AI and Facilities - ARGGHH

[Jason2]

The AI is fairly combative now with the modpack and new patch... but it builds in incredibly STUPID ways.

I had all the new mod-pack races set in the game and then played about 50 turns... then I went to look at their planets. Many had 30 facility planets where they had built a total of 4 (aaaarrrgghhh) facilities.... this flaw was seen over and over.

The second flaw was the types! They would build weird-*** stuff... if a planet had 150% minerals, they would have 4 mines but the rest research and storage!?!?

I think before anything else is patched this should be... it would make a tremendous difference in the AI and game play simply by giving it much more research and resources in a non-bonus game... sigh.

Jason2

[mottlee]

Yes I've seen this also, something else would be if youare setting on a warp point (or planet) the compuiter will attack you with 1 ship even if you have a fleet there
(can you say DEAD)
Mott

[raynor]

I just loaded up my turn 162 med bonus game with all of the TDM races and switched them all to human control. I must say that I'm extremely happy with ALL of the races. Their choices for what to build on a planet are EXCELLENT. There is about a one thousand percent improvement over the previous Version of the game. The computer made such poor choices of what to build on planets in 1.19 that it needed at least three times as many planets to equal my production. Now, that is no longer the case. A human player is still going to make much better choices. But I think the computer is doing much, much better.

Regarding the computer planets with fewer than the max facilities: Is it possible that they AI only colonized these planets 'N' turns ago and just hasn't had a chance yet to fill them with facilities?

The computer doesn't put anything in the construction queue until it processes its turn; unless it is building a facility that takes longer than one turn, you won't see it building anything when you switch to human control. Could you please see if maybe that's the case? I hope that it is! Please, make note of which planets have fewer than the max faciliites. Then, after you switch them back to computer control, let three of four turns go by before you switch them back to human control. I hope they will have built more facilities on those planets.

[Master Belisarius]

Jason: what type of colony is?
If the colony is a Space Yard Colony, or a Military colony or a Resuply colony, it could be the problem.

[Jason2]

I played through another 4 turns and then checked... I didn't know that the AI only built one thing at a time based on how long it took to build. I believe that is what is happening. I didn't anticipate sending a saved game and have already moved on I will check in my current game (I have it loaded at grad school so I can play during lectures that bore ) and send a save if it seems to be recurring. Thank you for the responses and the info.

Jason2

[Baron Munchausen]

I'm gettng pretty good "choices" of colony types with my default_ai_planet_types arrangement. Since the AI is just a computer script you have to think as if you were writing a computer program and arrange a long serious of simple-minded steps. So I've done the following for selecting mineral planets:

AI State := Exploration, Infrastructure, Prepare for Attack, Attack, Secure Holdings After Attack, Incursion, Prepare for Defense, Defend (Short Term), Defend (Long Term)
Planet Type := Mining Colony
Max Per System := 10
Percent of Colonies := 50
Minimum Planet Size for Type := Tiny
Mineral Value := 140
Organics Value := 0
Radioactives Value := 0
Maximum Total in Empire := 0

AI State := Exploration, Infrastructure, Prepare for Attack, Attack, Secure Holdings After Attack, Incursion, Prepare for Defense, Defend (Short Term), Defend (Long Term)
Planet Type := Refining Colony
Max Per System := 2
Percent of Colonies := 15
Minimum Planet Size for Type := Tiny
Mineral Value := 0
Organics Value := 0
Radioactives Value := 140
Maximum Total in Empire := 0

AI State := Exploration, Infrastructure, Prepare for Attack, Attack, Secure Holdings After Attack, Incursion, Prepare for Defense, Defend (Short Term), Defend (Long Term)
Planet Type := Farming Colony
Max Per System := 2
Percent of Colonies := 15
Minimum Planet Size for Type := Tiny
Mineral Value := 0
Organics Value := 140
Radioactives Value := 0
Maximum Total in Empire := 0

AI State := Exploration, Infrastructure, Prepare for Attack, Attack, Secure Holdings After Attack, Incursion, Prepare for Defense, Defend (Short Term), Defend (Long Term)
Planet Type := Mining Colony
Max Per System := 10
Percent of Colonies := 50
Minimum Planet Size for Type := Tiny
Mineral Value := 130
Organics Value := 0
Radioactives Value := 0
Maximum Total in Empire := 0

AI State := Exploration, Infrastructure, Prepare for Attack, Attack, Secure Holdings After Attack, Incursion, Prepare for Defense, Defend (Short Term), Defend (Long Term)
Planet Type := Refining Colony
Max Per System := 2
Percent of Colonies := 15
Minimum Planet Size for Type := Tiny
Mineral Value := 0
Organics Value := 0
Radioactives Value := 130
Maximum Total in Empire := 0

AI State := Exploration, Infrastructure, Prepare for Attack, Attack, Secure Holdings After Attack, Incursion, Prepare for Defense, Defend (Short Term), Defend (Long Term)
Planet Type := Farming Colony
Max Per System := 2
Percent of Colonies := 15
Minimum Planet Size for Type := Tiny
Mineral Value := 0
Organics Value := 130
Radioactives Value := 0
Maximum Total in Empire := 0

AI State := Exploration, Infrastructure, Prepare for Attack, Attack, Secure Holdings After Attack, Incursion, Prepare for Defense, Defend (Short Term), Defend (Long Term)
Planet Type := Mining Colony
Max Per System := 10
Percent of Colonies := 50
Minimum Planet Size for Type := Tiny
Mineral Value := 120
Organics Value := 0
Radioactives Value := 0
Maximum Total in Empire := 0

AI State := Exploration, Infrastructure, Prepare for Attack, Attack, Secure Holdings After Attack, Incursion, Prepare for Defense, Defend (Short Term), Defend (Long Term)
Planet Type := Refining Colony
Max Per System := 2
Percent of Colonies := 15
Minimum Planet Size for Type := Tiny
Mineral Value := 0
Organics Value := 0
Radioactives Value := 120
Maximum Total in Empire := 0

AI State := Exploration, Infrastructure, Prepare for Attack, Attack, Secure Holdings After Attack, Incursion, Prepare for Defense, Defend (Short Term), Defend (Long Term)
Planet Type := Farming Colony
Max Per System := 2
Percent of Colonies := 15
Minimum Planet Size for Type := Tiny
Mineral Value := 0
Organics Value := 120
Radioactives Value := 0
Maximum Total in Empire := 0

AI State := Exploration, Infrastructure, Prepare for Attack, Attack, Secure Holdings After Attack, Incursion, Prepare for Defense, Defend (Short Term), Defend (Long Term)
Planet Type := Mining Colony
Max Per System := 10
Percent of Colonies := 50
Minimum Planet Size for Type := Tiny
Mineral Value := 110
Organics Value := 0
Radioactives Value := 0
Maximum Total in Empire := 0

I suppose if I wanted to be more of a stickler I could use 5 percent steps. With this arrangement preceding the OTHER colony types (research, intel, military base, etc.) it makes bad choices much less often. Unfortunately, there is still no way to tell the AI to consider its current resources STATUS and choose a colony type that increases whatever it is short in, so random chance can still screw up the resource balance. I've improved usage of planets a bit by making it build 10 resource extraction facilities before building any "enhancement" facilities like robotoid factories, too. This prevents the idiocy of a robotoid factory on a 5 facility space world.



[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 05 March 2001).]

[Tampa_Gamer]

Baron - I believe there is a default subroutine hard-coded into the program when an AI is seriously deficient in a particular resource area. The next few planets the AI colonizes will automatically be mining, refining or farming colonies if there is a deficiency. When this happens, the AI_Planet_Types file is IGNORED. I have confirmed this a number of times when writing the Darlok scripts.

[Daynarr]

I can also confirm this. I have both Sergetti and Xi'Chung on the edge of their maintenance capacity and they are building mining and refining colonies on the worlds that have below 100% resources. This is not allowed in their race_Planet_Types.txt file.

And I do belive that this is a good feature!

[This message has been edited by Daynarr (edited 05 March 2001).]

[Tampa_Gamer]

jason2 - please send a copy of the save game my way too ctraber@ngn-tampa.com so I can take a look as well. Thanks.

[Windborne]

Sounds like that's some smart AI, I usually do the same kind of thing myself, four or five production units, followed by a lot of research and storage, the storage means that I quickly accumulate more resources early on, the research means i can build BETTER ships to protect my worlds, and once the tech tree is finished i then delete the research and go ahead with more production and storage, of course I'm not sure the AI is up to managing it's fleets efficiently enough to win an economic victory, but at heart SEIV is a game of economics and diplomacy, not just another stupid war-game. Playing this way usually I end up in first place against other HUMAN players, and the AI never stands a chance unless they can wipe me out quick, before everything comes on line. Of course the flaw of wasting space must be fixed! You can always destroy facilities later and rebuild the good stuff there.

[This message has been edited by Windborne (edited 05 March 2001).]