13 replies to this topic

[Capulin]

Alright, Thud. I've gone ahead and signed up at your forums and whatnot. I'll be off and on today checking up. I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to log or what you'll need me to be doing / watching for. If you could fill me in a little bit on your proceedure or send me to a link of what you need I'll try to help out as much as possible.

Hope to hear from you soon.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Thanks for your assistance. Testing will probably start mid or end of the week.

[thudo]

Thats 3 beta testers! See what happens when a commercial expansion release has lackluster AI - they flock to us for redemption and guaranteed ownage from the cpu man! Har har

[Zenoth]

Thats 3 beta testers! See what happens when a commercial expansion release has lackluster AI - they flock to us for redemption and guaranteed ownage from the cpu man! Har har

Only three? Wow, things change over time indeed, we were something like eight or nine testers back in the DC days. If the non-active testers of the previous testers team did not show any signs of life/interest for SS then I guess that having three or four testers wouldn't hurt anything.

[thudo]

Yes but having more testers did not equate to getting the reports we AI people needed. Beta teams are about quality testers.. NOT how many on a team we can get. I see this too many times on all mod teams everywhere -- lots of testers but only 1-3 are true hardcore testers who know how to report in AND do it frequently.

[Zenoth]

Ah yes indeed, that's a good point. Thankfully you guys have someone with no life outside of his partial time work to focus on burning his free time on testing when it occurs. I remember once, I prepared three reports in one game session span, all I needed was some good sandwich, a couple of low-alcohol beers (German browns my friend are heaven), and of course some music, give me that and I'd feel like testing the A.I for a week. It's something I like to do, but to do it at home... because I wouldn't see myself doing just that in a professional environment with restrictions and without German beers, forget that!

[thudo]

Waiting on both Arkhan and Larkin to take a look.. I worked for 10+ hours to get it out and was more than satisfied. I outlined everything that should be addressed.

One thing I forgot: DE AI likes to make more than enough infantry, vehicle, and sometimes tech buildings like the Wych Arena. Its because the AI thinks the building isn't finished yet or even built and sometimes to proceed to make more of the same thus spamming em. I've seen 4-5 of the vehicle building at worst so the core builder code will need a tweak for this. The Vanilla DC AI does this much worse though :(

[Zenoth]

Waiting on both Arkhan and Larkin to take a look.. I worked for 10+ hours to get it out and was more than satisfied. I outlined everything that should be addressed.

One thing I forgot: DE AI likes to make more than enough infantry, vehicle, and sometimes tech buildings like the Wych Arena. Its because the AI thinks the building isn't finished yet or even built and sometimes to proceed to make more of the same thus spamming em. I've seen 4-5 of the vehicle building at worst so the core builder code will need a tweak for this. The Vanilla DC AI does this much worse though :(

Ok thanks for the information. While you're at it thudo, perhaps posting all of your observations could help the testers not to prepare a report that takes three hours to make about something that you already knew about, if you want that is. In other words, all of the known bugs under the current build.

[Capulin]

For what it's worth, I also noticed a strange AI bug when playing Normal Difficulty on a 8 man 4 v 4 skirmish where none of the AI even bothered to build past a tech tier 2. - I might add I was tech level 4. - (None built a mechanized / vehicular module.) Map was Rhean Jungle. Doubt that would help you much as you'd probably need something more solid to look at.

Edited by Capulin, 10 March 2008 - 03:10 AM.

[thudo]

That doesn't happen with OUR AI.. Someone said put Ork AI on StartPoint3 on map 6p_Pavonian Heartland and guess what: no issues with our latest SS AI so...

[dreddnott]

Hey, thud, have room for one more tester?

I just got Soulstorm today and I have to say that I have once again been disappointed by the "stock" AI players. Should've figured they wouldn't change very much going from DC to SS, since you're doing such a great job, why bother? :D It also looks like it has about a splinter fleet's worth of bugs in the game proper, but that doesn't bother me. We can fix it even if Relic won't, right?

[thudo]

Don't get me started on those SS bugs especially the Sister LP HolyIcon addon bug.. oh brotha!!!!!!!! Although the DE HQ Abilities UI bug I knew about as it occurs if you play as all AIs.. knew that back in October. Not sure that can be fixed since those abilities are on the HUD now.. pretty bad.. but remember: coding architecture for 99% of all games in the industry is the lowest of priorities. But yep.. would love to have ya aboard.. that makes 4.

[McCloud]

If you like I'd be more than happy to test as well. Juest keep me updated

[Smokeskin]

Since this seem to be the place to sign up for betatesters, I'd like to do it too

I don't like online playing (it's addictive and interfered with my social life), and the original AI for DC just wasn't up for any sort of challenge. I really liked your DC AI, it was fun to play against.

I'm sure the SS one will be just as good, and if I can help it getting done faster (and even get to play it before release ), that sounds like a sweet deal