The answer is 162

[Alpha Kodiak]

So you discovered the magic number did you. Now you know the secret to the Rage!

Actually, I have no idea why they stopped at 162 ships, but they might be limited to one per planet if you look at all of the ship types in aggregate. Which Version of the Rage are you using? The different Versions have slightly different build rates. I can check the construction files for the specific Version (if I have that Version - I lost some of the earliest Versions due to computer problems, but I have the later Versions), to see what the total limit would be. Though it depends on what state it thinks it is in, so that may be why it is limited. I tried to keep the size of the fleet lower in non-combat states to keep maintenance from being a problem. The AI may consider itself in Infrastructure state, so it won't build as many warships.

As to why they don't attack, the AI does a very poor job coordinating its activities. It has gotten better in Gold than before, but still has problems. If you watch it turn after turn, you would probably see fleets moving across Rage territory for seemingly no purpose, only to turn back and go the other direction. The various ministers see a need for something and grab some ships to go do it, but they may not be close to the problem. Then, after a few turns they don't see that need anymore, so they send those ships off in another direction.

Send an attack fleet into Rage territory and start destroying some of their outlying colonies. See if that gets a rise out of them. Although, the minister problem mentioned above will still give them problems.

[ July 09, 2002, 17:05: Message edited by: Alpha Kodiak ]

[jim]

Alpha Kodiak

The Rage txt "read me" file says it is Version 2.3

[jim]

<bump>

Alpha Kodiak?

[Alpha Kodiak]

Sorry it took a while to get back to you on this, RL has been just a tad hectic lately.

Unfortunately, now that I have had time to look at it, I really don't know the answer for sure. In all states, assuming all tech was known (including all stellar manipulation techs), there should be a minimum of something in excess of two hundred ships. The only thing that I can think of is that it thinks it is in infrastructure mode, which would only build 81 attack ships and 32 (33?) carriers for for 162 planets, and it is not building all of the supporting (especially stellar manipulation) ships. Then again, who knows what the AI is really doing?

One of the trickiest parts (at least for me) of setting up the ship construction file for an AI is setting up the builds so that it doesn't bankrupt the AI in the early-to-mid part of the game, but allows the AI to grow to maximum strength in the later game. I've noticed in the past that the Rage usually starts off very strong but slips back in the later part of the game, and this may explain that to an extent. They are usually pretty good at keeping their economy stable through most of the game, but that may be reducing the amount of ships built later in the game.

Hmmm... It is about time that the Rage gets a rework to use the new SEIV Gold features more efficiently. Perhaps I will look into ways to beef up their late-game fleet.