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**bdanv** · February 24, 2011, 02:34

wow, .exe editing!

i'll test your patch.

no more AI bases at distance = 2

why do that? humans can ICS too.

any chance for a SMAX patch?

**kyrub** · February 24, 2011, 08:09

Originally posted by bdanv View Post

i'll test your patch.

Will be glad for any report / feedback.

any chance for a SMAX patch?

Improbable. I find the expansion dull and several AI mechanisms simply don't work in SMAX, so it would be lot of work to get it right. Data angels don't ask for technology, because the game checks for "Univ" string and many other instances of this kind. Very lazy work by Firaxis.

I could maybe instill the terraforming part into SMAX, that should be mostly Copy - Paste routine, since I rebuilt that part of code completely in SMAC.

------

2-space cities... Yeah, it does not fonction very well in my tests so far. Hive has become significantly more pushover with this feature. I may remove it later. Other than than, I have had much better results for Spartans and Believers. And I have seen a Lal's crawler... 3 turns before it was eaten by a worm.

**bdanv** · February 24, 2011, 08:25

Will be glad for any report / feedback.

i'm swamped with work today, but will find time for this in the weekend.

Data angels don't ask for technology, because the game checks for "Univ" string and many other instances of this kind. Very lazy work by Firaxis.

I could maybe instill the terraforming part into SMAX, that should be mostly Copy - Paste routine, since I rebuilt that part of code completely in SMAC.

any improvement in the AI terraforming would be great, of course, if you have the time for it.

And I have seen a Lal's crawler... 3 turns before it was eaten by a worm

oh, the AI is building the occasional crawler. it just can't use it extensively.

**kyrub** · February 24, 2011, 08:35

Originally posted by bdanv View Post

oh, the AI is building the occasional crawler. it just can't use it extensively.

Yeah, I know. But now the AI should be about 100x more likely to build it (if I'm right, which is hard to say without testing), up to 2 crawlers per base, chance diminishing with every new crawler built. But let's not get ahead of us, the fonctions are incredibly complex.

(Same with speeder numbers so far: hard to tell if there is any improvement, since I have not been playing the game for a long time.)

**kittenOFchaos** · February 24, 2011, 08:51

Originally posted by kyrub View Post

Will be glad for any report / feedback.

Improbable. I find the expansion dull and several AI mechanisms simply don't work in SMAX, so it would be lot of work to get it right.

Delighted to have a fellow SMAX hater trying to improve SMAC

What would be more useful would be to improve the AI's use of air power.

Yang builds billions of bombers. Yet he only goes after formers and then sends his planes onto the same tile - an easy target. Killing formers isn't a dreadful idea, but he'd do far better if those planes attacked military units out in the open and were used to support his offensives. In fact, Yang with good bomber AI would be formidable.

**kittenOFchaos** · February 24, 2011, 08:53

Another request modding god, can you put in an option to disable datalinks.

When my brother and I play multiplayer, we ban planetary governor for either of us as datalinks are just too powerful. Seeing everything that is getting built for just one probe action - totally overpowered.

**bdanv** · February 24, 2011, 08:55

yes, concentrating on SMAC first seems to be the way to go.

Delighted to have a fellow SMAX hater trying to improve SMAC

so, are you willing to playtest too?

**bdanv** · February 24, 2011, 09:18

When my brother and I play multiplayer, we ban planetary governor for either of us as datalinks are just too powerful. Seeing everything that is getting built for just one probe action - totally overpowered.

have you tried protecting your datalinks at the cost of 2 rows of minerals / defensive probe?

***EDIT***

@kyrub:
do you know about the '#UNITS' section in the alpha.txt file? this is a tested feature. you can add new units there and the AI is building them.
so, what would really help the AI in the mid and late game would be the possibility to add in that section units with fusion, quantum and singularity reactors, and modify the exe so the AI could use those too.

**kittenOFchaos** · February 24, 2011, 11:43

Originally posted by bdanv View Post

yes, concentrating on SMAC first seems to be the way to go.

so, are you willing to playtest too?

Sure.

**kittenOFchaos** · February 24, 2011, 11:46

Originally posted by bdanv View Post

have you tried protecting your datalinks at the cost of 2 rows of minerals / defensive probe?

Of course, but that ain't foolproof.

Also the Planetary Governor hasn't got any such problem.

**kyrub** · February 24, 2011, 12:47

Originally posted by bdanv View Post

do you know about the '#UNITS' section in the alpha.txt file? this is a tested feature. you can add new units there and the AI is building them.
so, what would really help the AI in the mid and late game would be the possibility to add in that section units with fusion, quantum and singularity reactors, and modify the exe so the AI could use those too.

Yes, I heard that. Not really my priority, although I get your point. The UNITS section is unclear so far.

Speaking of that, has anybody had the simplest of ideas: to add a Trance scout patrol upon discovery of Secrets of Human Brain? Does it work? That would be a massive boost for early AI, as it loses insane amount of units and cities to worms. I tried to fix it "naturally", but it somehow does not seem to work.

@kitten
I don't plan any feature changes in any near future. (And if I'd go there, I would certainly made the amount of Datalinks dependent upon the PROBE setting. That would make sense. And I would erase it every X years.)

**bdanv** · February 24, 2011, 12:57

to add a Trance scout patrol upon discovery of Secrets of Human Brain? Does it work?

yes and yes. you can do that using the alpha.txt. the only limit we got there is the reactor.

**kittenOFchaos** · February 24, 2011, 18:51

Playing with the 'patch'.

Early observations...mindworms seem to be FAR more common in the fungus (maybe I accidentally selected for more native life).

Sparta has also gone super aggressive. We're talking commando synthetic laser squads out in no time at all. They also declared war on me at first contact which was nice

**kittenOFchaos** · February 24, 2011, 19:16

AI is still able to build cities super-close. In my current game there is one tile between Righteous Sentence and From On High.

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SMAC 444 (AI experiment)

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