Well, I can't stand games with AIs that are incapable of properly playing their own game at a decent level. And so for me the only 4x games that have some sort of longevity are those with a capable AI.
When I notice the AI doing something really subpar, I lose interest.
So the great thing about having a game with an open source and a somewhat easy to set-up dev-environment is that I now actually can fix whatever is bothering me myself.
When I win, I can look into what weakness allowed me to do so and when I lose I can tell myself that I did a good job with the AI.

I think making a strong AI weaker is much easier than the other way around. So currently I'm still working on making it stronger.

It's not optimal and is very fun to play against. Xilmi-AI main feature is it's not dumb. It doesn't annoy you with purely silly actions (for example, it KNOWS how repulsor and other equipment work; I admire how it handle tactical battles in general).

There is a difficulty slider to scale the AI in the game. I just count "normal" as maximum difficulty for Xilmi-AI, and if I want to ease the things down, I would play on easy or even less.

Interesting, but it begs the question whether such a strong and optimal min/max style AI is really fun to play against. It would be cool if there was a slider that could affect some parts of the ai to scale it to your capability. Racing games usually have that.

Thanks for the information.  I was wondering if the AI could be used to create a way for multiplayer.  Even if the multiplayer is limited more than the primary player.  

The decision on trade agreements and tech etc, is not in sync.  But could combat be controlled via a human input?

I must say I don't really understand your question.

"Second human mode of play?" What does this mean?
I also don't know what you could be referring to when it comes to "difficulty level of using the AI interface". What should I compare it against for determining such a thing?

The closest thing that I could imagine to what you are talking could refer to is probably the Autoplay-option. You can find it under "Advanced" at the settings-screen. Middle column, bottom row.

While the AI plots all of its actions at the beginning of a turn, you can "overrule" all of them if you want to. So maybe this is what you mean by having a human do an AI's input decision-making.

The structuring of the source-code is a bit inconsistent, when it comes to providing an API. There is an API for some things but not for others. For example the management of the research-sliders. There's no API for that. So I had to manually code it in a way so the AI cannot cheat there. The API that makes sure about that is 

"In case your wondering: I lose a lot to my AI. Mostly because I do not show the dedication necessary to compete with it."  


This concept is part of my dislike of the XilmiAI, my personality will not allow me to lose, so I rewind and meticulously adjust the sliders and keep retrying until I win, perhaps a mod to govern would reduce the need.  Sometimes the only reason I win is an artifact planet gives me something or a random event happens differently or my spies return a needed tech.  So I win by a Sliders (different dimensions with different events) mixed with Doctor Who (time travel) approach.  


\*below should probably be a new post\*

What is the difficulty level of using the AI interface to create a second human mode of play?  Like is it possible to have a human do an AI's input decision making?  I understand there are some turn-based differences between the AI and the human player - like seeing where new fleets are going (maybe the AI does know this).     


Is a second human

Since I started working on that AI I learned a lot about what is and what isn't viable in terms of tactical behavior on the strategical map.

And I tried to implement all my insights into the AI as well.

The more the tech progresses, the less viable classical "defening" becomes.

The attacker dictates what happens. Worst case is they have to run from a battle. Best case they wreck huge parts of your economy.

You can't trap and kill the enemy fleet. They will always just retreat and attack somewhere else.

So the only way to stop another empire from destroying your belongings is to destroy there's quicker. Without any planets left their fleet will perish.

The AI "knows" that and acts accordingly.

In case your wondering: I lose a lot to my AI. Mostly because I do not show the dedication necessary to compete with it. It does a lot of micromanagement with the tech-sliders to get an edge in technology and despite knowing how it works, I often am too lazy to do that. Also when it comes t

>In old MOO1, if an enemy fleet arrived at one of your planets, and they were out of range of their own planets (because you had eliminated their close planets)

In RotP a fleet stays over the planet.

&#x200B;

>In one discussion, somebody said, it was because the AI fleet included a colonizer. But, this seems crazy. The stay/leave decision is being made BEFORE combat and colonization is decided. If this were the case, then AI Colonizers wouldn't need "Reserve Fuel Tanks". Or the AI could send fleets ANYWHERE as long as they included a colonizer.

They probably meant the fleet with colonizer was sent to the planet when it was still in range. While the fleet moved through space they loose the range (e.g. the border planet was captured by an enemy or destroyed in event). When the fleet arrived, they can stay at the planet or move back to their territory. However, as they have a colonizer in their fleet, they can colonize the planet and increase their range.

The AI still can only send fleets to systems within their range.

However, what I did remove was the automatic retreating in this case.

The reason why I did that is that the player also doesn't have to automatically retreat and can decide to keep their fleet.

So if an AI-fleet arrives at an enemy-planet that at the time of arrival is no longer within it's range, it will check whether it wants to bomb the planet or has an ongoing invasion to protect and stay there until the deed is done.

So all I've done in that regard was leveling the playing-field.

As you correctly determined: It doesn't have to do with a colonizer being included. It's simply the AI not wanting to move away from a system that it can't possibly return to before finishing the business they had with it.

I think there have been some recent changes in the "out of range" behavior.

In old MOO1, if an enemy fleet arrived at one of your planets, and they were out of range of their own planets (because you had eliminated their close planets), they would immediately turn around and head for their nearest planet.

Lately, I have been playing the Ximi AI, and it does not act this way. Sometimes, it attacks my planet, even if the AI fleet is out of range of their own planets. I am not sure why.

In one discussion, somebody said, it was because the AI fleet included a colonizer. But, this seems crazy. The stay/leave decision is being made BEFORE combat and colonization is decided. If this were the case, then AI Colonizers wouldn't need "Reserve Fuel Tanks". Or the AI could send fleets ANYWHERE as long as they included a colonizer.

Thanks, i think number 1 might be the biggest thing. I only have one planet building large hulls out of 8 planets i think, but 100 mediums instead of those 25 large hulls might be better. Since winning fights isn't generally the problem, but actually getting into the fights is.

1. Make your ship designs small enough to easily split to meet the challenge.  You don't want high-end ships that are too costly and that can only be one place at a time.
2. Make sure to go into the battle screens, there are tricks to destroying xilmi like running around astroids, especially if you have a range 2 weapon. 
3. Can you install a planetary shield that would render the attackers obsolete
4. Look for these strategic advantages - 
   1. Can you out manuever the ships in the battle screen
   2. Can you fire further - like a 2 range weapon and staying one square outside the return fire
   3. Can you get repulser beam
   4. Can you get auto-repair
   5. Can you heavily missle load ships and fire then retreat
      1. This one is a way to eliminate enemy ships without losing your own.

I am playing on normal. But that is with a xilmi AI. I would maybe go to hard or harder with the base AI. 

No improved space scanners yet:(

>Maybe i just need to stick to less smart AI on a harder difficulty

Ah, you play on "harder". It's a too high level for me.

&#x200B;

>it is hard for me to determine where they are going

Do you have Improved Space Scanner?

I think I can shed some insight into how you could determine where which sub-fleet is going based on how the AI thinks without the need of Improved Space Scanner.

When they split a fleet to go to several targets, then that means they think that a sub-fleet is strong enough to theoretically bombard a target completely in one turn. If they wouldn't think that, they wouldn't split.

So if you have more than 2 sub-fleets you can compare the sizes of these fleets and the population of the potential targets. Biggest one will likely go to the planet with the biggest population and so on.

Another extremely important thing is distance or more precisely turns to get there. They will most likely always target what is the fewest number of turns away first. However, they will skip targets that are too well defended. So if you have a large fleet sitting on one of your systems, you already know where they won't be going. Fleets that are considered small enough (less than half of what the send in va

I am actually quite a bit stronger than them, i just can't stop that many fleets (am nervous about dividing my ships too much, as i am pretty sure they are ahead in tech), and it is hard for me to determine where they are going. I decimated/took all their planets in range, but whenever they take one they just snowball from there to wreck everything in the area, and then just retreat when i do catch them. 

Do i just need to be super deliberate about figuring out what they are up to?  Maybe i just need to stick to less smart AI on a harder difficulty.

Can I have a savegame of this? I want to have a look at the "brain" of the fleet that stays back at Sacchana.

Staying where they are seems wrong. What I think should happen is that they should either go to Tancah to help reinforce the fleet for the Attack on Enya or consider your now undefended system as a better Gather-point than where they are. Just staying where they are seems incorrect. So I really need to know what they think their best action is and why thy don't execute it. Maybe they do not consider Taira as safe enough to be used as gather-point for some reason.

>Do you have a showcase of that tricking them to attack with less than they have by removing your defenses?

The key is AI does not "see" ships near their target. So from my point of view, if I keep a fleet on planet 1, which can be easily moved to planet 2, 3 and 4, I have all 4 planets secured. However, from AI view, only planet 1 is guarded, while 2, 3 and 4 are unguarded. A least, it was a definite case in earlier versions. Though I have a feeling now it's not so rigid.

Anyway, here is an example I tried to model using my current game:

Turns 146

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qWE6AC4rYrOv61I4S6bJ7tNO4Q9\_R2ic/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qWE6AC4rYrOv61I4S6bJ7tNO4Q9_R2ic/view?usp=sharing)

I have 2 big fleets: Enya, Taira.

Klackons have a fleet on Tancah, a fleet on Sacchana (plus next turn it will be joined by a fleet from Kano).

I remove my fleet from Taira.

&#x200B;

Turn 147

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/12FRzeLQR1fEJRDp5ze1clUZd8XGlwQd1/view?u

Do you have a showcase of that tricking them to attack with less than they have by removing your defenses?

While I think that this technically works, they will want to do something else productive with the remainder of their fleet.

During a war they are allowed to use enemy-planets as gather-point too, so if they don't have anything else to go after, they shall try to "gather" closer to their enemies core, which essentially means a bigger attack. Maybe this doesn't work as intended and I'd like to look into why that is.

\> I think they have a little more range than me.

You can know their range for sure through espionage. Propulsion techs determine the range: Hydrogen  - 4, Deuterium - 5, Irridium - 6, Dotomite - 7...and so on. There is a button on the panel on the left side of the screen to show the exact distances from the selected planet, so you can find out, which planets you have to protect, or which planets to bomb shortening their range, or which planet to capture to increase your range (e.g. sometimes you may want to research a hostile environment tech, so you can colonize the required planet).

\> as soon as they take one

If you can't defend one or several key planets, then you can't defend 10 or more planets either.

You can use some tricks, but their effectiveness is very limited.  Remove the defensive forces from such a planet, so AI might send less ships to secure it. Bring them back as soon as he launch his attack.

In the tactical battle try to strike first. AI may retreat if he think 

How do you keep ximli AI from running around your back planets?  I think they have a little more range than me. But more importantly, as soon as they take one, they can attack like 10 more until i take that one back. And inevitably, they can destroy and colonize another one in that time. Their planets are mixed with another races planets as well, so there range edge keeps at least a few of their planets where i can't get to them, so they can keep sending in shops from relative safety. 

Thanks

Advice request