Next version of GidMod...

I am performing all testing on hard difficulty with no bonus to the AI.

I personally can whup on any strategy game (that I have played so far) which has its AI on hard. As the mod stands now, the AI has given me a run for my money once or twice, but still needs some work to be a challenge.

Last night, I made some major changes to a few things:

If a race uses Crystalline or Organic tech, then many building and component costs change from their default values.

Example:

Bridge Costs:

Default: 500 Mineral, 0 Organic, 10 Radioactive

Crystalline Tech: 0 Mineral, 10 Organic, 500 Radioactive

Organic Manip Tech: 10 Mineral, 500 Organic, 0 Radioactive

Crystal and Organic Tech: 10 Mineral, 250 Organic, 250 Radioactive

Races with these technologies are no longer able to build the default ships, but do start with their special ships available. Since the game already distributes an even ammount of Mineral, Organic, and Radioactive resources in the universe, there is no inherant shortage of any one of these. Finally, I adjusted the AI to desire resource structures based on what resource is now favored in their technology (Minerals for default, Organics for Organic Manipulation, Radioactives for Crystalline Tech, a combination if you have both).

This will require a couple of days of testing, to make sure that everything works right, before I move on to the next thing I want to change. The end result is that races with these technologies now have a much more unique feel to them.

"Only by being constantly at war with evil in all things, including yourself, can you truely know peace."
GidMod

Crian wrote:

Oh and I like what you're doing about giving the races a more unique feel to them . Does this include behavior in terms of treaties and diplomacy? Will it be too peaceful or will we get a decent amount of aggressive races? Also, will this "uniqueness" translate to the ship design? (IE. one race favoring building up a balanced force; another relying heavily on fighters; another on lots and lots of small ships and only occasional capital ships; some investing heavily on missile weapons; some focusing on few but very tough ships... etc.?)

If you check out the projects section of this site, you can see what some of my plans are.

Currently, I'm building towards being able to make each race have variety in the ships it designs. The next version will feature a redesign of how engines apply speed to ships, and will probably include a removal of the limits on engine numbers for ships. If you want to make a ship that is all engine, then so be it. That version should include AI designs which vary in the ammount of defense, offense, and speed they include.

Next (possibly in the same patch), will come variety in the fleet composition it employes. Some races will be balanced, some will be monolithic (a small number of large ships) and some will be swarmers (a large number of small ships). I've got some work ahead of me, such as changing how the AI determines how many ships to build (a monolithic race would build fewer than a swarmer race, due to the cost of each ship). I'll probably include the force composition definition as a set of percentages of the whole force, to allow more direct control over them (and more variety).

You can see the first inklings of this in the current mod state, as the AI designs and builds Medical Ships, Scout Ships, and Space Yard Bases. Each of these three types is limited in the size of hull they can be designed with by the AI.

At the end of things, will be the political system. I'm leaving politics for last, because it is such a complex thing that this part alone practically constitutes a game in itself. I will need to see just how motivated I am to redesign it to determine how much of an overhaul that facet gets. Another reason I am leaving it for last, is that it seems every patch includes some serious changes to the AI script files involved specifically in politics. That indicates to me that Malfador is focusing a good ammount of effort on developing that part of the AI right now, and so I don't want to put in work there only to have that screwed up by things that MM does. I would rather wait, and see what it is like when they are done with it so I have a better idea of what I'm building on.

Probably after the ship design changes, but definatly before the political system redesign, I hope to begin adding some new races complete with art, AI, and shipsets. This is actually what I had intended to do in the first place.

Current state of the next version of this mod:

Version number is fixed at v0.46b. No new features will be included in this version of the mod.

Added:

- Tweaked the Population Transport AI.
- Added the ability to make Supply Ships out of Transport class ships. Supply Ships are ships which are mostly Supply Storage and/or Ordnance Storage.
- Added player ship type "Supply Ship".
- Added AI for the design, construction, and utilization of Supply Ships.
- Additional tweaks to AI research.

- Major change to how intel success is calculated. The following act as a reduction to defense success:
----Number of races (past the first)
----Average Happiness rating of colonies
----Number of colonies that are rioting
----Total number of colonies (domed colonies reduce defense less than undomed colonies)
----Population desity (higher density reduces defense)
- Maximum chance to defend against intel actions is 95%.
- Minimum chance to defend against intel actions is 5%.

The intel changes will require some serious testing. I'm going to give it a run-through for a few days, to see if any major issues pop up. If all goes well, I will release (hopefully on Saturday) and publish minor patches on a needs-be basis.

"Only by being constantly at war with evil in all things, including yourself, can you truely know peace."
GidMod