09-07-2004 06:16									#1
	Improving the AI: Part I: The Worldbuilder section of alphax.txt Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Introduction

In an overly ambitious step, I decided to do a series (hopefully) of articles on some relatively easy changes one can make to improve the performance of the AI in Alpha Centauri. Most of the things I discuss will apply equally to either Smac, or Smax.

Here is an outline and probable index of the chapters briefly discussing what I hope to write about in each:

Part I: The Worldbuilder
Can changes to the Worldbuilder give the AI a better chance?
Do settings you choose at startup affect the AI's performance?

Part II: A review of previous studies
Lots of Links to previous discussions about improving the AI. Much of this has focused on editing the Factions.

Part III: Faction Tweaks or Super-AI
An overview of faction tweaks that will boost the performance of the AI
An overview of using various 'versions' of a faction without getting lost

Part IV: Further changes to Alphax.txt parameters
Artillery, Retool restrictions, Terraforming prerequisites, etc.. There are many subtle things to do in the Alphax.txt. I'll outline what I've learned. There is still plenty more to explore here.

Part V: For the Ambitious: Changing the Tech Tree
Pointer to an article by Darsnan and Rubin on changing the technology tree
A list of the major targets for change: Industrial Automation, Clean Reactors, etc..

Part VI: Scenarios for Master players
A small intro to scenarios by the Masters for the Masters. There are many scenarios available that will challenge even the very best Smac(x) player. I'll put a few links here.

Eventually I'll change the chapter order, but I just felt like writing the worldbuilder section right now as I've been playing with it today.

-Smack

	09-07-2004 06:23									#2
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Part I: The Worldbuilder

Introduction to editing the Alphax.txt

If you've never edited the Alphax.txt, please go check out Darsnan's and Rubin's introduction here: Alphax.txt editing

It's easy to edit, but it's easy to break the game if you are not careful. As with all things like this, make backups and keep them clearly labeled and in a safe place. If you produce a game crash, it is almost always fixable by simply putting the original files back in place. Secondly, never play a normal Pbem with a modified alphax.txt unless all parties are aware you are doing that. Some changes cause MP not to work at all. Other changes are considered cheating, and rightly so. The point is, if you like pbems, you must be doubly cautious about keeping your 'clean' version of Smax separate from anything you change. I know it seems obvious to some, but it can't hurt to mention.

In Darsnan's and Rubin's (D+R) article, the various sections of the Alphax text are nicely outlined. I'll be discussing the #Worldbuilder section, which controls how the game builds random maps, based on your selections at startup and on the variables in it's section.

One really nifty thing about the alphax.txt is that you can keep it open in the background and switch back and forth to Smax while you test changes, rather than re-starting Smax. With something like the worldbuilder, it's best to do the change while you are on a map, rather than at the main menu. Changes apply after returning to the main menu, not while you are there.

Here's the #Worldbuilder section from an unmodified Alphax.txt:

code:
from the Alphax.txt
#WORLDBUILDER
384, ; Land base        (Seeded land size of a standard world)
256, ; Land modifier    (additional land from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
12,  ; Continent base   (Base size of a land mass seed)
24,  ; Continent modif. (Increased size from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
1,   ; Hills base       (Base # of extra hills)
2,   ; Hills modifier   (additional hills from TIDAL selection: x0, x1, x2)
4,   ; Plateau base     (Basic plateau size)
8,   ; Plateau modifier (Plateau modifier based on LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
8,   ; Rivers base      (Basic # of rivers)
12,  ; Rivers rain mod. (Additional rivers based on RAIN selection)
14,  ; Solar Energy     (Latitude DIVISOR for temperature based on HEAT) Smaller # increases effect of HEAT selection
14,  ; Thermal band     (Latitude DIVISOR for thermal banding)  Smaller # widens hot bands
8,   ; Thermal deviance (Latitude DIVISOR for thermal deviance) Smaller # increases randomness
8,   ; Global Warming   (Latitude DIVISOR for global warming)   Smaller # increases effect of warming
5,   ; Sea Level Rises  (Magnitude of sea level changes from ice cap melting/freezing)
5,   ; Cloudmass peaks  (Size of cloud mass trapped by peaks)
3,   ; Cloudmass hills  (Size of cloud mass trapped by hills)
1,   ; Rainfall coeff.  (Multiplier for rainfall belts)
15,  ; Deep water       (Encourages fractal to grow deep water)
10,  ; Shelf            (Encourages fractal to grow shelf)
15,  ; Plains           (Encourages highland plains)
10,  ; Beach            (Encourages wider beaches)
10,  ; Hills            (Encourages hills x TIDAL selection)
25,  ; Peaks            (Encourages peaks)
1,   ; Fungus           (Fungus coefficient based on LIFE selection)
3,6,12,18,24 ; Ratio    (Continent size ratios)
36   ; Islands          (Higher # increases island count)
 

code:

#WORLDBUILDER
384, ; Land base        (Seeded land size of a standard world)
100, ; Land modifier    (additional land from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
48,  ; Continent base   (Base size of a land mass seed)
24,  ; Continent modif. (Increased size from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
5,   ; Hills base       (Base # of extra hills)
2,   ; Hills modifier   (additional hills from TIDAL selection: x0, x1, x2)
3,   ; Plateau base     (Basic plateau size)
4,   ; Plateau modifier (Plateau modifier based on LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
12,  ; Rivers base      (Basic # of rivers)
12,  ; Rivers rain mod. (Additional rivers based on RAIN selection)
14,  ; Solar Energy     (Latitude DIVISOR for temperature based on HEAT) Smaller # increases effect of HEAT selection
14,  ; Thermal band     (Latitude DIVISOR for thermal banding)  Smaller # widens hot bands
8,   ; Thermal deviance (Latitude DIVISOR for thermal deviance) Smaller # increases randomness
8,   ; Global Warming   (Latitude DIVISOR for global warming)   Smaller # increases effect of warming
5,   ; Sea Level Rises  (Magnitude of sea level changes from ice cap melting/freezing)
5,   ; Cloudmass peaks  (Size of cloud mass trapped by peaks)
3,   ; Cloudmass hills  (Size of cloud mass trapped by hills)
1,   ; Rainfall coeff.  (Multiplier for rainfall belts)
1,  ; Deep water       (Encourages fractal to grow deep water)
5,  ; Shelf            (Encourages fractal to grow shelf)
10,  ; Plains           (Encourages highland plains)
2,  ; Beach            (Encourages wider beaches)
2,  ; Hills            (Encourages hills x TIDAL selection)
35,  ; Peaks            (Encourages peaks)
1,   ; Fungus           (Fungus coefficient based on LIFE selection)
3,6,12,18,24 ; Ratio    (Continent size ratios)
5   ; Islands          (Higher # increases island count)

 

Last edited by smacksim on 09-07-2004 at 10:42

	09-07-2004 07:01									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

On the changes I've made: Keep in mind that many possible changes might improve the AI. Please post changes you found helpful.

Numbers in red are the original values, numbers in black are the new values. Don't copy-paste this for applying the changes! I'll attach a 'clean copy' at the bottom.

code:

#WORLDBUILDER
384, ; Land base        (Seeded land size of a standard world)
256,  100, ; Land modifier    (additional land from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
12,  48,  ; Continent base   (Base size of a land mass seed)
24,  ; Continent modif. (Increased size from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
1,  5,   ; Hills base       (Base # of extra hills)
2,   ; Hills modifier   (additional hills from TIDAL selection: x0, x1, x2)
4,  3,   ; Plateau base     (Basic plateau size)
8,  4,   ; Plateau modifier (Plateau modifier based on LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
8,  12,  ; Rivers base      (Basic # of rivers)
12,  ; Rivers rain mod. (Additional rivers based on RAIN selection)
14,  ; Solar Energy     (Latitude DIVISOR for temperature based on HEAT) Smaller # increases effect of HEAT selection
14,  ; Thermal band     (Latitude DIVISOR for thermal banding)  Smaller # widens hot bands
8,   ; Thermal deviance (Latitude DIVISOR for thermal deviance) Smaller # increases randomness
8,   ; Global Warming   (Latitude DIVISOR for global warming)   Smaller # increases effect of warming
5,   ; Sea Level Rises  (Magnitude of sea level changes from ice cap melting/freezing)
5,   ; Cloudmass peaks  (Size of cloud mass trapped by peaks)
3,   ; Cloudmass hills  (Size of cloud mass trapped by hills)
1,   ; Rainfall coeff.  (Multiplier for rainfall belts)
15,  1,  ; Deep water       (Encourages fractal to grow deep water)
10,  5,  ; Shelf            (Encourages fractal to grow shelf)
15,  10,  ; Plains           (Encourages highland plains)
10,  2,  ; Beach            (Encourages wider beaches)
10,  2,  ; Hills            (Encourages hills x TIDAL selection)
25,  35,  ; Peaks            (Encourages peaks)
1,   ; Fungus           (Fungus coefficient based on LIFE selection)
3,6,12,18,24 ; Ratio    (Continent size ratios)
5   ; Islands          (Higher # increases island count)

 

I'll attempt to explain line-by-line. Keep in mind that many of the changes work together to produce the desired results:

256, 100, ; Land modifier (additional land from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
This is the amount of extra land per size above a standard world. The smaller this number, the more important your other settings become, because extra land is sort of uncontrollable, whereas adding land via extra peaks or hills is more quantifiable and predictable. However, you do want to add some land based on world size, or super-gigantic worlds will be mostly ocean no matter what.

12, 48, ; Continent base (Base size of a land mass seed) I'm not as clear on this. but it seems vaguely to do what it vaguely says, that is, make each continent a certain size initially, then tack on extras like plateaus, extra land, hills, etc.. Further testing needed.

1, 5, ; Hills base (Base # of extra hills)
2, ; Hills modifier (additional hills from TIDAL selection: x0, x1, x2)
These two things have a huge impact on your map. Each extra hill is multiplied extensively on a huge map, not just 5X2. More like (5 x number of continents generated). The tidal selection (percent water) is a nice bonus that allows further refinement of your generator. By lowering this number further you can keep the nuance between various settings even smaller if you know what you are looking for in a map. By increasing the modifier you make drastic changes between the tidal settings. This kind of modifier appears a few times in the worldbuilder. That's how it works.

Plateau Base + Modifier lines work just like the hills modifier. Adding more plateaus doesn't seem to add more land though. It adds to the # of plateaus on existing land, which rarely extends the continent into the sea like the Hills setting seems to do.

Rivers -> 12. I like rivers

15, 1, ; Deep water (Encourages fractal to grow deep water)
10, 5, ; Shelf (Encourages fractal to grow shelf)
Strangely, I had to lower both of these values to get the kinds of maps I wanted. Perhaps this is because these values are applied after generating the continents. They seem to eat away at existing landmasses, ruining all the things we've made before. This needs more research.

Plains seem similar to Plateaus. More research.

10, 2, ; Beach (Encourages wider beaches)
10, 2, ; Hills (Encourages hills x TIDAL selection)
25, 35, ; Peaks (Encourages peaks)
Beach. Try increasing this radically. It makes steep sloped beaches, not flat beaches. I think this is the most mis-named variable of the bunch. Thus, I reccomend you play with it last. Hills appear here as well, along with their big cousins, Peaks. It seems Peaks need Hills to grow upon, as you'll notice if you increase the Peaks value without correspondingly more Hills. This is where I add more land based on tidal selection, rather than via the land modifier (the 100 at the top). Thus, extra land is mostly in the form of rolling hills and peaks, which seems to do wonders for the AI, hides some landmarks a bit more, and causes the rivers to meander a bit more before dumping into the sea. Rivers speed up the AI as well as the player. Since the AI sometimes gets funny notions about travelling all over the map, this dampens the pain of that a tiny degree.

Basically the key is that the amount of land on a map is determined by many many factors put together, not just the top two. For instance, increasing hills increases the amount of land. Strangely, increasing peaks only increases the amount of land, if there are hills for it to 'work on' in making peaks. Also, encouraging shallows and deep water 'chew away' at the amount of land created.

So all in all, I found somewhat of a balance that creates just about as much land (a little more typically) as the original worldbuilder, but it:

Has fewer tiny islands
Has more shallows than deep water
Has a high likelihood of generating several medium continents instead of a massive one
Has few plateaus, but lots of peaks

-Smack

Last edited by smacksim on 09-07-2004 at 10:36

	09-07-2004 07:21									#4
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Here's the Worldbuilder section described above, for improving AI performance on random maps.

Attachment: worldbuilder.txt
This has been downloaded 36 time(s).

	09-07-2004 10:01									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Some examples with my world settings. A Huge world with all average settings. You can see that there are distinct landmasses and few small islands. This favors the AI, as well as being generally more fun to play on, IMO Hard to see is that the ocean is nearly all shallow.

Attachment: myworld2.jpg
This has been downloaded 307 time(s).

Last edited by smacksim on 09-07-2004 at 10:07

	09-07-2004 10:09									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Changing to 'Mostly Land', 30-50 percent ocean, is not as dramatic, because the land modifier is reduced from 256 to 100. The total land amount is made from more static variables, such as number of hills based on map size. This is the easy way to 'fine tune' your random map generator for any amount of land. So here's 'Mostly Land' and otherwise average:

Attachment: mydense.jpg
This has been downloaded 297 time(s).

	09-07-2004 10:11									#7
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Finally (And yes, I'll soon subscribe to Apolyton Plus Mark ), here's 'Mostly Water' and otherwise average huge world:

Attachment: myocean.jpg
This has been downloaded 292 time(s).

	09-07-2004 10:15									#8
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

So you can see that these three amounts of land overlap quite a bit under my preferred settings. It's easy enough to add more land by lessening erosion, or to make a true water world by increasing erosion on an 'All Ocean' map. My favorite setting with this version of the world builder is All-Ocean but low erosion. This makes all those peaks we added more useful, while maintaining that sense of 'Wow, I have to cross a lot of ocean to go probe them'

Attachment: myoceanlowerosion1.jpg
This has been downloaded 291 time(s).

	09-07-2004 18:39									#9
	Got spare money?

And these settings let the mapbuilder create such maps automatically? You didn't had to add some tiles afterwards?

Have you tested small or normal maps with these settings?

	09-07-2004 21:58									#10
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Yes, yes, yes, and yes

Took awhile to figure out, but the maps are random. The above maps are the first or second 'roll' as well.

	11-07-2004 04:37									#11
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Parts II and III are moving over here

Last edited by smacksim on 11-07-2004 at 05:58

	22-07-2004 16:29									#12
	Support Apolyton

Here's my latest Worldbuilder section of alphax.txt You can copy paste it into your own. It should work with smac or smax, but I havn't tested it with smac.

#WORLDBUILDER
384, ; Land base (Seeded land size of a standard world)
100, ; Land modifier (additional land from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
72, ; Continent base (Base size of a land mass seed)
24, ; Continent modif. (Increased size from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
5, ; Hills base (Base # of extra hills)
2, ; Hills modifier (additional hills from TIDAL selection: x0, x1, x2)
3, ; Plateau base (Basic plateau size)
4, ; Plateau modifier (Plateau modifier based on LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)
12, ; Rivers base (Basic # of rivers)
20, ; Rivers rain mod. (Additional rivers based on RAIN selection)
14, ; Solar Energy (Latitude DIVISOR for temperature based on HEAT) Smaller # increases effect of HEAT selection
14, ; Thermal band (Latitude DIVISOR for thermal banding) Smaller # widens hot bands
8, ; Thermal deviance (Latitude DIVISOR for thermal deviance) Smaller # increases randomness
8, ; Global Warming (Latitude DIVISOR for global warming) Smaller # increases effect of warming
5, ; Sea Level Rises (Magnitude of sea level changes from ice cap melting/freezing)
5, ; Cloudmass peaks (Size of cloud mass trapped by peaks)
3, ; Cloudmass hills (Size of cloud mass trapped by hills)
1, ; Rainfall coeff. (Multiplier for rainfall belts)
0, ; Deep water (Encourages fractal to grow deep water)
10, ; Shelf (Encourages fractal to grow shelf)
10, ; Plains (Encourages highland plains)
3, ; Beach (Encourages wider beaches)
2, ; Hills (Encourages hills x TIDAL selection)
35, ; Peaks (Encourages peaks)
1, ; Fungus (Fungus coefficient based on LIFE selection)
3,6,12,18,24 ; Ratio (Continent size ratios)
5 ; Islands (Higher # increases island count)

	22-07-2004 16:31									#13
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

I'm still not 100% happy with it. I'd like to further reduce the highland plains, but that requires re-adjusting several other variables to keep the land total even. Also, it's no magic pill. There's a lot of randomness in the worldbuilder, it's just that I think this reduces the amount of 're-rolls' you'll need to get a pretty nice planet.

Cheers,

Smack

	03-07-2005 23:28									#14
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I've tried messing with these variables myself somewhat, and I noticed that I get different sort of maps depending on whether I create the maps by
1) a quickstart in the main menu, or
2) slowly generating the map with the scenario editor.

Is it possible some variables are not taken into account when maps are created with the normal gamestart method?

	04-07-2005 12:21									#15
	Inflate your Upload Space

You see, when you "quickstart" a game it uses "fast generate map" option, so it's different from the "slow generated" map by the amount of optimisation.

The "slow generate" algorithm runs longer and optimises map more, thus you get different map.

All variables are taken, the difference lies in how many times they're evaluated.

	19-07-2005 19:11									#16
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Smacksim,

Thanks for your work in fiddling with these variables - I've often thought the random worldgenerator was less than stellar. And editing this stuff is certainly beyond the comprehension of someone like me (and even looking through it brings back painful memories of tedious times) so extra kudos.
That said, are you only testing on huge maps? I usually play on standard sized (with average everything), and your first set of values (from your second post) works MUCH better for me than your more recent one. The second one seems to give me MORE small islands, awful starting spots and "fractal" coastlines, as well as a HUGE area of deep ocean nothingness.
The first one, on the other hand, works great. Good, medium sized continents with few to no small islands (maybe even too few). The maps sometimes look a bit odd and artificial in the minimap, but who cares? Played a couple of games on it and it was great - think I'm going to keep it.

Keep up the great work

	19-07-2005 20:04									#17
	Remove this text

AFAIK he tested it on wide variety of maps:

quote: Have you tested small or normal maps with these settings?

Answer was positive.

Anyways, SmackSim is long gone from actively dedicating to the SMACX community, so he might not answer your questions.

	20-07-2005 07:47									#18
	Increase Your PM Length

Nice work Smacsim, I look forward to playing under these maps and reading your future sections.

One coment on Deep Water. I have come up with a way to prevent aquatic bases untill late (or if its your preference never). Make the colony pod a Disabled ability. Then create Prototypes of the various Colony Pod units, Infantry, Speeder, Foil ect ect. Link these to any particular Technology you like (except basic Pods make these require "None"). The player and the AI's can now only build the types of Colony Pods you want and at the times you desire. I restrict Sea Pods to NanoMetalurgy keeping them in the late game.

Considering this It might not be nessary to create such shallow seas, I kind of like the Dark Oceans they look nicer.