For those who may be interested, just an interesting random thread discussing intelligence in a grid based game and how to go about desiging how the computer works or something, to be honest i haven't really read through it yet



http://www.gameai.com/influ.thread.html

Regards Wolfe

very interesting read ... not sure how well/if this would work well for this type of game, but with certain modifications it might prove very effective

**EDIT**

Took a closer look at the link, didnt realize that was from gameAI ... great resource for AI programming

Not at all my field, but at some point in the development of the games here it might pay to go talk to some of the mod developers for Space Empires V. They have to basically script their own, as the stock AI is absolutely garbage and some mods change the fundamentals of the game so radically the stock one wouldn't know it's butt from a photon torpedo.

Devnullicus, I think, is one that might especially be worth talking to. He made an AI for SE4 that hasn't been beaten under many normal game setups.

The game setups are somewhat similar; difference is that BOTF is essentially one large map, where as SE uses many smaller ones connected by warp points.

Whilst I've never played the Space Empires games, I think I read an interview with one of the devs of Space Empires 5 *somewhere* a long, long time ago.

I'll see if I can find it again. Professional help would be great for the project, but obviously it is up to the individual devs to decide if/when/how/why they need help.

I'm actually boosting a lot of AI code from the BetterAI mod for Civ4. Particularly the diplomacy system, since theirs works very well.

great mod for an otherwise horrible game ... Sid fell after Civ2, 3 was ok, but not great, especially with the 'expansion' to play multi player. and 4 *takes deep breath* ...

moving on, that mod was very good for the game, and if you are able to use their concept that would be wonderful, as the AI was somewhat hard and was completely stupid and building the same thing over and over ...

I hear they're integrating a lot of the BetterAI enhancements into the next Civ4 mod, Beyond the Sword. I didn't think it was a bad game, but it certainly wasn't the best I've ever played.

Everything after Civ2 to me seemed like a mere graphical update on the balance..

Moe: Reviewers hate SE4 & SE5, but for good reason; SE5 was released in a buggy-as-hell state, and still has problems with nvidia drivers under x64 Vista.. but SE3 was a cult classic, SE4 is due to its mods, and SE5.. eventually might be, with another six months of patches... The learning curve was steep-as-hell, but if you've got a month to kill, SE4 + latest patch + ImageMods + TDM Modpack or Devnull 1.8 Gold is the way to go. Just dont give the AI any 'boost'; it'll destroy you quite easily playing fairly without any extra help. I've only beat it twice without cheating...