[Solved: AI problem] Custom races not researching small hulls

I made some tests with "soak" (AI controlled) games.

 

Most of my custom races with ship styles (FactionShipStyleSetDefs_RACE.xml and ShipClassDefs_RACE.xml) are not researching small hulls (at least) on normal. I made some tests and if I change the the difficulty to "godlike" they are researching and have medium ships at turn 30-40, This is not a problem about missing ships or such things. The custom "core" ships are all buildable. If I take control and research small hulls myself, everything is fine. And on higher difficulty settings the AI is building these ships and crushing the other AI.

If I "soak" on normal, they do not research small hulls ever (at least not until turn 200, where I stopped the test, bored). I made tests with 7 games. They do not research small hulls.

If I play myself with a custom race and research orbital manifacturing (small hulls) right at the start and then "soak" the game everything is fine.

 

The custom races are mostly malevolent, aggressiv races. I do not understand, why they do not research small hulls. At turn 200 with tiny ships...

And they don't plan to research this tech, they spam (even at war) constructors and transport vessels.Not building any war ship. They spam some tiny ships at the start and then refuse to build any fighters.

 

This is a new problem, a few montrhs ago the same races with the same shipstyles worked perfectly.

5,529 views 4 replies
Reply #1 Top

http://www11.pic-upload.de/08.09.15/xyazjt3yizsc.jpg

 

This is a game with the Terrans and other custom races with custom ship style. Only the Terrans are building military. Of six custom races only one has researched "orbital manufacturing" at turn 100. A few months ago the same races are just doing fine. So what has changed in the game since then?

Reply #2 Top
 
Turn 179. Still one custom race only has researched small hulls. The Terrans have small and medium hulls.
 
 
 
Military manufacturing. Just if someone thinks, the Terrans are on another difficulty. They are having military manufacturing. but most of the custom races are building NOTHING, just constructors. The Borg have just as much military manufacturing as the Terrans and NO fighters.
 
 
 
Here you can see that the Kilrathi have researched many things, but they refuse to research orbital manufacturing (as the other four custom races). At Turn 179. The Terrans still can trade it.
The Jarkir is a constructor, it's "M11". The Kilrathi have the BEST CONSTRUCTORS ever, but nearly NO fighting ship (except ONE tiny prototype fighter). And one M9 colony ship...
 
A few months ago you could create your own shipstyle and it worked. Now it's clearly broken. All my custom ship style-races at the moment are useless.
 
And the funny thing: If I raise the difficulty level of the AI of these races to "godlike", they are building fighting ships. So what's going on?
Reply #3 Top

Now the Terrans on Normal and the custom races on godlike. Turn 52. Same game setup as before (fast techs, fast game pacing)

http://www11.pic-upload.de/08.09.15/pginxdngog2x.jpg

 

Now the Terrans suck at military production (as you would expect) and the other races are working as intended. The more aggressive races are building more fighters. On "normal" it's just the reverse. Still the Kilrathi have not researched medium hulls and the terrans have, but the other races are working just fine.

 

So it's not a problem with the modded ship styles but with the AI, it seems. But it's not playable. If everybody has the same AI, the custom factions with ship style are not competitive. Sad, really sad.

 

Reply #4 Top

SOLVED

Sadly, some patches made changes on some shipstyle files.

With brand new shipstyle files it works.

But the order of entries in the shipstyle files changing the AI behavior in researching things surprises me.