Strategic AI modding discussion thread

Bump.   

No spamming in here please - stick to discussing the code. That's for everyone, not just Marigoldran (though he's usually the worst offender )

That also goes for suggestions - unless you can figure out how to code an AI strategy, please DO NOT suggest it. We can all name 50 things the AI could do better, but that isn't really helpful unless we can convert that into XML that actually does it. So we need to be able to figure out every line of AI-related script so that we can figure out how to get it to do something sensible.

OK, he's what we know about AIStrategyDefs.xml:

The code is split into <AIStrategy> scopes. Everything within this scope is one AI strategy.

<turnstart> determines the earliest turn the AI can do a strategy.

<Turnend> determines the final turn is can follow it - not pick it, FOLLOW IT.

<Turnlifetime> is the amount of time the AI will follow this strategy for once it's picked it. This means that if you attack it on say turn 40 and it's just picked a new strategy on turn 38, it may serve out the remainder of it's turnlifetime in the old strategy.

<Playeratwar> checks if the AI is at war.

<Spending> seems to determine the AI's approach to rush-buying and upgrading. It has 2 options - Spend Until Broke, and Break Even.

<Spenduntilbrokebuffer> is the minimum amount of cash in the AI's purse before it increases it's wealth slider.

<WealthSlider> determines the wealth slider %

<ManufacturingSlider> determines the manufacturing slider %

<ResearchSlider> Determines - you may have guessed it - the research %

<military slider> determines the position on the military/socail scale.

<StarbaseDefenderFillCap> is the maximum % of logistics the AI will stack on a starbase.

<ShiyardDefenderFillCap> is the maximum % of logistics the AI will stack on a shiyard

<PlanetDefenderFillCap> is surprisingly obvious with the above two taken into account

<Prefertorush> is the AI's preferred rush-buy option

<buildship> scopes determines the weight of a given ship class being build in what is probably a random weighted array roll

<Buildfirst> causes the AI to build the specified number of this ship before it starts random-rolling UNLESS precluded by some other thing. The AI not being able to see any planets to colonize is one such preclusion.

<Mincount> is the minimum number of these ships the AI must have, otherwise it builds these before random rolling.

<Techweightoffest> modifies the weight of the AI's tech choices, presumably in the same manner as the similar setting in factiondefs.xml.

<PersonalityTraits> correspond with AI personalities. Presently, if an AI has the listed personality trait, it sees to automatically take that strategy forever. If it's offered a choice, we still don't know how it picks.

<TechAge> is the tech age in which this strat can be active (you can have multiple of these)

<RequiredObjective> is activated by victory types.

AI effects in Factiondefs.xml:

<PersonalityTraits> Seems mostly just to unlock strategies. 

<AICategoryWeight> is used in conjunction with the modifiers in AIStrategyDefs.xml to determine research choices, probably in another random weighted array

<WarnduranceInit> Sets the AI's initial War Endurance - how much punishment they'll take before they throw in the towel.

Galciv3AIDefs.xml. I've removed the random weight tables where applicable, and also irrelevant code hooks:

<MaxRallyPointFleetMeetupDistance>
<NewRallyPointFleetMeetupRange>
<MaxRallyPointInvasionPrepDistance>
<NewRallyPointInvasionPrepRange>
<BattleRatingWeaponMod>
<BattleRatingDefenseMod>
<BattleRatingHitPointsMod>
<DangerPathCheckRadius>
<DangerBellCurveTargetDivisor>
<SendFleetsOnWarPathChance>
<WartimeFocusSectorRadius>
<WatimeFocusSectorTargetBonus>
<MinShipCountWeightMod>
<PlanetInDangerDefenseShipMod>
<PlanetInDangerAttackShipMod>
<IdleReturnHomeCount>
<IdleConsiderForRetireCount>
<DifficultyRule>
<Difficulty>
<AttackingFleetPowerComparedToHuman>
<FreeWarTechChance>
<FreeIdeologyPointsChance>.1</FreeIdeologyPointsChance>
<FreeIdeologyPointsAward>10</FreeIdeologyPointsAward>

<CreditBonus>

<MinCreditsBeforeBonus>

<TryRandomCreditBonusOnTurnInterval>
<ChanceToAwardCredits>
<RandomCreditsMin>
<RandomCreditsMax>

<ResearchCostDivisor>

<PlanetTraitStatSamplingFlatBonus>
<GovernorWorstAcceptedScore>

<BaseOpenBoardersTreatyValue>
<OpenBoardersXenophobicValueMod>
<!--<OpenBoardersTraderValueMod>

<BaseExplorationTreatyValue>
<ExplorationXenophobicValueMod>

<BaseEmbargoTreatyValue>

<BaseDeclareWarOnThirdTreatyValue>

<BaseCulturalTreatyValue>
<BaseFreeTradeTreatyValue>

<BaseSlaveTreatyValue>
<PeaceTreatyModValue>
<NegativePeaceTreatyRelationModValue>
<PositivePeaceTreatyRelationModValue>
<AllianceModValue>
<NegativeAllianceRelationModValue>
<PositiveAllianceRelationModValue>
<NonAggressionModValue>
<NegativeNonAggressionRelationModValue>
<PositiveNonAggressionRelationModValue>
<NegativeEmbargoRelationModValue>
<PositiveEmbargoRelationModValue>
<NegativeDeclareWarOnThirdRelationModValue>
<PositiveDeclareWarOnThirdRelationModValue>
<DurationalCreditsModValue>
<BaseColonyTradeValue>
<ColonyProductionPointsMod>
<ColonyNumBuildingsMod>
<BaseStarbaseTradeValue>
<ConstructionPointValue>
<PairedStarbaseResourceValue>
<PairedAscensionGateValue>
<SweetenThePotAscVictoryBuyPairedAscensionGateValue>
<MyOwnColonyCostModValue>
<PredictionCultureFlipNumTurns>
<MyShipTradeCostModValue>
<TheirShipTradeCostModValue>
<TechTradeCostModValue>
<TechTradeLeadupCostModValue>
<ExclusiveTechLeadupValue>
<EleriumTradeModValue>
<DurantiumTradeModValue>
<AntimatterTradeModValue>
<PromethionTradeModValue>
<ThuliumTradeModValue>
<YouCantFoolMeGrudgeModValue>
<MinRelationScoreBeforeDeclareWar>
<FactionPowerModWhenCheckingForWar>
<BattlePowerModWhenCheckingForDanger>
<WarEnduranceModForInvasionWin>
<WarEnduranceModForInvasionLoss>
<WarEnduranceGainedFromFleetVictory>
<WarEnduranceLostFromFleetLoss>
<FactionPowerRatioBeforeAskingForPeace>
<FactionPowerRatioBeforeSurrender>
<PopulationRatioBeforeSurrender>
<TurnBeforeSurrender>
<TurnsIntoWarBeforeSurrender>
<NumPlanetsLostToInvasionBeforeSurrender>
<MinRelationRequiredToGiveStuffToFriendDuringSurrender>
<WarTargetDistanceMultiplier>
<AIToAITradeEvalLeeway>
<UPVoteRandomRange>
<UPMinDislikeToDefy>
<UPDefyChancePerDislike>


<!--Starbase construction preferences-->

<ConstructorPlanetQualityDesirabilityMod>
<ConstructorResourceQualityDesirabilityMod>
<ConstructorUpgradeDesirabilityBonus>
<ConstructorAscensionDesirabilityBonus>
<ConstructorAscensionVictoryDesirabilityBonus>
<ConstructorRelicDesirabilityBonus>

<!--Spending Preferences-->

<SlidersBreakEvenSearchSmallestJump>
<SlidersBreakEvenNetCreditsMinTarget>
<SlidersBreakEvenNetCreditsMaxTarget>

<!--Ideological choice bias-->

<PickEventOptionWithPersonalityChance>

<!--Base relations levels-->

<RelationsAtwar>
<RelationsHostile>
<RelationsDislike>
<RelationsUnfriendly>
<RelationsCool>
<RelationsNeutral>
<RelationsWarm>
<RelationsFriendly>
<RelationsClose>
<RelationsAlly>
<RelationsTeam>

<!--Ideological evaluation-->

<MoralVeryGood>
<MoralGood>
<MoralGoodThreshold>
<MoralNeutral>
<MoralEvilThreshold>
<MoralEvil>
<MoralVeryEvil>

<!--Player interaction-->

<AIContactHumanCooldown>
<AIContactHumanRandomRange>
<AIContactHumanForPeaceCooldown>
<AIContactHumanForPeaceRandomRange>

<AskForCreditsPercentOfTreasury>
<AskForCreditsMin>
<AskForCreditsDivideValueForDuration>
<MinNumShipsOwnedBeforeConsiderTradingShips>
<MinNumShipsOwnedBeforeConsiderGivingShipsToFriend>
<AskForStrategicResourcePercentOfNet>
<MinAskForStrategicResource>
<NeverTradeAwayLastNumStrategicResource>
<AskForTradeResourcePercentOfNet>
<MinAskForTradeResource>
<NeverTradeAwayLastNumTradeResource>

<GrudgeAddedPerDeclareWar>
<RecentWarGrudgeTurnThreshold>
<GrudgeAddedPerRecentDeclareWar>
<GrudgeAddedPerDeclareWarThatBrokeTreaties>

<AcceptPeaceFromAIEvenThoughIDontWantItChance>

<PlanetClassDefenseImportanceMod>
<StarbaseDefenseImportance>
<ShipyardDefenseImportance>
<ThreatenedPlanetDefenseImportance>
<ThreatenedPlanetTransportDefenseImportance>

<DiplomacyHistoryIncreasePerTurn>
<DiplomacyScoreDeltaDivisor>
<DiplomacyScoreDeltaMin>
<DiplomacyScoreDeltaMax>
<SetExpressedRelationScoreAfterWar>

<TradeValuePositiveRelationMod>
<TradeValueNegativeRelationMod>
<AITradeItemCountPriceHike>
<AITradeNumObjectsWithoutHike>

<PlanetThreatenedDistance>

So I made some changes and ran a soak on insane/abundant (with base 1600 around ~1000 habitables), spiral galaxy, 40 players, uncommon pirates, normal difficulty. Changes were:

* Made 'startstrats' last 50 turns

* Moved all the non-endgame and startgame strats apart from the 'expansionstrats' require turn 100 to start, so at level 50 they chose expand.

* Removed the tech age requirements from strats

* changed  the governors to concentrate on their speicalism during fillers.

* Removed loads of useless defense, influence, tourism and wealth buildings from industrial and research planet governors

* removed 'growth' world governors completely

* Changed blueprints to be less obsessed with life support, move keen on engines

* moved all AI strategy spending priorities to be more industrially focused.

* tweaked the faction defs to give more races 'expansionist' (though this doesn't actually seem to do much).

The effect of this was enormous. I ran the soak to turn 70ish.

The first thing I noticed was that the Thalan and Terran factions no longer sucked. The Terrans were about the 3rd largest empire, comparable in size to the Krynn and Altarians but quite a way behind the Drengin. The Thalans were a ways behind, but that was mostly due to their starting position; they still had 15+ planets (in my previous game with the same settings but no AI adjustments, they had 6 by turn 150). This was a game with 5-6 big empires and 20-odd medium ones, as opposed to 38 tiny empires and the Krynn.

In terms of planets, the AI was a lot more focused. It was generally possible to see what an AI planet was for. Average industrial production and research were way up, and that effect was felt across the board - even the most viable non-modded planets are only slightly above where the average planet now sits. With no ridiculous 'Growth' worlds dragging their approval down, the AI was able to concentrate on useful, productive planets.

The empires were much wider, and expanded much more rapidly - due almost entirely to the blueprint changes imo, as now they stack engines more effectively, and make good use of sensors (which the AI does need on normal). The also had more and better starbases.

The level of military was far more subdued, however. This wasn't a problem with few pirates and such a large map, but may cause issues in smaller or more pirate-intensive games. Given the AI's vastly better productivity, I expect them to militarize rather swiftly post-turn 100, but they're sticking rather strictly to the colony-spam strategy for now. 

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a means of telling the AI to use different strategies based on things like "do you have close neighbours", "are pirates threatening our colony ships", etc. Its strategic choices are largely not based on what's happening in-game. 

For the next set of experiments, I'll try adding in more strategies. If that's successful, then I'd propose we do the following:

Create a number of strategies, each lasting roughly 10 turns and divided by personality and ideology. There should be 4-5 different options for each 10-turn chunk of the game. These will vary between going all-out research for 10 turns, to simple outright colony spam for 10 turns, to dedicating itself to building a small combat fleet. 

This will last until around turn 50, where we switch to 20-turn chunks on the same pattern; then at turn 150 we do 50-turn chunks up to turn 300ish, and then put them into endgame mod.

This would require around 80 different strategies to be written, with the AI switching between them rapidly enough that it never gets 'stuck' with a strategy which is truly terrible for it's given situation for too long. 

Ran another soak, same settings.

By turn 110, the Iridium corp had over 1000 points. They're way out in the lead, probably due more to the maintenance settings I've included than their AI being particualrly ingenious. They built around 100 small warship around turn 100 and have gathered them into what I believe Marigold would call MAX STRENGTH FLEETS. This suggests that the AI's fleeting woes are more down to lacking the industrial grunt to populate them that lacking the ability to fleet up properly at all; it tries to gather ships in a fairly short range from the constructing shipyard, which means that under normal circumstances it builds lots of individual ships, sends them off to all create their own fleet, and then sends takes so long to send a second or third ship to join the fleet that it goes off to fight before it's a serious threat.

Now on around turn 150; almost all AIs have 20+ planets. Few aside from the IC actually built many war ships, but now wars have started to kick off aand military production is ramping up. Turn 100-150 was, for most empires, a big time for research - most having ~600 research points at the time, though now that the wars have started they're all rapidly switched to a heavy military-industrial output - and have built up their planets enough for this to be highly effective. 

Hats off to you naselus.  But you will need to run LOTS of soaks, with LOTS of statistics to make any concrete conclusions (an output of the timeline into a file, would be extremely useful to evaluate soaks).  I'm sure this is how stardock tests it themselves, Probably being able to save the soak save game every turn, giving them the ability to go back and see what was going on when its empire made radical changes in power stats (or even just research, military, etc).

Nvm, wrong forum

Seems the AI still needs some way to react to player military buildup.  Around turn 50 of an Immense map, I had over 100 planets and was preparing to invade the Drengin, but they kept right on building colony ships and constructors.  They still kept on building civilian ships even as my massive carrier forces were shredding their unarmed vessels by the dozen.  With the Yor, it was basically the same - only it ended faster because by then I had Huge strike carriers with 350+ move.

Actually, I'm not sure that's true tbh. The AI is heavily scripted, and having made some adjustments and fiddled around it's actually fairly obvious from the power graphs when the AI switches from one strat to another - it's very visible when it swaps 100+ population from industry to research, for example. There doesn't seem to be a random element in play at all, just binary yes/no triggers. That makes it surprisingly straight foward to script, given that it's not doing anything particularly intelligent at all. It's VERY mechanical in that respect.

This lack of randomization is helpful in that it means we can more or less be sure when the AI is doing a 'good' strategy, but is horribly bad in that it makes the AI very predictable. The only way round that, as I say, is doing lots and lots of strategies so that the chances of any two AI players playing the same strategy all-game is reduced.

OK, now back by my main machine, which I left on that soak. Looks like my faction surrendered to someone on turn 259.

3 AI races are all neck-and-neck at around 1800 power:

The Iridium have reached 1000 population and have 95 planets, two of them taken from someone else. They've built 48 starbases, built 350 ships and won 78 battles.

The Salarians from the MAss Effect race pack are next, While they only have 48 planets and 25 SBs, they have built nearly 600 ships; they've managed to get 719 population. Their military power is around 800 alone.

Maybe 50 points behind those two are the Volus, also from Mass Effect (in fact, the Mass effect races have done very well generally with seven of the top spots.). 600 ships, 75 planets and 767 population.

The Thalans and the Terrans each have over 40 worlds; the Thalans built 350ish ships and the Terrans 250ish. I suspect the Thalans spent a lot more time at war, sincethey were in the middle of the galaxay and the Terrans were out on the fringe. None the less, both empires have done markedly better than previously.

What's less visible from the general stats is the 'new powers' which appear to be rising in the galaxy; both the Altarians and the Geth are producing huge amount of military production presently and are likely to move up the rankings shortly. The Altarians actually built the most ships (over 700), but have also lost well over 100, while the Geth have now achieved both the highest research output and the highest military manufacturing, and so are likely to become a superpower - despite only having 38 worlds!

Equally interesting is the losers: The Krynn managed only 14 planets, less than 26 other races, and the much-vaunted Yor achieved only 11. Every other vanilla race has at least 40. The minor races, which I have made major for this run, have largely managed a similar 40ish each; the Marauders and Klepart both reached 57 and produced 500+ ships (the Klepart were victims of a multiple-DoW around turn 120 and lost huge numbers of ships over the course of the game). 

While I'm still fairly convinced I would've been way ahead in this had I been playing, I must stress - THIS IS NORMAL DIFFICULTY. A completely unbuffed AI managed to get 95 worlds! The AI not only coped with using maintenance rather than approval, it actually excelled. There were 3 top-of-the-line powers. The Terran and Thalan empires were relevant. And this was from a couple of dozen minor AI script changes.I think we can achieve some pretty great scripts if we work on it. 

These changes you have made to do this...is this anything you can share and then we can help test to give you feedback back?  Im willing to help do that if you can give me directions and whatnot.

I've added them all into my Insane-Abundant balance mod for the moment (available here: https://forums.galciv3.com/467008/page/1/#3566625). I'd love some feedback with that, but it contains a whole bunch of other changes from vanilla - it's not just AI tweaks, and it's only intended to be played with insane maps and abundant planets (since that's the most unbalanced setting for Vanilla).

The thing is, due to the way the AI deals with strategies, what works on one map really won't work on others (since if you played with these changes on a Tiny map, the AI wuld still be producing colony ships long after all the worlds have been taken). I think ideally we need to be producing a tailored AI for each size setting.

Ok ive been looking at that thread too, so will try it out!

Wowowowowowowowow.  You're awesome. Saw your mod.  Does it work on other smaller galaxy settings than Insane? 

It wouldn't be the first time I've done a big mod. And yes, once I've finished moving house this weekend I think I'll have a look at splitting the game down into 10-turn sections and scripting the AI appropriately.

It's balanced around insane (with total planets boosted back to 1.0 levels). It works on some of the other settings, but I imagine it's pretty unplayable below huge; it makes larger hulls use durantium so there's probably not enough of it about on little maps. Could be fun seeing a game that's nearly all fighters though. TBH, I'm still not fully convinced whether the strategic resource stuff is a going to work with the AI, and might remove it; though this soak definitely suggests otherwise.

This is what the AI needs, it needs short mini-strategies, medium more strategic strategies that last about 50 turns, and enduring goals, which last the length of the game.

The Enduring Goals should be easiest. What does this race want to accomplish? These should be the type of victory the empire goes for and they should be decided with high degree of endurance about 1/10 of the length of the average game scaled to the side of the map, for smaller maps they could be decided once an empire hits a marker like it is ahead in research by 25% or military by 25% and it should be in line with the type of empire it is. If it is malevolent xenophobic expansions and aggressive, it should be gobbling planets and its enduring goal should be extermination of anybody not aligned with it and interested in the same conquests. Should be a long term focus and preference for a certain kind of weapon, or ships dont buld any defense, they should have a certain specific trait that makes them unique and stand out against the rest of the empires in the same galaxy. 

Strategic goals should be lengthy but more in line with mid range goals, we've been declared on war by this enemy, sets objectives for elimination of that enemy and priorities. So if the enemy has 10 planets, which planets to go after first, which ones on our side to defend, which starbases to elminate, which strategy should be used, attack fleets, planets, shipyards or starbases? This is the kind of AI the game is weakest at. It can't determine a strategy for winning. It can fight, it can build weakly but it can't decide which type of target. This should all be figured out by formula, ships vs ships, ships vs starbases, planets vs planets, ships vs starbases, number of shipyards vs shipyards, each of these calculations should be performed and then ranked, and the AI should pick the top or 2nd best strategy and focus on it for 50 turns. If the AI decides it had 5 shipyards and the enemy has 3 it should focus on destroying the 3 shipyards, but has the same number of ships and same fighting strength it should attack the enemy shipyards for up to 50 turns. If it achieves destruction of enemy ship yards then it should re-evaluate and form a new medium term focus. Each fleet AI could have 3-4 of these mid term strategies for each race to keep it relevant.

Tactical AI would be the 10 turn AI where the AI evaluates its ability to cause damage. Set a goal based on how strong the AI is versus the enemy. If it is 50% stronger it should be able to wipe out 50% of the enemy strength in 10 turns, if it is 10% stronger, it should be able to wipe out 10% of the enemy in 10 turns. At the end of the 10 turns if it was successful in its attacks it should keep on the same strategy, if it wasn't it should kick the medium strategy in the ass and redo it.

Feedbacks from the short and medium term strategy could keep the AI playing a shit ton smarter and also give it the ability to really follow an overall strategy instead of playing so damn generic

Well, if I was to look at my own gameplay, here are some of the mini-strategies I generally do.

1) Colony Rush / Initial Structure Phase: Focus is on military production, and colonizing planets quickly.

New planets generally go to 100% social for infrastructure, or 100% military to assist with colony spam.

Science is only focused on key technologies, then tapered back down for more manu:

a) Passive Speed

+4 morale

c) Bonuses to total manufacturing, growth.

Econ is at 0%.

2) Colony Differentiation/Mining Strategy: As the initial colony phase starts to wind down, its time to hyper specialize the planets. This means getting the Manu and Research capitals on proper homeworlds, ensuring I have a money planet to cover costs, starting to turn planets to full research as their initial infrastructure builds up. Auto upgrades are off, no use spending manu on the building upgrades (not worth it at this point).

As a sub strategy, trying to maximize the hyperion shrinker and the logistics systems are good optimizations.

Lastly, most military manu goes into constructors to grab mining starbases. Focus on getting bases with multiple resources as a priority (even if they are a bit far away).

Once those are claimed, either pick off the 1 resource spots or shift into another strategy depending on need.

3) Military Strategy (Tech): I pick up the initial weapons early in the game, but I don't do much more military investment until I am built up and ready to kill, or multiple races look ready to pounce. A declaration of war against me is NOT an automatic trigger, early attacks are not that effective right now.

Once I shift into this strategy, I first focus heavily on tech. My goal is to get these key areas first:

a) Weapons Tech usually to Stinger level (unless I have tons of prototype resources)

Hull to Medium

c) Various capacity upgrades

d) Maybe defense tech, depends on the situation.

Then I shift back towards military production while keep tech focused on augmentative abilities:

a) Logistics

Bonus to weapon damage

Those are a couple of mine

Also, AI need to be designed so they're capable of an early rush.  

I've noticed the AI doesn't build any military until around turn 100, leaving their planets undefended.  So I guess I'm going to start building transport ships on turn 50.  

Lots of good suggestions in recent posts but I see this already rapidly spiraling away from the objective of the thread guys. A good deal of those things will not be able to be implemented by mods.

I'm not disagreeing, but it's beyond the scope of what we mere modders can do. Take it up with Brad.

This is much more helpful in this context - if you break down your own game into 'sections' and look at what your own short-term strategies are, then list them here, we can convert that into XML scripts. While we can't point things too accurately - so we can't tell it to stack mil bonuses on the shrinker for example - we can point it in the right direction for techs and tell it 'you should just go flat-out colonizer between turns 1-20'. 

Yeah, the tweaks I've put in IAB kinda rely on the player being slowed down by maintenance and the durantium soft-cap on ship hulls atm. Basically, the challenge for the player in the opening 100 turns is in expanding his empire without financial collapse rather than defeating his enemies - this is what's severely lacking in vanilla imo. 

I was genuinely playing a game of it last night, same settings as the soak, and while I was winning I didn't have a big planet advantage over the top AI players (in fact, I was behind two of them); however, I had 80 small gunships and they had a couple of interceptors by turn 100. 

That's mostly because, in the present build, there's only 2 strategy choices for the AI in turn 1-100 atm - start->expand and aggressive start->aggressive expand. What I'm aiming to get set up this week is:

Create a 'stratstrat' option from turn 1-20 which is just 90%manu, 90%mil colony spam.

Add in a 'buildup' strat from 20-30ish where the AI does some research and builds up social manufacturing

30-50 give it a 'pirate-proof' expansion phase, where it throws some small fighters in but still mainly makes colony ships and constructors

50-60 another 'buildup' phase

60-80 another pirate-proof expansion phase

80-100 a more military buildup point where it starts producing decent vessels.

Once we have this as a generic template, then I'll vary it up a bit depending on personalities - so aggressives will have more pirate-proofing and higher weight on attack ships; diplos will push research a little more aggressively for a few 10-turn chunks; expansionist civs will push out more colonies etc. Then I'll give each race at least 3 personality tags.

That should mean that, in a galaxy with several players, we start seeing some real differences between the civs. 

Going to hold off on playing until you get this done.  It sounds good enough that playing right now is pointless.  

I like expanding and getting planets but that's only fun if the AI can expand fast too.  

This is excellent work Naselus!

I'm in traveling this week, else I'd be helping out more here - looking forward to seeing how far along things are when I'm back

Naselus. FYI and anyone else currently working on the AI.

I've been working on some changes and doing more testing (I'm close to OCD when it comes to testing, haha) and this is going to produce a couple of difficulties that I'm having a hard time currently getting around.

• On Normal difficulty, the AI will not colonise before ~ turn 20. (Except Drengin who start from the first turn)
• On Gifted AI, they start colonising ships at ~ turn 10 (Again except Drengin)
• On Genius+ they all start colonising from the get go.

There is one exception to this, and that seems to be based on proximity, which allows the races to colonise their home system planets. The Krynn will produce 1 further colony ship then stop. Also, if there is a planet VERY close to their homeworld, the AI will colonise it.

This is also the cause of a problem I mentioned in my other thread previously, where the Thalans/Yor (factions with only 1 starting planet) are decommissioning their starting colony ship. The idle time is kicking in before they are able to start the colony spam.

This is a huge positive for the Drengin clearly and likely a bug. But presents us with a problem when it comes to making the AI more aggressive at colonisation. I've spent ages combing through the xml trying to figure out what is causing this and I'm starting to fear we might not be able to manipulate it. If anyone has any insights please share, maybe it's me missing something or just from me looking too long and not seeing.

R