4 replies to this topic

[thudo]

This is all for fun but I decided to test a theory.

As some of you may know I am doing certain AI integration work. Most of it is all done long since but since I have some builds of various projects I decided to test a wild and crazy theory (which I originally thought would never ever work):

What would happen if I created a large AI Repository /AI structure with the intent of merging all DoW mods into it? That part actually was easy. The hard part: would merging the mods themselves work and not crash the game?

Answer..

First Mod: Steel Legions (latest build - a month away from release!!)
Second Mod: WitchHunters (early alpha but very playable)

Challenge:

Merge both these together by copying all data into one /TEST folder ensuring nothing was overwritten but merge files by editing them so the mods would work together without crashing the game or not unloading models/textures/sounds/etc..

Done! It wasn't as hard as I thought! So I copied both Steel Legions and WitchHunters into one \TEST folder, edited the .module file to ensure the right folders were in the path (it was universal anyway) and launched it.

WORKED ! ! ! My gawd I was stunned. I got into a game with me as Steel Legions and my opponent was the WitchHunters AND IT WAS ALL THERE! Next.. added the Skirmish AI with all races merged. You guess it! All worked brillliantly!

Now.. remember.. this was a test to see if it could be done. There are still issues with this merging but at a low level it works and works tremendously!

Keep this too yourselves. I plan to go public with a simple Harlequin vs Tau shot to show that its possible to do this. Preforming the Steel Legions + WitchHunters was much more challenging as both have lots of work done but it worked.

So keep this private for now. No word to the outside world as of yet.

It was merely a rough experiment as I seriously doubt anyone has tested to see if it works let alone with merged Skirmish AI.

TuD.

[Corsix]

Is this a process that could be automated by, say a mod manager?
If so, how?

[thudo]

I believe it would but its my understanding that in order to merge mods you need a "universalization" of things like Banners, Taskbars, UCS codes (found in \Locale\English\W40k.ucs) and other areas.

However, given that I just did a raw merge without any code integration (except the file 'frontendmodels.lua') its pretty damn exciting it worked that fast. Sure its a quick and easy hack-job but hell it works damn well.

There isn't much to learn doing it - its just a sample of what is to come and I did it mostly to see how my AI Repository would function. Much better than I expected!!!

[Polaris]

I believe it would but its my understanding that in order to merge mods you need a "universalization" of things like Banners, Taskbars, UCS codes (found in \Locale\English\W40k.ucs) and other areas.

However, given that I just did a raw merge without any code integration (except the file 'frontendmodels.lua') its pretty damn exciting it worked that fast. Sure its a quick and easy hack-job but hell it works damn well.

There isn't much to learn doing it - its just a sample of what is to come and I did it mostly to see how my AI Repository would function. Much better than I expected!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Excellent project! You are really ambitious!

Edited by Polaris, 19 June 2005 - 08:24 PM.

[thudo]

Actually its easier than I thought. Coupled with the fact the AI Repository has been ongoing for 2 weeks now and its up and working I was certainly shocked when I merged the two big DoW Mods together and they worked even with their respective customized taskbars. Skirmish AI worked right off as well although more minor tweaking is needed.

Project is ambitious but a joke once you fully understand all the variables. Corsix's idea behind creating "join points" in the \AI structure is more a challenge. What I'm doing is essentially extending the 4 existing DoW factions to 7+ while also ensuring that any new factions get the special scripts they need to function while keeping the existing ones unaffected.

Flenser has helped me out tremendously over the past 2-3 weeks and each new challenge is quickly overcome. Its been an exciting time. Learned so much. All these AI scripts Larkin, Flenser, and Corsix have wrote are just god-like in what they do: totally changes the AI's behaviour.