If I remove certain entity items from PlayerPhaseLoyalist.entity, will the AI get stuck attempting to build/research that certain item?
IE if I remove the hanger defense entity, will they get stuck trying to build the hanger defense?
EDIT: Scratch that.I haven't had any issues removing ships. I think it'll be fine as along as you remove the associated research, as well.
Alright thanks, hope they won't get stuck then
I'd run a test game, through the map previewer, to test it out, though.
There are certain role types the AI must have to function. Colony frigate, capitalship, scouts, research labs etc. For the most part the basic stuff. I would think hangars would be okay, but its hard to say for certain.
I'm fairly certain removing hangars won't cause any issues, but like you said it's hard to guess what some of the later game mini-dumps mean.
So I've removed the research for Light Carriers from all factions and the Light Carrier itself. Tested it for about an hour and it seemed to work.
Maybe try to test it for 2 hours or so, and check what the AI has researched. If it had research most/all prototype, but only a few weapon upgrades, then the change has "broken" the AI. Normally the AI researches more weapon upgrades than ship prototypes, but with some changes, it would fall back to some sort of default AI that prioritizes ship/building accesses and essential stuff such as arctic/volcano colonization, and leaving weapon/econ upgrades until much later. Sometimes it affects only some AI type (econ/aggressive/defensive/research) of a given faction, so you might need to test every faction/AI-type combination to be 100% sure...
Valpheus, I seem to remember seeing someone say something similar before, but that is NOT conventional wisdom. Most of the modders here have determined that actually the AI prefers researching prototypes and other "unlock" research first, and only when it has spare cash does it get stat upgrades (unless those upgrades are prerequisites for an unlock, like the first 3 Advent shield techs being needed for the guardian). My tests have shown that this is because the AI almost always prioritizes ship building before stat research. Usually the AI loses a lot of ships and so needs to constantly build them, leaving the AI broke.
The only time I've seen the AI really tech up is when it can no longer build ships due to filling up fleet supply. Since the AI usually researches fleet supply fairly quickly too, usually this means full 2000 maxed out. Then as it can no longer build ships, it researches extremely quickly as it accumulates resources. So from what I've seen, either your AI is doing extremely well economically and/or not taking many loses, or it was a very high level AI, which has great income bonuses and Vicious/Cruel will get free research periodically as well. I'd love to see a replay if you've seen something different.
I have done a 2-hour test game:
No Mods
Large Map, Locked Team, Pirates Inactive
All TEC Rebel Hard AI
P1 Aggressive Dark GreenP2 Defensive Dark BlueP3 Research Light GreenP4 Economic Light BlueP5 Economic RedP6 Aggressive CyanP7 Economic Yellow
The AIs were not as upgrade-happy as I last perceived, but note that even at 2 hour mark, some of the AIs left many ships unresearched. When I broke the AI, they quite consistently research all ships fairly early, research only Tier 1 repair and armor in the Structural Subsystem section, almost none of the fancy items in the Policy section, etc.
As I was testing the game, I saw an AI starting weapon upgrade researches even when there are 300+ supply points left.
Comments would be appreciated!
(Sorry for the large screenshots)
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