Question to the other Mod Makers out there...

Talenn · #1 December 14th, 2000, 11:15 PM

Have any of you succeeded in having an AI race build multiple classes of Fighters? I have seen (and done) an AI build script where it builds differing classes of SHIPS (ie Attack Ship vs Defense Ship vs Support Ship or whatever). I can even get the AI to DESIGN an 'Attack Fighter' but I cant get it to build them. When I insert 'Attack Fighter' into the Construction Queue I get an error message of 'Unknown Value'.

I have remembered to go into the 'Default_Designs' file and define 'Attack Fighter' as a value there. I dont what else I am missing or is it just not possible to have the AI produce multiple concurrent models of Fighters (or maybe even UNITS in general)?

Anyone else have any luck? Would any of you mind giving it a shot and letting me know if/how you succeed?

Thanx,
Talenn

Tampa_Gamer · #2 December 15th, 2000, 12:17 AM

Great. . .based on our discussions this morning I have been jotting notes down while I was here at work so that when I got home tonight I could finish some of the designs I had started which included several fighter types (CAP, Interceptor, Bombers, etc.) This is not good, I made the same assumptions you did about what needed to be done to add a new class of ship. Hmmm... Any feedback from beta testers?? Sorry, I am not any help - I will still test the theory tonight when I get home to make sure its not a fluke, but this does not look good. . .

[This message has been edited by Tampa_Gamer (edited 14 December 2000).]

Mephisto · #3 December 15th, 2000, 12:45 AM

I haven't tried it yet. I doubt the AI can use them very good as it will not have any understanding of the difference between the fighter designs.

Tampa_Gamer · #4 December 15th, 2000, 12:51 AM

My goal was to establish additional strategies for those types of fighters. My ver 1.00 Mod created a new AI "defense strategy" for the Defense Ship design that actually worked quite well in my tests. I found the strategy file fairly straightforward to work on (especially the priority types for targeting - which will be the key) - but you are correct, it would take more than "Optimal" and "Maximum" range strategies to work. Has anyone else tried adding additional strategies?

Talenn · #5 December 15th, 2000, 01:11 AM

Hmm, well, I deleted the 'Attack Fighter' in the Construction_Queue, but left the design in their Design_File. Playing the game, I noticed that there are indeed 'Attack Fighters' coming out of the Amonkrie. It seems to be build both. I cant say for sure in what ratios or in what rhyme or reason yet though.

Anyone else's experimentation would be great for comparing notes.

Talenn

Talenn · #6 December 15th, 2000, 08:20 PM

Tampa_Gamer:

I let it use the default (or at least my modified default, but I had made no changes to anything fighter-related to that point).

Another thing that struck me as odd is that when I took over for the AI for the Amonkrie (test race) about partway through the game I noticed that it redesigned the 'Attack Fighter' every 4-8 turns regardless of whether new components were available or not. It also did not obsolete earlier Version (although identical) so it had about 12 different classes of 'Attack Fighter' on its design sheet. I havent had time to go back in and check whether or not it was building a mix of them or what.

This is very bizarre behavior and I'm beginning to think that you are correct in that its looking harder and harder to produce a 'tight' mod as you say. We'll have to do some more digging to see how it pans out. Keep me posted if you will.

Thanx,
Talenn

Baron Munchausen · #7 December 15th, 2000, 09:26 PM

Actually, the AI does obsolete it's old designs. It does not use the HIDE OBSOLETE button, though. So when you poke your nose in to see what its doing, you'll see all the old designs.

I agree that the AI redesigns far too often, apparently for no reason. It's weird. I guess there are basic routines that get called every time the AI for a particular race runs.

Also, there seems to be a hard-coded set of design types for the AI. YOU can create every type of ship that you want: Scout ships, Remote mining ships, etc... but the AI only understands the design types that the game comes with. Attack Ship, Defense Ship, etc. I tried to create a "Repair base" type to put repair bays over at least some AI shipyards. It would not accept this type. So, I changed the type to "Space Yard Base" and just used the NAME "Repair base" and it accepts that.

BTW, I wonder why "Defense ship" was not in the default AI designs file? I added it and it does make the AI smarter about defending itself. Hmm....

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 15 December 2000).]

Tampa_Gamer · #8 December 15th, 2000, 09:42 PM

Baron - thanks for the input, a couple of follow-up questions to your post:

(1) So the "DefaultDesignTypes" file in the \Data folder is just for us to modify OUR different design types?

(2) If you changed the name to "Repair Base" do you then place calls to (A) "Repair Base" in your "AI_Construction_Vehicles" file, or do you place a call to (B) "Space Yard Base"? If it is (B), then how would the AI differentiate between the different "Space Yard Base" designs in the design file?

Thanks

Talenn · #9 December 15th, 2000, 09:44 PM

No, in this case it was not obsoleting them. I know to check the 'hide obsolete' box when I take over an AI player to see what it has.

And the only time I've seen it design dupe ships with no components was on this new 'attack fighter' design spec I made which was giving it all kinds of hissy fits in the Construction Queue.

Talenn

Tampa_Gamer · #10 December 16th, 2000, 02:38 AM

OK. I experimented with both units and ships Last night. In each case I developed a new design in the "AI_DesignCreation" file and then made a call to it in the "AI_Construction_Vehicles" file. In both cases I would generate the same error that you mentioned upon loading the game. I even tried setting up a new type in the data file "DefaultDesignType" in case this was tripping it up. No luck. I hope the default design names were not hard-coded into the game. While this would still allow tweaking the basic designs, it would severely limit the potential mods I think we had in mind.

That is strange that the AI would build outside of its queu. . .and also does not look good for "tight" AI mods. Did you make a specific "AI_Construction_Vehicles" for the "Races\AmonKrie" folder or did you let it use the default?

[This message has been edited by Tampa_Gamer (edited 15 December 2000).]