Proportions Mod Versions 2.5.2 and 2.5.3 available - Page 17

Aloofi · #**161** March 3rd, 2003, 05:16 PM

Oleg, I also noticed that the Neutral Races are not colonizing, have you seen this?
In this case it was Neutral #1, the Bobrosa States.
Oh, and they were using the Starliner hull as a regular transport (and thus slower) for minelaying/sweeping and troop transport.
Though it might have been because the Starliner its avaliable first than the Medium Transport....

oleg · #**162** March 4th, 2003, 02:26 AM

No idea. Actually I never played Proportions with neutrals. Did't see the point, why not just add one more race ?

That one particular race - turn it unto your control and check if Colonizer design exist. If not, copy and paste colonizer designs from design.txt file of the race that does make colonizers.

oleg · #**163** March 4th, 2003, 03:53 AM

OK, I think the problem is in AI_construction_vehicles.txt file. In contrast to "normal" AI, neutrals have "colonizer" entry only in explore and not connected states. If for some reason AI in any other state, it won't build colony ships. Here is my quick fix:
1046742418.txt

Replace neutral001_AI_construction_vehicles.txt with this new file. (proportions/pictures/raceneutrals/neutral001 folder. If it fixes the problem, other neutrals should have this file too !!

PvK · #**164** March 4th, 2003, 04:33 AM

Thanks Oleg! I have seen Neutrals colonizing before... I think maybe I set them up that way so that they wouldn't necessarily always keep a redundant colonizer on hand after they had colonized all the planets in their home system. But, with a couple of patches introduced since then, and in general, this may be an improvement.

As for Aloofi's follow-up question:

Quote:

Originally posted by Aloofi:
Thanks for the responses.
Now I have another question (sorry for so many questions )
What would be the ideal armor composition?
Without worrying about price and weight, I would like to now if an scaled "Ultra Armor Plating I" that deflects 14 damage per hit with 4 Ablatative Armor V components that are hit-first is better than the same scaled armor with 4 of the non scaled Ultra Armor structure that deflects 6 per hit but are not hit-first.

It depends on what you're fighting, and what your goal is for the design. The Ultra Amored Structure will probably give you the most indestructible ship, but it costs a LOT. Ablative armor is quite affordable, and has the advantage that it is hit first, so it has to all be destroyed before you have a chance of losing a vital component like the bridge, or your combat sensors. The more expensive ship might get unlucky and be crippled by a single medium damage hit in just the right place. The armored plating though tends to go best with a lot of armored structure, or a whole ton of ablative armor. Ablative armor is also really good for combining with other hit-first types like emissive, stealth, or scattering scale-mounted armor. So, it's really a matter of what you want, how much you want to pay per ship, and what you're fighting.

PvK

Aloofi · #**165** March 4th, 2003, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by oleg:
No idea. Actually I never played Proportions with neutrals. Did't see the point, why not just add one more race ?

Yeah, I agree. Neutrals are nothing more than a bonus to the human player. The problem was that I realized that when I was already into the current game......

Aloofi · #**166** March 4th, 2003, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by oleg:
Norak does not design Population transports.
Reason is simple:
"must have ability 1" should be "cargo storage", not "star - unstable"
Here is modified Norak_AI_designcreation.txt
1046567994.txt

Kind of silly to load whole file because of two words but it WILL help Norak AI ! Some other races may have same problem, did't check all.

Oleg, why all transport have the star-unstable ability?
Is that the way it should be?

Aloofi · #**167** March 4th, 2003, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PvK:

The armored plating though tends to go best with a lot of armored structure, or a whole ton of ablative armor. Ablative armor is also really good for combining with other hit-first types like emissive, stealth, or scattering scale-mounted armor. So, it's really a matter of what you want, how much you want to pay per ship, and what you're fighting.

PvK

Thanks. I replaced the armored structure with Ablatative armor.
Now I have my three BattleCruisers with one scaled Ultra Armored Plating and four Ablatative armor components.
The problem was that the hits were going through my previous armor of Ultra Armored Plating and Ultra Armored Structure.

Aloofi · #**168** March 4th, 2003, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by oleg:
OK, I think the problem is in AI_construction_vehicles.txt file. In contrast to "normal" AI, neutrals have "colonizer" entry only in explore and not connected states. If for some reason AI in any other state, it won't build colony ships. Here is my quick fix:
1046742418.txt

Replace neutral001_AI_construction_vehicles.txt with this new file. (proportions/pictures/raceneutrals/neutral001 folder. If it fixes the problem, other neutrals should have this file too !!

Thanks. I'm sure this was the problem. Both Neutrals I've seen were under constant attack. The AI state probably was in short or long term defense.

oleg · #**169** March 4th, 2003, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Aloofi:

quote:
Originally posted by oleg:
Norak does not design Population transports.
Reason is simple:
"must have ability 1" should be "cargo storage", not "star - unstable"
Here is modified Norak_AI_designcreation.txt
1046567994.txt

Kind of silly to load whole file because of two words but it WILL help Norak AI ! Some other races may have same problem, did't check all.

Oleg, why all transport have the star-unstable ability?
Is that the way it should be?

Actually no

here is why : when AI see "cargo storage" ability, it uses the component with highest value. This is fine untill it discovers "population module" or what is name ? - the big 400K module with capacity 1M. Now, it can not use standard cargo bays on troop transports, carriers, etc.

One way around is instruct AI not to research these modules at all. But I thought it is just not cool

Thus, PvK introduced special bogus ability for cargo bays I - "star unstable" Now AI can use them if you use this new ability in design_creation. There is a catch though - for AI to use transport hull design should have
"must have ability1 := cargo storage" if you replace it with "star - unstable" here, AI will not pick up transport hulls. This is all quite complicated but I think I get it sorted in my AIs and in fact it makes AI modding more exiting !

Aloofi · #**170** March 4th, 2003, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by oleg:
[QB
There is a catch though - for AI to use transport hull design should have
"must have ability1 := cargo storage" if you replace it with "star - unstable" here, AI will not pick up transport hulls. This is all quite complicated but I think I get it sorted in my AIs and in fact it makes AI modding more exiting ![/QB]

Lol, this explanation alone gave me a headache.

But now I know how to mess around with the AI designs....Muuuaaaaaaahhhhh.