Honestly, I would just have two versions of each faction: a "human" version and an "AI" version...with separate player files, these factions could have completely different tech trees and building options for structures and ships...

At each game start, you'd want to make sure all the slots for AIs were filled with AI versions, of course...so one limitation is that you couldn't really use random...

Another possibility is to add technologies that appear "offscreen" by having the tech icon in the tech tree appear in a location you cannot see via the UI...if you can't see the icon, you can't click on it, and if you can't click on it, then you can't research it...doesn't affect the AI because the AI doesn't "use" the UI....

This allows you to add researchable abilities or prototype technologies...if you make the tech have no lab requirement or cost, you start with it for free, so you can even grant the AI bonuses (or penalties) from the very beginning...this method is good for adding additional things to the AI's arsenal...

It seems though that you are looking to give the AI capital ships that don't require fleet supply...I think you would need to have a duplicate player file that gives the player a different roster of capital ships (the duplicate caps that are the same in every way but don't require fleet supply)...

Also, don't forget that each capital ship has an unused ability slot....this "slot" is graphically covered up by the ability management button, but you can still put abilities there and have no stability issues...one problem is that if this 5th ability is an active ability, a human player cannot click on the ability button (because the ability management button is covering it), so usually this 5th ability needs to be passive...however, if you only added 5th abilities to the AI versions of capital ships, then it wouldn't matter, as the AI would still be able to use the ability...

If you don't want the 5th ability to use ability points, you'd need to change the levelSourceType to either an ability that inherently comes with the ship no matter what, or one that is available after a certain research requirement...

The only problem with this is that it prevents humans from obtaining it too....if you are looking for some sort of discrimination (ie, AI can have it but humans can't), price inflation I don't think is going to help...

Also you have to realize if you disable certain ships the AI may spazz out all together. My rule of thumb, and safest bet is that a faction must have at least ONE of every StatCountType in its lineup. If you remove the scout, colony frigate, colony capital, and the siege frigate the AI will have a seizure, and not build anything at all.

the StatCountType is the line in the ships entity near the "RoleType". StatCountType is what the AI uses to determine how many of what roletypes it needs to build. The ship does not need to be the same RoleType as the StatCountType, and the ships can have 2 roletypes. For example in the SoA 2 mod we have ships in the carrier slots that are not carriers primary StatCountType is carrier so the AI sees it as a carrier, but the 2 roletypes are Support Cruiser, and Heavy Cruiser. The RoleType tells the AI how the ship should behave in game.

Another example is the AntiStructure slot. We have the Akira in the AntiStructure slot. Its statcounttype is antistructure, but its primary roletype is also antistructure (so it will attack structures with its antistructure ability). In vanilla sins the antistructure ships cant attack other ships. However, The Akira's secondary roletype is Heavy Cruiser so the AI will tell it to attack ships as well like a normal cruiser.

You can experiment with every other ship in the lineup, but a faction MUST have the scout, colony frig, siege frig, and colony capital in its lineup, or the AI will not build, or expand at all.

hmm, seams "no", except defining a complete new race.

I try to keep the changes from my "mod" at minimal. The only "irregular" setting I have is to keep the research for AI in an undefined block, so players can't see or use it. I don't want to mess around to deeply in the game functions, just adjust settings.

See, that makes sense...but I would think it would be the roletype that would cause that, not the statcounttype...I would think the AI would use the roletype to prioritize the actions of colony ships, scouts, and SB constructors....

It just doesn't make sense to me that statcounttype would do that...especially considering the Vasari, who's scout and colony ship function very differently from the other factions...if statcounttype was responsible for this programming, how does the same statcounttype for scouts and colony ships get the TEC/Advent and Vasari to use their ships differently?

Shows what I know....should probably read a bit more carefully next time...

Good to know, most certainly....

I would assume the answer to this question is no, but does the placement in the player file matter?  As in, the order the ships are put, or which group they are put in ("frigates" and "cruisers")...

I'd think it wouldn't but I could be wrong...

It shouldn't matter what order they placed as long as frigate entity's are in the frigate/cruiser build menus, and cap ship entity's are in the cap ship build menus. I usually place the order starting from the weakest ship to the strongest ship, but it really dont matter as long as frigates are in frigate menus, and cap ships are in cap ship menus. The AI doesnt see an "order" in the build menus. It just determines how many of what statcounttype is missing, and researches/builds it.

Yea the AI likes to bankrupt itself by not developing infrastructure on worlds it just captured, Spending ridiculous amounts of its economy on research while at the same time trying to build up a fleet of planet bombers when it really needs combat ships. Only when using cruel, and vicious cheating AI do i ever see fleets worthy enough to try to kill.