Balance Mod Available for SE:V - Page 86

aegisx · #**851** April 13th, 2007, 01:53 PM

That would be great. I would think we would need fields for an amount needed modifier,demand variables and ship size to use.

Ed Kolis · #**852** April 13th, 2007, 04:16 PM

Whoa, AI scripts are in themselves "moddable" - they can read external text files to configure themselves? That is just... wow...

Captain Kwok · #**853** April 13th, 2007, 04:32 PM

Yes. Currently the only call for an external data file is with the speech files.

Phoenix-D · #**854** April 13th, 2007, 04:44 PM

It occurs to me that we could write the scripts to emulate the SE4 AI system, if we really wanted to.

se5a · #**855** April 14th, 2007, 07:11 AM

Kwok can you include the 3rd party shipsets? even if you just use the default AI on them...

with the "allow main empires" set to FALSE these canot be used on PBW unless the host knows to change this setting to TRUE for the first turn, and it's complicated enough to get a game started on PBW as it is.

Captain Kwok · #**856** April 14th, 2007, 10:46 AM

Why does the host have to allow main empires? If a player has setup their empire file with a custom set, I'd assume they would had to add the set to the mod (as per the readme instructions) for it to even be picked with the empire file. Or might this be causing problems because PBW doesn't have any sets installed with the mod so the slots are off etc?

Q · #**857** April 14th, 2007, 12:06 PM

Kwok one more impression from 1.05:

The AI's seem to manage their empires pretty well, ship designs are good as far as I can tell and they expand very well. Good work.
The one big weakness I see in my current game however is that the AI attack not enough: They have a lot of ships but seem to be afraid to attack. Probably they went into "defensive state", but even if the AI loses most of it's ships, it would still be better attacking than awaiting the attack. In SE attacking was always a better strategy than defending IMO, but for the AI is vital to keep attacking.
And as long as the mega evil empire event does not terminate war between different AI empires, it would be very good, if the AI attacks would concentrate on the strongest enemy, which is mostly the human empire.

Thank you for your good work!

se5a · #**858** April 14th, 2007, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Or might this be causing problems because PBW doesn't have any sets installed with the mod so the slots are off etc?

yes that's the problem, except it's not that the slots are off, the shipset just gets changed to a random one that the host DOES have in the mod dir. once the first turn is done, then if PBW does not have the shipset that the host set it too, then it will get randomly changed again.

so, with allow main empires FALSE, the host and PBW BOTH have to have the shipset that teh player installed installed into the mod empire dir.

if the host switches the allow main empires to TRUE and has the shipset installed in the default shipset folder, then it's all good, since PBW (currently) has all the 3rd party shipsets installed in teh default empires dir. this line (like the overide slots line) only needs to be TRUE for the first turn.

Q · #**859** April 15th, 2007, 07:19 AM

Another feedback:

Supplies seem to be a problem for the AI. I find quite a lot of ships and entire fleets with no supplies left. My suggestion would be to include one or two solar collectors in the ship designs.

Captain Kwok · #**860** April 15th, 2007, 02:31 PM

I'm currently working on altering how states are entered by adding a modifier based on number of allies, enemies, and wars. For example, an AI with lots of allies is more likely to be aggressive with an enemy, while an AI in a lot of wars with few allies will adopt a much more defensive stance.

I really need to improve fleet composition. Supply ships don't seem to be spread out in multiple fleets very well, same problem with mine sweepers and repair ships too.