Also remember, as near as I can tell, the AI doesn't research this tech either. So far I've never seen the AI unlock anything more than the 2nd level of terraform, and most only ever do the first. This is from multiple games 300-500 turns a piece. I would guess the N/A projects bug does *probably* stop the AI from terraforming (and other things probably) but what stops them from researching the tech?

it must be frustrating working with the tools as such. so close yet so far away...

I dont suppose there is any control over how/when the AI goes to war? Early game wars at best serve to cripple an opponent but no lasting damage can be done at that stage. The aggressor/victor AI also usually cripples itself producing a massive military which will become completely obsolete in short order.

I have a feeling you can't do much about it, but it would be nice if the AI knew that early serious commitments to war (and indeed early wars in general) are pretty pointless.

In general I find the AI tweaks towards war pretty easy. If you are perceived  weaker even the so called peaceful AI's are hell bent on war. I still think the AI weighing  strengths are off, and am especially noticing it feels strong if it has bigger hulls, which doesn't mean nearly as much in your mod as it does in vanilla.

In any case sounds like you found a pretty big source to the AI's weakness, between the NA projects and its over weighing of military techs I'm hopeful it will be much improved for the next go around !

Omg I am so happy right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've not altered the event files

Got the mod working with 1.4; not a massive barrage of changes. The governors file looks to have been completely re-written (only 300 lines of script instead of 1200), governor bonus defs is gone, replaced with focuses (which are almost the same file), and there's a few new lines in GC3defs. 

I think the terraforming que might be locking up on the first set. I noticed that if the AI has multiple options of the same type of structure it seems to chose which one to build randomly. If it then chooses to try building a low level terraforming upgrade next, it might lock out the later ones.

To test this i changed the terraforming improvements back to planetary unique, but had each terraforming tech link to 4-5 identical ones with minor name changes, and the AI used them aggressively if they researched or were given the techs.

I can not get this mod to work, I do exactly as it says, the folder lAB 1.3.5 is in my mods folder and inside that is insane abundant balance mod. Mod in game is checked and I restarted, and I am not opted in. Anyone have some tips 

Hi guys,

    I have just created an account on Stardock just to share my opinions with you about this mod. 

    It really is great, I like pretty much everything about it, apart of...it is too easy! I always play at Godlike difficulty and it seems AI cannot handle ...well anything really.

    AI is building terraforming/buildings on their planets with times like 100+ for completion (and that is on normal pace). Also, when they eventually start doing reasonably ok, they cannot handle fleet creation - it seems my ships are few times better then theirs. So far I never played past the turn 300 (maybe that is the case?) since I just get bored... In my last game I had a small fleet of 6 small hulls (packed full to the brim with weapons and defenses+big engines/thrusters) and I was pretty much steamrolling everyone with it. AI ships seem to built the same way as in vanilla with few weapons and scarce defenses (even if they do - these are usually about 96 point defence, 4 armour, 20 shields - I usually use kinetic pulse cannons). Fleets on par with me (in terms of size at least) barely ever manage to damage my ships...

     Any ideas? I am not that great at this game to own everyone around on Godlike. Perhaps I am missing something? I really like variety of options, so I am playing latest version of the mod  on Immense galaxy, normal pace with 30 opponents - I thought that might be the problem but (a bit crowded) but I am still finding unoccupied planets in turn 200+...

     By the way - this is not a rant, more like a cry for help since I really like this mod but it is becoming boring here and I am thinking of reverting to vanilla which is slightly more difficult (due to AI cheating I guess).

     Thank you and sorry for a lengthy read. 

Hi Syntax,

    Thank you for your response and help - I will surely look into it! Do you happen to know if this helps with AI ships (are they any better?). If not then I guess they are at least more numerous. 

    Anyway, I will do as you suggested and tweak few things on my own. 

    P.S. Probably a stupid and boring question but - any news about version 1.4?

    Thank you!

Which does bring up a point @ naselus.

I seem to remember you did a patch that optimized ship blueprints prior to you re-balancing the weapons/defenses weight ratios. I think that may be holding the AI back somewhat.

I've noticed a tendency of the AI to stack engines, so huge ships with 30+ moves in the late game, but still relatively low values of defense / attack in comparison (before bonuses ofc).

These ships tend to have 17-25 engine components on them (170-250 mass!!). So they are breaking your speed limit It's probably because I'm playing on godlike, but it does seem that quite a few of your subscribers like to play on higher difficulties as well.

Its probably because the filler component is set to engines in most cases whereas once the desired speed limit is reached it would probably be best to load them up with defenses / offense as the AI does seem to have weaker ships pound for pound than player designed ships (too much life support, and other less useful components).

great, looking forward to it immensely

any word on the drengin tech not having access to Port of Call's and the dead end Protein Re sequencing (doesn't unlock any building or add anything at all as far as I can tell)?

Hey Naselus, I hope you are not getting sick of me clogging up your thread ^.^

Just had a few random thoughts/concerns as 1.4 is approaching, and all the work you've done + the latest tweaks are going to have considerable impact on the game - very exciting.

Terraforming in general may be too much *if* the AI utilizes it. In some of my older games I'd terraform to the max and my planets were often in the class 40-50 range. On an insane map, and assuming everyone does it, thats going to be a LOT of resources to go around. The last 2 projects i believe, especially, generate a tonne of extra tiles.

Star Names - I know you mentioned you fiddled with it quite a few patches, but how about contacting the star names mod guy, and incorporating his? The star names in the base game are pretty ridiculous.

Starbases - I know you mentioned you were going to take a pass at them at some point, but they are getting further out of whack as time goes on. Now that you can stack defenses on ships much better, the defensive modules are all but useless. In my current game I'm still a few techs from the end, but a tiny fighter has more defense (and in some cases offense, but its not in all categories) as a fully upgraded starbase. I know you hesitated before, but why not allow starbases to be formidable defensibly *if* we decide to pour constructors into them. There are a lot of defensive / offensive upgrades to chew through, and even with most of them in place they are still pretty god awful in combat. This is especially noticeable in the mid game, but their offense do get OK in the late game, even if their defenses are still pitiful. Those extra hitpoints are challenging in the early game, but by the mid / late game it's often just good for a couple of seconds before its destroyed.

Drengin Tech - under the AI these powers perform very poorly. I guess their schtick is supposed to be that they are good at ground combat? Since the game doesn't really utilize this at the moment (AI rarely invades even if it has an overwhelming advantage) might they need a buff in other areas? They seem to do very poorly in all my games.Malevolent ideology may also play a part in this, as it does seem to play out as the weakest of the 3, but I think there is plenty of room for improvement in the Drengin tech tree alone.

3 way choices/specializations - Going by whats in game, there is almost always a BEST choice, a clear (but distant) number two, and a pretty dismal number 3. There are a few that are fairly balanced but seem few and far between. This could be a text update issue though?

Planetary strategic resources - I pretty much ignore these for now, as a 1% bonus just isn't worth it for most of them, and the fact that you can only trade for 30 turns, make it not worth the effort. It's not like i'm flooded with them, even when my empire is 50-100 planets. It could be interesting if they had more impact.

Hyperion Buildings and the AI - They don't build them. I'm not sure if its possible to make them, if not, the AI bonuses should reflect the lack of them (ie more hull space for even Normal AI's).

Filler components - More of a question, really. So glad that you caught the engine fillers, but I don't know too much about how fillers work, can you have multiple fillers? Since the blueprints end up with quite a bit of extra space to 'fill' I'm hoping the AI doesn't end up with just a massive amount of just one extra type of component (wether it be best defense, or offense etc).

Cargo / Colony / Troop transports - These go pretty fast in the late game. I can abide the Cargo / Colony ships going fast I guess, but the Troop transports can get up into 30-40 moves territory. I'm guessing this might be an issue with the galactic speed limit, as cargo ships are starting tech, and you wanted them to not move so slowly in the beginning. I'm not sure if there is a creative fix for this, as generally speaking, cargo ships (other than possibly trade ships) should not be the fastest ships in the galaxy. If there is a creative solution that preserves their early game speed, without making them uber fast late game, I'd be all for it.  In the mean time possibly increasing the troop transports mass might make for less engines (and less super fast troop transports). Just don't do anything to change the ability to get two constructor modules onto a cargo ship or I will cry. Constructor spam breaks my soul

Nebula - I saw you are going to make these bigger - GREAT! Can you consider making some of them impassable? That could spice up the map. Also, I know you edited the effects of some of the nebula already, but I can't make use of them tactically because the descriptions are still leftover from the base game. Plenty of them still say they reduce moves by 50% but many no longer  seem to do that in game.

I love this mod, and thank you so much for continuing to work on it!