SOLVED AI TROOP INVASIONS

[Baron Munchausen]

Well, if Cranex isn't going to get back to us we'll have to experiment for ourselves. Shall we invent a 'troop drop bay' using this Drop Troops ability and see if the AI will suddenly recognize a ship with it as capable of invading planets?

[Rollo]

The AI already does recognize troop transports and uses them to invade planets. What is this Troop Bay supposed to be other than a cargo storage filled with troops?

Rollo

[Rollo]

Btw, Baron and others,
I just noticed that Cranex has edited his first post and put some more detail in. Gosh, I hate this up-side-down of this forum.

edit: So, if I understand this correctly, what Cranex did was that he put troop transports and troops in the construction queue. Yes, that is correct. If the AI has troops and a transport it will load them and use the transports to invade.
He also added the "drop troops" ability to the transports (which is not really necessary, IMHO). I will check that and see if the AI uses transports with the ability in any other way than without it.

Rollo

[This message has been edited by Rollo (edited 31 October 2001).]

[AJC]

Okay - I have been experimenting with this - I made the mods and added the Build troops and Transports to every AI state in the AI_Construction_Vehicles.txt file and added the Drop Troops to the transport Abbidon designs as an ability . My result was that I have managed to get the AI to load troop transports once in 76 turns and head off to invade.
unfortunately on the way to the target world - the ship was intercepted and destroyed...soley due to the fact that it didnt go with a fleet - it went on its own... how do we solve the transport not going with a fleet?


[This message has been edited by AJC (edited 31 October 2001).]

[Rollo]

I have also tested this now. The drop troops ability doesn't seem to affect the troop transport (TT) behavior. So you don't actually have to put that in. Putting troops and TT into the construction file is sufficient.

AJC, are you sure the TT was on its way to a target world and not trying to join a fleet? Did you check its orders? I have never seen this behavior of TTs trying to invade a planet alone, only as part of a fleet.
Usually the problem with TTs is that they sit in orbit doing nothing until some time they will join a fleet, if one passes by. If you see a TT leaving orbit, please check its orders. It should say "Join fleet x". After the TT joined the fleet the fleet orders automatically change to "Capture planet". Depending on how many fleets you have moving around and given that the TT is not waiting in some backwater world, this can work quite well or nothing at all. I have seen the Vikings capture planets as early as turn 35 and as late as... well, never.

Rollo

[Atraikius]

I can't remember if Rollo or M.B. had got either the Vikings or Aquilians to use transport troop ships in fleets, but when I was first getting the AI to invade planets I was finding that in order for a troop transpost to get included into a fleet it had to be designed with a normal hull instead of one of the transport hulls.

[AJC]

1st time around the transport joined a single ship fleet - and moved towards the target planet, unfortunately the mini fleet was intercepted and destroyed. Last nite - same thing happened - but this time the transport disbanded from the fleet and attacked the planet on its own and was wiped out by planetary defenses....

I also got the impression that the drop troops ability didnt have anything to do with the transports invading.

Whether a troop transport functions correctly seems to be based on how many troops are being built and are available. I did see the transport moving around the system gathering up troops prior to attempting to invade, something I have not seen the AI do very often..

I wish there was a way to define fleet content - min number and types of ships for a fleet before it goes into action.