Replying to Skirmish AI 3.0 Beta 7 (Release Candidate 2) - Post Comments In Thread!

I have to say I'm no less responsible. Just because I don't like playing with those boxes unchecked (or with Heroes, Fortresses, or Massive Battles) doesn't mean I shouldn't have tested them. Just a simply sanity check can uncover so many oopsies.

No it will work.. the logic is sound. My change above applies to the orkbuildbasestrategy.ai in the relevant sections. I totally forgot about the Fortress Mod that we added to our project.

Thudo, in which file would one have to apply the changes you mentioned?

Is it the strategy file under the strategies folder?

EDIT: Never mind I found both, the first is orkbuildbasestrategy and the second was indeed strategy, right? Well I think so. I've applied the changes, I'll see what it gives.

Sh*t happens.. even a hundred beta testers in SoulStorm couldn't find stuff like "Holy Icon Cancel Exploit" and the "Harlequin Dance Faction Resource Kill".

How did it make into release while the readme explicitly states that banners are not affected ?

Easy fix for that would be:

Change:

elseif (sType == "Turret") then
		return "ork_waagh_banner"

To:

elseif (sType == "Turret") then
		return nil

Then change:

elseif (cpu_manager:IsTurret(iBuildingID)) then
		return "Front2"

To:

elseif (iBuildingID == cpu_manager.stats:GetBuildingID("ork_waagh_banner")) then
		return "Front2"

Done!

I think I found the ork BO problems.

The readme says :

9.) Build turrets
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If deactivated, the AI won't build any turrets (except Orc Waagh Banners).

This is wrong. Orks won't build additional banners and get stuck with turrets option set to disabled.

self:GetBuildingName("Turret") for orks are banners.

if (sType == "Building") then
		
			-- Check for turret
			if (sName == self:GetBuildingName("Turret")) then
				
				-- Check special modes
				if (not CpuManager.AISettings.bTurrets) then
					iCount = 0

Well, I do like that Build Order trick. That's when this AI started getting really good, when the random build orders were introduced long ago. In a 2 vs 2 on Mountain Trails, you never get the same game twice any more; or so it seems.

Tonight, I had to keep playing until I got a win. Played 3.0 about a dozen times now on Mountain Trails, 2 vs 2 at HARD, and I have won twice. I think I finally have a build order as the Sisters that works for me, as long as my AI ally holds.

I tend to win when my AI ally gets a good build order and holds. Or, I can squeak in a win if the AI enemy opposite my AI ally gets a 'bad' or weak build order. Those random build orders really mix things up nice!

Of course, it isn't just my AI ally that needs to hold. There were a couple of games where it was I who lost the game. I get the feeling that this AI has been tested a lot on Mountain Trails.

I haven't tried playing against the Orks or with the Orks yet. There are so many factions in this game now, that it's unbelievable. If it is going to take Relic another two or three months for the first SS patch, you might consider releasing a hotfix in the interim; but I would wait for all the bug reports to come in so that you get them all.

It's kind of cool to see Smokeskin coming up with more ideas. You need to keep those lists a coming, and try to prioritize them with the feature(s) you want most at the top. Arkhan gave me a couple of things that were at the tops of my lists, back in the day. Of course, it has to be something that Arkhan can actually do, with what they have given him to work with. But, if it was something Arkhan could do, and it was at the tops of our wish lists, he usually took an extra day and gave it to us in the subsequent version that he released.

Anyway, SoulStorm is a good game now. I really have to work and keep trying if I want to get that win.

This is old, very old. It's a simple fast tech strategy like most other races have. They are also restricted to 6 players and large maps.

New for me to watch. The tech isn't fast if I remember correctly. It takes them a very long time for T2. (10 minutes for first wraithlord on bloodshed alley at position1).

Btw orks did NOT have BO3 problems at bloodshed alley at positions 4/5/6. Strange.

Testing each BO should be mandatory. It's easy to modify the buildbasestrategy for it.

What do we do from here? I think some good changes were implemented during the last few beta versions. But I think there's a lot of room for improvement still.

- at t2 and beyond it is somewhat weak atm. It is very bad at recovering from losses. The current BOs are setup so you just specify 1 or a few units advanced units you'd like in a new tier, but all the units from the previous tiers aren't rebuild when lost, because the dynamic code to handle unit building doesn't do its job unless it is swimming in resources. The easiest way to solve it would be to add minimum units to tiers beyond t1, perhaps we don't have to fix any actual code for it.
- the squad upgrades in general work better, but they need to be tuned for individual units. It got implemented because I said it was essential for space marines to get missile launchers in t2. It worked well, so it got implemented for all races. Now space marines build 2 flamers in t1, so no free slots in t2 where they needed them for AV, and when they get the heavy weapons upgrade, each squad on average only gets 1 missile launcher instead of 2 because of the flamers, halfing their AV. A bit of the same for battle sister squads, you don't want lots of flamers t1, you want slots free for HBs in t2. It needs tweaking
- The new all-infantry BOs for chaos and SM are building vehicles in t2, which defeats the purpose of them.

I got some more stuff in my notes, and if the above is to be useful it needs to be fleshed out properly, but are we still working on new versions?