View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | Date Submitted | Last Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0024018 | AI War 2 | Gameplay Issue | Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | |
| Reporter | GreatYng | Assigned To | |||
| Status | new | Resolution | open | ||
| Product Version | 2.618 Astro Reserve Tuning | ||||
| Summary | 0024018: AI Drone Mark increases are inconsistent; an examination | ||||
| Description | I have at some earlier point (months ago) reported that Drones are not levelled according to their parent ships Mark level. I decided to investigate how this all works after I noticed something yesterday. My original theory was that all AI drones level up twice when the player passes a Mark threshold (i.e. regular AI ships start spawning at Mark 2, but any drones become Mark 3 instead). It turns out that only goes for most AI units (buildings or otherwise). To clarify: this report does not include drones owned by the player, because those just work; this also does not include AI units that have a fixed Mark level such as Dire Guardians, AI Hive Golems, Dire Swarmer Guard Posts, the Fenrir, and Exo-galactic units. So what I discovered after testing (detailed later) is that all AI units with drones have their drones increase their Mark level by increments of 2 every time the player passes a single AI Mark Level threshold, except for the Swarmer Unarmed Guard Post (SUGP). For the former category if you pass the first AI Mark Level threshold drones become Mark 3, if you pass the second AI Mark level threshold drones become Mark 5, and at the third threshold they become Mark 7. Units in this category include Carrier Guardians, all other Swarmer Guard Posts (as far as I noticed), and Astro Trains. Swarmer Unarmed Guard Posts have a different behaviour, because the drones of SUGPs increase by a single Mark level every time the player passes an AI Mark Level threshold but have a starting delay of one threshold. This means that after the first threshold they are still Mark 1, but every threshold after that they increase their Mark level by 1 meaning they cap out at Mark 6. Interestingly, I observed identical behaviour in the Drones controlled by the Dyson Sphere (the Warp Gate Guard Drones) before they were locked at Mark 1. The testing I did was done on difficulty 7. I also checked this on difficulties 8 and 9, but because this showed the same behaviour I am not including that here for brevity. For the testing I used the faction setup I usually have, except I fixed both AIs to Swarmers; the rest is irrelevant to the testing and as such was left as is. I increased the AIP using cheats. 'More Starting Options' and 'Spire Railgun Shop' are enabled. At difficulty 7 the AI Mark thresholds are at 100, 275, 450, 650, 800, and 1100 AIP. I found some Carrier Guardians, Swarmer Unarmed Guard Posts, and a different type of Swarmer Guard Post all at the same planet of Losdorp for ease of comparison. At the start of the game at 10 AIP all drones are Mark 1 Drones. At 99 AIP the drone Mark level is the same as at 10 AIP, but at 100 AIP the drones of everything except the Swarmer Unarmed Guard Post (SUGP) all level up to Mark 3. Drones belonging to SUGPs are still Mark 1. At 274 AIP the drone Mark level is the same as at 100 AIP, but at 275 AIP the drones of everything except the SUGPs all level up to Mark 5. Drones belonging to SUGPs are now Mark 2. At 449 AIP the drone Mark level is the same as at 275 AIP, but at 450 AIP the drones of everything except the SUGPs all level up to Mark 7. Drones belonging to SUGPs are now Mark 3. At 649 AIP the drone Mark level is the same as at 450 AIP, but at 650 AIP the drones belonging to SUGPs are now Mark 4. All other drones are, of course, still Mark 7. At 799 AIP the drone Mark level is the same as at 650 AIP, but at 800 AIP the drones belonging to SUGPs are now Mark 5. All other drones are, of course, still Mark 7. At 1099 AIP the drone Mark level is the same as at 800 AIP, but at 1100 AIP the drones belonging to SUGPs are now Mark 6. All other drones are, of course, still Mark 7. The naming system of the saves I attached is as follows: 'Test Xa' is at 1 AIP before reaching a Mark level threshold (to make sure that this is what increases drone levels), 'Test Xb' is at a Mark level threshold; so for the first threshold it's 'Test 1a' and 'Test 1b'. I also included a save before any AIP increases called 'Begin 1'. The drone level is only increased when saving the game after passing a threshold and then reloading a save after that point. I noticed that if the game is paused while the AIP is increased past a threshold, and the saving is done while still paused then after loading the drones will not have increased in Mark level; so the game has to be unpaused for a second before making a new save if you want to test this yourself. Also, trying to save the file 'Test 1a' without (briefly) unpausing throws an exception (that I have also reported separately). None of the previous save files include any Astro Trains, but if you check the 'Small Astro Train' save then you can find a Carrier Train with Mark 3 drones and only the first Mark threshold has been passed. | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | New Issue | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Begin 1.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 1a.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 1b.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 2a.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 2b.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 3a.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 3b.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 4a.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 4b.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 5a.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 5b.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 6a.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Test 6b.save | |
| Oct 23, 2020 4:59 pm | GreatYng | File Added: Small Astro Train.save |
