THIS AI IS STILL IN A TESTING STAGE PLEASE DO NOT DISTRIBUTE!

Welcome to the Queller AI! This AI is designed to be a marked improvement over any other AI avaliable for Total Annihlation that does not cheat, nor use any units other than the ones provided with the game and those that can be downloaded from Cavedog site.

Installation
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To allow this AI to work properly, put he file AI_Nuker in the main Total Annihilation directory. For example, if you installed the game under c:\Cavedog\Totala then that is the directory wehere you would put the file. This file allows the AI to use Nukes, however it does not understand Anti-Nukes, so please resist the temptation to nuke him back to the stone-age.

To install the AI itself, create a subdirectory called "ai" (no quotes) in your Totala folder. Put all the text files in it.

To CC And 3rd Party Unit Users
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Before using this AI, you should move all your CC and 3rd Party Unit files into a directory where TA will not detect them. This will prevent the AI from trying to build units it was not weighted for, as doing so will degrade it's ability to play. It will also remove the temptation to throw in some invincible 3rd Party Unit against an AI not built to stop them.

Notes
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Please do not make changes to the weightings or limits yourselves. If you do there is a chance that you may forget what changes you made, and you reports will become worthless. Feel free to suggest changes, but do not make them yourself (This is only for the benefit of testers).

Any unit marked with a * in the weightings and limit sections, is a unit that the AI either does not require (such as radar, as it can see the whole map), or one that it does not know how to use (such as the Hedgehog).

For this AI to work at optimum levels, you MUST have the 3.1 patch, and have downloaded the Flea, Scarab and Hedgehog from the Cavedog site, http://www.cavedog.com/totala/

Making The AI A True Challenege
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To make the AI as challenging as it can be, use the following settings:

On Commanders Death: Game Continues
Location: Random
Mapping Mode: Not Mapped
LOS: True
Difficulty: Hard

For an even game, give yourself both 1000 metal and energy, as this is what the AI was built around. However for a real challenege set the AI's energy and metal to 10000 (please note, unlike most AI's, it is perfectly caperble of playing a good game with only 1000 metal and energy) while leaving yours at 1000 and 1000 respectively. If you have a deathwish, set your metal and energy values down to 200.

To add an extra level of difficulty, put the game speed up to +10, and do not pause the game to allow yourself to give out orders (anyone who does is a coward).

You should use a fairly larges map, with plenty of metal, evenly spread out.  The more open the map, the better.  The AI handles Painted Desert better than any other map.

If you're still winning easily (then you're a liar :), or using anti-AI tactics >:(), then try allying several AI's against just you.

This AI does not make use of the units in the Core Contingency expansion, and therefore to have the most enjoyable game, I suggest you do not use them either. If you want to play against an AI that uses CC units, I suggest you get a copy of BAI by BSR from http://www.aracnet.com/~nimrod/taec/ the BSR R&D section.

WEIGHTS And LIMITS Explained
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Weights decide how likely it is that the AI will build a unit, a limit tells the AI the maximum number of units of that kind it may build. A unit only counts towards the limit when it has finished being built, therefore if the AI builds the same unit in more than one place at a time, it may go over the limit. This is another part of the great randomness the AI demonstrates, making for a slightly more varied challenge (or cock-up depending on what it did) every time.