Chaos_pff

One question: Has any mod been able to change how the AI behaves ? My experience with all the mods i played is that while they offer great new graphics/ships and tactic changes the AI is as dumb as ever. Thats why eaw has quickly lost most of its appeal to me. That part should be the real focus of modding now since graphics- and ship modelling is almost exhausted.

UPs.: 1. it is actually a game were you can play a campaign against someone else without getting bored to death waiting, i can not even possibly overstate that ! 2. Nice skirmish multiplayer with fun teamplay. DOWNs.: 1. AI is among the worst i have seen in strategy games since C&C Red Alert. --> Singleplayer fun: about 5-8 hours per campaign + 2-4 hours per galactic conquest. 2. I personally would have liked a more deep going strategy game but that would have made UP 1. impossible(one has to set priorities) 3. The engine is made for few units on the field (Personally i like it that way because its more tactics but its just strange to have an entire fleet against few enemies and only a few of my units are showing up) If you got substantial add-ons please go ahead. (Please no "Unit XYZ is too strong")

> relates to a entry within one of the '\Data\XML\AI\Goals\' files (not the file but individual entries within a particular file) which seem >to apply restriction rules upon the use of the function. I can verify that. > is a direct link to either a script loaded from within a .lua file or a function declared within one of the perception equation >files >from '\Data\XML\AI\PerceptualEquations\' . Looking at the entries within the files in the '\PerceptualEquations\' folder its clear >that they >could easily be lua scripts themselves. '\Data\XML\AI\PerceptualEquations\' are ignored. For proof test the following: Find File: BasicGalacticEquations.xml Look at this function: 1.0 Find File: UpgradeStarbasePlan.lua Enter this line right after 'function BaseForce_Thread()' if EvaluatePerception("One", PlayerObject) == 0.0 then ScriptExit() --> If you know start a campaign no changes happen as it is supposed to be. Now change function One: 0.0 --> If you know start a campaign no changes happen even so the AI shouldn't upgrade their stations any more ! So the perception files are essentially useless. However there are functions corresponding to their names. So there is a function One but it does not originate from the .xml files. They can only be used to see how the functions may be working. If have used that in the lua scripts by denying the AI to build refineries before having a groundbase: if EvaluatePerception("Need_initial_groundbase", PlayerObject) > 0.0 then ScriptExit() Yet i must admit that even so i crossed the logic of the different functions (by changing multiple at the same time) to achieve a maximum of control over the AI the results are very frustrating because you can only restrict the building but not spark the event that starts the building process which seems to be done by event handler using the "real" perception functions. I think the xml perception system was just too intensive in terms of cpu-power.

I have just been fooling around once more and created a new version of the miniAimod (currently the name difficultymod would apply more): http://rapidshare.de/files/17451280/AIMod-0.1c.rar.html On max difficulty: - AI_Combat_Values adjusted Higher units now have a better combatvalue to price ratio. In a testgame I had the impression that the AI now prefers higher tech ships over lower tech ones. - Increased cash multiplier for AI to 5.0 - Increased buildtimepenalty for spaceships to 1.5 - AI Aggression got a big boost (GC) My experiences (in 2 games): On large maps the AI appears to handle a little better now since the extra cash boosts it's abilities to create sufficient defense forces. It also appears to give the AI the impression that it is strong enough to attack once in a while.

So reducing the AI combatpower increases the likelyness of the ship being build by the AI ?

@ Phez: Does the decrease of AI combatpower of capital ships just make the AI build more or does it also affect the combat effectivness of the ships ? (decrease of AI combatpower = decrease of health, firepower etc. ?) If not than this could be a solution to the problem of the bad fleet composition the AI mostly uses.

I did repack them into the Megs but that didn't help at all. I tried the following ones: /gamedata/config.meg <- This one appears to be obsolete /gamedata/data/config.meg /gamedata/data/patch.meg <- Also tried this in hope that it would supercede other settings So the system obviously doesn't care if you place the files in a separate folder or into the meg. Like i stated before it all seems to be hardcoded. Someone needs to write a Lua script decompiler for the version of Lua the game uses ;D

I tried using it but it appearently is not being parsed by the game at all. For testing purpose I even violated the XML syntax but the game just ignored it. It seems like it is with many other XML files (for example: complete perceptionalequations and markup folders) that they were used in early stage of game development. Maybe they will be usable in the near future with a new patch and modding tool release.(I really hope so because the horrible AI)

Increased settings a little. AI is still no killer but it will be very much work to kill it. http://rapidshare.de/files/17227062/AIMod-0.1b.rar.html

@Dragonshadow: Thx for the idea. I just tried it but it didn't result in any changes. I even have the impression that the game ignores the "DATAMINERXMLFILES.xml" because you can remove almost all content or create serious errors without causing the game to stall. The files in AI/perceptionalequations are at least parsed and checked for validity but their content is ignored. Checked it through setting the maximum number of light factories per planet to one. I think the game AI currently does not at all result from any XML files in the XML/AI folder. :-[ @malric: i made a small AI mod which increases difficulty by giving the AI a little edge concerning material, firepower and aggressiveness. Try it if you want: http://rapidshare.de/files/17074493/AIMod-0.1.rar.html If anybody has another idea to make the AI use the markupfiles or the perceptionalequations please post it or sent me a message!

Well, I have changed the KI power a little: Difficultysettings (compared to former "hard" setting): + KI gets more money + does a little more damage than Playerbehavior: + aggressiveness The results are whatsover not satisfactory even with very high settings. What I have not been able to is: 1. make the game use the modified perceptual equations I wrote (some fine tuning concerning targeting, infrabuilt, galactic tactics etc.) 2. make the AI use the markup file I created for some scenarios (which include some information about priority targets, chokepoints etc.) These files get parsed by the game(I know that from errors I made during development) but obviously the game does not use the XML files in XML/AI/PERCEPTUALEQUATIONS and XML/AI/HINTSETS (any more) in the final version of the game. ??? If anybody has been successful at making the game recognize those I would be more than happy to see the how-to posted ! ;D