Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Icemania

The patch for 1.9.5.3 is out and quite rightly it has more of a bug fix focus. Time for more AI improvements I hope.

Speak up if you want to support or propose practical AI changes as Matrix are paying attention. Or stay silent, in which case the chances of the changes you want are less.

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ORIGINAL: Icemania

Because some of the changes mentioned in this thread have already been implemented.

I don't expect a significant improvement until DW2. But some further incremental changes would be welcome.

The window of opportunity is when we have patches.

Do you have any constructive suggestions?

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ORIGINAL: MartialDoctor
The AI has been greatly improved from previous versions. It still needs work but I am quite happy with the recent work done.

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What it comes down to is that the human player learns.

The A.I. doesn't.

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ORIGINAL: BlueTemplar

Well, they've managed to get a pretty good AI in the Starcraft AI competition, didn't they?
Of course it helps when the game is real-time and requires fast reflexes, since the AI can be much faster than the player can ever hope to be and can micromanage every unit at the same time...

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ORIGINAL: Tehlongone

Well Starcraft isn't 4X, it's a pretty simple game and like you said much of the difficulties in that game comes from doing everything fast enough. If the game proceded at snail pace in each fight you'd have time to outsmart the AI better.

Anyway I look forward to the day AIs get smart enough to outwit an average human in a halfway complex game. It'll probably be a few decades, though..

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ORIGINAL: Tormodino

Asking for a highly qualified AI player is nice and all, but does anyone know why basic stuff like fleets/ships going off on crazy treks into the great unknown, constantly throwing themselves at superior numbers (seems to not remember the size of targets properly), resources being allocated incorrectly (spent, out of interest, 2 years waiting for a few units of Helium to be delivered to a home system mining station while it was happily building other ships as soon as the homeworld received the Helium) etc... are happening so frequently?

I enjoy the fact that it seems that the AI plays "dumber" when it plays the dumb races, but there are still many cringe inducing moments.

Btw, for reference, I spent many hours looking at how the AI plays with Rule in Absence activated. It is fascinating, but it also reveal some absolutely insane descisions by the AI. If what the player can see here represents how the AI empires actually play I would say that a slightly more conservative weighting of travel ranges and fuel requirements, designs with fewer obvious mistakes (always adding stealth (size 60!)/not adding damage control), as well as slightly tighter resource discipline could go a long way to make the AI a slightly more challenging opponent.

Also, I want to note the erratic behaviour of the AI in general. It seems to change its mind, or at the very least recheck its state(s), very often.

Case in point: I was at war with the Zenox. Their entire empire was located in the bottom left of the map. They had a mining base at the top right of the map. My biggest fleet, loaded with troops, instead of invading their closest worlds (cakewalk, they of course have no troops...) goes flying across the universe to kill the single gas mining station. Running out of fuel, stopping several times along the way etc.
To be honest, this stuff should not happen. Some limit to how many resources are devoted to a far off target could be implemented to prevent that type of behaviour. I don't want the game to be predictable and having race intelligence levels affect descisions is fine, but I draw the line at crazy stuff like that. It is totally detrimental to the AI, and makes the simple stomping of the AI via deathballinvaderfleet an excersise in tedium.

Observing the game has given me a tremendous respect for the model, but I would much rather that the current model be worked on than wait for DW2. Unless there are issues with the engine heavily limiting what is possible, I see no reason why DW in its current form could not be brought to be the new standard for 4x simulations through balancing and AI tweaks. I've outlined a few other things I would like to see elsewhere, but as it stands the inconsistent AI is a glaring flaw in each game I play.

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ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
RESEARCH AND SHIP DESIGN
- AI ship designer now always adds sufficient reactors to ship designs (possibly more than one) to enable hyperdrive to operate at full speed
- AI ship designer now more willing to shrink new designs to fit within current construction size limits, especially when first obtain hyperdrive technology
- NEW MODDING FEATURE: allow restricting any research project to specific races using the new ALLOWED RACES line in the research.txt file (updated header comments of research.txt explains)
- improved AI research pathing to better emphasize tech focuses from empire policy (ResearchDesignTechFocus1-6), while still researching other important techs
- increased research output for lab components by approximately 50% (components.txt and research.txt)

GAME BALANCE
- Shakturi now have faster construction and lower ship maintenance (updated Shakturi.txt race file)
- Shakturi ship design templates now use more weapons and other components (military ships, medium & large spaceports, defensive bases)
- Shakturi empire policy now builds more large military ships and less small military ships
- empires are now more willing to use excess cash on hand as factor when deciding whether to build new ships (e.g. low or negative cashflow, but large cash reserves on hand), especially when at war
- now much harder to perform intelligence missions against Ancient Guardians (steal maps, tech, etc)

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ORIGINAL: Icemania

The new research modding feature could be used to further improve AI research focus e.g. don't waste time of researching weapons technologies that will never get used.

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ORIGINAL: MartialDoctor

Yeah, those changes are looking nice. However, I don't get the increased lab output. It's already too easy to reach maximum research capacity as is.

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ORIGINAL: Cauldyth

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ORIGINAL: MartialDoctor

Yeah, those changes are looking nice. However, I don't get the increased lab output. It's already too easy to reach maximum research capacity as is.

Maybe it'll help the AI, for when it's not building enough research capacity.