Z, before I forget, I'm sending you the updated PLANETMODULE_CYLONLOYALISTORBITALCANNON file... for some reason the Resurrect Capital Ships ability had dropped off as an ability for the Hub. 

Sorry to be a pain dude, but I'll most likely stop whinging about it if you just tell me why it was changed... thanks 

Ok, thanks man

Hi Zombi,

A friend and I played the new version today (until now --1:40 a.m) without any problems.

I played Rough and my mate Cylon. The new FTL-effects are very nice !

Now, I have to go to bed !

Ty again for your awesome and addictive mod.

Take care,

Lusche

Quoting luschetk,

reply 2457

Hi Zombi,

A friend and I played the new version today (until now --1:40 a.m) without any problems.

I played Rough and my mate Cylon. The new FTL-effects are very nice !

Now, I have to go to bed !

Ty again for your awesome and addictive mod.

Take care,

Lusche

 

 

 

 

Sweet! Glad to hear. Thanks!

Understand. This is a pretty good version with several bug fixes and I didn't care for the rebalance in the last release around strikecraft so did some work to tweak that back some.

I have permission to use any asset, but that doesn't necessarily mean I will include them. Beyond the effort required to segregate out the code and pull in new resources, I also have another problem of hard coded limits with the already included material. I'm not sure they would fit.

Hi Zombie,

I experimented a little with your mod focusing on improving the AI. I would like to tell you my experience in the hope that you can make use of some of my findings
(I know that there is a very high possibility that you know all of the following things but you know ... hope dies last).
First of all, I am not a native speaker and therefore I had to use my rusty school-English to explain my experiences. Please take that into account !
I think there might be still a little potential of improving the AI (fleet-build-up, research).
My experiences were made on difficulty-level “unfair”).

1.) Fleet-build-up

1.1. AI-Ships
Problem:
The AI does not build enough support ships (or too late and not enough). With more support ships the AI would be more difficult to beat.

Solution
Allow the AI to build some of your AI-Ships (ResearchAccess).
For example "ResearchAccessColonial0" as Utility1:

Change „typeCount" to 2 and give the AI "frigateRoleType "Light" in addition.
With these changes the AI will build more Utilities1-Ships.
##### Example for ResearchAccessColonial0.entity
typeCount 2
frigateRoleType "Light"
frigateRoleType "Support"
statCountType "FrigateUtility1"
#####
The disadvantage is that you will see two ships of the same type in the display during the game.

Btw --> if the star base is granted through ABILITYACCESS, you should put this research in one of your RESEARCHSUBJECT_RESEARCHACCESS-Files, because the AI tends not to research it
because it's not a ship (starbaseconstruktor)! IF an AI does not build starbases it will face a huge disadvantage.

I also wanted that the AI can use the abilities of its support ships. Therefore, I changed following files ( for example Rouge):
Research1 - ABILITYACCESS_SABOTAGEENGINES
Research5 - ABILITYACCESS_DESIGNATETARGET
With these changes you can kill two birds with one stone, because on the one hand the AI will research the important abilities for its support ships and on the other hand the AI gets the support ships faster.

1.2. Control the AI a little what kind of ships it shall build (fleet build-up)

Problem
In my opinion the AI builds too many "AntiFighter-Frigs". Therefore I tweaked the file "FrigateRoguePirateMedium". I changed the following things:
######
typeCount 2
frigateRoleType "Raider"
frigateRoleType "AntiFighter"
statCountType "FrigateAntiFighter"
#######
Now, the AI will build more ships of these kinds and less AntiFighter-Frigs.
For Tec for example I sorted the problem out by doing following things:
I gave TEC an AI-Ship; it’s its Light-Frig. With the following changes (ResearchAccessTech2)

##############
typeCount 2
frigateRoleType "AntiFighter"
frigateRoleType "Raider"
statCountType "FrigateAntiFighter"
##############

Now, the AI will build more Light-Frigs instead of too many Anti-Fighter-Frigs.
Disadvantage ----> as I mentioned ... you will see two ships of the same type in the display

2. Control the AI what to research first

I know, that you have improved the research-behaviour of the AI through the "ResearchAccess-" and "RESEARCHSUBJECT_RESEARCHACCESS” files. I notice that there is an additional possibility
to control the AI. You can try it through the command "Tier".

If you want that the AI shall research "X" first and "Y" last, than you should give X "Tier 0" and Y “Tier 6“.
for example, Rough shall develop Carriers as soon as possible. Thus I gave “RESEARCHSUBJECT_RESEARCHACCESS_ROGUE0” Tier 0.I also gave the AI additional advantages by reaching this research; 

for all AI’s I used the “RESEARCHSUBJECT_RESEARCHACCESS_X0” file (
researchBoolModifiers 0
researchFloatModifiers 6
researchModifier
modifierType "SalvageWreckagePercent"
baseValue 0.000000
perLevelValue 0.1000
researchModifier
modifierType "CreditCostAdjustment"
baseValue 0.000000
perLevelValue 0.1000
researchModifier
modifierType "DerivativeCreditsFromPurchasesPercent"
baseValue 0.000000
perLevelValue 0.0600
researchModifier
modifierType "PopulationTaxRateAdjustment"
baseValue 0.000000
perLevelValue 0.2000
researchModifier
modifierType "ShipBuildRateAdjustment"
baseValue 0.000000
perLevelValue 0.0500
researchModifier
modifierType "CapitalShipMaxSlots"
baseValue 0.000000
perLevelValue 1.000000)

With this file you can - among other things - tweak the different AI’s to make them approximately even strong.

3. Envoy

My friend and I are used to playing custom maps (galaxy forge). The Planets in theses maps are heavily guarded.

Problem
I noticed that the AI usually builds a lot of envoys even when the ships don't have any change to reach its destinations. As result of this behaviour the AI wastes a lot of resources at the crucial beginning of a game and can be beaten easily.

Solution
Thus, I linked the research of the envoy with another research.
##### Example --> OK, I know there are certain more elegant solutions out there
Prerequisites
NumResearchPrerequisites 1
ResearchPrerequisite
Subject "RESEARCHSUBJECT_NEPHILIM_MAXCAPITALSHIPS3"
Level 1
######
With these changes, the AI does not waste so many resources at the beginning and can focus on better things like building ships and developing its planets and will so be able to develop faster.

4. Defence

Problem
The AI often does not research repair- and hangar-stations (or too late).

Solution
You can link the defence- with other researches, which the AI will definitely focus on.

Examples
Carrier with HANGARDEFENSE
STARBASECONSTRUCTOR with REPAIRPLATFORM (it does not work if the star base is granted through ABILITYACCESS, because the Ai usually focuses on researching ships!!!!)
Supportship1 with REPAIRPLATFORM
Etc.

5. Game-play-constants

5.1 Culture

Problem
The AI sometimes has problems to counter culture.

Solution
Give the AI time! Change the impact of culture in the „Gameplay.constants". With these changes you give the AI the chance to develop the needed researches to be able to cope with the impact of culture better.
############
cultureSpeedData-Slow
cultureConnectionReferenceLength 25000
allegianceShiftRateScalar 0.10
##############

5.2 playerAISharedDef

I know that these values don't have a huge impact, but from my point of you I can recommend following settings:
BuildShip 22
BuildModuleTactical 8
BuildModuleCivilian 3
BuildModuleResearch 1
UpgradeResearch 9
UpgradePlanetArtifactLevel 2
UpgradePlanetPopulation 20
UpgradePlanetInfastructure 2
UpgradePlanetSocial 3
UpgradePlanetIndustry 1
MaxBountyBidCount 3
UpgradeStarBase 6
BuildMines 2

In my opinion the value of “UpgradePlanetSocial” should be higher than the value of “UpgradePlanetIndustry”, because the AI might benefit of two things on the one hand the AI can spread culture better and on the other hand the AI can earn more money.
I also increased the value of “UpgradePlanetPopulation” dramatically in the hope that the AI will get more tax-income through increasing its population quicker.

6. Defence
Human players can build-up a huge defence-line very fast at the beginning (repair-, hangar- and defence-stations). Maybe the cost of defence should be increase (price and slots).
For example a Gauss-Defence-Station could cost 750 and waste 3 slots. A repair-station could costs 800 and waste 4 slots.
With these changes you weaken the strengths of defence-lines and the game will become tougher for human-players.

If you want to try out the changes (for 35), I will send you a PM where you will get access to the files. So you could try it out without wasting much time !

I hope I could help a little and I also hope that you don’t mind that I tested (only for myself of course) a little with your files.

7. Bugs

Only a litle issue with Hypercorp .... Quantum Science ... 2. research (Infallible Jumb Drive) ---> String not Found

Lusche

Maybe a fleet supply issue if they have resurrection up.

Damn... I think the Replicators would be a lot of fun... 

I've re-invented my AI enhancements so this might not be as easy in the next release

I won't be using the old style un-reliable way to force the AI to research certain techs. I've figured out how to guarantee it researches and does it on a tiered bases. Now your early, mid and end-game fleet will be going up a comparably researched early, mid and end-game AI fleet whereas in the vanilla game it's almost guaranteed your ships will have better stats due to the poorly executed AI.

I'm also likely to dump the ship build rate restrictions on Social specialization as the AI doesn't understand this. I had one test game where the AI had 100 ships queue'd on a fully social world with one frigate factor...

There's a couple of other tweaks I might make that help the AI like constant experience increase which I may make AI capital ships start at level 2 early-mid game and maybe level 3 late game.

@Cylon_Luvr try some TEC rebel researcher + cylon pirates though it seems to only matters late in the game, they even formed an alliance with the plague 

one day i attacked a heavy guarded tec planets with those cylon pirates siding with em, i learned that even retaliation cannot protect you against that much firepower (though it hurts them good)

btw did fortifier/agressor fake some retreat too? researchers seems to be a little tricky sometimes, dunno whats due to the mod or the 'faction/agre/forti/research' anymore

about maelstrom planets~

well 500% culture spread is certainly a bit excessive but don't nerf too much the trade bonus , could a special planet be socialized and industrialized? or just don't take any malus from either one

about anything else:

can the motion wave gun really damages multiples targets? whats the 55/65 to nearby targets means?

for me i always see the AI with too many supports ships and not enough heavy cruiser

Very cool Z, cant wait for the next release then. Maybe the next release will also include some resurrection enhancements as well?  

Z build SotF: Fall of Kobol: Reb.1.82.35  has a check sum of zero, unless I'm missing something?