Proportions mod Version 2.2 released

[PvK]

I found a way to do this over the weekend. Apparently, for some components and facilities (e.g. Point Defense, Organics Generation, Life Support), the AI chooses between them based on their tech level requirements.

By listing some of the same tech requirements twice or thrice, the desirability of those components of facilities can be emphasized, without changing the actual requirements. Pretty spiffy, although it doesn't work for everything (e.g. ECM and Sensors seem to get the AI to actually look for the highest rating).

PvK

[TerranC]

Originally posted by PvK:
I found a way to do this over the weekend. Apparently, for some components and facilities (e.g. Point Defense, Organics Generation, Life Support), the AI chooses between them based on their tech level requirements.

By listing some of the same tech requirements twice or thrice, the desirability of those components of facilities can be emphasized, without changing the actual requirements. Pretty spiffy, although it doesn't work for everything (e.g. ECM and Sensors seem to get the AI to actually look for the highest rating).

An A.I. that doesn't care if it's "Crew" is dead or suffocated but care enough to fit the ship with the highest sensor pack that the empire has to offer.

I guess that's going to be included in the next Version?

[PvK]

In 2.2, the AI uses life support as they become available. First normal life support, then basic life support, then hardenned life support. It also chooses the highest-rated electronic warfare components it can.

In 2.3, I currently have it so that once it develops basic life support, it stays with that, because going to all hardenned means its ships all become very expensive. I see this as pretty reasonable and efficient, but if people really want to see the AI doing different things with life support ... let me know. The electronic warfare choices aren't going to change. AI modders should simply have the AI stop researching at the desired level of insanity. The only issue is with High (all) tech games, which would take a lot of work to make the AI any good at anyway, for a number of reasons.

PvK

[oleg]

In another thread, Alpha Kodiak posted this observation:

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Ok, here is the complete scoop on Ionic Dispersers, at least as run from the simulator. There is no carryover of damage from shot to shot, even in the same volley. I set up a group of 5 sats armed only with a single Ionic Disperser II each. Brought a target ship up close and let fly. No matter how many hits, there was no damage done. I switched to Ionic Disperser IVs which do 30 points of damage per hit. In the first volley, there were three hits. That should have caused 90 damage, enough to destroy 4 engines. However, only three engines were destroyed, one per hit. I then switched to Ionic Disperser Vs which do 40 per hit. As expected, each hit destroyed two engines.

My final conclusion, which causes me severe grief in trying to build my latest AI, is that it is a total waste to put unmodded level I or II Ionic Dispersers on destroyer or smaller ships, as well as small satellites. That is tricky enough, but it also means that it is a waste to put Ionic Dispersers that individually do anything other than even multiples of 20 damage when modified by their mounts. Getting the AI to recognize that will be just about impossible.
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I think it has some serious repercussions for Ionic shield. As it is now, even IS 1 can not be destroyed by Ionic dispersors no matter what ! Well, except for largest base mounts. SE usually choose the biggest components to be hit first. That means that IS can soak infinite amound of damage from ID without even a scratch with only occasional hits been registered to engines.
There might be some balansing problems with IS.

[PvK]

The point is that ionic disruptors are way too poweful without a countermeasure - especially with the increased importance of supplies in Proportions, and in the latest Gold Version (no supplies means no weapons or shields). Also, leaving enemy derelicts that have to be maintained is even more damaging in Proportions, because resources are much harder to mass-produce with quick colony development.

I have tested the Ionic Shields in Proportions and was pretty happy with how they work. They work about like Proportions standard armor, but only against ionic weapons. You may have a hard time destroying the Ionic Shield with Ionic weapons, but well, that's what the Ionic Shield is for. Meanwhile, you will still sometimes destroy engines despite the shield, and of course ignoring all shields and armor that the ship may have, so ionic weapons do not become useless. Ionic shields have their disadvantages, too - they count as an engine, so a ship with an ionic shield has reduced engine design capacity, and of course they take a fair amount of component space, are just like expensive armor against non-ionic weapons, and they can be taken out by non-ionic weapon hits.

So, I think they're serving their intended purpose well. It provides a much-needed mostly-effective countermeasure to ionic weapons, which has its own important trade-offs and limitations.

Unless I'm missing something. They may still need tweaking.

Thanks for the alert though! All feedback is helpful.

PvK

[PvK]

Oh, and with ionic shields around, Massive Engine Destroying Weapons are suddenly more interesting than just researching your own and piling them up.

Actually, a good tweak now might be to extend the engine-destroying weapons trees, to allow more of an arms race between them and ionic shields.

PvK

[oleg]

PvK, I have some problems with Religious tallisman:
I want to make a deeply religios AI (hmmm, what if I really succeed in this .... ) but SE IV swears whenever I put either "weapons always hit" or "sector - sensor interference" (not sure if I spelled them correctly, but I'm absolutely sure there are no mistakes in my design.txt file) as a misc. abillity

SE gives an error "uknown ability value" when processing turn. I checked Norak AI and it does not produce this mistake, BUT it does not put Religious talisman on ships either when I tried Max.tech start (I did adjust AI_settings to design big ships from start).