My Final Verdict (until the next patch, that is...)

[Talenn]

DirectorTsaarx:

Yes, tweaking those numbers and a few in the AI_Anger files will indeed make the AI players more hostile. Unfortunately, it makes them more hostile to everyone they meet...ie, it doesnt just react to Human players that way (which is good..its not cheating). But what it DOES mean is that the AI is going to war with just about the first person it meets. Thus, the AI players are all fighting amongst themselves and are even LESS likely to attack someone else.

If the Human player plays it cool, its very possible to stay out of prolonged conflicts with the AI. Either that, or the Human player can just stomp the first AI player they come across and be reasonably safe from the others who are constantly embattled with one another.

The other problem concerns the QUALITY of the attacks. As observed below, the AI attacks on others are half-hearted and ill-advised most of the time. So even when the AI is currently engaged in hostilities with a player, its unlikely that they will do too much damage.

All:

I'd like to test some of this too, but my Data is so customized at this point that I dont think I can be of much direct help. I will go through your list of changes and see what I can implement into my set. I can then at least have a similar frame of reference with others to continue comparing notes.

Has anyone been able to translate anything in the 'politics' file? This one is obviously the key to the AI being so 'treaty happy'. I cant really make enough sense of the file to want to change anything, though. I'm pretty sure that making use of this file and the anger file, we can create distinctive AI personalities. But I'm not sure how to go about it just yet...anyone?

Thanx,
Talenn

[DirectorTsaarx]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who couldn't figure out the "Politics" file. I looked at it for an hour, and every time I thought I understood an entry, the next entry would seem to work the exact opposite way!

I'll look over the mod... BTW - I posted some thoughts about the AI to the SE4 forum on "eGroups" (http://www.eGroups.com/Messages/SE4) a few days ago - y'all might want to read that forum as well (if you aren't already).

Good point, Talenn; the AI seems to beat up on neutrals pretty quickly already (I have a game going that started with 7 regular computer players and 5 "neutral" computer players, and 3 of the neutrals have already disappeared; although two new ones have also appeared - I think the AIs are using intel ops against each other!!).

Of course, I don't think it's necessarily out of line for the AIs to go after each other - and "playing it cool" doesn't work if the AI is aggressively seeking opponents. The only solution would be to stay bottled up in a few systems, which severely limits your ability to build infrastructure. And, if the AI use of minesweepers gets fixed, (back to the QUALITY of the AI) it'll be much more difficult to defend those systems...

One Last thought - when the Mega-Evil Empire factor kicks in, the AIs should probably make treaties with each other to improve resource/research/etc; I don't think the game is set up that way right now, but it's something to think about...