Better AI Ship Designs (Outdated!)
Do the AI ship designs seem poorly-planned compared to yours? Well, with this mod, the AI will hopefully design ships that are competent from the early-game to the late-game.
Some examples of ship designs:
Frigates: Deliberately designed with mass-production in mind, they forsake more advanced weapons for cheaper, less advanced ones (though they do use the most advanced armor and drives). Starts off armed with Nuclear Missiles (with possibly the MIRV modification), they later switch to Proton Torpedoes (possibly with the Semi-Guided and Overloaded modifications), and later pick up Multiwave ECM Jammers that are later swapped out for Cloaking Devices, and then Phasing Cloaks.
Destroyers: Designed with the intent of protecting larger ships from heaps of missiles, fighters, and torpedoes, they’re primarily armed with Anti-Missile Rockets, that are later supplemented by Lightning Fields and Automated Repair Units. Offensively, they rely on the most advanced missiles and torpedoes that are available.
Cruisers: With the exception of Alkari vessels (which will rely extensively on beam weapons, supported by Hyper-X Capacitors and High Energy Focus), these ships are decked out with tons of missiles, supported by Dauntless Guidance Systems and Fast Missile Racks.
Battleships: This is when the AI will start to focus on beam weapons over missiles and torpedoes. Initially, they’ll be used as flagships, carrying specials like Warp Interdictors, and will carry Battle Scanners to help ensure that their beam weapons will land their marks in the mid-game, later on, when Titans take over as the flagships of the AI fleets, these battleships will upgrade into dedicated beam weapon platforms, favoring Gauss Cannons the most, followed by Plasma Cannons, and then everything else, that are augmented with High Energy Focus and Hyper-X Capacitors, and carry Hard Shields to negate shield-piercing effects.
Titans: Whereas players may prefer to build their Titans as dedicated beam weapon platforms supported by Hyper-X Capacitors and High Energy Focus, and while the AI will initially design their Titans the same way, the AI will, as soon as possible, try to design them as more support-oriented flagships that carry specials like Warp Interdictors, Scanning Beacons for countering cloaked enemy ships, and even Black Hole Generators to trap enemy ships for the other ships in the fleet to pick off. Like the Battleships, these Titans will prefer Gauss Cannons over all other weapons, and will also carry Hard Shields for negating shield-piercing weapons.
Doom Stars: Whereas players might wish to design their Doom Stars as long-range flagships, possibly armed with a Stellar Converter, the AI will instead design theirs for the sole purpose of using their sheer tankiness to their advantage, using Subspace Teleporters to quickly close the gap, or to quickly retreat when it’s taken too much damage, and wreaking havoc on the enemy fleet with their vast array of Plasma Cannons. In addition to Hyper-X Capacitors, High Energy Focus, and Hard Shields, they carry an Energy Absorber and a Shield Capacitor to further improve their survivability.
A mod to consider if you want to see how the AI auto-designs your ships: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=804031804
A mod to consider if you want to see improved base defense designs: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=804032754
