Auto Colony Management

Supremacy; support/discussion/questions

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The_Undying_Nephalim
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Auto Colony Management

Post by The_Undying_Nephalim »

Is there a feature to have colonies manage buildings structures and upgrading them on their own yet, like in BOTF1? I'm able to keep up with several colonies, but once I start to reach 10 or more systems colonized it becomes a nightmare fighting off starvation and buildings and upgrading farms manually every single turn. The game basically turns into "build/upgrade farms on every colony over and over" every turn. :lol:
Iceman
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by Iceman »

Hi TUN.
Nope, not yet, though it is in the ToDo list.
Now that you mention it, it might be a good time to look into it :wink:
It is also a good way to test the colony management AI, and improve it where needed.

Notice though that if you have unmanned Production Facilities in the colony, whenever a new population block becomes available it will automatically be assigned to one of those - it uses similar code to the colony management AI, so as long as there are inactive farms, the colony should not starve. Just make sure you queue some farms and other PFs. You can use SHIFT and CTL to order multiple PFs of the same type with a single click if you wish.
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by Iceman »

Here's a token implementation, with a radio button.

I need feedback on the best way to display this.
- Like it is now, or swap the text and radio button?
- What should the text say (or is Auto enough)?
- What should the tooltip say, or remove it?
- Keep the radio button, or use some other button type, or some other way?

I guess the important point is, what's best for a new player.
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The_Undying_Nephalim
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by The_Undying_Nephalim »

I think the example you have there looks good. Auto is fine, as that's what it was called in BOTF1. The tooltip text you have there is fine by me too. :up:
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by Iceman »

Yea, I went with an ON/OFF toggle for Auto instead of a Manual/Auto toggle like in BOTF as it might lead to an easier implementation. But it can be changed.
I also added the Auto status in the Colonies list in the Assets screen.

Now, to get the button to actually work :wink:

BTW, I assume this should automate all aspects of colony management, namely building and upgrading:
- Production Facilities
- Buildings
- defenses (Orbital Batteries, plus shields and garrison which are Buildings)
:?:

It will not automate shipbuilding though, or at some point the game will play itself :twisted:
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by thunderchero »

you know me I always give something different, but if you want to "best for a new player" I think it should have some on screen description.

example;
auto.jpg
auto.jpg (42.25 KiB) Viewed 5027 times
and get rid of the radio button and use text button that would change from "AI" to "Manual"

Edit: It would also be nice if it would allow to designate that colony to produce general, intel, research, or ships/defense.
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by Iceman »

Thanks TC!
I was going for both minimal impact on the UI and least amount of work.
That much text seems kind of "heavy" for something that even new players will learn rather quickly - hence the tooltip (which is pointless in your suggestion) to help with the learning process wihout being intrusive.
I was also trying to keep to the UI structure already in place - yea, lazy me :wink:
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by The_Undying_Nephalim »

Nice, I'm looking forward to that update whenever it comes out. I'm really enjoying what's in Supremacy so far, and I feel like it's only going to keep improving. :up:
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by Iceman »

I've been away for a couple of days, had a long overdue appointment with the beach :cool:
I'll be on vacation for the next week so it's possible that I might be able to get this done soon.
:up:
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by Iceman »

BTW, I assume this should automate all aspects of colony management, namely building and upgrading:
- Production Facilities
- Buildings
- defenses (Orbital Batteries, plus shields and garrison which are Buildings)
thunderchero wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 9:20 am you know me I always give something different, but if you want to "best for a new player" I think it should have some on screen description.

and get rid of the radio button and use text button that would change from "AI" to "Manual"

Edit: It would also be nice if it would allow to designate that colony to produce general, intel, research, or ships/defense.

Maybe all of this could be done in a new tab in the Colony screen, with buttons/toggles/selectors for which tasks to automate and which type of output to focus on :?:

Code: Select all

This colony is under  [Manual/Auto toggle button] control

CheckBoxes for 
- Production Facilities
- Buildings
- defenses

Dropdown selector for 
- general
- intel
- research
- industry (shipbuilding/credits)
- defenses ?
anything else :?:
The_Undying_Nephalim
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by The_Undying_Nephalim »

I'm not sure if it's a bug or the feature was never fully implemented, but I tried ticking the Auto feature on my colonies and after the turn ends it becomes unticked and auto management doesn't seem to do anything.
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by Iceman »

That feature has not been fully implemented yet, no. It's on hold for now.
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by Iceman »

So, now that Misfire has managed to fix this, let's get some feedback to help us improve the colony management AI.

My advice is if you want to test, use AutoBuild - in small, medium and large systems; in new colonies and developed ones. And provide feedback.
If you just want to play the game, then use AB only on colonies that are not very important to your game.

The colony management AI (which AB uses) was designed (for now) for games with Starting Facilities set to Default. Since high level PFs in SF=Best games cost a lot more (take longer to build), the AI often has lots of unassigned pop in their colonies.
In any case, your most important colonies should always be managed by you, of course.

At some point we will add another tab in the Colonies screen with some settings for that particular colony - like main output type (credits/research/intel), special functions (scanner/shipyard/etc), defenses, etc.


To keep things nice and tidy, please use this thread (only) for reports that are specific to AutoBuild, and provide any info necessary to address the issue - like savegames, screencaps, detailed descriptions.

Suggestions are also welcome, of course. Like if difficulty level should play a role, and if so, where/how; or how the UI can be improved. Anything really.


As a final note, the AI tries to play a very streamlined game; it'll not overbuild their PFs (as unmanned PFs cost upkeep), it'll wait until it's more efficient to build them (which might look like it is braindead).
It also focuses a bit on defense, as soon as it contacts a potentially hostile civ (empires or Warlike and Raider minors). A bit too much, I hear :wink:

The early game should go rather well, but after that it starts slowing down. It has absolutely no notion of territory, and it doesn't have a global development strategy - yet.

Give it some time to show you what it's got, and then give us feedback.


edit:
it is a bit annoying that the AI powers down unused shipyard slots, when you want to keep building ships there... it is trying to be efficient. It doesn't annoy the AI, but it does annoy the human player :evil: (when we get a shipyard build queue working, it'll be less annoying)

edit2:
I temporarily added a couple of sounds to the AB button (turn on / off), for testing purposes. Should those be kept, or should we just remove them? Or replace them with some other sounds? If the latter, suggestions (attach them here) are welcome.
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by Iceman »

In the new patch, not all options are already working, some still need to be implemented.

The (AutoBuild) AI will not power down shipyard slots and orbital batteries anymore, that's the player's job.
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Re: Auto Colony Management

Post by Iceman »

Iceman wrote: Fri Jul 08, 2022 5:52 pm In the new patch, not all options are already working, some still need to be implemented.
The Manage Production Facilities options are not yet working, it'll always use Balanced for now. Should change in the future.
The rest should be working, though there may besome tweaks needed; I have a couple lined up for the next patch.

One question about the Resource Production option:
Right now the colony will only build resource generating buildings if this option is enabled. Is this how it should work :?: Or should this button only change priority :?: (as resources are kind of a must-have in the game)
Should this button be ON by default (with the current implementation) :?:

The (AutoBuild) AI will not power down shipyard slots and orbital batteries anymore, that's the player's job.
These are now controlled by the Shipyard Production and Manage Defenses buttons, respectively.
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