Babylon 5 Mod

[Rambie]

Originally posted by pathfinder:
RCes are gone. Gonna start new game to verify.... so far so good!

Thanks Rollo!

and bTW Val (along with others) is one who designed this. Me just doing the AI_designcreation and AI_research files....

Now, Pathfinder, you've done allot to keep things moving lately too... don't sell yourself short.

[Timstone]

I agree with Rambie, you deserve credit too.

[Rollo]

Well, I am glad I could help. Let me know, if you have any other problems.

I have one suggestion to use scout ships. That helps the AI a great deal. I noticed that you have a scout ship class, but that is an attack ship. In order to be effective scouts, they need to be attack bases.

Here is a design that I found working pretty good:

Name := Scout
Design Type := Attack Base
Vehicle Type := Ship
Default Strategy := Don't Get Hurt
Size Minimum Tonnage := 10
Size Maximum Tonnage := 100
Num Must Have At Least 1 Ability := 2
Must Have Ability 1 := Solar Supply Generation
Must Have Ability 2 := Planet Value Change - System
Minimum Speed := 1
Desired Speed := 5
Majority Weapon Family Pick 1 := 0
Majority Weapon Family Pick 2 := 0
Majority Weapon Family Pick 3 := 0
Majority Weapon Family Pick 4 := 0
Majority Weapon Family Pick 5 := 0
Secondary Weapon Family Pick 1 := 0
Secondary Weapon Family Pick 2 := 0
Secondary Weapon Family Pick 3 := 0
Secondary Weapon Family Pick 4 := 0
Secondary Weapon Family Pick 5 := 0
Shields Spaces Per One := 0
Armor Spaces Per One := 0
Majority Comp Spaces Per One := 0
Majority Comp Ability :=
Secondary Comp Spaces Per One := 0
Secondary Comp Ability :=
Num Misc Abilities := 2
Misc Ability 1 Name := Solar Supply Generation
Misc Ability 1 Spaces Per One := 100
Misc Ability 2 Name := Standard Ship Movement
Misc Ability 2 Spaces Per One := 1

------------------------------------------

Include that in the early stages of construction. Something like this:

AI State := Exploration
Num Queue Entries := 10
Entry 1 Type := Attack Base
Entry 1 Planet Per Item := 0
Entry 1 Must Have At Least := 1
Entry 2 Type := Colonizer
Entry 2 Planet Per Item := 0
Entry 2 Must Have At Least := 2
Entry 3 Type := Attack Base
Entry 3 Planet Per Item := 100
Entry 3 Must Have At Least := 2
Entry 4 Type := Colonizer
Entry 4 Planet Per Item := 50
Entry 4 Must Have At Least := 4
...

Attack bases are not included in fleets and do a great job in exploring.

Rollo

[ January 03, 2003, 16:21: Message edited by: Rollo ]

[pathfinder]

Rambie/Timstone: Hehe, what I tried (and I guess failed) to say is..yeah me doing the AI_designcreation the DESIGN itself is mainly Val's (and several others). My concern, such as the standard movement lines is that those are a major part of the overall design and serve a purpose that I have no idea why that is included...

still trying to figger out a bogus ability thingy to get armor added

BTW still no RCes. Not going to call the fix done until I get to level 12 propulsion & dreadnoughts tho...

[ January 03, 2003, 18:45: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[pathfinder]

*Da path does a back-flip and promptly injures his fat old self *

Got the AI to use armor...wheeeee. no bogus ability either, just setup armor ability for the armor

now to figure out how to limit the number of structural supports to a reasonable number (per hull?). darn things cost no hull space to be taken

[ January 03, 2003, 20:32: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[Skulky]

sorry to intrude, but could i request a posting of the mod? I can't seem to find it here (granted i didn't read all 2500 Posts though).

[pathfinder]

Skulky: The basic MOD can be found at Rambie's web site:

http://www.xmission.com/~rstulce/B5Web.htm

The are several drawbacks to the basic (RCEs due to engine/hull match-ups [QNP]). I have a fix for the most common RCE but have not updated all the AI yet. So use the basic if you want but realize it has a major drawback. Also the current "official" Version is for 1.49 (non-gold). There are a coupla guys working on making a Gold Version but not sure where they are with it ATM.

[grumbler]

Have completed 3 games to 200 turns with the Gold mods.

As the Minbari, I was pretty much on the way to victory in 200 turns. The Ai doesn't seem to get population to the outlying planets fast enough to get around the production limits (and this is especially important - even more so tha getting around the build limits). thus, no one's planets under the AI seemed to be producing more than 50% of the available research points.

In the EA scenario, the EA didn't seem to be getting the rapid-fire missiles. I'm still looking into that. Perhaps its just as well - missiles that reload in a turn seem pretty powerful! OTOH, the Minbari and Shadows were ripping up EA ships with their long-range weaponry.

With the shadows, I shadow-danced to total victory in just under 200 turns. The living AI, molecular weapons, and bio-engines made them simply unbeatable even two or three ship sizes down. They make much better oponents than human players.

A consistent problem was the lack of speed for the AI-designed ships. I tried to mod the engines in the components files to produce "small" "medium" and "large" engines of each type to get the AI to invest more in speed, but while that worked for combat ships the AI continued to produce colony ships and transports with speeds of 2 to 4. Meantime, the ideal speeds were in the range of 12 to 20.

AI satellites also didn't seem to use "large" and "huge' weapons much. Maybe I just didn't play long enough - those big satellites cost a bunch of research to produce, but BOY is it worth it!

Lots of fun in the early game, though. The Shadows START with the ability to build speed 20 armed scouts. WHOOHOO!

[pathfinder]

Grumbler: Yeah, ya gotta go for the long term for the "young" race AI to get neat stuff and late model engines to get their speeds up. They still don't get quite what the "ancients" get....

Then again the "ancients" can't colonize...except thru invasion or gifts....*shrug*

[ January 04, 2003, 17:44: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[pathfinder]

Hopefully I'll be able to finish the new AI by tommorow, latest Sunday evening.