Question for Atraikius/ other AI modders

[Deathstalker]

Ok this is a general question, how does the AI decide what ship to build??? In a few of my designs I have the ships seperated by sizes (ie, 3 attack ships, the first ending at destroyer, the second at battlecruiser etc.). I noticed that the Zorians build almost all of their types frequently.

Mine don't, in one I have 4 attack designs , and 2 defense designs. It has build the 2nd defense design but never any other attack except the first.

Another AI I have does not build beyond light cruisers for the ship designs of attack defense even though the designs exist in the files, it will build battleship class minesweepers but not attack ships.

How do you get the AI to build all the designs you place in the design creations txt?? I can't find a consistant way to do it. I have tried both doing 3-4 ship designs and having the size 10-5000 kt for them and limiting them by size (ie 1st 10-300, 2nd 301-600, etc), nothing seems to work right. I even have a few ships that should come on line when only certain tech is discovered (ie, in the 'must have lines'), these new ones are not build either.

What am I doing wrong?????

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Nitram Draw]

I'm no designer but I do recall that there is a line in the race settings file that limits the size of the ship built for x number of turns. Could this be the problem?

[Deathstalker]

Nope, checked that first, I have the lines set for 1000/15, 2000/20, and 0/0. Or sometimes even less, I tend to have AI's that have carrier/fighters tech by turn 5 in a med tech game and I want Carriers produced as soon as possible. Fleets are set to be used at turn 5 as well.

thanks for the assist anyways though.

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[jc173]

I've noticed this problem too with some of the TDM races. They have designs for different tonnage ships, but for some reason seem to always build the largest possible. In particular I noticed that once they have dreadnaught tech, the Rage always builds heavy attack ships and completely forgoes the light attack ship design. It might be something really odd and subtle, like the amount of resources they have or the production rates of their shipyards. On the other hand I've seen other races with the different weight class ships still put out smaller ones late in the game. Unfortunately your guess is as good as mine.

[Alpha Kodiak]

I would love to know how to get the Rage, as well as a couple of other AI's I'm working on, to build a mix of attack ships. So far I have not had any success. I have ideas for some specialist ships that I would like produced in small numbers, but depending on where I put them in the list, they either get built exclusively, or not at all.

[Nitram Draw]

If the lines in the settings file that limit the size ships built could be added to forever, you could set specific ship size limits throughout the game. I don't know if there is just three set points allowed though.

[Master Belisarius]

You can design ships with a determined size (for example, missile boats with the Destroyer hull).
But the problem is that in the end game or games with all the tech from the start, these ships are useless and AI doesn't build the enough number of these small ships to hurt a fleet of dreadnaught.

Also, the AI can have more than one ship design, for the same class of ship.
For example, you can specify one attack ship with only the Destroyer hull, and other attack ship with a hull from scout to dreadnaught.
The problem here, is that you can not tell to the AI, exactly how many ships do you want to build for each class.

[Jubala]

The top of AI_DesignCreation.txt:

Name := Attack Ship
Design Type := Attack Ship
Vehicle Type := Ship


An entry from AI_Construction_Vehicles.txt:

Entry 2 Type := Attack Ship
Entry 2 Planet Per Item := 100
Entry 2 Must Have At Least := 1

What if MM added a line to Entries in AI_Construction_Vehicles.txt for Name? Then we could do this:

Name := Missile Boat
Design Type := Attack Ship
Vehicle Type := Ship

Entry 2 Name := Missile Boat
Entry 2 Type := Attack Ship
Entry 2 Planet Per Item := 100
Entry 2 Must Have At Least := 1

With that change it would be possible to tell the AI exactly what design to build and how many of that design. Haven't mailed this suggestion to MM yet as I want your feedback. Good idea or not?

[Deathstalker]

That would be PERFECT for AI construction, you could have certain #'s of pdc ships etc. Would make AI's much more varied and versitle while leaving the base AI's that come with the game unchanged (ie, no massive overhauling for MM) as the name would be the same as the current ship.

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Tampa_Gamer]

This idea has been forwarded to MM since the beginning days in Nov '00. I think it would add tremendous amount of flexibility. . .