This is tricky for it involves miscellaneous amounts of pre-techs selected or not with customization points... but if were to start completely blank (which i do often for modding purposes) here's how i'd proceed;

Xeno-Engineering

Xeno-Research

Hyperdrive

Stellar Cartography

Planetary Improvements

New Propulsion Technics

Ion Drive

Galactic Warfare

Xeno Communications

Universal Translator

Basic Logistics

General Life Support

Xeno Entertainment

Diplomatic Relations

Space Militarization

Trade

Xeno Economics

Soil Enhancement

Xeno Industrial theory

Space Weapons

Interstellar Governments

Alliances

Republic

Sensors

Xeno Biology

Extreme Colonization

--- and, whatever type of closest Extreme planets still available.

(wow, up to 26! This is the Core basic but essential set, in strict order for a number of reasons that can be summarized as -- Develop Infrastructures, Contact, boost Economy (Trade/Republic combo), Fast colony ships, pick some Extremes first.)

--- Then, some Defenses, a few Weapons, Research stuff, BANG:Xeno Ethics, etc.

Tight or Loose clusters?

But... what the hell is right with you? -- Let's all read about your most optimal path!

Then insert Impulse Drive right before the first extreme of five done -- for DA, but i wouldn't even try a TA set of twelves unless i had Netriak's Galactopedia in a tight secondary window to refer to.

Besides, i don't have enough experience yet over that much complexity, too busy modder that i am.

The AI will only research a given extreme planet tech if there are any of that type on the map.  I'm not sure if it prioritizes distance from its empire/homeworld or if it just counts them up, but in DA 1.8 it really, really, really liked to research the extreme colonization techs, at least in my experience.  It also wouldn't sell them for less than your firstborn and the firstborn of your firstborn.

I'm working on putting together the various things I've written down in my time playing GC2 and I still expect to have something for you some time this week.

It responds decently well to a war; no idea how it responds to debt.  It classically responds horribly to plague/disease, though, which is my main complaint-it doesn't react fast enough.

Through observations, i concluded that AIs follow a clear pre-defined path of research according to many factors; Abilities, Victory goals (as in prioritize Conquest rather than Influence or not, etc).

They have a focus over everything from first tech to the last. Optimally balanced as to provide the greatest challenge at any given time. Another reason why i insisted on Ethics in my initial list. Pivotal to the point where they MUST research it to gain what they need.

Much of the gameplay situations push them away from that path if only to grab a key 'node' away from the human player or other Ais. Diplomacy & Trade has to play a role too, judging from the *AI value* tags inserted in the xml based tech tree, even more so in TA with the *Willingness to Trade* quite ingenious trigger.

Actually, this is what makes these algorithms sooooo competitive even though the variables are extremely high.

Presume an AI wants to keep the advantages of their current PolParty?

Rarely do they actually fail the Vote, but in specific circumstances they DO take that decision, not because of Unhappiness but to switch gears.

That's how deep the reasonings go, AFAIC.

No. I am currently just tryijng to determine the path most l;ike a human player. I haven't even written the mod yet, much less tested it.

Edit -Deleted.

Re-reading, I see that you're trying to do this for an AI.  In that case, my approach wouldn't work. 

The AI wouldn't be able to utilize my tech path without getting summarily stomped by the nearest AI or player.

All of this reminds me of a request i made to SD staff in the "Please Slam my Game" thread a few months ago;

A true Research Governor from where we could use some sort of external xml listings and simply automate technos gathering. Even my adventures of trying to enumerate these from SandBox mode results file were bound to fail since the parser resets everything in numerical order; the only trace i figured had to be available somewhere.

Here's an excerpt from a very old file;

<TechTree>0|2|3|4|28|53|254|262|</TechTree>

I purposely lost that game to find out... but, i didn't research number Zero(ImpossibleTech) upon starting (Xeno-Engineering#53 & GalacticWarfare#28 & TechVictory#215, etc - in fact) but to my dissapointment the saved result hadn't recorded the actual path and my own progress pace & choices. These numbers identify techs uniquely by reading the tech tree sequentially, slapping in the completed number of techs in the order mentioned above upon Victory, splash statistics, exit.

That way, we would have been able to share all of our stuff right here for Scoutdog project.

I'd really enjoy seeing MottiKhan secrets & tricks (and many more) too, though!

(PS; i still have the reference listing of exact IDs for DA techs... just PM me your eMail Scoutdog, and i'll send it all to you.)

That's fine. I don't mind the detail, it's just that I think more peple will be willing to post here if they don't have to write down every single tech.

Will look into it. As of now, the mod does not exist except as a number of replies to this forum and a few scratched notes on my Global History homework, but hopefully it will be nearly complete by the end of spring break.

Perhaps, but Basic Miniaturization normally comes free early on.  Medium hulls aren't neccesary.  I just use Psionic Beams on small hulls and cargo hulls if need be.  I get better hulls later, but the tech can be easily taken in trade.  Once you get Plasma Weapons III, the AI will bend over backwards to buy it from you.

I haven't built a medium hulled ship since my very early days of playing.  Tiny, Small, Cargo and Huge are the only ones I've used lately.

I also build very specialized ships for specific purposes.  In my current game, I designed a huge fast ship to take out pirates, but only built 4 of them.  One for each corner of the galaxy.  One of these can take out any number of pirates and just move on to the next cluster of baddies.  I also built tiny fast colony ships and constructors.  Lots and lots of them cheapies.

I don't research range at all.  I build a starbase or take the enemy's planets to increase my range.

Gee, whadda'ya'know, just one more "modifying" situation that our hardcoded AIs must take into account to BECOME efficient enough to compete against the Human brain!

And yet, we can't get any Huge Hulls without having to go through some timely steps -- as does everything else, btw.

Range, soooo true... but lemme give you a secret of my own, i hand over techs for at least one scout per AI and soon after as many of their Miners as i can possibly hold onto to create remote mining operations that flip or not. 1mp here, another there.

So, without some Logistics - medium (or less) maps look like 5 wide gigantics to these scouts & miners.

How are you gentlemen researching Xeno Research before Artificial Gravity and Planetary Improvements?  Xeno Research comes after these techs in the tech tree.