so whos idea was it to let the AI buy OMDs from the trader?

[Lancefighter]

Because, uh, I'm fairly sure in the current game, the AI just purchased one.

[x4000]

* Raises hand. * Yeah, I think that's one of the more rare things the AI can get from the trader, but I believe it can do so.

[Lancefighter]

Er well..
the planet an OMD appeared on happens to currently house about 2 dozen hybrids, and I'm not sure how i plan on eliminating those without my starships :p

(on OMDs, do they get a bonus towards forcefields?  or can they shoot them at all? >.> what about forcefield bearers...   )
edit:
would it be unreasonable to ask that stuff purchased from traders is not automagically instantly built?
edit2:
unless, of course, you wanted to make the player get the buildings instantly as well... 

[Vinraith]

I've always thought the AI buys stuff from the trader far too rarely. It's almost entirely a "pro player" faction, the occasional nasty surprise is the least it can do.

[Lancefighter]

what about if it purchased things more often, but they always started at 0%, and were never helped by ai engineers? 

thus its almost rarely a 'WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM' and more a 'i better hit that before it finishes'

Of course, this means as the game progresses, more dangerous things start being finished farther out in ai land...

[Vinraith]

what about if it purchased things more often, but they always started at 0%, and were never helped by ai engineers? 

thus its almost rarely a 'WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM' and more a 'i better hit that before it finishes'

Of course, this means as the game progresses, more dangerous things start being finished farther out in ai land...

I'd be fine with a higher chance of purchase, but the AI actually having to build it. I'm not sure I'd agree with engineers never helping to speed it along, though. At present the percentage chance of purchase is only 1%, I'm not recommending a radical increase by any stretch. Personally, in three games with the trader on, I've never seen it buy anything.

[Lancefighter]

well, the problem is that each mk1 engineer increases the divisor of the buildtime by one (and mk2 2, mk3 3).
Most structures 'only' take anywhere from 80 to 120 minutes to make at normal buildspeed

Thus, for the about 5 engineers the ai has in each system (random guess) will take about 15-20 minutes to complete. I would say that is far too short of a time for the AI to build a mk3 ion cannon, even if they only have a 1-3% chance of building it (keep in mind thats per system the trader goes through..)

I could compromise and go with the ai builds from half, and cannot use engineers if you want..

[Vinraith]

well, the problem is that each mk1 engineer increases the divisor of the buildtime by one (and mk2 2, mk3 3).
Most structures 'only' take anywhere from 80 to 120 minutes to make at normal buildspeed

Thus, for the about 5 engineers the ai has in each system (random guess) will take about 15-20 minutes to complete. I would say that is far too short of a time for the AI to build a mk3 ion cannon, even if they only have a 1-3% chance of building it (keep in mind thats per system the trader goes through..)

I could compromise and go with the ai builds from half, and cannot use engineers if you want..

Ah the joys of bargaining with absolutely no authority whatsoever. 

How about we accept that with engineers it'll be up in 15-20, but we have a notice (ala waves and such) that the AI is building X in system Y with expected completion time Z so you know you need to throw together a raid. I suspect strongly that most AI purchases are going to take place in border regions, so having it take ages to build stuff means nothing will ever get built.

[x4000]

This is one of those things where the juice doesn't seem worth the squeeze, honestly.  And anyway, the AI is always warping in stuff from outside the galaxy, so it makes sense in a lot of respects that whatever they bought from the trader was built outside the galaxy and then rushed in.  But mainly, this would be a lot of work for not a lot of gain that I can see, and time is scarce these days; I think it would be better spent elsewhere.

[Lancefighter]

Ah the joys of bargaining with absolutely no authority whatsoever. 

ahh, well, yes, but if I sound like its a good deal for both of us.... 


I suppose I havent a clue how the buying system works, I kinda figured that you could place any buildable item at 0% health and let it build, because, well duh, the player does that to build everything.
I assumed there was some simple method really to differentiate between 'spawn'(like with turret reinforcements)  and 'spawn to build' (like when the remains rebuilder rebuilds..)

Although I would be willing to bet if you posted the code, I could hack away at it until it works ^.^

[Vinraith]

This is one of those things where the juice doesn't seem worth the squeeze, honestly.  And anyway, the AI is always warping in stuff from outside the galaxy, so it makes sense in a lot of respects that whatever they bought from the trader was built outside the galaxy and then rushed in.  But mainly, this would be a lot of work for not a lot of gain that I can see, and time is scarce these days; I think it would be better spent elsewhere.

Yeah, I can certainly agree that this probably isn't a good use of limited programming resources.

[Lancefighter]

wait.. the ai builds TURRETS when the trader rolls around, (as in, builds,from 0hp) 

[x4000]

wait.. the ai builds TURRETS when the trader rolls around, (as in, builds,from 0hp) 

Nope, it definitely does not.  It repairs turrets after rebuilding them from a rebuilder, but that has nothing to do with the trader.  That uses the repair mechanic, which is substantially different (though certainly semantically similar) from a build-over-time mechanic with the AI.

[Lancefighter]

ohhhhhh yess it does. The AI BUILDS turrets, as in, starting at 0hp, building up to 100%, where it becomes functional.


In what situation WILL this happen then, if not from the trader? I am fairly sure reinforcement spawned turrets start at full health..

edit: of note, in what case would a AI build turrets between wormholes instead of on top of the wormholes? this was where I noticed them building turrets from 0, seemingly in a weird way (as if a player put them there tbh... but thats not how the ai spawns turrets usually)

[TheMachineIsSentient]

I am in the same game as Lance, it does appear that they are building turrets. I obviously don't have the code in front of me, but it certainly appears this way.