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[LarkinVB]

Here is what I found about build orders (advanced AI level).

1. Thudo did overload advanced/buildorderstrategyinfo.ai as this is what the AI tries to build at start, not during the whole game as he might have thought. Result is that the AI does not build units though it has to be investigated why as it accumulated some resources during my test. Therefore the list has to be reduced and there should only be a generator and/or turret in addition to what it looked like in the original. All other intended builds have to be coded into the races own buildbasestrategy.ai !!!

2. At start the AI is picking a random strategy deciding what squads to build. This is in advanced/buildbasestrategyinfo.ai. Its the SquadLimits = part. Easy modding as lots of improvement is possible here. Or do you think building rangers as eldar is usefull at all ?

3. Thudo removed the check for being to weak to upgrade in DoUpgradesAndAddons(). Since DoUpgradesAndAddons() is checked before DoBuildUnits() in Update() it might be the reason for races not to build units at all. This was what I had in my test. The AI was busy building buildings (see 1.) and upgrading.

Conclusion :

1. I suggest taking back all changes made by Thudo and only adding one by one fully commented and tested.
2. I suggest that the members of the AI mod project should specialize on certain topics (plans/strategy/tactics) instead of trying all at once. One should improve squad tactics, another build order etc ...
3. I suggest different build orders for different maps. Its stupid for the AI to build lots of defenses 1vs1 and it should build few on big 4vs4 when its far away from the nearest enemy.

[thudo]

Actually, this only really effects the Eldar and Orks.. I'm currently trying to fix it and have been spending some time getting it right. The problem right now with the EldarAI is that it "gets stuck" after building a Soul Shrine then sits there BUT if I attack any of his units he uses the defendstrategy.ai then gets back on track. However, I now have the Eldar AI concentrating a little more on troop development and now its better. Of course, more tweaking to come.

I believe that by forcing the Eldar/ORK AI to build buildings that are covered in their respective xxxbuildstrategy.ai that its "retarding" the AI so will remove the "excess" and go from there. Both SM/CSM do not suffer from this as they don't rely on WebGates/Waaghh Banners for pop increases.

Removing the check in buildbasestrategy.ai for DoUpgradesAndAddons() to ensure the AI force-research *should not affect things* as researching is done setep-by-step. However, worth investigating as Eldar/Ork need some attention.

Thankfully, I can say that all four civs research their entire tech tree (was concerned it was stopping or skipping over but all looks good).

I highly agree about designating tasks - I for one want to do build orders (hell, investigating the entire tech-tree of each of the 4 civs was such a pain ironing it all out but thankfully its all done).

Btw, MEGA THANKS CORSIX - those random-turret addon scripts work beautifully - initially I was debating about ensuring all LPs update to Tier2 but this way its more of a good balance but now we have to get the Orks to update some of their Tier1 updated Waagh Banners to Tier2. That would be real cool!

Thanks all.. hang in there.. its never exactly easy tweaking/writing AI code.

tud.