AI_General problem...

[Trachmyr]

Ok, my space monsters are suppose to choose "Emotionless" if they are "randomly" generated... but it's not being selected. I double-checked the file to make sure there was no "stupid-mistakes" (extra spaces, wrong numbers, etc.), but it's ok...

So, does anyone know of a not-so-obvious problem that can cause this?

If it's important, I generated the game(s) using "quick-start".

Any help will be appreciated!

[Trachmyr]

Well it wasn't capitalization...

What it was is a little quirk of AI_General.txt, it select one advanced trait of any point cost OR a combination of traits totaling less than or equal to the racial point limit... but not considering any "bounus" points from low racial charistics

The space monsters take -50% on mining/refining, -35% on happiness (and +10% reproduction)... this gives enough points for emotionless(3K)/Natural Merchants(1K)/Space monster(0)... but it won't put emotionless in because of this quirk! (If I switch the order to put emotionless at the top of the list, It'll put in emotionless but not the other two, even though one costs 0 points! Thus it must be a limit of 1 trait of any amount OR a number of traits <= racial points)...

Kind of annoying, I've got to redo their AI_general, cultures.txt to fix it (removing emotionless, adding happiness +)

Oh, well...

[Suicide Junkie]

Capitalization is important, and it must be spelled the same as the "name" entry in racialtraits.txt

Also, be sure that you're not going over the racial point limit; emotionless is 3000 points.

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Before doing all that, try not spending every single racial point! It may be that it stops adding specials when you hit zero.

[Trachmyr]

quote:

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Originally posted by LCC:
Before doing all that, try not spending every single racial point! It may be that it stops adding specials when you hit zero.

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It's not that I'm over points, it'll work just fine if I use an .emp file with the EXACT same stuff, just not when the race is randomly generated through the AI_General.txt file (even though it uses the exact same settings)

I don't see any other way around it... I need the Space Monsters to have NATURAL MERCHANTS and EMOTIONLESS, that's 4k no matter how you slice it. My only recourse is to make them immune to unhappiness through a large happiness bonus (either with culture or a facility, but if I use a facility that makes them even more abusable if the planet is captured!)

[This message has been edited by Trachmyr (edited 11 July 2001).]

What I meant was on the ai general file specify a list of traits which has 10 or 25 points left unused. The problem may be that YOU can add a zero cost trait in edit empire at point balance zero, but the AI is not that smart...

[capnq]

I assume you're building the Space Monsters with SE IV Version 1.41? There was a bug with using negative characteristics in AI_General.txt in the earliest Versions, but that was supposedly fixed a couple patches ago.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 11 July 2001).]

Negative characteristics ? Probably not what you meant, but how about adding racial traits that you get PAID to select! For example I noticed that you can in Racial Traits have required and restricted traits tied to another one. But nobody uses this yet. Has it ever been tested and seen to work ? If it works then I can think of some neat ones for new races who live in my nexus maps.

[Trachmyr]

LCC, I tried what you suggested... I made all the racial trait costs (before specials)add up to 5K instead of the original 4K... still same problem.

As for required/restricted tags... they don't work (at least up to 1.35)

And for neg. values not working... well they do now, since the General file will set the values to negative amounts & it gets the extra points to spend.

[capnq]

Poor wording on my part. I meant characteristics of less than 100, which are effectively worth negative racial points.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"