[BTS] the iasset and ipower values in techinfo.xml

[MatteM]

I'm working on a mod that has around 250 techs, and I have been adding iasset and ipower values.

As I understand it, the ipower value is used by the AI to gauge its opponents relative strength.
The asset value determines priorities in research I guess?

When looking through the vanilla files, the ipower value rarely exceeds 10-12, and I have set
really high values. I'm worried that the AI will percieve its opponents as too powerful with such
high values. Has anyone experience from this, does it have any particular impact on AI behaviour
at all?

 

[Leoreth]

I think iAsset only affects how much score you get from the tech. Not sure if AI only factors in score at all, but if so then that is the only (indirect) effect on AI.

For iPower, I think it is most noticeable in the early game. If you're using the relative power quotients from BUG for example, you can see how your power goes up noticeably when discovering things like Bronze Working and Iron Working. Going from 0.8 relative strength to something like 1.2 can make the difference of being attacked by the AI or not. I don't think it matters as much late in the game, because as you say the numbers remain low and are easily outweighed by the larger number of units and their higher strengths (some buildings give power too).

If you decide to have a specific late game tech have a large impact on military strength (a somewhat justified scenario could be the tech that enables nuclear weapons) then it should turn out in a similar way, although I have no experience in what the right amount of power would be to achieve such an effect.

 

[MatteM]

Ah ok so the iasset is for score, thanks that was news to me, I don't think it was all that clear from the xml reference but I might have read it wrong.

Yeah I have lowered the ipower values to better reflect the vanilla ones, with a few extremes such as nuclear weapons, also have been making sure
the aitrademodifier is high for the strategic military techs.