High difficult setting... and AI is still stupid.... Help me please

Click on my link below and try my Space Empires LITE mod then go to the Balancemod then pick any after that.

The mods have much better AI's.

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

Good AI's

SEV Lite (based on balance mod)
BalanceMod
Unnamed's mod
GideonMod

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

Once you download the mods, you get a choice of games at the start of a new game. "SE5", "SE5 Lite" "Capt Kwok's Balance Mod" "Gid Mod" and "Unnamed's Mod"
Pick one to start up a new game. Each of them have their own "flavor". I personally think the "Gid Mod" is toughest but I might be a bit biased.

Unole!
Directive 721: Cover your own a$$ first. Solo

Download and unzip in the Game Types folder.

Start the game and it will have a list of games at the top. Choose the mod you want to play.

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

What you need to do to get the most out of SE5 is play multiplayer.

Go to www.PBW.cc and get in a online game. If you are brave there is a really good Beta game of Dark Nova 5 starting. It has no AI ready yet, but every empire will be human controlled, so you will have a real good challenge against 10+ other REAL people.

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

A mod can do all kinds of things. CaptainKwok's Balance Mod well ..balances out the techs/racial picks and improves the AI vastly.

Unnamed's mod is basically stock SEV with greatly improved AI.

I haven't played the Balance Lite mod but since its based off of the Balance Mod, the AI should be good too.

I also haven't played Gideons Mod yet so can't comment there.

Its pretty easy to install a mod (once you have the image mod installed too of course) and then when you start a new game you get to pick which mod you want via the mod launcher.

Goto www.spaceempires.net and browse the downloads section. It gives descriptions of what each mod does and has a great variety of mods to choose from. Also, I like their forum software better, lol.

To answer the questions about how mods work...

Mods are simply self-contained alternative data files and images that are neatly tucked away within their own folder in the SE5's GameTypes folder. Mods in SE5 do not alter the game's .exe or any of its default files.

When you start a new game, you're asked to pick a game type. If you have mods installed, you'll have extra game types to choose from. Pick the mod you'd like to play your new game with and it will load that mod's data files. When you go to load that save game in the future, it will automatically load the mod's data files.

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The stock AI is underdeveloped but it shouldn't be as bad as you've observed. Without knowing the game settings you choose, it would seem that maybe you were encountering netural AIs (remain in their home system) or perhaps some AIs that hadn't developed their racial technologies yet. You can help them out a bit by setting up a game to have at least 2000 racial points and perhaps more starting technology points.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

As far as finding a more challenging AI I would highly recommend the Balance Mod (or another mod based on its AI).

As for ship design, I also often place components on only the top shelf. Anyone know if there any advantages to using the middle or bottom?

Vince, CaptainKwok said they were only for extra slots if you happened to run out of slots on the one deck. Nothing beneficial or harmful in using multiple decks (beyond of course keeping all your specialized equipment on inner hulls - sensors/crew quarters/life support because damage goes from shields to armor to outer hull to inner hull).

You cannot put weapons on the inner hull, just the outer hull (though I think there maybe some missile exception, not sure about that one). Only things like your bridge, crew quarters, life support, sensors, ecm, shields etc can go on the inner hull. Most weaponry has to be mounted on the outer hull and all armor has to be mounted in the armor slots. There is directional damage according to Kwok. If you are running away from an engagement and all your engines are concentrated on the back (not an unlikely occurrence) then any damage you take on the rear of your vessel that gets through the shields then armor, the first components taking damage on the outer hull would be your engines. Conversely, if you took the damage on the front of your vessel the damage might take out weapons or whatever was mounted there first.

Note that weapon and engine placement being restricted to outer hull slots is only in the Balance Mod and some other mods. Stock allows either to be place on inner and outer slots.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

..eh? If you set the Racial points to 2000 then you get 2000 pts and so do all the rest of the AI's. You don't have to do them individually.

You should be able to configure winzip to open rar files, just like winrar can open winzip ones. Or you can download another program called 7zip or another called zipgenius (google them).

There are two different versions of Unnamed's Mod - one with Fyron's Quadrant Mod (FQM) and one without. The one with is the only one with graphics as far as I know because his mod only changes the AI files which are mostly text files. I *think* you might need to have FQM installed already before loading that. Like, if you already have FQM installed, then download the "Unnamed's Mod with FQM" but if you don't have FQM installed then just get "Unnamed's Mod".

Playing mods as you can see is a little work sometimes as it represents changing the core game.

7-zip to open those RAR files. RAR is a better compression program than winzip.

Also, download Fryon's Quadrant Mod and Multimedia mod.

Unzip these into their corresponding directories described in the Readme.txt included with each one. Say yes to Overwrite. These are just prettier pictures and new pictures to handle added technology, planets and space anomalies.

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

You guys sure are making this sound harder than it is. Point Zanik at the SE V wiki's Unnamed Mod page. Then tell him that FQM is basically a package to make things more pretty, but unnecessary to gameplay - let him decide when he wants to use it. You've already told him what he's to do with the .zip (open it in Game Types folder).

Zanik, I know it isn't well advertised at all, but there is one thing to remember about SE V: what you get out-of-the-box is not a complete game. You get a 'toolkit' which allows you to play real games that others have written - i.e. 'mods'. The out-of-the-box thing is an example of how the data files work, writing/editing those data files to be a real game is what 'mods' do. The concept of a 'mod' in SE V just isn't the same as in most other games, because the 'toolkit' by design is waiting for a set of data files to read in before starting/loading each game - not providing anything means it uses the default 'example' data files (this includes AI files).

Seems you want minimal change, so Unnamed mod is the right choice for you to start with (which only affects the AI, grab the non-FQM one). For reference, the Wiki page on all the mods out there so far.

As for .rar, everyone's answered that already. My personal preference is ALZip but as you can see, there's plenty of programs out there - .rar is a very common file type.

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

Another +1 for the Balance mod here!
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Actually, for BM includes some version of Fyrons Quadrant Mod, Captain Kwok didn't made the new pictures...
But you are right, he is doing a great job with BM. And he is doing it for quite a long time now, too.