AI and finite resources

The AI is not really setup in any fashion to deal with finite resources.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

What we need is a modification to the miner/refiner and monolith facilities (not organics because they grow) that checks to see if you need to mine. Like this:

Use the computer to manage the resources rather then micromanage production vs use.

Have the computer fund out going expenses in this order:
1. tariffs first
2. facility maintenance
3. ship maintenance
4. fill storage

Then use incoming resources in this order:
A. Solar (renewable, if available)
B. Tariffs (incoming)
C. Trade
D. Most efficient mining/refining or monolith facility
E. Remote Mining
F. Storage

Could add a message to the End of Turn messages, stating that your Minerals, Organics, Radioactive were changed this much since last month, with negative changes highlighted as negative.
Could add options to rearrange the order of expenditures in the empire options page.

I always wondered why when playing a computer game, these resources were micromanaged by the human. It is already calculated for display on the Empire resource page.

Once this was done, it would work for all empires, and then the computer would automatically manage his resources better.

Note: you can find out how the AI is doing faster by simply going to Game Menu > Player and choosing to turn some of the AI empires to human controlled (master password is 'master' by default).

Oh and before you start your next game: were you applying any mods? If not, grab one (unnamed mod if you want just the AI to be improved), as otherwise you'll still find it a mess. Given how this is a 1-man project, AI and balance work is in the realm of modders, not the 1-man developer.

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

Yeah, nobody is looking at 'finite resources' when developing AI - there's enough to iron out in a normal game first before we think about the extra spice of 'finite resources' (without getting the AI to cheese with Crystalline Solar Generators that infinitely produce resources).

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

I would think planet value adders would be great and easy way to get the AI boosted in finite resources game:

AI should set planeraty engineering as a higher priority in finite games, and once it gets value adders, set one up on each mining planet.( assuming here they work same in finite game as in SE IV, by adding x% to the available minerals)

At the start of year computer should calculate how much the planetary values have increased, and split that by 10. This is the amount the planet can mine in a turn (10 turns=year), and keep a steady level of output. If the amount mined/turn exceeds this amount(or 90% of this amount if one wishes to have growth), it must scrap some mining facilities (otherwise the planet loses more then it gains, and will eventually run out). If the mining capacity is less then 50% of the amount, mining capacity can be increased (the large split is so the computer won't scrap and rebuild new facilities every turn.
This would not only let the computer have steady income of materials, but actually increase the income as time goes by.

Of course, this needs some double checking and tech level checking.
How much will one facility mine? How much the value addition plant adds?
For example: if the facility adds 15%, and the current value at turn xxxx.0 is 115000 kt, then 15000 kt worth can be mined in a year(1500 kt/turn), so at the end of your it will be 100 000 kt and grow to 115 000 kt again.)

Maybe a total mining ignoring for planets under x kt (small ones) would be in order, as there simply are not enough resources to begin with. Later, when the "base level" has gotten high enough, the mining can start. Problems with value differences (will monolith facility be built based on the 50 000 kt metal limit or 500 000 kt organic limit?) will arise, but computer tends to make dedicated planets, so it is not a big problem.

As for adding this to AI code: I don't know, I haven't checked the AI files yet. I guess it could be general once a year event (if turn is xxxx.0, then) where AI loops through all controlled planets, and checks the need to change production amounts.

This arrangement is vulnerable to events and intelligence that lower the planet resources, as well as military action (bombing the mining/value improvement destruction) that happen during the year, but otherwise it would provide a stable economic backbone to AI empire.

I believe the best solution to this would be to add the ability to turn off resource facilities. Still, even with this, finite resource games would be best played against humans, or the occasional Phong trader.

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"Understanding is a three edged sword. Your side, their side, and the truth" -Kosh

agreed!!! I mean how hard is it to code such a feature?? 20-30 minutes?? MM really need to add this feature, otherwise finite minerals is useless as it is.

The other thing I don't like about finite minerals is how a preset available resources exists on each planet. Instead of planet A has 200000 minerals left; it should have the same planet value as infinite minerals but every year the planet values is reduced by the # of extracting facilities (or some coefficient related to # of mining facilities). The system is very similar to asteroid remote mining. In this system all planets except a HW will deplete to 1% value. A HW will never drop below 25%-30% so HWs are more special than other planets.

What do you all think??