Sigh.  The work is never done. Guess v3.51 is in the offing.

Of course I boffed up the new infrastructure techs.  Something really went wonky, though.  I did write up descriptions and everything for those techs.  Wonder what happened . . .

It may be that this tech is also in the main TechTree?  Who knows.  I'll have a look see.

I'm not so sure I like how the NLCs work anyway.  It's essentially one more Ethics tech for neutral civs, but the implementation is a bit flawed.  I don't want to hold up a v3.51 quick fix too long, but maybe I'll put more thought into it.

Aha!

I had to do some triage with the starbase modules.  Pretty much everything after the cutoff isn't used by the AI efficiently or isn't used at all (terror stars, for example).  At this point, I'm happy with the modules.  You are right, though.  Fewer modules would mean better AI starbases.  I used that principle to cut down the number of mining modules, removing at least one and spreading its bonus among the others.  Maybe in a future version I could do some more condensing.

I think this has come up before.  I just don't know anymore.  I'll have to look into it.

Can't fix 'em all . . .  Seriously, though, not sure I'll get to it this time around.

Thanks for the feedback.

It isn't. That's why I mentioned it.


You could try to reduce the amount of Defense modules. There are currently 38 in your mod. If you at least half their numbers, and put the Warp Disruptor, Sensors, and Terror Star modules at the end of the file, you'll be in the safe zone. The AI never uses the last three mentioned modules, so it doesn't matter if they are beyond the limit.


You're welcome.

I was using Smart Old Minors. However, the issue persists after redownloading it. Same goes after trying Dumb Old Minors. I made one mistake though. The Infrastructure techs were missing their Details, not their Descriptions.

This is how Basic Necessities looks for me:

<Biology ID="BasicNecessities">
<DisplayName>Basic Necessities</DisplayName>
<Description></Description>
<Details>Despite the amazing variety of sentient races in the galaxy, their basic needs are, well, basically the same. The laws of physiscs dictate that they consume some material to replenish themselves, and require some source of energy to utilize that material. Thus, population support and growth depends on the production and transportation of materials and energy. Any race capable of interstellar settlement has at least a fundamental expertise in doing so, though great improvements can be made.</Category>
<Model>event30</Model>
<CanBeTraded>0</CanBeTraded>
<CanBeStolen>0</CanBeStolen>
</Biology>

 

The bolded part is the bug. I also underlined a typo.

I'm currently in my first game. Medium map, abundant all, 8 minors. I play as the Drengin against the Terrans and Arceans on Tough. It didn't go well for me at first, mostly because I suck at playing the Drengin (and the Korath), but things look much better now. I just acquired a PQ 26 planet from the Arceans and am turning it into my manufacturing capital (sans Manu Capital, of course).
I didn't notice anymore bugs, but there are a few areas I'm not so sure about. Mostly some parts of the new tech layout, some improvements and, of course, the AI performance. Once I've finished this game (shouldn't take much longer) and played one or two more, I'll give you my report.

One last thing. I overlooked the Slaveling Training Center and Artificial Slave Pods. They are also affected by the 1pp-bug. I probably need to fine-comb the PlanetImprovements.xml again, to make sure I didn't miss anything else. Still, you are right about it. You can't fix everything.

Okay, I originally wanted to wait until I had played at least three games, before starting to post. However, writing down my thoughts after the first game took much longer than expected. Much longer than the game took, in fact, and I'm not a fast player. Well, I really shouldn't be surprised about this, because writing anything takes a long time for me, but this is getting ridiculous and I don't want you to wait for too long. So, here are my impressions after the first game. (Note: I may sound overly negative at points, but don't put too much into it, as I haven't slept very well lately and my depression is getting worse again.)


Settings: Medium map, abundant all, 8 minors, Frequent Random Events, Occasional Extreme Worlds, Ascension Victory and Surrenders disabled

Difficulty: Tough

Races: Drengin vs. Terrans and Arceans

Game ended with: Conquest Victory on Nov 8th, 2231


Summary:

The early game went pretty much like I expect it from my Drengin-games. I lost the colony-rush. The Terrans had 18 planets, controlling all of the south-west and most of the south-east, while the Arceans had 17 planets and controlled all of the north-east and part of the south-east. I, on the other hand, only had 11 planets and was in control of the north-west.
My choices were twofold at that point: I could either research Extreme Colonization, and try to go after the extreme worlds, or I could try to conquer some of the minor races to get more planets. There were four minors in my area of the map: the Dark Yor, right in my home-sector, the Akilians, in the sector directly south-east of me, and the Paulos and Snathi, both two sectors to the east. I also knew of the location of the LentzLandians and the Carinoids, who were both in Arcean territory. The decision was quickly made, and preparations for war began. Quickly, one after the other, the minor worlds fell before me. By the time I conquered the LentzLandians, word reached me, that the Arceans had declared war on the Carinoids, while the Terrans were going after the Scottlingas, whom I haven't met yet. I didn't want to loose out on the Carinoid homeworld, so I put some troops together and send them out to "protect" the Carinoids from the Arceans. Had I paid more attention to what technologies the Arceans had researched, I probably would have taken my time. In any case, the Arceans decided that my war machine needed to be stopped and declared war on April 1st, 2230. In truth, however, I think they were just pissed that I beat them to the punch. Not to mention, that I flipped one of their planets.
I can't say I was surprised by this turn of events, or even disappointed. The Arceans had a PQ 26 world, Vizzard I, where they had build their Orbital Command Center, the Stellar Forge and the Eye of the Universe (later they also added the Historical Preserve). I wanted this planet and was slowly preparing for war. However, my preparations weren't nearly advanced enough by the time the Arceans declared war on me. In another incredibly stupid blunder, I decided to go after the Scottlingas first. Following their trade-routes, I eventually reached their homeworld, deep within Terran territory, and conquered it. The Terrans weren't too pleased and decided to join the Arceans in their war against me. Thus, the Big War began on April 22nd, 2230.
It was a long, drawn-out war. The main problem were several strategical stupid decisions on my part, and the weak manufacturing capabilities of my planets. While I had several hundred Dominator-class corvettes and a couple of my Battle Hammer-class frigates (outfitted with three Railgun Mk II and one Deflector Mk II) to protect myself and go after enemy fleets, I just couldn't produce enough transports to conquer the undefended enemy worlds. Without my Dominators, I would have probably had a much tougher time fending off the incoming fleets. However, they quickly became outmatched once the enemy fielded ships equipped with armour.
On July 15th, 2230, Vizzard I was finally mine. The war, however, was far from over. I turned Vizzard I into my manu capital, which solved part of my production problems. However, my other worlds still had trouble churning out transports in a timely fashion. The Arceans were slowly whittled down by my troops, and on April 1st, 2231, one year after their war declaration, their last planet fell. Only the Terrans remained now. They had become quite strong in the meantime, but not strong enough for my new Battle Hammer Mk V (outfitted with four Psionic Guns and one Deflector Mk II)! It took some time to get all my ships in position, but the demise of the Terran Alliance was inevitable. However, before I took their last planet, I made short work of the Jessuins, the last remaining minor race.


Analysis:

The Arceans were researching Sensors IV in the first year. While pointless that early in the game, this is just a minor issue. Much worse is, that the Arcean never went after Planetary Invasion. They never even tried to. I could have lost several worlds, if not the whole game, if they had done this. It was just the first test, so it might have been a fluke. However, I'll be keeping an eye on the Arceans in the next games. In other areas, they were doing pretty well. They were the first to research Xeno Ethics and Extreme Colonization, and eventually had more planets than the Terrans. By the end of the game, they were fielding Particle Beams I, which made life quite difficult for my ships. However, they were only beginning to research Titanium Armor when I was conquering their last colony. They also never really went after their unique techs. The only ones, the Arceans researched, were Xeno Geology and Interstellar Navigation.

The Terrans did pretty good overall. I didn't expect anything less from them. The only problem I saw was, that they didn't fully exploit some of their advantages. Unlike the Arceans, the Terrans had already researched Planetary Invasion by the time the Big War began. However, only after a few months did they finally begin to send a couple transports my way. They captured the old homeworld of the Scottlingas from me, but that was it for the most part of the game. The only other planet I lost was a former Arcean world, located pretty close to several Terran colonies. The other problem-area was weaponry. Only at the end of 2230 were the Terrans finally beginning to research Space Weapons. However, they did have Titanium Armor, so, while their ships might not have had the best weapons, they were pretty tough nuts to crack. Had the Terrans fully used their research advantage to get better weapons and sent more troop transports my way, I would have had a much tougher time. In fact, I most likely would have lost.

However, I pretty much did the same mistakes as the Terrans (and worse), so I'm not really in a position to complain about them.


General thoughts:

Speed bonuses: I don't like the increased amount of Speed bonuses in the tech tree. However, if I could, I would limit engines to one or two per ship, so take that with a grain of salt.

Omega Research Center: I really like the Creativity bonus. It helped me out on several occasions.

Ultimate Shipyard: Very good tech and building, but I don't think it fits the Drengin. It seems more appropriate for the Arceans.

Fleet Domination/Dominator Command: I like it, and it definitely fits the cunning Drengin.

Terror Star: I don't think right after Advanced Hulls is a good spot for this. However, now that Advanced Starbase Construction is gone, it's kinda hard to find a more fitting place. Maybe you could move it further up the tree? After Superior Hulls would be a good compromise. It's not so late, that a player has a hard time getting it, but also not so soon, that the AI would go for it, despite having better options available.

Slave Complex: I like your new custom icons, but this one doesn't seem to fit. It somehow feels out of place for the Drengin. Maybe it needs more red or a darker tone in general.


I probably missed something, but that is all I can think of for now. Next game: Yor vs. Iconians and Arceans.

Thanks for your feedback and the time you've put into playtesting.  Interesting points you're making here.  Your experience seems to affirm some of my worries about AI performance versus an actual player.  Of course, your testing is pretty much the opposite of mine.  You're taking very few players in a smaller galaxy, while my tests use a minimum of six in at least a large galaxy.  In either case, I think the AI is susceptible to blitzing, or at least the more focused development of a human.  I'd definitely say that my mod is more suited to larger, longer games than shorter, smaller ones. 

It's the downfall of working so hard on "balanced development".  The AI has very limited ability to assess what's going on and adapt to it.  So, they play the long game and develop broadly while the player can focus on critical things.

As for the Arceans, they are perennial also-rans in my test games.  I just haven't found the trick to make them competitive.  Jacking up the Stellar Forge helps, I'm sure, but they still suffer every time.  I think it's all the extra techs in their tree keeping them from critical development.  I also noticed that their -1 speed penalty is back.  I thought I got rid of that.

 

Yeah I don't know what Stardock was thinking, giving Arceans a speed penalty.  A penalty to Defence hurts them in the second and subsequent rounds and indeed, that's what I've gone with, along with a speed boost to actually facilitate the use of their Super Warrior ability.

Ok, I lied.  Instead of playing a game I set up a playtest.  I guess I'm just addicted to watching the AI slug it out.  This time, I threw 9 races in a huge galaxy.  For fun, I set every race to it's own unique AIPersonality, except the Torians.  I set them up as Altarian.  I've got Drengin, Korath, Yor, Drath, Krynn, Terran, Korx, Altarian, and Torian.  I started as the Arceans and was going to annihilate them, but decided to leave them in the corner I started in, where they promptly became a total non-factor in the game.  Galaxy is Huge, abundant stars, occasional planets, abundant habitables, and loose clusters.  This seems to do pretty well to prevent AIP 7 from running out of planets.

It's wild.  One of my observations from my all AIP 11 tests is that the AIs all do the same thing and it can be pretty dull.  Not so this time around.  Wars flared up left and right. Whereas AIP 11 is very conservative and all the AIs just dogpile on the weakest one, the mixed group had wars starting up that weren't just the big dog picking on the weakling.

Highly recommended.

Another PS - I noticed that Healing Pools is still in the Altarian Tech Tree.  Thought I was going to get rid of that.  Well, it doesn't hurt anything, so I guess it can sit there until another time.

I've actually developed a fondness for Immense galaxies with Tight clusters.  I'm actually playing from a 'tiny corner cluster' start and doing okay.

I noticed. That is why I feel under pressure, because I have no idea how to handle it.

Okay, here are my findings while looking through some of the files. Most of it is just difference in opinion and a few typos.


PlanetImprovements.xml

Anti-Matter Power Plant - The Maintenance is 1bc higher than for the other two Power Plants (4bc instead of 3bc). This is a leftover from the vanilla game. Either make it a steady increase (3bc, 4bc, 5bc) or set it to 3bc like the others. The AI value for the Power Plants (9) is also lower than for the other production boosters (10-12).

Enhanced Infrastructure - It has a huge jump in cost (+30), when compared to the subsequent ones (+20). The easiest fix is to simply increase the cost for Planetary Infrastructure to 20. The AI value for Enhanced Infrastructure is 2000. Most likely just a typo, considering that the rest are set to 200.

Planetary Defense - This is a hard improvement to pin down. The defense-bonus is useful, but you don't want the AI to spam it's planets with them. The current AI value definitely prevents that from happening, but it is also too low for the AI to make use of the building either. A higher AI value, on the other hand, would increase the chance of the AI building it, but would also make it more likely for the PD to get spamed. Limiting it to 1pp would solve this, but would also be a problem for the Yor, because the PD is currently the only spamable morale improvement they have. I'm really not sure, what I should suggest to do about it. No matter how I turn it, there is always something off.

Xinathium Hull Plating - This TG can be disabled by agents, thereby reducing the HP of already built ships and starbases. That doesn't really make sense to me, so it might be better if you set CanHaveAgents to 0.

Gravity Accelerators - The description is incomplete: "increase the base speed of your ships by." Easiest fix is to just remove the "by".

Hyperion Shipyard - Same problem as with the Xinathium Hull Plating.

Hyperion Shrinker - It feels weak as a GA with the current bonus. Maybe you could increase it to +25%?

Hyperion Logistics System - Same as with the Shrinker

Neutrality Learning Center - Unlike other labs, the Maintenance for the NLC increases by 2bc, instead of 1bc. There is also another problem. Due to the way upgrading works it is possible to have both the NLC and Discovery Spheres available at the same time. You can fix this by adding additional S_UpgradeTarget-tags for the Invention Matrix and Discovery Sphere. While not perfect, this does actually work.

Fertility Clinic - I consider this improvement a trap, because the AI can't use it properly. The only use for the FC is, if a planet hasn't reached the pop-limit yet or if the planet is the source for colony ships/troop transporters. However, due to the low AI value, it usually wont be build by the AI, making it even more of a players-only tool. Increasing the AI value, on the other hand, would only increase the likelihood of the AI spaming the FC, but the main purpose of the building would remain the same. I'm currently debating what to do with it myself, so I can't give you much advice. Adding an econ-bonus would make it too similar to the Recruiting Center. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I try to avoid that. Adding a morale-bonus would make sense, I guess, but that has problems of it's own (more on that later). I'm really not sure about an influence or farming-bonus.

Counter Espionage Center - This one has a pretty low AI value (5). It might be better to increase the value, because the AI has a hard time defending its worlds from enemy agents.

Devil's Forge/Death Furnace - I think, you should swap them around and turn the Devil's Forge into the SP. The details of the tech states, that the Devil's Forge is a one-of-a-kind improvement, so it would make sense. The Death Furnace, on the other hand, is often mentioned in plural, so it feels kinda strange, if there is only one in the game.

Improved Slaveling Lab - Just like the NLC, the Maintenance increases by 2bc, instead of 1bc.

Pain Amplifier/Agony Coordination Grid - Another pair of improvements where the 1pp-bug is possible.

Advanced Navigation Center - The Maintenance increases by 2bc, to a total of 3bc. You really want the Arceans to build it, so it might be better to either keep the Maintenance at 1bc or increase it only to 2bc. Otherwise, it feels like punishing the Arceans for doing the right thing.

Aul Incinerator - First, a typo in the description: "must be fed a constant steam of slavelings". Second, the PQ-bonus doesn't make sense to me. The Aul Incinerator feeds on life energy, so why would it increase the PQ?

Superior Collective/Ultimate Collective - As mentioned in an earlier post, each of them increases Maintenance by 2bc, instead of 1bc. This makes them very inefficient.

University - There are three problems with this improvement, all of them remnants from the vanilla game. First, it has an AI value of 0 (all other Torian labs have a value of 5). Second, the Maintenance increases by 3bc (for 4rp more). And third, the buildcost increases by 35. This is an increase of more than 100% (School costs only 25).

City of Learning - This improvement increases Maintenance by another 4bc.

Replicators - The Maintenance on these improvements is weird. It starts out with 1bc (Basic Replicator), then jumps to 4bc (Industrial Replicator L1), then to 6bc (IR L2) and finally to 7bc (IR L3). While there is a pattern to it (+3, +2, +1), it doesn't makes sense to me. 3mp more production seem to be worth 3bc, while 2mp more can be worth either 2bc or 1bc.

Orbital Command Center - The AI value (10) is too low for this SP. The ability to use all ships in orbit for defense is too valuable, so you want the AI to build it ASAP. The vanilla HP-bonus for ships build on the same planet also doesn't make sense. It's a command center, not a shipyard.

Morale improvements - As I mentioned before, limiting the starting morale improvements to 1pp with a AI value of 200 (or higher) should increase the chance that the AI will be them on all planets. The 2nd tier improvements and onward should remain unlimited, but their AI value needs to be increased to either 12 or 14. This should alleviate the AIs current problem of keeping the morale stable.
However, there are more issues with morale in general. As mentioned before, the Yor only have Planetary Defense as spamable morale improvement, which really isn't the best choice. The prevalence of morale bonuses can also be seen as a trap. The AI doesn't consider the size of the bonus when it places a morale improvement on a bonus tile. It also often uses several buildings with small bonuses, instead of one improvement with a big bonus, to boost approval. All of this only makes it harder for the AI to keep morale up. I'd suggest you either remove some of those bonuses or increase them.


StarbaseModules.xml

Extreme Industrial Center - The Description states that the bonus is +8, but the module only provides +6.

Inconsistent module requirements - Defense, Economy, Mining, and Attack/Defense Assist modules only require the first module to unlock. While on the other hand, Sensor, Trade, Speed Assist, Culture and Terror Star modules require all preceding ones. This makes it harder to grasp how to upgrade starbases, because two different sets of requirements are at work.


TechTree.xml

Interstellar Governments - It has an Influence-bonus of +0%. This is a leftover from vanilla, so you could just remove it.

Infrastructure techs - They still have no Details.

Basic Necessities - It still has no Description.


UPIssues.xml

Welfare01-03 - HowAIWouldVote is currently set to 1 (vote higher number if winning). This should be set to 2 (vote higher number if loosing), because it makes no sense, that the winner is granting everyone else a chance to get more money (especially if he is the one that's going to pay).

ChangeGovernment01 - Same as above.


One more piece of advice: use comments ( <!-- --> ) to disable techs, improvements, etc., that you are no longer using, but don't want to delete just yet. This makes it easier to go through the files, because it is apparent which parts are no longer used. The game also automatically ignores those parts, making it unnecessary to change the requirements.


I'll be going through the rest of the files once I have more time. If I find anything more, expect a post by tomorrow. Tuesday at the latest.

Granted, but that doesn't necessarily solve the problem. If you set the AI value high enough for the Yor to build PDs, the other races will also build more of them, even though they have better alternatives and more important improvements to build. If you keep the AI value as is, then the limit is pointless, because nothing changed for the AI. The only way I see to solve this is to limit the PD to 1pp and either give the Yor a new spamable morale improvement or increase the bonuses from the Maintenance Grid and Efficiency Center.


Okay, I went through the rest of the files and found a couple more things, mostly typos, that I missed earlier.

Iconian_TechTree.xml

Industrial Replication III - "Our industiral replicators are now at the highest level possible."


Korath_TechTree.xml

Aul Incineration - "It takes many millions of slaveling / wreteched clones to power it, but the results are amazing."


Korx_TechTree.xml

Super Trade Starbases - It currently uses Trade as Category, but the AI doesn't care about it that much. It might be better if you change it to Economics.


Krynn_TechTree.xml

Robust Hulls - Another typo. The Category is currently written as Hulls. It should be Hull.


GC2Conversations.xml

AI_GROVEL_RELATIONS_GOOD - Line 4318 (Speaker Torian, Listener Iconian) is missing quotation-marks after Iconian

AI_OFFENSIVE_STARBASE_THREAT - StarbaseName, StarbaseX and StarbaseY should be written StarBaseName, StarBaseX and StarBaseY respectively. Not entirely sure about this yet, but YourLeaderName doesn't seem to work here either. Better change it to OTHER_RACE_LEADER.

AI_CULTURAL_STARBASE_THREAT - Ditto.

AI_STARBASE_CONCERN_RELATIONS_OK - Ditto.

AI_STARBASE_CONCERN_RELATIONS_LOW - Ditto.

AI_COMPLAINS_INFLUENCEBASE - StarbaseName should be written StarBaseName. I'm not sure about the coordinates.

AI_COMPLAINS_MILITARYBASE - Ditto.


I probably missed some typos and bugs in GC2Conversations.xml, but those were the most obvious. It's the hardest file to check, in my opinion. I don't think I managed to find all of them in my own copy either.

Wow.  That's a lot of stuff.  I thought I was past a lot of the typo errors, but there they are.  I'll have to see what I can do with your lists.

As far as maintenance vs cost vs output, I made a spreadsheet way back when and fit everything into a more or less uniform system.  It's been long enough that I would need to to review it before responding to any comments about inefficiency or cost/maintenance jumps.  To my recollection, I standardized things.  Hope I still have that spreadsheet.

No need to handle it at all.  It's simply a thanks and recognition for all the help you've given over the years.  No expectations for future work or anything of the sort.  I fully understand how hard it can be to keep up with this stuff.  I mean, I don't think I've ever commented on your mod.  I'm sorry for that.  I really wish that I could.  Giving you some special thanks is the least I can do.

Actually with the Arceans I have been rolling with Industrialist because they become awesome at cranking out ships, and not too shabby at building up planets.  Of course their innate bonuses don't hurt in this regard.

 

 

Hi, me again.  Personally, to try and even things out, I just gave each party the equivalent of 4pts worth of racial bonuses.  However I also reevaluated the list of racial bonuses so some parties got nerfed and some got buffed.