Setting up an AI-only game?

[Petek]

All of the modified units in the above #UNITS section are due to Darsnan. See his comments in this thread for more information. I just started to use these units, so I don't have any recommendations yet. However, Darsnan has been thinking about how to improve the AI for many years, so I'm confident that his suggestions have merit.

Some of the lines in the #UNITS section are hard coded, in the sense that units on certain line numbers inherit properties that can't be changed by modifying the file. Such units include the "unity wreckage" units and the Battle Ogres. So, whatever unit appears in the Ogre MK3 slot won't be able to heal and will have a Quantum (level 30) reactor. The idea behind replacing the MK3 is that it appears very, very infrequently, so why not use the hard coded slot for some other purpose. Thus we now have a Scud Missile, which, IIRC, has nerve gas pods and a level 30 reactor.

Icon for AA: The units sections that I posted above uses a different icon. Note, near the end of the line, a "-1" replaces the "2" that usually appears. For more information about editing alphax.txt (including the #UNITS section), see Rubin and Darsnan's writeup here.

For more discussion about editing the MK3, see here. For more information about hard coded units, see here.

 

[BFG]

Thanks for the info, Petek. I knew how to move vertically in the Units.pcx file but not horizontally, so that new info will allow me to use the new Alien Artifcats icons. (That's how I knew how to use icon 7 for the XX missile.)

I don't like the idea of replacing the Ogre MK3, though I can see why it's being done. Instead, I'd rather we as a community found a way to add Reactor as an editable attribute in alphax.txt, presumably through an exe modification.

I'll have to look at that info in more detail tonight.


In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how the AI decides when/how to modify these new base units. For example, I've seen several of the new units modified by the AI to use a new power core. But I haven't tested new combat units yet to see if the AI will add new weapons/defenses/abilities. My suspicion is that the AI will add new weapons and defenses, but not abilities; and if that's the case, adding new combinations of abilities to the base unit list would make sense.

 

[Kilkakon]

I can vouch for Monsoon Jungle = instant dominance lead. From my own AI runs it is very rare for a faction to start elsewhere and win unless they are lucky.

As for Units.pcx, only the Battle Ogre has the ability to use other pictures further along the row like that. It's something I've wanted to use on Lost Eden for ages, having more pictures available. Of course the native units use the full row.