Klingons/Romulans Research Score

Magus38 · #1 March 30th, 2001, 02:18 AM

I have been using God Emperor's latest Klingon and Romulan mod (both shipsets and AI) in conjunction with the latest Version of Mephisto's Modpack. Everything was working well together, but then I noticed something peculiar. I had been observing the score of the various races when I realized the the research level of the klingons (and to a lesser degree the Romulans) was absolutely rocketing. I was generally ahead of the pack in tech at turn 120 of the game, producing around 45k of research and having a tech level of around 80, while the majority of races were sitting between a 40 and 60 tech level approximately. This made sense because I was devoting more resources to research than most others. The Klingons, however had an insane tech level of around 140. They were not, moreover, producing more than 15k of research, about a third of my output.

My question is how are they doing it? How did they almost double my tech level (tripling most others) while at the same time producing about one third the research? Stranger still is that when I examine their designs I see no evidence of these atronomical advances. Is the design of their respective AI's giving them some kind of advantage beyond sound strategy? Is the score incorrectly reflecting their tech level?

In every other way the mods are fabulous, improving the challenge offered by the game twofold, thanks to God Emperor, Mephisto and many others. Final thanks go out to Tampa Gamer who's revamped sounds add tremendously to the gaming experience.

[This message has been edited by Magus38 (edited 29 March 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Magus38 (edited 29 March 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Magus38 (edited 29 March 2001).]

jc173 · #2 March 29th, 2001, 03:19 PM

It's part of God Emporer's mod (assuming you have installed his techarea.txt which I think he includes with those two races). He has these two empty filler techs to help the AI arrange it's research better, they cost like 2 pts to start with so they don't get very expensive. If you get his entire mod he has a better explantion than what I can provide, since I don't quite understand it myself. Or you can ask him, he Posts fairly frequently.

Magus38 · #3 March 29th, 2001, 03:28 PM

Yes, that makes sense. I am, in fact using his tech tree and remember examining his explanation of the filler techs. I suppose I did not make the connection, not having anticipated this dramatic an effect. My mind is more at ease. Thanks for pointing it out. I wonder how heavily weighted the tech level is in the calculation of an empire's overall rank?

Krakenup · #4 March 29th, 2001, 04:32 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Magus38:
I wonder how heavily weighted the tech level is in the calculation of an empire's overall rank?

AFAICT, each tech level is worth 200 points so that an extra 70 levels would be 14K points. For comparison, resource, research and intelligence generation (facilities) are added directly so that 50K research/turn would be 50K, and ships are 10 points/KT so that a 300KT transport would be worth 3K.

God Emperor · #5 March 31st, 2001, 03:10 AM

Must admit that I had never really thought about the Tech levels issue as all of my AI use the Filler Tech's. Interesting though, as races without Filler tech would be at somewhat of a diplomatic disadvantage due to the score difference.

Hopefully, if Aaron decides to address my email about the four tech queue issue (and the % settings not working), the need for Filler techs will go.

Incidently, I currently have the Filler techs topping out at Level 500, but this could be edited back to 50 I think - the four tech queue problem is not as significant in the middle and later stages of the game. Might do this as my next patch.