Test Games . . .
Sounds like you guys are doing it the hard way. I don't actually play out my test games. At first, I was using the cheats to let them auto-play, but that breaks down between year 2230 and 2231. The game just can't handle it. Then I had a good idea. I used the cheats to create a pop-up minor, then used the cheats to take over said minor. After that I could just hit the turn button over and over again. Takes about 10 minutes to cycle through a year after 3-4 years. I also use the cheats to reveal the whole galaxy and remove the fog of war. That way I can see how the races colonize, trade, and go to war.
Looks like you started taking over races to see their tech advancement, qrtxian. You can go one better. If you take over the race, quicksave, then load the quicksave, it will be just like you were always that race. That means you can go to the Events log in the Civ Manager and it will list the order in which they researched their techs. No guesswork, no overall picture, but an actual tech-by-tech list of what the AI priortizes.
Doing it this way, you can knock out a test game in one or two sessions, rather than taking a week or so to play out a game. It also keeps your development and trading from influencing the game. Also, I usually use the cheats to grant my minor all techs, then auto-build a tricked out dreadnought. That keeps the AIs from frelling with me while the game plays out. It's about a close as possible as I can get to removing the player from the game.
Iconian Test 1, year 5
I played out another 8 months or so of my previous test just for fun.
- They researched Scatter Blaster 3 immediately after they finished the tech they were researching previously.
- They moved on to miniaturization and 1 or 2 others.
- The Gnolams - a custom major race - declared war on them.
- Gnolams were 7th out of 7, Iconians 6th - Iconians seem to be perennial poor performers.
- Due to war, they returned to weapons, advancing through AMDs and Pulse Cannons, continuing on to Graviton Driver 2 by the time I left off.
- I don't know why they were 6th, the Gnolams were the superior race. The Iconians put up a good fight, but looked to be on the losing side by the time I left off.
- Although they went back to weapons, their poor research and development left them in a bad position, with -346 income at the end.
By this point I declared Test 1 conclusive and moved on.
Iconian Test 2, through year 4
I took a different path than TOV regarding Xeno Coms and the UT. Comparing the Iconian techs to the TechTree showed that Xeno Coms had cost increased from 25 to 100, and UT from 50 to 55. Rather than try to force the Iconians to research the overly expensive techs, I removed the Category and Cost tags from the Iconian tech tree. How would they react to normal category and price?
I changed their Econ tech categories to Economics, then bumped up the AI values. Int Barter - 20, Merchant Emps and Complexes - 15.
For Organic Materials, I changed the Category to Miniaturization, since that's the bonus it gives, leaving the AI value at 15. I did that in Test I and they research it.
Of course, I corrected the category for all the other techs. I've mostly left the AI values alone so I can see how they research the techs as they are.
Also, I reduced Space Mining 1,2, and 3 AI values from 30 to 10 in the TechTree.xml. All the AIs spend too much effort on those techs.
- Researched XC and UT fairly quickly, progressing to Diplo I and Trade
- They went on to establish a couple trade routes
- Researched Interstellar Construction, but not Expert Engineering
- Researched Int. Refining, building Refineries like usual
- Built the Restaurant of Eternity
- Haven't researched econ techs
- 7th out of 7 - again poor performance
- Researched Mass Driver Theory - no biggie, the other races are about the same
- Drengin declared war with 2 weeks left in year 3. Drengin are 6th.
- Everyone exchanged their treaties with someone else, but the Iconians got none. Their economy and research were the worst.
- I think they researched Organic Materials, but I know they didn't go on to Organic Hulls
Don't have access to my game. That's just from memory. Other research seems fairly normal for them. Lots of colonization techs, Fleet Battle Tactics and Fleet Defenses (these techs are too high priority for all AIs, I think), and Planetary Invasion techs.
I conclude that the Iconians have enough going against them that they don't need an overly expensive Xeno Comms blocking them from critical techs like Diplo, Trade, and their econ techs. My next step will be to boost AI value of Interstellar Barter to ensure they research it earlier. Well, first I'm going to let this one play out at least another year or two to see how the war with the Drengin goes.
Final, non-Iconian notes from Test 2
- Arceans also never researched XC or UT, thus no Diplo or Trade. Similar issue?
- Drengin researched Slave Pits and Slave Canyons, upgrading manufacturing
- Drengin didn't research any of their laboratory upgrades (Diabolical Research, etc)
- Korx reliably research Mercenaries, Cut-Throat Competition, and Fortified Freighters, building Mercenary Academy and Freighter Command.
That's it, for now.
PS - qrtxian, post in the Kushana Initiative! 