AI advice needed.

[DirectorTsaarx]

Atraikius - as they say on TV, "you da man"! Good research work... any update on whether the AI actually tries (successfully or not) to invade planets with troops?

I'll have to look into the "warship as carrier" stuff too. That was one of my favorite tactics back in SE2 and SE3; I picked up the idea from the Hydrans in Star Fleet Battles.

[dogscoff]

Very impressive, this ought to give the AI (yet) another boost in dangerousnessness. I can't wait to meet these new races.

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"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but balancing a family and a career ... oooh, it's all too much for me. "

[Atraikius]

Still haven't gotten past the loaded troopships in fleets point - had to restart the game again because after making a small tweek to the zorians research file every AI race in the game began only placing one major and one secondary weapon regardless of the settengs filling in with the majority weapon once all add abilities were covered, and researching techs out of order - have no idea what happened.

On breaks at work I've been trying to type up the notes I've made on the AI and hope to be able to post it up for everyones benitit within the next week.

[Deathstalker]

Back when I was modding the Borg I had trouble with them boarding ships consitantly. I modded the Settings txt for the strategies (ie, optimal firing range etc) and set the 2ndary strategy of Optimal Firing range to 'Capture Enemy Ships', they boarded ALOT more after that. Maybe if you alter the 2ndary strategy to be 'Capture Planet' then the fleets will start to capture planets? Or maybe not, just a suggestion though.

Although another thing I noticed was that the Borg capture ALOT more in Tactical combat vs. Strategic combat. Any idea why certain strategies work better/work at all in tac vs. strat??

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Mephisto]

Ok, just a thought. Doesn't the AI load cargo bays with any unit it can get on a planet? If this is true you could try to include a cargo component in the design so it will pick up fighters "by accident".
But the AI would be forced to only build fighters on planets to make this one work.

[Atraikius]

Deathstalker - Already have them using optimal followed by capture planet.

Mephisto - That does work but its really messy - use a longer turns betweens attack setting so that the ships will stay in orbit over a planet longer, delibarately set the AI to create resupply planets on smaller worlds that are unable to hold a large amount of cargo since the AI seems to stage forces at resupply bases the most frequently, and set the AI to build either fighters or troops as every 4-5 entry in the contruct Vehicle file and fighters/troops get loaded fairly frequently - gets really messing in the out of storage space area though.

As an update to the troops - Current game has Ork (seem to do the troop thing the best so far) task force of 1 destroyer, 2 battlecruisers, and 1 battlecruiser transport (60 troops and flagship) about to hit Q's CueCappa homeworld. I played the next turn and viewed the Orks results - they had eliminated all the defenses and reduced population to 1092 at the cost of 1 damaged battlecruiser - went about 8 more turns but no follow up attack - I suspected they hadn't dropped the troops due to the 60 troops most likely being unable to take planet, and did not carry out follow up attack due to the race due to just hitting end turn when I had viewed thier status by toggling the player control setting. reloaded the game and tryed again - first time 1 BC and DD split off to destroy Pyrochette fleet of 1 LX, 4 LC do to pyrochette declaration of war, 2nd time, 1 BC + 1DD again eliminated pyrochette fleet after war, but remaining BC and Troop Transport (which were unable to get through defenses alone previous time) went after Sergetti fleet which had also declare war this time - gave up for the night after that and went to bed - hope to have success tonight.

[Atraikius]

I was able to have some limited success Last night, but due to inconsistancies i was unable to verify that it works correctly or attempt to optimize thier performance.

I'm attaching what I currently have for my Orks (AI almost done, ships either default neutrals or gorns from Starfleet command as I have a long way to go on the pics) and would appreciate it if any of you could give them a try and give me as detailed reports on them as possible.

For those interested, I posted a typed up Version of my design cheet sheet in the Mod/help section.

[Nitram Draw]

Atraikius,
That file is an excellent explanation of how the AI to builds. Thanks!

[Dubious]

Atraikius: Would you be willing to allow me to include your excellent "Cheat Sheet" (with credit of course) in the Modders Guide? Otherwise I will include a pointer to it, but it would really help if the reader didn't have to jump back and forth between documents.

[This message has been edited by Dubious (edited 08 June 2001).]

[Atraikius]

Dubious - Thats fine with me.

[This message has been edited by Atraikius (edited 08 June 2001).]