

Maximum Maintenance Percent of Revenue := 80

Maximum Maintenance Percent for colony ships := 95

Maximum Maintenance Percent for extraction facillities := 150

etc...

[This message has been edited by Lucanos (edited 21 March 2001).]

[Jourin]

Lucanos. The increase in empire storage to 10,000,000 is not my suggestion for a solution, but the means I used to test my hypothesis. I posted a separate thread with ideas. I agree that the AI needs to learn how to build and manage resource storage.

[capnq]

quote:

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In the Race_Ai_Settings.txt there is a line:

Maximum Maintenance Percent of Revenue := 80

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In another thread about the AI's resource management problems, it's been reported that this line doesn't appear to be working. The title of that thread is "Odd 1.30 observation".

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Cap'n Q

[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 21 March 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

Perhaps you could enlighten me as to why resource storage is so important.

I never build storage, just more extractors (or research/intel).

As I see it, continual income is better than one-shot savings.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 21 March 2001).]

[Will]

I build resource storage, because it's very bad when I ruin an AI economically and get them to surrender, then I suddenly have large negative production in something (I also have finite resource game, so every point counts).

[Jourin]

Let us take a tiny non breatheable planet with 50% production. You don't get any population bonus so it will only produce 400 minerals. That 400 is one shot each turn. Use it or loose it. Instead build a storage facility and store the extra production from a good production planet. In one game turn you use up all your production and can't start any new build. Next turn you have excess production so you loose. The purpose of storage is to maximize resources.

Reseach and Intelligence get the same bonus for population and happiness. A larger planet will also have more population and usually higher happiness thus more research per buck then a single research compond on that tiny moon. Try build some storage locations and see how much it helps you.