Interdictors

[tint]

So, now that I can play the game again having been given the helpful Windows 64 fix, I've been fiddling with the settings through rebed to do my best to help out my friend, the AI.

 

To summarise rebed: weaker fighters, cheaper ships for AI, more expensive spec forces and cheaper everything else for everyone but even more for AI, double power planetary defences, faster hyperdrives. I had edited so there were 8 core sectors; at the start of the game I abandoned all militarily occupied planets and conducted civilian bombardments such that 6/8 core sectors were under rebel control (apart from two planets).

 

I took over the other two sectors rather quickly, and began to expand heavily into the rim. In the early game I experienced some pressure as the rebels had a superior fleet, but it didn't take long before I was attacking.

 

In terms of AI ship building, this was a big success- I have never seen such large numbers of Mon Cal cruisers, assault frigates, ect. Would the fact that I was seeing more enemy capital ships in this game than in possibly all my other games put together impact the result?

 

Not at all! It was even worse for the AI than in all previous games where they never managed to build a proper fleet (I typically never encounter a significant fleet after I start my offensive)! The AIs fleet handling is so bad that it didn't mean much in terms of putting up a fight- I mostly just annihilated individual ships or very small groups all arriving at a planet at different times.

 

What made it worse was that when the AI had no significant fleets, gathering enough troops and waiting for planetary defences to be erected provided a substantial speed bump to progress. I at least had a sense of having to slog through. Now, everyone loves me because of killing all the alliance fleets! I can just bombard their planets and watch them turn green.

 

Thus, the primary impact of more AI ships was to just gift me entire sectors worth of popular support! It turned out to be even easier, if anything, once I had my fleets. Its possible even lower AI costs would help, as I was able to concentrate superior fleets but I think the primary issue is that the AI's method of shuffling ships about individually is just far too vulnerable to interdictors regardless of their overall fleet.

 

My new plan, therefore, is to totally remove interdictor vessels from the game. While this will, sadly, mean many less fleet battles, it will mean that the AI at least can't commit hari-kiri with its ships. In fact, by having its ships survive its superior production might actually allow its fleet to outnumber mine. I think the interdictor cruisers mostly work against the AI heavily- its totally incapable of handling its ships in a way that reflects the need to avoid being caught by them, so hopefully their removal will help a little. Interdictors were definitely the single biggest factor for me in this game.

 

I wondered has anyone else tried a no-interdictor game?

[addict-ant]

No... I've never even thought of doing that - good idea though

 

However I do foresee an awful lot of chasing down and almost never actually fighting...until such time as the ai thinks it can beat you of course (which if it thinks it can it usually does - but not always and their's always the fighter trick to fall back on )

 

Might I suggest just not building/using them rather than removing them altogether? Just seems simpler to my mind and that way you can always change your mind mid-game.

 

P.S. like your post: always considered doing just that but never got round to it, interesting to know its effects cheers

[tint]

Yeah, I did think of doing that but I think that once the AI gets them and uses them on me I will feel rather provoked into it!

 

I think that way is probably better though; the alternative result is indeed that their fleet eventually dies from maintenance problems, which does lack excitement (and is what always happened before I used rebed anyway). What I'd really like is for fleet actions to have much less impact on popular support, but sadly this is not possible.

 

As my next game is alliance, I might just make the cc-7700 be the last ship researched; I think it makes sense for the alliance to develop them much later anyway. This should give the imperial fleet plenty of time to try and get things done- and them having interdictors and me not will probably create much needed tension!

 

Glad you enjoyed- editing has been helping the AI put up more of a fight, but its so bad it can only help so much, hence why I also bombard.

 

Next game I'm also going to reduce the chance of success significantly for sabotage missions, increase detection values slightly across the board and make spec forces even more expensive; I think characters are a huge advantage over the AI, and reducing this should help balance.

 

I may also give tie interceptors hyperdrive, and I've reduced the Alliance Escort Carrier to carry 4 squadrons, which wookiepedia says is the correct amount, and then the same for the liberator so I don't just use that instead. I'm also giving the empire access to the Nebulon-B, as they lack anti-fighter ships, and taken away the correlian gunship which I find is too good (corvettes look cooler anyway!)

 

I'll report back again, but my takeaways so far to help the AI, given its playstyle, are: Weaken fighters vs Capital ships; make planetary defences and troops cheaper and better, as it focuses on both; make all ships cheaper, but especially fighters as it builds loads for defence; and weaken spec forces and sabotage missions.

[addict-ant]

I think those are some solid ideas to help redress the balance and thinking about it, I've done similar before i.e. at the start determined not to use interdictors and ended up using them far too soon

 

I salute your willingness to get a decent game out of the AI!

 

I too often find myself exasperated by it and really only find a good game playing empire on hard...and even then it's only a challenge until you clear Sesswena sector.

 

Still let me know how you get on - be interested to hear

[DarthTex]

For the AI, have you tried to "over power" the enemy capital ships abit, so they are abit more deadly and have a chance in combat? AI fleet management totally sucks, more on the Alliance side than the Empire IMO, but sucking still sucks regardless. And if you limit the researchable ships down to just a few good combat capital ships, this might also help.

 

Just my two bits worth; Have fun!

[addict-ant]

Good thinking Tex.

 

Of course the best way around all of this (in my humble opinion)...

 

is to play it multiplayer!

 

Which, if you should ever desire to do so, please do look me up on Gameranger... or on Hamachi... or you could email me...PM me...

 

or just shout loudly from the rooftop - I'll be there like a shot!

[Master_Xan]

If you look long and hard, you may come across some old posts I made about fleet battles. I also tried to do much of what you are doing. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order.

 

Using SWReditor, there is an additional value that RebEd doesn't show. It is called AI value. Editing this will drastically affect how the AI operates. I did some testing, but was never able to conclusively tie down the results- I don't know if the AI uses it in building decisions, battle retreating decisions, attack decisions, something else, or some combination. You might try tinkering with it. If you can't find a download for SWRE, let me know and I can send it to you.

 

Lowering maintenance requirements helps the AI.

 

If you edit the speed at which materials are generated (edit mines/refineries) you can improve production. As can editing production speeds on facilities. In both cases, higher numbers mean slower. If you enable advanced shipyards for your opponent only, you can make their ships build much faster than your own.

 

If you disable certain ships, the AI seems to stick with others that work better. After my various edits, I found the AI building way too many CC-9600s, so I flat disabled them. After that the AI built more rounded fleets. I've also seen them building Corvettes late in the game instead of better ships, so you can try disabling any number of ships to get better fleet builds.

 

Changing research levels can give the AI an edge.

 

As already discussed, interdictors are outside the AI's abilities to handle, so use them sparingly or disable them entirely. Changing the AI value for interdictors could yield interesting results, and may be worth your time to try.

 

One reason the AI is terrible with ship management is transfer times. They like to send ships all over the galaxy, then turn them right back around and send them back. This makes for very spread out fleets. Playing on a small galaxy helps with this. Also, increase the speed of their ships by lowering the hyperdrive numbers in RebEd. That makes them outright more dangerous, but also helps with their ship management.

 

Torpedoes are a fighter-only weapon that do significant damage to capital ships once shields drop. You can remove them, or reduce them, to make fighters comparatively weaker. Also, the B-wing has a larger-than-average squadron size. 18, I think. Lowering that to 12 weakens that unit. If squad size is not editable inside RebEd, it is inside SWReditor.

 

The more you disable, the less the AI has to worry about. Remove extra troop regiments, perhaps allowing them only two options. Remove extra planetary defenses. Even try removing spec forces all together. This is all extremely game changing, so... yeah. Also remember you can deny a side access to things, so you could "remove" them from yourself or the AI without impacting the other.

 

Another problem, like the ships traveling around, is that personnel and troops also do this. You can edit the speed at which units travel, and you can even do it on a per-side basis. To do so, you need a hex editor, and you need to modify a game file directly. I got great results by lowering the speed all units require to move around. If you are interested, you can try to look it up, but it may not be available online anymore. I can give you a simple walkthrough, if you need it. Note that this impacts everything, from facility travel time to personnel, and the only way to control it is by which side gets what speed boost- you cannot improve fighter transport times without improving everything else, etc.

 

EDIT: Also, I'm a general.