Balance Mod Available for SE:V - Page 46

Captain Kwok · #**451** December 3rd, 2006, 01:50 AM

So it turns out the AI was adding any starting techs for the last few versions! Anyhow it's been fixed and is working properly. It should certainly help with the research stuff!

shinigami · #**452** December 3rd, 2006, 01:57 AM

Mod's coming along nicely, CK!

Quick question, you added the Override_InvConfiguration_Slots.txt file, did you intend to use it?

Captain Kwok · #**453** December 3rd, 2006, 02:14 AM

Not at this time, but it was suggested that I at least include one with the mod (it's just the default one now, but that will probably change) package if someone wanted to use it.

javaslinger · #**454** December 3rd, 2006, 08:25 PM

Any update on when the latest update might be coming out?

Thanks,

Javaslinger

Captain Kwok · #**455** December 3rd, 2006, 09:00 PM

I was aiming for tonight, but I haven't finished the update yet and I wanted to test the mod out for a bit first. So 50-50 for tonight...

The Gnome · #**456** December 4th, 2006, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Captain Kwok said:
Gnome, through improving the AI, you improve the ministers. So far the AI focus has been ship designs, construction, diplomacy, and a little bit of other things. Which particular ministers were you interested in using?

I'm was away for the last few days, sorry just getting to this. To start, I could not get a couple of the ministers to work at all:
Ships - Minelayers
Ships - Population Transports

It could be something I'm doing incorrectly, but I'm not sure what it could be.

Also, some questions/suggestions for the Planetary Construction minister:
- Will it build Atmosphere Modification Plants? I think it's worth the investment on Large/Huge worlds, maybe even medium. Should recycle it after the atmosphere is converted, but I'm not sure if that level of control is possible.

- Will it build Value Improvement Plants? Worth it on all the resource type colonies of Large+, maybe even medium, haven't looked at the numbers in detail.

- Will it build Climate Improvement Plants? Worth it on all medium+ sized worlds.

- I tend to take the Temporal Tech branch when I play and noticed it was not building the Temporal Shipyards in place of normal shipyards. Again not sure if this level of decision making is practical or allowed given the api.

- There is a new colony type in your Mod (Resource Colonies?) that will build facilities for all three types of resources. If available it would be nice if Monolith facilities were built there.

- If the AI can detect which system wide facilities are constructed or being constructed it would be nice to have those handled by this minister as well (Medical Centers, Temporal Vacation Centers, Space Ports, etc.).

- Will the AI build Robo Factories? Would be nice on resrouce worlds.

Also, I noticed ships retrofitting without the minister be active for that ship, but I think that's more an SEV bug than anything to do with you. It also might be me not understanding how it's supposed to work!

Thanks, and your mod rocks btw!

Captain Kwok · #**457** December 4th, 2006, 12:58 PM

It was reported that at some time the Ship Design minister had to be active for some of the ministers to work. I'm not sure if this is still the case despite a fix aimed at this area in v1.17...

Are there mines available for the mine layer?

The AI planetary minister is not that advanced yet. Some of the items you describe are long term AI goals I would like to work on.

The build lists do call for some of the resource enhancing abilities, but there are unlikely to be seen unless they happen to have the right colony type on a large enough planet. Not to say there can't be further optimization in this area...

Raapys · #**458** December 4th, 2006, 01:17 PM

I was thinking, it would probably be alot better for the AI if, for instance, all planets' facility slots were doubled, while all relevant facilities( i.e. research, intelligence, mining, etc.) had their production points and costs cut in half. It would definitely improve AIs 'mixed' colonies alot.

On another note, I'm thinking that maybe there should be a huge decrease in supplies/ordnance usage, or a big increase in the standard supply/ordnance storage( like 2x the current level ) and another increase in the amount of supplies distributed by resupply facilities. The goal would be to have the AI fly around more, both with fleets and single ships, further away from his colony systems, etc.

I'm speculating that the current short time before running out of supplies might be keeping the AI from venturing out from his colonies and rarely attacking the player. I'm guessing that supply is a big factor when the AI decides to send out an attacking fleet, so if there's one or two empty system between the AI and his target, he might not attack at all because he decides his ships doesn't have enough supplies to last through it all.

The above also brings me to another speculative, but highly likely, point: How *can* the AI attack the player( unless he's got a planet in the same sector or some such )?

I mean, with fog of war enabled, the AI will *never* know of any of the player's colonies if the player just terminates any scouts sent. In other words, the AI will never have a target, a colony, to attack or to send his fleet to. And, presumably, the AI wont send out his fleet unless he's got a clear target, this then explaining the lack of aggresion from the AI.

In short, the one and only 'fair' way of playing against the AI in SE V seems to be if one uses the 'See all sectors' option to help him, because the AI is definitely not designed to handle fog of war issues. Perhaps the easiest and best solution for Aaron would be to just make the AI 'cheat' and see everything.

The Gnome · #**459** December 4th, 2006, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Captain Kwok said:
It was reported that at some time the Ship Design minister had to be active for some of the ministers to work. I'm not sure if this is still the case despite a fix aimed at this area in v1.17...

Are there mines available for the mine layer?

The AI planetary minister is not that advanced yet. Some of the items you describe are long term AI goals I would like to work on.

The build lists do call for some of the resource enhancing abilities, but there are unlikely to be seen unless they happen to have the right colony type on a large enough planet. Not to say there can't be further optimization in this area...

Mine layers have the mines available to them.

Hmm, needing the ship design minister on for some functions? Argh. That's the only one I refuse to use lol. Not that I hate its designs but I have a ship naming convention so I know what my oddly named ships are called.

Generally I use US Navy Hull/Type convention with a dash and then a name. So:
CA - Cruiser, Heavy
CV - Cruiser, Aviation
CL - Cruiser, Light
AR - Auxiliary, Repair
AP - Auxiliary, Troop Transport

Having the AI use the ship type prefix would be actually a really nice thing for the game btw. Seeing a "FeeFiFoFum IV" tells me nothing, but seeing "BB - FeeFiFoFum IV" tells me a battleship sized attack ship was involved.

Captain Kwok · #**460** December 4th, 2006, 06:25 PM

I'll have to respond to some of the items posted here later, but I wanted to point those who are interested to a new thread in the Balance Mod forums at SE.net:
http://www.spaceempires.net/home/ftopict-2115.html

It's a proposal for a change to the Engine system. There's not much change to the actual mechanics really, but I think it restores some strategy back to engine usage that was sort of lost with the current Balance Mod engine system.