Not a thread for talking about how terribad the AI is, but a thread for discussing the contents of AI-related files and how we can mod them. I also want to keep tactical battle behaviour out of this thread - it's not really the same thing, since the player cannot really take advantage of it to the same extent.

Thus far, we appear to have determined that the AI is directly affected by the settings in the following files (I'll update this as we find more):

AIStrategydefs.xml - this largely determines the AI's spending and shipbuilding priorities, along with impacting on the tech choices.

Factiondefs.xml - This has some bearing on the AI's tech choices

Governordefs.xml - This determines what the AI builds on planets.

Galciv3AIDefs.xml - This sets difficulty bonuses, and controls AI diplo and combat behaviour.

*techdefs.xml - these have AI category weighting on the techs to help determine which technologies they like.

It will also only build ships that are defined in Shipblueprintdefs.xml, which for our purposes counts as the 'shipyard AI' (though the player also has access to these blueprint types).

If you find any more, report them here and I'll add them to the list; if you find how an AI settings works or what it does, post it and I'll add it to the posts below (only for AIStratdefs, Factiondefs and Galciv3AIDefs - the other two are pretty much just build queues). let's discuss how to make it work better.

EDIT: I dug up this thread: http://forums.littletinyfrogs.com/462863/GalCiv_III_AI_moddingscratch_pad where Brad explains how AI tech choices work, which might come in handy.