Jan 27, 2022

War Mongrels - DC_vipeout

INFO REGARDING PRIOR SAVES:
Reminder: we’ve added a new public branch named ‘previous_game_version’ for War Mongrels, which allows you to play the last game version, pre-patched. If you want to continue the game from a saved game state, please switch over to that branch, finish your current chapter, switch back to the ‘default’ branch and continue the journey with the latest fixes.
How: select the game from your Steam game library (not store page).
Click with the right mouse button on War Mongrels and select ‘properties’.
In the settings, move to the right side or down – depending on your Steam version: Properties -> Beta -> Select Beta version, choose the desired version.
It will update the game (rollback to the previous version) of the game.

Changelist 42052:

[Optimization] Improved CPU performance of highlights and targeting. Players should no longer experience FPS drops during those actions.

[Tweak] Greta's 'Charm' ability now has a cooldown. Additionally, her other abilities are blocked while 'Charm' is being used.
[Tweak] Scrolling the in-game chat no longer causes the camera to zoom in or out when the chat reaches its end.
[Tweak] The conditions of challenge 'Complete the mission remaining undetected' have been clarified. In order to complete this challenge you must not be noticed by the enemy. Alarms can be invoked.
[Tweak] Enemies will no longer run across the entire level when alarmed.
[Tweak] Tweaks to shooting from a crouched position.
[Tweak] Enemies are much better shooters when they lie on the ground. Be warned :)
[Tweak] Lukas's trap no longer works on allies.
[Tweak] Lukas's trap works on dogs.
[Tweak] Improvements to dog combat behavior.
[Tweak] Lukas and Lead can no longer disarm mines.
[Tweak] Improvements to patrolling logic, specifically when the enemies must return to their patrol route.
[Tweak] Gasoline environmental kill now causes some noise.
[Tweak] Melee combat in combat mode was nerfed. And versus dogs it will always miss, unless the dog is busy biting someone.
[Tweak] Greta's 'Gas' ability can now be used on NPCs too.
[Tweak] Several tweaks to civilian zones and disguises - shooting your way out under those conditions will no longer be so easy.
[Tweak] Using a manhole now counts as a suspicious activity.
[Tweak] Further improvements in AI pathing, specifically in relation to decoys and noises.
[Tweak] Death animation no longer plays after an automatic load.
[Tweak] Bullets are now destroyed before the game is saved. It was possible to save with the bullet flying at the hero and killing him instantly after the load, making such save unusable and the autoload after death feature pointless.

[Bugfix] It is no longer possible to change stances while disarming mines. This caused mines to become stuck in the armed state.
[Bugfix] In rare situations combat started automatically when one of the enemies climbed a ladder. This behavior has been corrected.
[Bugfix] Fixed an issue with enemies improperly reacting upon finding a dead body.
[Bugfix] Characters sometimes shoot through obstacles when prone, due to how we calculated point of origin for shooting. This has been corrected.
[Bugfix] Fixed an issue with achievements not being unlocked retroactively in some cases.
[Bugfix] Ewald's 'Brawl' ability is no longer usable through walls.
[Bugfix] Multiple collision fixes - shooting through obstacles, seeing through geometry, and similar.
[Bugfix] Dogs will now properly react to their master's death, even if some other AI will react to that death event first.
[Bugfix] Civilian NPCs no longer use combat VO.
[Bugfix] Fixed handling of character animations on clients.
[Bugfix] Fixed a few bugs related to enemy line of sight rules.
[Bugfix] Fixed an issue with keyboard shortcuts for executing planned actions in planning mode.
[Bugfix] Autosaves triggered by quest progress will no longer happen when you disable Autosaves in the options.
[Bugfix] Key icons will now consistently stay the same on a specific key, regardless of save or load actions.
[Bugfix] Fixed an issue with the enemy remaining dead after loading a saved game state, even though at the time of save he was alive. Happened for enemies who died of a mine explosion.
[Bugfix] Loading the game with characters hidden inside a manhole or door will no longer cause getting detected by enemies.
[Bugfix] Vision markers are now properly cleared after loading a saved game state.
[Bugfix] Loading the game when in state of combat will no longer allow enemies to ignore heroes.
[Bugfix] Crane environmental kill now properly resets when loading a saved game state and allows the client to use it again.
[Bugfix] Barrel environmental kill now works properly after loading a saved game state.
[Bugfix] Minedetector is no longer being left in the hand after loading a saved game state. It respects the position it was in when the save occured.
[Bugfix] Ammo crates now properly restore their state when loading the game. You can now pick them up again after load.
[Bugfix] Animation of using a medkit will no longer become stuck when loading a game.
[Bugfix] Player playing as a client couldn't pick up a body, if prior to loading a game he hid it. This has been corrected.
[Bugfix] Chapter II - Quest markers will now be properly positioned on the screen.
[Bugfix] Chapter II - Quest 'Man the MG42' will no longer activate twice after leaving the spot and loading the game.
[Bugfix] Chapter III - Fixed synchronization of enemy patrol routes after throwing a decoy.
[Bugfix] Chapter III - Non-interactive elements will no longer be highlighted.
[Bugfix] Chapter IV - Collision improvements, no more shooting through things you shouldn't be able to.
[Bugfix] Chapter IV - Restricted area zone position was adjusted to better fit the gameplay. The visual hints are now perfectly matched with the zone.
[Bugfix] Chapter IV - Greta will not 'Charm' dead soldiers anymore.
[Bugfix] Chapter V - Watchtower guard will no longer occasionally become stuck in the wall.
[Bugfix] Chapter V - Greta now properly stands in her position while talking to the doctor.
[Bugfix] Chapter V - Guard waits properly for Greta, before escorting her back to her cell.
[Bugfix] Chapter VI - Papers will no longer magically reappear after being picked up when loading a saved game state.
[Bugfix] Chapter VI - Skipping the cut-scene in a specific moment will no longer break truck logic and path, which effectively corrects it's position to the designed one.
[Bugfix] Chapter VI - Eavesdropping will not count if you are being observed.
[Bugfix] Chapter VII - Armory gate animation will now play properly under all circumstances.
[Bugfix] Chapter VII - Wooden Logs environmental kill has a better position, so it's more effective.
[Bugfix] Chapter VII - Prisoners will not talk to Manfred wearing a uniform when he is in combat mode.
[Bugfix] Chapter VII - Fixed blocking issues with keys and loading a game. You should no longer have any problems with those keys.
[Bugfix] Chapter VIII - Blockade near the bridge has been moved.
[Bugfix] Chapter IX - Quest 'Arrive at the manor with Greta escorted by Manfred' now either fails or succeeds when the papers are being checked, not earlier.
[Bugfix] Chapter IX - Papers check cutscene does not play if the guards are already dead.
[Bugfix] Chapter X - Fixed visibility issues around the Russian base.
[Bugfix] Chapter X - Dogs are now properly a part of their squads.
[Bugfix] Chapter X - Berling Soldiers are now on their correct team.
[Bugfix] Chapter X - Character portrait will now properly follow the truck after the hero enters the truck, showing the correct position.
[Bugfix] Chapter X - After the driver and passenger exit the car, the truck will stop.
[Bugfix] Chapter XI - Fixed an issue with enemies being unable to return to their previous positions after being distracted by a decoy.
[Bugfix] Chapter XI - Manhole leading to the hospital is now disabled after the third sewer cut-scene. Hiding in it caused a block.
[Bugfix] Chapter XI - The quest marker for 'Carry Bandit' is now properly attached and positioned for clients.
[Bugfix] Chapter XI - You can no longer break the cut-scene by going in front of the armored car before it plays ;)
[Bugfix] Chapter XI - One of the climbing walls was behaving inconsistently. This has been corrected.
[Bugfix] Chapter XI - Outro now properly shows subtitles.
[Bugfix] Chapter XII - Fixed an issue where enemies could get stuck on one of the ladders.
[Bugfix] Chapter XII - Fixed an issue which could cause Lead's levitating body to be visible during the Joachim cutscene.

Jan 27, 2022

Planned economy changes in February

War Thunder - CyberStonka

Revision of the bonus reward for victory and defeat

In the recent economy updates, we described the mechanics of earning Silver Lions and Research points, and proposed that you vote for one of the possible variants to change the bonus rewards at the end of a mission. This was followed by the second stage of voting in order to make the final decision with confidence. These are the results:

What RP reward distribution during a battle do you want to have in War Thunder?

56.7% 一 0.8 RP/sec for defeat and 1.2 RP/sec for victory
43.3% 一 0.6 RP/sec for defeat and 1.4 RP/sec for victory (same as before)

What SL reward distribution do you want to have in War Thunder?

66.1% 一 +20% for defeat and +47% for victory
33.9% 一 +0% зfor defeat and +67% for victory (same as before)

Thus, the bonus reward for defeat and victory in mission will be revised in accordance to the vote results. The changes will be deployed with an economic update, which we will announce later.

Discussion on switching to the new economy model

Currently, the game features an economy model with a calculation of economic parameters for mid- and high tier vehicles based on the efficiency statistic for each vehicle. Efficiency is the sum of Silver Lions earned without taking into account the reward multiplier, Premium account, boosters, achievements and mission bonuses for the given time, divided by the number of deaths on this vehicle for the same period of time. That is, the more active rewardable actions are performed by players (hits, critical damage, kill assists, destruction of enemies, points captures, damaging and destruction of enemy bases), and the less often they lose their vehicles, the higher the efficiency is. The system is used in the game for most of its existence due to the specifics of gameplay. We may balance the vehicles by changing their technical characteristics very rarely and through a very limited range as this may contravene historical data that we rely on when we create the vehicles. As a rule, we balance vehicles by the Battle Rating (BR), but we can only change it within certain ranges due to the features of the given vehicle. For example, the vehicles with modern ATGMs with high armour penetration value can’t be below a certain BR level, even when their efficiency is low. The same is true for the early heavy tanks with good armour protection that can not be set with too high a BR, due to a weak gun.

This inevitably leads to a situation where some of the vehicles find themselves in more preferable conditions, they are more comfortable to play and much more effective on their tier. While others can not equally rival with opponents and are far less fun to play. The current economy system (hereinafter, it will be referred to as the "vehicle efficiency economy") is built in such a way, that playing in a less effective vehicle is more profitable on average to avoid the “double punishment” - gameplay and economic - from the inefficient vehicle. At the same time, playing the more effective vehicles is more risky, and requires player skills to achieve a decent reward after deducting the repair costs.

However, with the growth of the vehicle number and the addition of new gaming nations, the uneven use of certain vehicles also grows. Some nations and vehicles are much more popular among players and this affects the efficiency statistics. Therefore, we are considering the option of introducing a new economic system, which will be completely based on the position of the vehicle in the research tree (rank and position at a rank relative to other vehicles). Further in the text, such an economy will be referred to as "the rank based economy". Such a system was originally used in the game for vehicles of initial ranks (currently these are ranks I and II, and also partially III and IV).

The potential transition to the rank based economy will also cause another noticeable change - the reduction of the maximum repair cost. Due to the constant growth of the number of high tier vehicles and the number of tiers themselves, the rank based economy requires revision of the repair costs and multipliers for all mid- and high-tier vehicles. Instead, we are planning to set these parameters on the almost fixed level for vehicles of ranks VI+ in order to minimize the following economic adjustments. In this case, the number of economy-equivalent vehicles will be quite big (all vehicles of ranks VI, VII, and following), and will be constantly growing. Keeping the current max repair costs level for such a number of vehicles would be wrong, so it requires a reduction.

Before comparing two economic approaches in numbers, it is necessary first to recall one of the features of the economy updates - the normalization of the economic parameters for vehicles. The normalization limits the maximum available change of economic parameters in every economy update in order to smooth the transition to the target values, as well as to avoid harsh changes for vehicles, whose efficiency may vary over time.
Thus, two tables are presented to compare the two economies:
with normalization of the values that allows a comparison of the two economies in the next economic update that is scheduled for February. Here you can also compare the parameters for a specific vehicle in the next economic update, depending on the economy used.
without normalization of values that allows the comparison of two economies at the target values that economic parameters would hypothetically reach for a significant number of economic updates for current vehicles at their current performance. We are not providing target values with details on specific vehicles, as these are hypothetical indicators that change with each subsequent upload of statistics.

In general it is needed to note the following pros and cons of each economy for players:

Vehicle efficiency economy:

(+) On average lossless play in less efficient vehicles of rank IV or higher without premium account.
(-) Vehicles of the less popular game nations are often the most efficient and as a result unprofitable.

Rank based economy:

(+) Repair cost and reward multipliers are identical for similar vehicles of different game nations.
(+) There is a clear correlation between economic parameters (repair cost, reward multipliers, reward for useful actions) and position in the research tree.
(-) Decrease in the demand for less efficient vehicles as they will become economically equivalent to more effective vehicles of the same rank which may also lead to the decrease in the variety of vehicles in the battles.

Generalized key differences between the rank based and vehicle efficiency economies can be summarized as follows:

greater reward multiplier for popular high ranked vehicles;
lower repair cost for unpopular medium-ranked vehicles;
higher repair cost for popular high ranked vehicles;
lower reward multiplier for unpopular medium-ranked vehicles.

Let us make some specific examples comparing the target indicators (not for the next economy update but for the final implementation for a hypothetically large number of economy updates at the current level of statistics) of the economy by the vehicle rank and the economy by the vehicle efficiency for vehicles discussed in the community:

base repair cost for T95 in AB will be 8360 SL instead of 17010 SL with a reward multiplier of 1.1 vs 1.3;
base repair cost for Strv 121 in RB will be 5350 SL instead of 7740 SL with a reward multiplier of 1.5 vs 1.6;
base repair cost for Tu-4 in RB will be 12570 SL instead of 30170 SL with a reward multiplier of 2.3 vs 1.8;
base repair cost for F-5A in RB will be 10210 SL instead of 5720 SL with a reward multiplier of 3.8 vs 2.9;
base repair cost for “Parizhskaya kommuna” in RB will be 28430 SL instead of 50860 SL with a reward multiplier of 2.0 vs 2.3.
base repair cost for F-86A-5 and CL-13 Mk.4 (Italy) in RB will be 11290 and 12410 SL instead of 6950 and 10490 SL respectively.

Changes of the reward multipliers, repair cost and related vehicle economy parameters

Please note that depending on the results of your vote the next economy update will be made based on the results of your choice, that’s why are publishing two separate table sheets of economy changes.

Open the table sheet with economy changes with economy based on the vehicle efficiency (See the 2nd tab 一 eff econ, norm (20/01))
Open the table sheet with economy changes with economy based on the vehicle rank (See the 3rd tab 一 rank econ, norm (20/01))

The updated table sheet for changes in reward multipliers, repair prices and related economy parameters of vehicles has been updated taking into account modifications and corrections described in this message.

Changes of the research cost, purchase cost and related parameters for some vehicles
Open the table sheet

Changes in the research trees

M1A1 Abrams and IPM1 一 switched places.
Pz.IV F2 and Pz.IV G 一 have been grouped.
Pz.IV H and Pz.IV J (in one group) 一 have been moved to rank II.
TAM and Begleitpanzer 57 一 switched places.
Crusader AA Mk.I and Crusader AA Mk.II 一 switched places.
Chi-Ha Kai and Ho-I 一 switched places.
Ikv 103 一 has been moved to rank III.
Ju 88 C-6 一 have been moved to rank II.
Bf 110 C-7 and Bf 110 F-2 一 have been grouped.
Tu-4, Tu-4 (China) 一 have been moved to rank V.
F-104G 一 has been moved to rank VII.

Jan 27, 2022

PATCH 1.4 IS LIVE NOW!

Gamedec - Definitive Edition - Bartek_Anshar

Detectives!

New year, new challenges, and of course, new content and improvements! As we have leaked a little bit of information on what's going to happen in 2022, today, we focus on the patch 1.4, which is now LIVE :) This Patch Notes will be pretty extensive, so grab a coffee, some snacks and check what's fixed! 🔥

General:

- A Traditional Chinese translation was implemented - there is a one bugged codex entry which appears to be not translated, we're aware of this and already working on it :)

- Fixed some major issues with the Player’s Character location after loading a save on various levels

- Fixed some major issues with NPCs not following the Player’s Character on various levels

- Improved audio on loading screens

- Added missing translations to some Codex entries

- Fixed some issues with loading NPC’s avatar’s during the dialogue

- Tooltips on Aspects will appear again in the Professions menu

- Fixed an issue with the dissapearing NPCs names in Codex

- Improved the text visibility in 720p resolution

- Improved ending’s graphics in the resolutions 1280x720 and 1152x864

- Improved save menu graphics in the resolutions 1280x1024 and 1280x768

- Fixed some minor language issues in the Options menu

- The controls graphic in Options menu was improved

- Fixed some formatting issues in Deduction menu

- The Player’s Character won’t randomly pass through a wall anymore

- Improved audio while going through dialogue with keyboard

- Fixed issues with broken formatting in the text

- Fixed some spelling issues and typos across all game

- The double “Open” button in Deduction menu won’t appear anymore

- After choosing a deduction suggestion from the dialogue, the Deduction menu will now close automatically

- After buying the Profession from the suggestion in dialogue, the Profession Menu will now close automatically

- Improved navigating between links in Codex

- Fixed an issue with random appearing double icons on the left side of the screen

- Fixed the Character Creation screen – the text in the French version won’t overlap boxes anymore

- Fixed notifications in Codex

- Placement of some general tutorials was improved

Like Father Like Son:

- It won’t be possible to move the Character around while getting up from the bed anymore

- Ramon will no longer be lying down and getting up rapidly before an interaction

- Fixed some issues with two NPCs not re-appearing after a certain interation

- Fixed an issue in which interaction with Ken wasn’t possible

- The card trick interaction won’t appear again after taking the cards

- The Player’s Character won’t be blocked after watching the card trick anymore

- The Player’s Character won’t be blocked after being in a dialogue for too long

- The NPC’s animation in the Theatre won’t be so glitchy anymore

- The additional inventory slot was added

- The music and audio effects in the Theatre and Rooftops was improved

- Player’s Character won’t collect information from a different deduction than chosen one

- Finding an NPC’s true nickname will now affect the dialogue with Ken

- The NPC will now remember seeing the Unicorn

- Some additional codex entries were added

Harvest Time:

- Fixed an issue with the black screen appearing after choosing to go back to the Apartment

- If the game was reloaded after restoring power in the Apartment, the light will remain on

- The dialogue about the job in the e-mail won’t repeat anymore during the same interaction

- Improved branching near the case finale

- Saving on the train’s platform won’t be teleporting the Player’s Character to the graveyard after reloading anymore

- Added an additional way to leave the graveyard

- The achievement for getting the maxiumum progress on the Farm will now be counted as intended

- The hay won’t appear on the middle of the road after making a save in the city

- The Player’s Character won’t be invisible after jumping from the roof

- Some case-specific tutorials were moved to the different places

- The sounds from graveyard won’t be appearing after returning to the city

- The quest with meeting the Sheriff at sundown was improved

- Audio improvements

- The Player’s Character won’t walk slowly after talking to a NPC

- The dialogue line which was supposed to be Player Character’s won’t appear as Stanley’s

- Lea Anne’s and Fruit Hilda’s speech buuble won’t re-appear after reloading the game

- The NPC’s shield will now dissapear after the duel

- Fixed collision on a cactus

- Fixed some issues with triggering an exploit on the Farm after reloading a save while harvesting

Fallen Hero:

- Fixed broken interaction in the investigation

- Audio improvements

- Fixed some issues with clues at the Bar

- Quest from the Captain will be dissapearing from the quest log after completing

- Improved some fail and win conditions in the quest with Bob and Rhonda

- Achievement connected with the investigation was fixed

Knight’s Code:

- The music near the Tree won’t cut rapidly anymore

- The Player’s Character will no longer be able to interact with the Forge if the inventory is empty

- It won’t be possible to throw every item from the inventory to bonfire in the Forge

- The information about having to complete quest from the NPC after taking another one is now more clear

- The quest with Staid Beetle was improved. The conversation will no longer lead to a blocker

- Some additional informations about the gamepad controls in the Jail minigame was added

- It won’t be possible to repeat a dialogue line with a NPC, which affected the relationship with him

- The item while eavesdropping interaction will be visible

- Fixed collision on Umbra’s house

Axis Mundi:

- Fixed an issue with failing to load a cutscene on the end of the case

- Added some new audio content

- The game won’t crash randomly after talking to Jester anymore

- The tutorial in the Gallery will now be visible

- The tutorial will now have new graphics

- The Player’s Character will not change their place in the final cutscene anymore

- The Player’s Character rotation during the jump was improved

- Added some new sound effects in the Haggis Office and the Labyrinth

- The Player’s Character won’t be able to fall off of the boundaries

- An issue with inactive deduction was fixed

- Fixed an issue with Jester not disappearing when he is supposed to

Paradise Lost:

- Audio improvements

- The dialogue with an Eagle was improved and fixed

- Fixed NPC’s avatar in The Vault

- Fixed collision of the car

- The dialogue which was supposed to be Player Character’s thought is not visible as NPC’s dialogue anymore

We have fixed a lot of issues reported by you through our social media, Discord channel, and Steam discussions; we're grateful for your assistance ❤️

See you very soon! 😊

Team Gamedec

Jan 27, 2022

Stellaris Dev Diary #239 - AI++

Stellaris - MrFreake_PDX

written by Offe and Guido

Доступно на русском в ВК/Read in Russian on VK

Hello and welcome back to another update on the Stellaris AI. This is Guido again. Today I’m here with my fellow human Offe who also enjoys doing organic things. Like generating energy through processing photosynthesised light in the form of matter via ingestion. I like bacon and ice cream. Everybody likes bacon and ice cream. So Offe, please, take it from here.

Hello, it is me, Offe!

I’m a 28 cycles old Human manufactured and operated up here in the north. I’ve worked here at the Arctic office for two years and recently joined the Custodian team as a junior programmer. Guido and I have previously worked on other projects together and he has taught me a lot about game development, but most importantly I learned some tips on how to improve my diplomatic interaction protocols. Where I would often use phrases like “it’s an absolute disaster”, he would instead prefer “This is pretty good, but it can be even better!”. This may prove to be important later on.

I would like to say Thank You to all the people out there who took time playing on the open beta and provided us with feedback and bug reports. If you ever find the AI in a situation where it is doing something strange, please bug report and most importantly attach save games, it helps tremendously! For example, two separate issues were found and addressed with the new job changes.

And lastly, this dev diary will contain older changes and screenshots that were made long before the beta, but also new changes which were not part of the beta, meaning that you still have some new changes waiting for you in the 3.3 release.

Changes to pop job system

I will start with this change since it will also directly affect players and not only AI!

How it used to work:

Each time something important would happen on a planet, such as a pop is grown, a district/building gets constructed or an upgrade finishes, every single pop would update their desire (also known as weight) to work each job. Then all pops would be unassigned of their jobs, and all of them would be put back on a (potentially) new job.

Now there are some pros and cons with this approach. The good thing is that we are not doing any calculations when we don’t have to, since if nothing changes then we don’t update any of the jobs. However, the downside is that if you have scripted conditional job weights, for example, based on how many amenities there are on a planet, it will cause mass migrations of pops between jobs when the system eventually does update because all pops move at the same time.

In the current 3.2 system the most obvious problem is for hive mind empires where pops will mass move to the maintenance drone job when the planet amenity level is low, and then during the next update, all of them will leave due to having way too many amenities causing a perpetual ping pong effect.

This also affected non hive mind AI empires because in 3.2 the AI would prioritize a job producing a resource during a shortage across all its planets. For example, during an energy credit shortage it would prioritize the technician job on all its planets, causing every single job to be instantly filled. This would likely cause a shortage of some other resource such as minerals, resulting in most types of AI empires to get stuck in a ping pong behaviour once they had entered a resource deficit. This also had the unfortunate side effect of AI starting constructions that were not really needed, but the sudden shift of pop jobs made it appear so.

How it works in 3.3:

During each monthly update, update the jobs on all planets
Only remove or add maximum of one pop per job during the update

Many of you are now probably immediately clenching your fist in anger while picturing your poor CPU melting, as scripted calculations based on number of pops in stellaris can be very CPU demanding. But I have some good news for you, first of all in 3.2 there were some redundant calls to the job weight calculation. By removing them where possible, we could already reduce the amount of job weight calculations by about 75%.

Furthermore, we are now reusing job weights between pops that are of the same species and share the same job. Meaning if you have 40 pops working as miners on a planet, and they are all of the same species, the scripted job weight calculation will only be performed once instead of 40 times as in 3.2. This comes with some limitations though, as it is no longer safe to base job weight on individual pop data, such as which faction they are in or their happiness. In the end the vast majority of all job weight calculations were removed while still updating jobs every month.

With the new system it allows you to write a scripted job weight calculation that depends on itself without causing ping pong behaviour. For example, jobs that produce amenities can now base their job weight on the planet’s amenity level, or the enforcer job can now base its job weight on the crime level.

The intention is that you will not notice any difference from the system in 3.2 other than some jobs like enforcers and maintenance drones having a more reasonable amount of pops working that job.

Jobs for your pops

In 3.2 AI would look at the number of free jobs on a planet when deciding if it needs to build new jobs. So if there were for example 3 free jobs then the AI would clap its hands together and call it a job well done and move on. At the same time the planet could have huge numbers of unemployed pops rioting on the streets.

This scenario comes from the fact that not all pops can work all jobs, so while there are technically free jobs on the planet, that doesn’t mean that the unemployed pops can actually work those jobs.

In 3.3 we are changing the way that the AI is looking at planets when it is deciding what jobs to create. Instead of looking at the number of free jobs on the planet and then creating more when this number is low, the AI will now look at actual unemployed pops and make sure to create a job that the specific pop is actually able to work.

This solves a variety of issues present in 3.2 where AI doesn’t make good decisions for pops such as slaves or robots, this is something we will continue looking at but it is a big first step in the right direction.

AI scaling economic subplans

Scaling subplans was something we mentioned earlier as a planned feature for the future, well the future is now so strap yourself in!

In 3.2 we got rid of the old economic plans which had a predefined early/mid/late game strategy and introduced the shared base plan which doesn’t look at what year it is, but rather looks at what state the empire is in.

Now when I first saw Guido’s new economical plans I immediately thought wow this is pretty good, but it can be even better! So I started working on the scaling sub plans which aims to remove all upper limits of production (previously mentioned 500 alloy per month cap in 3.2) but still provide the AI with a responsive plan that adapts to the current state of the AI economy.

How the system works as for 3.3:

The base economic plan is now very small, it sets a minimum target for all types of strictly needed resources such as minerals, energy and food (such as +20 monthly income). Once these targets are met, then a small amount of CGs, alloys and science targets are added.

Once all of the above base plans are satisfied we then enable the scaling sub plan, which is just like any other economic plan except that it will add itself each time it is fulfilled, an unlimited amount of times. The scaling plan contains a small amount of energy/minerals but primarily contains alloys and science. This means that the more mature the AI economy becomes, the focus on base resources becomes smaller and the primary focus will shift to military and science production.

Additionally we have added 3 separate conditional scaling sub plans which we enable for materialist, militarist(and total war empires) and spiritualist empires that add additional science, alloy or unity targets to their economic plan as a first step to making AI economy more distinct from each other.

Grand Admiral hive mind reaching a monthly income of 3k alloys and 22k science in one test run by year 2422. (Screenshot from before the unity rework)

AI district/building specialization

One of the big advantages that fellow Humans like you and I have over the AI is that we can easily make long term strategies which are based on assumptions and goals. So we may have a long term strategy to turn a planet that we have not yet colonized into a factory world. As mentioned in answers to the last AI dev diary questions, the economic AI is stateless which means that it has no notion of past nor the future, it only looks at what it has right now and what it can do to satisfy it’s economic plan. This makes it very good at adapting to the situation it is in, it will keep a close eye at the current economic situation and immediately react to any shortages but lack some of the long term planning capabilities that we have.

So how can the AI make specialized worlds without planning for the future? Well one straightforward way of doing it is simply by switching places of districts that we have already built in the past. So if we compare two planets where both of them have 5 mining and 5 energy districts each, we can gradually specialize the planets by replacing the districts one pair at a time until we end up with one planet with 10 energy districts and another with 10 mining districts.

This approach works quite well in practice and is also very dynamic in the sense that it allows the AI to make hybrid planets in the early game which becomes more specialized over time as the empire expands.

AI consumer goods vs alloy production and planet designations

In 3.3 we are adding an AI system where the AI will manually pick a planet designation instead of using the default scripted planet designation system which is the same one as the player gets if you do not change it yourself.

The AI system looks at the available designations for each planet and calculates how many resources it would get each month from choosing the designations. It then scores each designation by judging how well the gained resources fits into the AI’s economic plan, giving extra score to designations that align with its economic goals.

Normally it is very easy to pick the designation, for example, a planet with only mining districts on it will clearly have the mining designation. However, other designations such as Factory/Forge world are more complicated and the AI needs to carefully assign these designations in a way that keeps the economy balanced.

For non hive mind empires science and alloy production is the biggest AI economy challenge we have faced so far, since the AI needs to produce both resources independently of each other to meet their economy plan targets even though they are produced from the same district in three different possible ways. The current system is a step in the right direction but this is definitely a tricky problem that will require additional fine tuning in the future.

AI alloy spenditure

Now that AI adjusts its alloy and consumer good production separately it was time to tackle how AI spends its alloys.

In 3.2 the AI really liked defense platforms, and keeping them up to date by upgrading them any time it was possible. Not only is this a massive drain of alloys, it would also more or less permanently fill the production queue in the shipyards with upgrades which meant that in some cases it wasn’t able to build any new ships even if it wanted to.

Further there was an issue where the AI would get blocked from building any modules or upgrading any starbases if there was an open module slot in which it wasn’t possible to build anything according to the AIs starbase templates. For example, the AI has dedicated shipyard starbase templates and if it has open slots in it then it would really like to build the titan assembly module on it. But if it wasn’t researched yet then the AI would get blocked here, preventing construction of new starbases.

In 3.3 the AI alloy spending priority goes something like this:

Build new ships until we reach fleet cap
Build starbase modules
Build new starbases
Upgrade starbases
Upgrade ships (and defense platforms) if it gives a +30% fleet power bonus, and upgrade the entire fleet this ship is in while we are at a shipyard anyway. Saving both alloys and time!
Build defense platforms as a last resort

AI tech picking

The AI has scripted weights for each tech in the game, this gives it some direction as to what technology to pick next every time a research is completed. Both in terms of which technologies are more powerful but also taking into account AI personalities, militarist empires are for example more inclined to research weapon tech.

In 3.2 the majority of techs had some modifier on it which increased the chance of it being selected by the AI, but when you prioritize everything, well then you prioritize nothing. For 3.3 we went through all the techs in the game and remade the AI priorities from scratch, emphasizing techs that will help the AI scale into the mid and late game. For example, resource production boosting techs, pop growth techs and resource producing building chains are now more encouraged.

Additionally AI will now look much more favourably on techs that are cheaper compared to the other options, this allows the AI to more quickly cycle through the available options and find the techs that it really likes.

AI superfluous destruction

This one is short and simple. AI will now delete stuff if it gives jobs, housing or building slots that we do not need. Meaning, if we for example have more free jobs and housing than provided by an energy district we will simply delete it to avoid paying the upkeep cost and freeing up this slot for something else in the future.

This scenario most often happens when an AI empire invades another planet and purges their pops, so determined exterminators will now be able to repurpose the conquered planets into something that aligns with their economy!

AI rogue servitor and bio trophies

While there has been a lot of focus on the AI’s ability to compete economically with the player in this dev diary, one of the primary objectives of the AI initiative is also to enhance the role playing capabilities of the AI.

In 3.3 we are adding additional AI support for the rogue servitor civic and how they handle their bio trophy pops. The AI should now build an organic sanctuary on each planet that has an upgraded capital structure causing their bio trophies to spread to other planets. And they should build additional sanctuaries on planets with a lot of complex drones.

Additionally we have addressed a group of related bugs where the AI was unable to build special types of buildings like gaia seeders, spawning pools and chambers of elevation.

AI comparison

As a final note we would like to share some comparison graphs between the 3.2 and the 3.3 AI. Please note that what you are about to see is based on one single test run on ensign and one test run on grand admiral. This comparison is not meant to be interpreted as evidence but as an indication of what has changed between 3.2 and 3.3.

In any AI playthrough there is a huge variance in the AI performance due to random factors such as how they pick techs, traditions and ascension perks. The experiment setup is also used for internal AI testing only and not representative of an actual playthrough.

Experiment setup:

Tiny galaxy

1 AI empire
All test using the United Nations of Earth empire
Mid and late game years set to 2575/2600 so they don’t trigger
The map is the same between the 3.2 vs 3.3 comparison, but NOT the same between the ensign and the grand admiral test

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Let’s first look at the comparison between the 3.2 and 3.3 ensign difficulty:

Up until year 100 the military power is roughly the same, but from that point on the results of the work we put into mid and late game AI scaling starts to really show. This allows the AI to act and react in a lot more interesting ways in the late game than before.

1) Around year 150 the 3.3 (“develop”) AI reaches the 32/32 starbase capacity due to having researched all techs in the game, resulting in the slowdown of the military power development.

2) 3.2 AI gets stuck in an economic death spiral for about 30 years shortly after year 100, AI eventually manages to escape the death spiral and then has massive economic growth and is able to build up to the 32/32 starbase cap quickly due to having saved up alloys for 30~ years.

At year 200 the gap between both AI military strength gets smaller since neither AI is really building that many more ships due to having maxxed out starbase capacity and already way above their fleet cap resulting in very expensive fleets. The power gap at year 200 is mainly due to 3.3 AI having superior technology.

However, it turned out that for GA difficulty the AI wouldn’t correctly apply the increased buff from trade value. Now, when it does, the AI takes a good step in the direction of making it more challenging for players.

Overall the GA and ensign test show a similar pattern where the first 100 years are roughly the same and then the difference becomes substantial. However, in the GA test the upper limit of 3.3 AI scaling can be seen around year 150-200 as the military growth curve tends to flatten out at this point when reaching the starbase cap.

That's it for today's Dev Diary, thanks for reading! Have a question about the AI in 3.3? Ask it here.