Carrier Battles Mod

[Suicide Junkie]

Well, in the old versions the carriers had to have a big maintenance penalty in order to keep them fair.
It was also a bit odd with the small-ship reactor mounts and the fact that fighter bays were only usable on carriers.

Now, carriers are regular ships, with a modest size bonus in exchange for the dedicated fighter/cargo stuff. The physics are now consistent, and it is even possible to put small fighter bays on all your warships, B5 style.

Theoretically, its an improvement. It is certainly a change in the atmosphere. Whether it is a practical improvement or not will be determined by the newly started PBW games.

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As to the fighters, they have not changed in utility... the difference is in how you get them to combat in deep space.
The carriers are certainly smaller... but with the lower maintenance, you should actually be able to afford to bring more fighters into battle...

Plus, there is the ability to build fighter bays into your orbital platforms, and perhaps even a small set of fighters in your heavy satellites.
Fighters will be able to pop up everywhere

[Suicide Junkie]

We have a couple of open slots in various games.

First come first served. There are two empires in great position just waiting for you.

[Suicide Junkie]

In an amazing feat, Rollo has written up some AIs for Carrier Battles Mod!

[Will]

Sweet, finally get to test it out!

I'll try out a game later tonight and post the results. Hopefully I can offer some suggestions, but from what Rollo has been saying, the AI is already scary good.

[Suicide Junkie]

Updated, with improved troop usage by Rollo.

[Captain Kwok]

Since your mod has its own pictures/game/dialogs folder, you'll need to add a startmenu.bmp file (736x536, but can be narrower).

[Rollo]

Thank you for your kindness, but 'amazing feat' and 'scary good'? Let's just hold our horses for now =).
This is just a 4-day hack to get the ball rolling. I am sure there are many ways to improvement. I have only just recently (last week) found out about CB mod, so I am a total noob to the mechanics and since there was no AI for target practice, I decided to whip up something real quick. So credit goes to all, who advised me what to build =).

This is still step 1 of making the CB mod AI and is a work in progress. So if you have any suggestions for improvement, kindly post them here. We are looking for odd behavior concerning strategies, flaws in designs, and general good old bugginess.

Here are a few hints to playing with/testing the AI:
I'd recommend a low tech, one planet start, with no or low AI bonus, and low or medium random AIs + (optional) Neutrals. The AI script does not include the full tech tree and all design sizes, yet, but should be good for about 150 turns or so. .emp files don't exsist, so you have your races added randomly. The Phong.emps that are in the /empires folder are leftover from development and should _not_ be used, since they contain a faulty strategy.

That's all I can think off for now. I am going to be away for 10 days, leaving tomorrow, and looking forward to your suggestions, bug reports, and after action reports. So can implement them when I get back and continue to improve the AI. Top of the list is getting research and designs done for the full tech tree, of course. Have fun! =)

[Suicide Junkie]

Well, here's the first report:
- Medium tech start. No bonus.
- about 25 turns in.

Ukra Tal Heavy Fighter
Design:

• Cockpit with extension
• Speed 3 engine
• Level 2 Shield
• Level 3 Supply Pod x5
• Level 3 Maser (20mm) x3
• Level 6 Light Kinetic Missile (external mount)

This fighter appears to be on point defense duty, as its missile would imply it should be.
However, the three 20mm lasers are bad design. One laser is all that is needed to kill light missiles, since the fighters stack up their shots. The lasers also drive the radioactives cost way way up, which is bad for build rate.
Supply amount is good; ~16 missile shots.

Fighter never gets close enough to use its lasers, and instead, retreats to maximum range of its missiles (since they have a reload rate of 1).

Reccommended;
1) Replace two lasers with one 20mm torpedo (or a 40mm DUC).
2) Set movement optimal or short.


Combat notes:
Ukra tal planet was recently colonized, and I sent a whole carrier against it. They didn't stand a chance, but their 4 laser attack fighters killed 1 of my 30 fighters, and I landed a couple troops.

[Suicide Junkie]

Possible high-level strategy issue:
Ukra tal have countered my invasion of their colony with a huge attack from the other side of the empire.

Three carriers and two destroyers.
However, the weapons being carried are 100% explosive missiles. An ungodly wave of missiles wiped out all my defenders, but the Ukra were unable to attack my colony itself.
I suppose I should expect a troop invasion soon.

[Will]

Quick note regarding Intel with AIs. In a low-tech start, one homeworld game, the Phong and Terrans researched Intel around turn 70. Only problem is, with such a low number of points, they began using the cheapest operations: Resource Gift. Not a very good op to use against your enemy, since it depletes your resources and gives it to the hated ones

I was getting used to the changes between 1.0 and 1.4 for that test game, so I don't have much to offer on AI strategies or designs; except I have noticed a general lack of repair and supply capacity in AI fleets. It's hard to do repair in CB, but the AIs could have saved a few fleets by having repair priorities set to Drive Reactors and Engine Ports (only) and having a small amount of repair capacity and a supply tanker or two. It's a lot easier to get a speed 5 fleet to safety than it is to get a speed 1 or speed 0 fleet to safety.