21 replies to this topic

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Well, we've our first beta for 1.8 now!!!

Changes:

- Improved mine placing to lay mines in enemy direction at critical and strategic points

- Improved captureplan for better performance, threat detection and strat analysis

- Improved the 'on the fly' gathering for the attack plan and also added it to defendplan

- Improved defendplan to gather troops instead of doing nothing when they feel not strong enough to defend

- Fixed an support allies bug in attackstrategy and defendstrategy

- Added a detection for critical situations to the AvoidDeath method in infantrytactic.ai to save units for once, before it's too late

- The code also contains all changes and fixes Larkin coded in my out-time in april (Improvements in Pathing, Capturing, Tactics, etc.)


There are additional smaller fixes I can't remember now, but these are the key points. I've sent the AI to Thud and he should upload it soon. I only have this strange feeling that we lost our beta testers... .

[Zenoth]

I only have this strange feeling that we lost our beta testers... .

I'm still there.

Actually I'm back into the "PC scene" since, what, about a few weeks only. I've been very, very busy, and eventually I did lost interest into PC "hobbies" for a while, I admit. That includes gaming, testing mods, creating mods (for Oblivion) and, well, pretty much anything you can do when you got a Monitor, a Keyboard and a Mouse in front of you.

But, enough about me.

I'm back, and I kept reading the forums, even though I didn't post.

As soon as Beta 1 for version 8 is up, I'll test it and post results, as I did before.

[thudo]

Thanks Zenoth.. I'll put the new build up tonight.

[Quietdeath]

I recently played a few 2n2s against the AI together with my friend and it managed to outmacro us two times.
Moreover I think in a 1n1 it is too rare that bugs or issues get revealed. So playing at higher matchups seems to be helpful.

As soon as it gets uploaded I will test it together with my friend so the AI has to face two different ways of playing.

Regards Q.D.

[thudo]

Wow! Excellent to always hear v1.75 is still owning arse. Goes to show the level of quality from the DoS dev team here that the community is loving some serious "handing ass on platter" action! WooP!

[Malkor]

Good Ai goes a long way, gentlemen.

[LarkinVB]

Added new beta to DoWPro.

First impression : Looks very good. AI seems to gather army much better, resulting in more dangerous attacks. Good job Arkhan !

[thudo]

Build for testers going up tonight! Very proud of this v1.8b1 build!

[ArkhanTheBlack]

@Zenoth

Welcome back!

First impression : Looks very good. AI seems to gather army much better, resulting in more dangerous attacks. Good job Arkhan !

Good to hear! So at least my third gathering attempt seems to work...

[thudo]

Just curious: has the "help allies" code changed or been tweaked? I noticed a relunctance when AI allies try to help other AI allies? Is there a way to ensure they always help out fellow allies even aggressively? The other AI ally was not being attacked but finished gathering its forces in a forward LP area on a safe side of the map. Actually.. let me tweak something and get back to all. Edit: actually the AllySupportFactor was set to 8 / 4 while Eldar is 10 / 4 . I gather the more likely an AI will assist should have a higher resulting #. Eldar have 2.5 while the other was only 2.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Just curious: has the "help allies" code changed or been tweaked? I noticed a relunctance when AI allies try to help other AI allies? Is there a way to ensure they always help out fellow allies even aggressively?

Yes, I made some changes. Defendstrategy had a bug which resulted in 'extremly' supportive behaviour, regardless of their support factor. Actually if the AI is attacking it should now support earlier and if it is defending it should support a bit later. If they react a bit too lame, an increase of the support factor should help. Values in the range of 1,5 to 3,5 should be okay. The higher the more supportive! It's a bit of an experience value at the moment.

[Quietdeath]

My friend and I were playing a 2n2 against 2 random computer (orc & ig)
for me the game crashed (quit without a message).
It is a fresh DOW with only the AI installed....

Some observations so far:
- The repair code works like a charm - while idle builders are repairing damaged buildings until they get a build comman
- Mine placement works and is really annoying if you try to get critical points back

[ArkhanTheBlack]

The Skirmish AI 1.8 beta 1 uses a log file to detect crashes. The log file is called AI_Log.txt and located in the main DOW directory. If you get any crashes please make a copy of this file and post the content here.
Since the log file is rewritten each game, you've to save its content before you play another game. It's easy to figure out if the crash was caused by the AI. If the file does not end with "CpuManager: End AI Think", then it's an AI crash. It's also helpfull to know which map you were playing.

[Quietdeath]

Thanks Arkhan - Unfortunately I already played a new game :/ but now I know what to do...

a) Map Name: 4p_into_the_breach
b) # of Players: 4
c) FFA or Alliance: Alliance
d) Factions Played Against: SM(me) + Orcs(punni) vs SM + CSM
e) Who Won: Team 1
f) Difficulty Level: Hard
g) Build: v1.8 Build 1
h) Replay: Download here!
i) Comments:
- There is not much to say about this game - the AI has serious problems with early harassment.
In the replay you can see that the AI gets totally messed up because of it. The next time we will play on a bigger map, so that there will be more place for development for the AI.

Regards,
Q.D.

Edited by Quietdeath, 17 May 2006 - 08:50 PM.

[thudo]

You forgot Difficulty Level of AI and what version/build of AI code..

[Quietdeath]

k I edited my post

[ArkhanTheBlack]

@Quietdeath
If I go to the download location for the replay and press the download button, I only get a dead link. Can't you just attach the replay?

[LarkinVB]

Download works here.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Tried again and now it worked. No idea why!

[Quietdeath]

Seems to me that the hoster went down yesterday ...