Three proposals that might give the AI a chance.

[Sindai]

Artemis -

It's VERY simple. For every faction in the game, there is a corresponding .txt file in the main SMAC directory (ie, the Hive's txt file is "Hive.txt", the Peacekeepers are "Peace.txt", etc)

It's very easy to learn everything you need to to edit them. Just open the "faction.txt" file in the main SMAC directory, it contains all the information you need on what controls what in each of the faction text files, as well as an example.

It should take under half an hour to figure out the basics, and that's all you really need to know to make the changes Mouse proposes.

[Wiglaf]

Don't forget to save a new file after each major change, else you'll have to reinstall the whole thing

[Helium Pond]

Actually, if all you're doing is modifying text files, it should never be necessary to reinstall the whole thing. All the text files are on the CD, so if you need to recover the original versions, you can grab them off there.
[This message has been edited by Helium Pond (edited January 12, 2001).]

[Qilue]

You should 'always' backup any game file you're going to modify.

I doubt there's a poster here who modifies game files who can't recall an incident where they made the wrong change and had to reinstall the game because they forgot to make a backup.

Artemis - What I meant, was that game balance between AI factions doesn't seem to be affected.