The Orion Nebula

And I would add #2, which is preventing a.i. from using its full economy to sustain fleet in mid-game, when not all crucial techs have been researched.

This problem will be solved if A.I. is able to research communications, also building facilities to be able to build startbases faster.

In ICE, a.i. regularly get their hands on sub-space communications long before I have the grav beam / generator level. In fact, I am really struggling to win at all (H/I/8/avg) at my own mod in the 10g version. To put in perspective: in 1.31 H/I/8/avg, with right race and a bit aggresive style <100T win was not uncommon. In ICE 9 I could still get wins around T200, but since ICE 10f this seems impossible to me. I have had more losses than wins on this setting (edit: playing without save/reload), to the point that I am thinking maybe I have overpowered the races a bit too much or it finally starts to show I am not that great a player after all

So question: is there a pro-MP player that is willing to have a go at ICEx and give some feedback about race strength in ICE? Tx.

So question: is there a pro-MP player that is willing to have a go at ICEx and give some feedback about race strength in ICE? Tx.

Dunno, though I doubt you can find one. The thing is playing with Ai is too much time consuming and no fun at all. Human will always be able to win due to tactical or strategic shorcomings of AI algorythms. While it's impossible to fix them completely, unless complete rewrite. But that means rewriting the game anew.

Edit: it will be interesting to play couple of games with AI when it gets significant improvent in its algorythms. When the research priority gets fixed and some other stuff. So far its just a waste of time for me.

Yeah a.i. has many flaws. But at the moment in ICE, a.i. can start throwing around T250 Adamantium armoured Doom Stars with Stellar Converter at me, I am getting more concerned with my tech development than theirs.

edit: and hence the question if i might have overdone race design a bit.
edit2: am still searching for this tech priority thing, coz even with the stronger races it can still be odd sometimes, like a.i. having fully researched ~4 full tech branches and still ignored to go in Force Fields.

Found it - Race extra abilities are coded in block:
001F67D8 _race_customize = 001FE818 in 140/VDC/ICE

Code block is, similar to Racestuff.lbx organized per race in alphabetical order.

130 lines, with max 8 abilities per line (default only Trilarian use all 8.)
10 lines per race, I still believe only 6 per race are in use (3H, 3IMP)
3 lines Alkari Hard, 2 not in use, 3 Alkari IMP, 2 not in use, etc.

Was deciphering AI race picks today, and I can say that all 5 lines are used for AI. I have clearly seen cybernetic Trilarian or Large, Rich, Arti HW Silicoiod (both are line 5).

Amazing find, as I haven't seen it in 200+ game starts.
Can you share some detail, so I can try to replicate.
Was there anything special or just a regular game start?
- VDC or DOS exe?
- Galaxy set-up / Race used at game start?

Nothing special, just played and recieved such opponents (VDC). Try taking different races, maybe for certain races it uses certain lines. Or maybe it depends on the picks you take. In any case I am absolutely positive I've seen those races.

...maybe for certain races it uses certain lines. Or maybe it depends on the picks you take.

This is the amazing part, coz I was quite confident it was a random 1/3 process, but now it seems there might be factors involved. I have done a dozen+ extra game starts - with for me unusual starting conditions - and have not seen lines 4/5. Maybe fact that VDC base race design is different can be a factor? In any case, as your observation is there, I have just re-coded all lines #4 and #5 in ICE (for next version).

I checked more starts in VDC and I see line 5 is showing up quite regularly.

what are the exact switches you use when booting up a VDC game?

I didn't use any switches in this case, since I didn't want to play. I wanted to test the races, so I just launched the exe, put 8 players and checked their stats after loading the map.

A new single player mod? After all these years? Must try it...

Indeed after all these years, still one of the best games around!

Was just playing an ICEx H/I/8 game and had a nightmare scenario unfold right in front of me:
I was a decent second strong player, getting ready to attack the Klackons, while a space flux happened at T196. My fleet underway to gather at an insignificant own system close to the Klackon systems. And here it comes- The #1 player are the Trilarian and decided to declare war on me a couple of turns later. So while my fleet was stuck, they can still fly with their fleet of adamantium armored BB's that spit out swarms of fighters and attack my planets, destroying 1 or even 2 per turn. When flux is over at T218!!, I have less than half my planets left, bleeding money now due to the command points problem. Gnols take advantage and also declare war and start attacking the systems the Trils cannot reach, while it takes my fleet 10 turns to get there.

That is one way to lose a game.
At least I can blame it on the flux...

If you played a Single Player game with a race lacking TransD, it simply meant that subconsciously you wished to find a way to lose, and succeeded.

At least it was consciously that I decided to share story on this otherwise quiet board.