Improving Ministers AI ?

brainman.9Hells · #1 March 26th, 2002, 04:04 AM

Hi,

I'm an AI fanatic and I wanna contribute to the game by making some of the ministers work.

I wanna make them inteligently control pop transports, specially matching races to their correct atmosferes... I wanna make them use sat/ laying smartly to protect warp points and support fleet operations... Mine sweepers are critical!
I also would like to make them colonize the planets is a smartly fashion...

I feel ministers are the KEY to enjoying late game war without losing control with micro-management

I have tons of ideas... But I first need to know the basics. I found the files for customizing ai designs, construction queues and so.

Fine, but is there a file where I can control the behavior of, lets say, the troop transports minister?

Thanks!
Gabriel Blum
http://9hells.org

Ragnarok · #2 March 26th, 2002, 04:36 AM

I think another AI feature should be added. Instead of selecting "Control ship construction" or whatever that says, (second one from the top) and it controling EVERY type of ship being selected. I think there should be an option for controling ONLY ships such as colony ships, when I play I devote 2 or 3 planets to colony ship building and once built I just let the minister pick the planet and so on. Makes it easier. But it gets to be a pain to keep up with keeping ships in que for colonizing. That's just an idea I thought would be nice to have on there.

Krakenup · #3 March 26th, 2002, 03:37 PM

quote:
Originally posted by brainman.9Hells:
Fine, but is there a file where I can control the behavior of, lets say, the troop transports minister?

No. You are correct that the ministers are THE weak point in the game, and they need a lot of work. Unfortunately, they are hardcoded, and we can't get to them. This is also the biggest problem with the AI in that all AIs have to use all the ministers.

I was way ahead in a game and decided to turn on all the ministers to see what would happen. I had established a forward base and assembled a war fleet to attack the Krill. The Krill demanded that I leave the system. My AI said "Oh, OK" and abandoned my heavily fortified planets and withdrew my war fleet through a damaging warp point into a black hole. My other war fleet (I had just dispatched the Amon'krie) was withdrawn to a space yard where all ships were retrofitted to a grossly inferior design. They were then sent almost to the frontier and then recalled for more retrofitting, again and again. Meanwhile, all colonization and exploration stopped. I think if I had given it enough time, it might have lost.