quote:

ORIGINAL: Lihnit23

quote:

ORIGINAL: Icemania
Note to self: Try using DisallowedResearchArea tomorrow ... might be another way to improve AI Weapon Research focus.

A much better way to improve AI research is to use DisallowedComponentIDs. For example, I modded the Boskaras to only use rail guns and their race specific torps. They completely ignore all of the beams past maxos blasters (I need the maxos blasters to get to ion defenses), ion pulse, gravity stuff, fighters, non-race torps, assault pods, and assault missiles (I need earlier missiles to get point defense).

I put the line in as follows: DisallowedComponentIds ;1,3,2,106,110,115,116,118,119,113,117,114,108,5,6,7,8,16,105,11,12

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tcby
Just got around to reading all this. Good work Ice for doing these tests and reporting the effects of minor changes. Big thanks to to Erik and Elliot for being open to suggestions and active in this area. The biggest problem I'm having at the moment is that I often lose incentive to finish my games after a somewhat early point. This is because I prefer to start in prewarp for thematic reasons, but the ability of the AI to keep pace in terms of research and colony growth is very limited. Because of this I tend to have more challenging (but less immersive) games from a classic start.

I do believe that the AI is fundamentally good; small changes to exploration priority, spaceport design, and taxation policy will surely make a great difference. As Ice has demonstrated.

As a side note, I got a very vivid image from Ice here:
"[puts head under the water and screams]"
...I laughed out loud.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tom_Holsinger
DW2 letting players similarly mod the AI would add enormous amount to the game's legs.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Spidey
@ Ice
How about using player stunts? If players can have fun with labs on mines then why can't the AI? If we're cutting costs by throwing scanners on mines instead of state bases then why can't the AI? And wouldn't this also serve to ensure research capacity without resulting in the AI going bankrupt?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Icemania

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lihnit23

quote:

ORIGINAL: Icemania
Note to self: Try using DisallowedResearchArea tomorrow ... might be another way to improve AI Weapon Research focus.

A much better way to improve AI research is to use DisallowedComponentIDs. For example, I modded the Boskaras to only use rail guns and their race specific torps. They completely ignore all of the beams past maxos blasters (I need the maxos blasters to get to ion defenses), ion pulse, gravity stuff, fighters, non-race torps, assault pods, and assault missiles (I need earlier missiles to get point defense).

I put the line in as follows: DisallowedComponentIds ;1,3,2,106,110,115,116,118,119,113,117,114,108,5,6,7,8,16,105,11,12

Sounds great but I cannot get it to work.

I tried to do the opposite ... disallow a bunch of components so the AI would focus more on beams ... and ended up with a bunch of technologies on the disallowed list like Advanced Area Weapons.


'Disallowed ComponentIds: comma-separated list of component Id values that cannot be researched by this race
DisallowedComponentIds ;4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,24,26,27,106,107,108,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,126,127,128


I also set the following:

'Disallowed Research Areas 1,2,3: areas that this race cannot research: 0=None, 1=Torpedoes, 2=Missiles, 3=Area Weapons, 4=Ion Weapons, 5=Fighters, 6=Armor, 7=Hyper Disruption, 8=Sensors
DisallowedResearchArea1 ;2
DisallowedResearchArea2 ;3
DisallowedResearchArea3 ;5

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tcby

4 years in, and all the races have performed more or less the same research:
pulse/maxos/improved maxos,
assault tactics + basic armour -> armoured ground assault->either battlefield sabotage or 2nd tier armour.
fighters->light interceptors->tactical interceptors

No research in disallowed fields yet.

edit: This is without specifying tech focus or disallowed research in the race.txt

6 years in, all AI continue to drill down into troop tech. No interest in rail guns or missiles (the only available weapon tech, except for the last improvement to the maxos) yet.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tcby

...edit: although there is a slight problem with the list of disallowed components provided by Lihnit23. It disallows the first torpedo tech, thereby preventing boskarans from researching the prerequisite technology for their racial tech.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tcby

It's midnight in this part of the country :)

Who are you referring to Bingeling?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bingeling
And you did not put a "comment" symbol at the start of the line? Not sure if it is ; or whatever.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lihnit23
Wow. I just started a test game. My Boskara are zipping through rail gun tech and are now researching the 2nd stage racial torp tech. In the policy files, I have overall focus: raw power, area focus: weapons; tech emphasis 1: torps, 2: rail guns, 4: construction, 5: hyper disruption, 6: armor.

Have you adjusted the policy files in-game? The modding guide says that policy file settings override the race settings.

quote:

ORIGINAL: fenrislokison

While i agree on the general idea you exposed, i must say, having the private sector paying to do state stuff exists in reality, especially in the security area and health care area.

For example, in France, asbestos in buildings isn't authorized anymore (since some years now) and old buildings using it must be cleaned, but the owners of the buildings have to pay for it, not the state.

another example is that cars must be equipped with safety belts and be built such as in case of an accident, the car crushes itself to absorb the impact. All this is paid by the buyers of the cars, in most case, the private sector.

Well, for these examples, you could object that the state doesn't sell the services or objects it forces people to use, but here is one:
- in France, electricity production is done by EDF company, which is property of the state, so the state sells electricity to people. At the same time, there are regulations to equip buildings with propers electrical installations used by EDF to monitor electrical distributions. These electrical installations are partly paid by the customers, in other words the private sector.

So while i perfectly understood your point regarding abuse, it is still very possible to have the state enact laws forcing buildings to be equipped with such or such equipment and having the state being the only seller of said equipment.
A bit dirty, but perfectly valid.

The abuse in the game comes from the fact the private sector is much much stronger than it is IRL so it can endure a lot more and the fact that game people are just sheeps, much more than in reality as they don't strike or rebel as they should be.