Balance Mod Available for SE:V

[Phoenix-D]

Give it some time. SEV's only been out a few months, and the AI scripts are a hell of a lot more complex and flexible than SEIV.

[Raapys]

Before that can be done Aaron needs to fix the hard-coded issue with AIs and fog of war.

[neofit]

v1.20, BM 1.01, 2nd new game. Discovered 10 AIs in the first game, but gave up when I got 10x the research of the next best race around turn 70. Started the 2ng game on Hard and Max bonuses, discovered 4 races so far at turn 40.

I like the new behaviour. Every race has offered me some kind treaty on the first or second turn after we found each other. And it usually either has a non-aggression in all systems clause or it is negotiable with 1-2 counter-proposals.

Now, I often get, on the same turn, a treaty proposal together with a counter-proposal to my own proposal. Not sure if the drop of mood I sometimes see after I only choose one of these is attributable to me not answering one of these proposals. Just to make sure I don't propose treaties on the first 3 turns after discovering a new race, they send their offer soon enough.

Also, I don't know if it's moddable, but I am still getting some weird proposals. Oh, far from the totally random ones I used to receive back in the 1.13 days, but still. For instance, is it possible to make sure that the AI proposes (and accepts) treaties that contain "both empires share resupply" and "both empires share repairs" only if bundled with the "non-aggression in all systems" clause? Because I am sometimes receiving the share supply/repair offers bundled with the "non-aggression in neutral space" clause which does not make sense.

I have tried accepting one, mostly since it came with the population migration clause. And sure enough, the sharing clause does not supersede the non-aggression clause, i.e. I still can't peacefully reach his planets to resupply.

Also, a bit besides the point, but the addition of pop migration to SE5 together with the AI's eagerness to sign treaties actually makes the game trivial (yes, even more trivial). Sign migration treaties with 2-4 races that breath a different atmosphere and voilà, most of the planets you can colonize can be undomed . In SE4 one used to fight and conquer other races then micromanage populations with freighters in order to achieve the same result . But please do not use this to make it harder for people to sign migration treaties.

[frightlever]

Raapys said:
Before that can be done Aaron needs to fix the hard-coded issue with AIs and fog of war.

Does the AI play better if you remove the fog of war? I like the concept but I'll give it up if the AI has a better chance against me.

Also regarding the weak AI - they don't seem to build many WP or garrison their colonies. Or at least not enough to matter.

[AAshbery76]

The A.I seems to garrison its colonies after they build facilities.I would've thought the A.I should build some defence first.

[Raapys]

Does the AI play better if you remove the fog of war?

Well, the AI is harmless with fog of war on, i.e. there's like no chance at all he'll actually wipe the player out however badly one plays. With fog of war he's still far from aggresive, but it's alot better.

[Captain Kwok]

I'm putting together v1.02 - and besides a more aggressive AI - is there anything else you guys would like to see?

[neofit]

Captain Kwok said:
I'm putting together v1.02 - and besides a more aggressive AI - is there anything else you guys would like to see?

Though question since I don't exactly know what is feasible and what's not.

I'm in my 2nd game with 1.20 + BM 1.01. The first one, on normal difficulty settings was canceled at around turn 70, when I reached 160K research compared to the 15K for the guy in 2nd place. In my current game, also near turn 70, I am at 83K, the next best one is at around 50K, but only because this time there are no civs that breath hydrogen, and half the planets in my sectors have this atmosphere. Anyways, both times the AI hasn't been aggressive so far, allowing me to expand nicely without me even having a single ship for defense.

Now, I am not sure the AI needs to be made more aggressive. I mean it's not 'natural' or 'realistic' to start a war with another race that you've just discovered just for the sake of it. Only if you need to grow but have nowhere to go. What I am seeing is the AI fighting each other when there still are a few unpopulated systems around them. I think that this AI growth issue needs to be resolved before they are made simply more aggressive.

As for the treaties, I would like a total rewrite . It doesn't make sense to have one single big treaty per race, we should have separate negotiable clauses. If I have trade + non-aggression and want to add migration, I shouldn't have to re-negotiate the whole treaty. As when a country wants to sign the Kyoto protocol, they don't have to re-negotiate the Geneva Convention, nuclear proliferation nor a 200-years-old peace treaty. Now I bet this is not feasible with a mod, but it costs nothing to ask.
To compensate, maybe there is a way to have the AI propose and much more eagerly accept changes in treaties that only have one clause added, changed or removed?

As for the treaty clauses I'd like to see some of them be either linked or implied. As I've posted before, it does not make sense to have for instance "both empires share resupply" without at least "non-aggression in all systems". Either the AI should not propose nor accept such a treaty, or the acceptance of the "both empires share resupply" clause should imply non-aggression even without the non-aggression clause being explicitly stated (but I believe the latter is more of an engine issue).

Also, non-aggression, either in neutral or colony space, should come with "share minefield codes", in either neutral or colony space respectively. IMO we should get rid of the minefield clause altogether and use our non-aggression clauses to deal with mines, as in SEIV. It made more sense. For the 3 people that play against humans and can think of some clever strategies using separate clauses for non-aggression and minefields we may have a toggle, maybe?

Its seems the AI is rather reluctant to sign treaties with high trade percentages. I don't see the reason why, higher percentages = more free money. It's not like the weaker one is losing anything, nor like his trade has a huge impact on the stronger one. And BTW, how does the game figure out which empire is the weaker one? Total score?

[Q]

The largest medium fighter has 30kT space and the next research level gives a large fighter with 32kT space. But as this large fighter needs two more engines of 2kT each to have the same speed as the medium fighter you better stick with the medium fighter.
I would suggest that you just keep the engines per move relation for the fighters constant.

[Captain Kwok]

Unfortunately units still can't be retrofitted which was the assumption when the fighter sizes were made. Something will have to be done though.

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I wasn't talking about making the AI blindly aggressive, just simpler things like attacking non-treaty ships in their space or following through on attacks during war.

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You can just proposes changes to your treaty to change individual stipulations... the AI's willingness to accept certain clauses will depend on it's mood towards your empire. One area that probably needs to be improved is the AI initiating positive changes to its treaties in times of good relations.

I've made a few small changes for matching certain stipulations together, so hopefully you'll see less awkward combinations.

The AIs will start out with lower percentages in trade, so if you make an effort to keep them happy with your empire, you'll be able to earn more trade income. If the AI has a low bonus to start, then the trade really favors the player so it can't just be a freebie.