Mines and AI reaction?

[justjake73]

This is probably a dumb q, but if the AI tries to enter a non-contested sector in peacetime and is destroyed by a mine, will they declare war?

[Suicide Junkie]

I believe that the AI does not get upset over mine losses.
They will start researching minesweepers right away, though.

[Deathstalker]

They will? I thought they followed the research txt by letter. If they do research mine sweeping right after they encounter mines then why isn't it set up that way for point defense after missiles are encountered? or Phased shields after ppb?(etc), and is there any way to mod this?(probally hard-coded though ).

Are there any other instances of 'breaks' in research (ie, medical after plagues happen?)

VERY curious.

------------------
"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.

[Deathstalker]

bump.....anyone???

[geoschmo]

I believe you are right D. There is nothing in the text files anyway. Unless it is at the code level there is no way for this to happen. Given the typical level of memory of the ai, (none) I think it is unlikely that they would modify their behavior based on anything like this.

What SJ probably perceived as this was either,

a. The AI already had minesweepers, but did not direct them to his space until it encountered a minefield.

or

2. A sheer coinkydink that the minesweepers appeard shortly after he started using mines. It would stand to reason that the ai and the player would research mines in roughly the same time period.

or

d. SJ has a vivid imagination.

Geo

[capnq]

quote:

---

I thought they followed the research txt by letter.

---

It's a lot more compicated than that, so much so that I don't understand it myself. Try searching the Boards or checking the Modders Guide for the gory details.

You've given me another opportunity to point out that a lot of people only check these Boards once a day or less.

------------------
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"

[geoschmo]

I feel smacked. Was I just smacked? (Or maybe it was D who got smacked.)

I read the Boards several times a day, but to be honest my memory isn't what it used to be.

If you are talking about AI states, yes there are things that can modify what gets researched and built, but I don't recall anybody saying that hitting a minefield will have any effect on AI state. Unless you mean in a more general sense that meeting another race will change the AI state, but that is not what SJ was saying.

Unless I misunderstood his point.

Geo

[This message has been edited by geoschmo (edited 17 July 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

I got that idea from here.

Where, Sinapus said Mines(sweepers) kept getting added to the AIs research queue automatically, likely due to them running into minefields.

I agree with Deathstalker, that the AI should have more of this built in, or set as flags in the text file.
Meet fighters = research PD
Meet armor skipping = research shields
Meet shield depleters = research armor

Best would be an entry like:

quote:

---

Number of Prompts := 2
Prompt 1 promptType := Component
Prompt 1 promptType2 := 234 //CSM Missile
Prompt 1 responseType := Research
Prompt 1 responseType2 := Point Defense Weapons
Prompt 2 promptType := Facility
Prompt 2 promptType2 := 65 //SpacePort
Prompt 2 responseType := Attack
Prompt 2 responseType2 := AttackShip4Planet

---

Note that you would have to specify the design plan for a ship of type "AttackShip4Planet" in the AI_design_creation .txt file for that second prompt. It would likely be heavily shielded, and loaded with planetary napalm and PDC (to kill defense sats).

There could be prompts such as an enemy using a specific ship size, planetary facility, component family (phased weapon, shields, alliegiance subverters, cloaks, etc)
Responses could include; have the AI start research on a counter, queue up specific ship design, alter their relations (happiness) with the target race, attack the target, start an intel op against the target, etc.

Then, you could program the AIs to hate/goto war against anyone who they see using a plague bomb component on their ships, for example. I would have them research medical bays, too.
You could have the AI attempt to Intel op only ships with certain Stellar Manip comps on em, just to throw a monkey wrench into your sphereworld plans.
If they see a world with lots of intel centers on it, they could target it specifically for PPP
They could order fleets to wipe out spaceports instead of useless fringe worlds.
They could build PD ships to counter your missiles, then switch back to other designs when you use beams.

This could really make the AI smarter.

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[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 17 July 2001).]

[geoschmo]

Well, perhaps I am not the best person to comment on this then. Everything I have seen and understood about the AI was that it was slaved to the research text file. That the priorities were adjusted according to state, but that even that was determined by the research file.

Let me ask this. Has anyone ever seen a Neutral race build mines or mine sweepers? The reason I ask this is because mines are not in the Default_AI_Resaerch.txt file. If the ai is slaved to the text files then no Neutral should ever build mines or mine sweepers regardless of whether you use them against them. If we ever have seen a Neutral race use mines or sweepers then in my mind that would confirm that their is some hard code flag that overrides the research text file and instructs the ai to research them when encountered.

The fact that noone has seen it would not confirm my theory of course. You can't prove a negative. But if anyone has seen it, it would certainly disprove my theory.

Geo

[This message has been edited by geoschmo (edited 17 July 2001).]

[Master Belisarius]

I'm with GEO.
I spent hours and hours checking AIs, and I'm 100% sure that currently the AI only follow the research.txt. Sad, but this is the truth.
I have suggested to Aaron, to include some actions that could be automatically triggered when the AI detect some events (like every human does).
For example:
- Enemy Minefield -> research Mines
- Plague -> research Medical
- Enemy ship with Boarding Parties -> Include Self-Destruct devices into the AI ships.
- Enemy ship with Alliegance Converters -> Create ship designs with master computers.

But I don't know if something like this, some day would be implemented.