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smacksim
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Deputy Chairman of the Council of Lords of Gaia
Feb 2004
time: 00:36
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There are really only two kinds of factions on Alpha Centauri:
Those that are played by humans, and those that are played by the AI. - Smack-Tzu
Part III: Summary of Common and Not-so-Common AI Faction Improvements
Introduction
There are several ways to edit the faction files. The best way, is 'by hand', with any other simple text editor. The faction-editor in Smax is apparently broken.
There are really only two kinds of factions in Smac(x), those that are played by humans, and those that are played by the AI. It does matter what the faction statistics are, but most challenges can be overcome by a smart and experienced human, whilst the poor AI stumbles over even the smallest obstacles. Thus we come to the point in the road where we might want to remove the obstacles for the AI, and even perhaps give it a boost.
There are also two approaches to giving a crutch to the AI factions. One is the approach that, if a nail won't be nailed, you need a bigger hammer. This means giving the AI bigger faction bonuses. The second area for patching up an AI faction is more subtle. This includes Social Engineering proclivities and AI aggressiveness. A sharper nail for political and gubinatorial decision-making.
A Bigger Hammer
Most suggestions and experiments with improving the AI through tweaking the factions focus on giving them extra power, extra muscle. We all know that the AI, no matter how many 'Empath Laser Chopper' units it builds, will never use them as well as a player. Nonetheless, giving the AI more muscles is an effective and easy way to make them more challenging. Here are, in order of effectiveness, the best 'muscle' adjustments I've seen and used:
The Social Improvements
- Police or Talent : Add "SOCIAL, +++++POLICE" or "Talent, 1" for example
- Industry and Growth
- Economy, Research, or Efficiency
- Morale, Planet, or Probe
The Free-stuff Improvements
- Free Abilities (Smax only)
- Free Facilities
- Free Units
- Free tech
Other Improvements
- Immunity to Probes
- Nutrients, Minerals, Energy from fungus
- Techsharing (Datalinks ability)
- Free Immunity or Impunities
- Others
(I'll come back and explain/defend this in a bit -S)
A Sharper Nail
Lowering the AI's agressiveness can encourage them to build more facilites and increase economics through trade. This does depend on whether they are feeling pressured by enemies or not. Any AI that has been invaded, for example, will go into 'War Mode' and switch production to military, often for much of the rest of the game.
.quote:
; ai-fight = -1,0,1 (willingness to use force to achieve goals) |
Can be found here: quote:
##Gaia's Stepdaughters, The Green, Gaians, F, 2, Deirdre, F, -1 , 0, 0, 0, 1, |
Secondly, changing the AI's Social Engineering inclinations can encourage them to search out more Efficient choices, or perhaps better Policing for thier colonies. Factions that like Police will be less willing to run FM, which is one of the Seven Pillars of AI doom in Smax. Free Market causes military drones, something the AI hardly knows how to handle (unless it has a huge police boost, which negates the issue  )
More soon.
-Smack
Last edited by smacksim on 11-07-2004 at 10:56
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11-07-2004 05:56
From one of the sublinked threads why I have already moved mines to IndAuto to see if the AI's will build forests instead of mines in the beginning game, as was determined in a previous age here @ 'poly. 
Things would have been so different..... 
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