Minor AI research tweak

[Ex Mudder]

I've noticed in playing around with the minors AI research priotities that the research AI tends to "splurge" on it's researching. It will research 2 air doctrine techs, or 2 aircraft techs, or 2 artillery techs, or sometimes even 2 land doctrines at the same time, even if the minor only has 1 good tech team. Majors do this too - I've seen England research all 4 assembly line techs at the same time, despite only having 2 good teams. The US and Germany likewise only have 2 good assembly line teams (and a few fair ones), but research all 4 at once in 1940.

Would it be possible to program the AI to only research a tech if the best (or best 2, in the case of majors) tech teams were available, and research something else if it isn't? Or would it be easier to program the AI to never research more than 1 tech from the same branch (Industrial, Armor) at the same time? Or more than 2 from the same tree if a major?

Finally, I ocassionally see the AI research '38 techs in '36. Usually these are techs that are prioritized and other research in the field has been completed. But it really slows things down when the UK begins research of basic naval bombers in '36 (tho they might be getting blueprints from somehwhere, for all I know). Some sort of "skip if more than 400 days ahead" test for AI research would be appropriate - unless playtesting says a different number is better.

 

[De_Genius]

Finally, I ocassionally see the AI research '38 techs in '36. Usually these are techs that are prioritized and other research in the field has been completed. But it really slows things down when the UK begins research of basic naval bombers in '36 (tho they might be getting blueprints from somehwhere, for all I know). Some sort of "skip if more than 400 days ahead" test for AI research would be appropriate - unless playtesting says a different number is better.

About researching ahead, I would like to see the AI research more ahead of time. Often the AI will research everything in the current year or older before even considering other techs. Would be nice if the AI could use the tactic for tech for the current year+1, so the AI would be researching 36 and 37 techs in 1936, just like the human player will. What you have seen, might be a single case of the AI exhausting all techs for 36 and 37, and then just start at 38.

Sure would be nice if the AI could be told only to concentrate on certain techs or braches like CAS/TAC/INT/FGT for Germany instead of researching stupid STR/ESC. Lots of minor AI's could also build similar stuff using the same tech file for research, if only configured properly.