Hello.  I just picked up the game a few weeks ago and am loving it.  After playing a few games I see some things I would like to tweak.  

If a veteran here could point me in the right direction in the game files (file/folder) so I can tweak some numbers/decisions I would be greatly appreciative.

I am no coder but I have made mods before in other games by simple tweaks of existing items to change the way the world behaves.  

The ai has some issues with its fleets and I would like to change some things.  I opened some saves in debug mode and examined the AI ships and noticed some issues.  I would like to make some "simple" (I use this term loosely because I know these can actually be difficult) changes.  I will start with one thing and then add/tweak until I get some improved performance.  The goal is to make the AI fleets perform better.  

Here is a list, in order, of what I will do.  I am not going to do all of these at once.  Some of the changes might suck and if so I will change it back. I will start easy and get harder.

1.  Disable AI ability to build Carriers. (huge resource hounds that the AI builds poorly - will add back later once I fix some of the issue below).  Just this simple change by itself will make a difference.

2.  Force AI to use mixed defense and weapons.

3.  Make an AI only white Support mod that gives small repair after phase and battle and armor and shield and damage bonus.  Very small bonus.  A white mod that the AI can use for "filler."  Right now it uses multiple repair after battle mod that is largely useless as its fleets always die in battle.

4.  Make the AI have a limit on "color" mods per ship.  Say 33% color defense mod and 50% color weapon mods - and fill with white common mods.  Right now, it will stack 5 Antimatter defense and weapon mods on a small protector.  And then you inspect the Cruisers and Carriers and they are all common mods because they have spent them all on the smallest ship.

5.  Give the AI a trait where it does not have to spend strategic resources to access the extra slots on the upgraded hulls.  They are just unlocked for the AI when the tech is researched.

6.  Change the AI "cowardice" decision on when to run from battles.  Many times a fleet with 5 carriers fled from an inferior fleet twice and blew up without ever firing a shot.

Again - I can figure out how to do these eventually.  But if someone could point me to the section of the game (file/folder) that I would need to access/overwrite to make some of these changes I would greatly appreciate it.  Thank you.

CaptainCobbs wrote:

AI modding is not possible, however, all of them are possible except for maybe 5.

For 1-3, if you look at the AI's tags in simulation view via modding tools, then you'll notice that AI players get specific tags that you can target with path prerequisites.

For 4, you need to make something that counts total weapon modules (probably overriding the simulation descriptor of almost every module with a modifier that increases the count by 1)

For 5, as far as I know, there's no way to specifically make the strategic cost cheaper.

For 6, look into the hissho's war banners effect. Maybe adding a percentage that makes the AI think the enemy fleet is weaker will keep them from retreating.

Thanks for detailed answer.

I have played a few more games and gone in and inspected AI ships more around turns 140-180.

So I dont know if this will fix the AI ability to make fleets, but the common theme I see is this:  

By mid game, the AI is out of strategic resources and cannot build enough protectors or hunters.  The reasons for that are probably too complex to solve.  But a simple "cheat" for the AI that might help them compete is #5 above.  Im not sure how it could be accomplished. 

I think it costs 5 yellow for protectors and 5 blue for hunters just to build the hull.  That does not count the upgraded slots.  If that number could be removed or halved or a cheat run when the AI runs the string to want to build one where it is given 5 yellow or blue.  Or maybe give the AI a 90% discount for buying those 2 resources on the market.  Something.  Same with the upgraded slots.  Yes its technically a cheat for the AI, but it needs the help.  Even on harder difficulties, no matter how many bonuses the AI gets if it cant build the ships, it will falter.

In my last game, the Lumeris actually built a fleet that beat one of mine.  I inspected them and they just happened to have the proper resources in their empire and probably a lot of dust so they could build protectors AND hunters and were able to fill out the upgraded slots.  ALL of the other empires had decent amounts of other materials but had 4 or less Hyperium so were unable to build protectors and their fleets lost to vastly inferior fleets.  Also the AI wants to build carriers too much.  If its desire to build them was greatly reduced it would make better/more fleets because of the resource savings.

I did look at your ESG mod and it looks great and I will play some games with it, but at least from the notes it doesnt address this specific issue.  Id like to just tweak this one small issue first and then apply it and then will use it with your balance mod.  I was using Battle mod and its change to the simple basic white repair mod is basically exactly what I would have done.  So I can use that for a pattern.  But it sounds from your description that the resource reduction may not be possible and if it isnt I think its a dead project.  Maybe there is some work-around if you cant change the number.  Maybe after they research the hulls every 5 turns the AI empires gets an event that gives them 50 each of yellow and blue?  Dunno.

EDIT:  Looking at the game files and thinking about this again - an easy change to start testing would be to just change the construction cost of medium ships to remove the strat resources.  Im looking for it now but if you happen to know where that is, it would help.  :)  I can open mods and read their files.  But I dont know where to look in the actual game folder for the base files to modify.  Ill try to read the guides if I have some time.

EDIT 2:  Found it.  It appears I can just remove a single line from the hull design for each race that will remove the strategic resource cost.  It will still require the upgraded hull research though.  Going to do so now and test.

Im 95% sure that one small tweak will make the AI fleets better (might bust the economy or something else but its a place to start).  Can you think of a way or work around?

So, I removed the strategic element cost from all ships but carriers and behemoths and the AI can now build fleets with all modules.  It is still required to research the advanced hulls to have access to those slots.  Seems to be working.  Fleets are more deadly and all of the empires now have a viable economy.  I would like to change its desire to building carriers to be a bit lower, but I havent figured out how to do that yet.  Does anyone know what file the "I want to build X type of ship" decision is made?

The one thing I still see is the AI makes ships over specialized with defense. All armor or all shields. By changing the weights on a specific slot can I force it to select something? Like on defense slot 1 if I change shield weight to 0 will that force it to pick armor and on slot 2 change armor weight to 0 will that force it to pick a shield?

Also, if I wanted to release a mod for general use, but want to make it compatible with other mods, can I just change 1 line of say a ship template and it will only overwrite that 1 line and all unchanged lines will be default or used by another mod?  Or if I make a change to 1 line of a ship design template will it overwrite the entire design template?