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REL - Space Colony Scripting


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#21 Phoenix Rising

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 05:59 AM

Yeah, I did the plots on my own, so I only checked that the actual story scripting files worked.

Edited by Phoenix Rising, 15 January 2010 - 06:00 AM.


#22 Tropical Bob

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 07:58 AM

Turns out I had a backed up copy of my modified version from September 2nd or so. About 8 or so weeks in, the AI has upgraded its Dolomar Space Colony and built a lot of ships, without doing anything important yet. So I think the AI is working right now, just not very quickly. More than what's been happening previously, at least.

EDIT: Hooray! The AI finally stormed and steamrolled Corulag. (Also note the amazing framerate of 1FPS. Woot woot.)
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Edited by Tropical Bob, 15 January 2010 - 09:07 AM.


#23 Sûlherokhh

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 02:22 PM

Is the framerate display an internal function? And if so, how do you activate it? Thanks.

Testing you SpaceColonyFix right now. :p

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#24 Tropical Bob

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 08:09 PM

It's an Xfire overlay. Neat program.

#25 Phoenix Rising

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Posted 16 January 2010 - 06:14 AM

Gah, 1 FPS; hopefully we can do better than that. I'll have to get some numbers from the testers because I haven't really seen much data on lag, but it certainly doesn't feel that slow for me. Funny though, the AI was tearing up Skyhook with that script (although I did have it on 10x build speed).

#26 Tropical Bob

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Posted 16 January 2010 - 07:45 PM

It only had 1FPS at that moment. Normally it's around 4-5FPS, until the AI starts thinking about flowers or something.

#27 evilbobthebob

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Posted 16 January 2010 - 10:21 PM

Heh. Not necessarily flowers; there is a perception error in PR v1.1 which I unearthed when I was measuring map sizes for feld. Seeing as these perceptual equations define a lot of what the AI does, maybe it's worth looking into. Of course, the ever helpful map editor didn't say exactly what the error is. It simply says "There were perception parsing errors. See PerceptionErrors.txt for details". That file doesn't exist, of course.

(SurfaceFX.xml has a syntax error somewhere too, but that has no bearing on AI)

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#28 Sûlherokhh

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Posted 17 January 2010 - 01:03 AM

I am usually at around 4 to 6 fps. The one thing that boosts it to double that amount is when i haven't selected any planet. In this case the frame rate only occasionally drops to 1, probably when the AI is thinking very hard. So, about half of the processing load seems to be showing the planetary build display and processes, the other half might just be the jagged, rotating selection ring. Just so you know. :)

Edited by Sûlherokhh, 17 January 2010 - 01:03 AM.

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#29 Phoenix Rising

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Posted 17 January 2010 - 04:27 AM

Not necessarily flowers; there is a perception error in PR v1.1 which I unearthed when I was measuring map sizes for feld.

You guys don't get that error message? Huh, we've always had it... I just figured it was a quirk in the map editor. I'll be sure to start over from scratch with the perceptions then when I redo the AI. By the way, we don't override SurfaceFX.xml, so the problem must be in vanilla.

#30 Tropical Bob

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Posted 17 January 2010 - 06:50 AM

Funny though, the AI was tearing up Skyhook with that script (although I did have it on 10x build speed).

Hmmm. The AI's been doing some mischief in my campaign so far, but hasn't really done too much. Week 30- or 40-some-odd, and they've only taken Corulag, N'zoth, and Farrfin. They've attacked me twice, and almost swiped Kaikielius out from under me after I weakened it greatly. Coruscant's kind of been a little on the bare-bones of defense after the AI's silly little antics, but now I think I've got it under control since the Victory-class line has finished upgrading to max and entered production.

I think, when you do the AI over again, you need to increase the priority of the AI Space Station upgrade logic. They've kept Alderaan at level 4 the whole time, and Corulag is still at level 3 or so.

But the good news is that: THE AI IS ABLE TO USE NEW PLANETS NOW YAY!!!

Heh. Not necessarily flowers; there is a perception error in PR v1.1 which I unearthed when I was measuring map sizes for feld. Seeing as these perceptual equations define a lot of what the AI does, maybe it's worth looking into. Of course, the ever helpful map editor didn't say exactly what the error is. It simply says "There were perception parsing errors. See PerceptionErrors.txt for details". That file doesn't exist, of course.

(SurfaceFX.xml has a syntax error somewhere too, but that has no bearing on AI)

Does it mention anything other than the existence of the syntax error? My XML syntax checker showed nothing. But I did find this:
<!-- THIS SURFACE FX DOES NOT DO ANYTHING.  PLEASE REMOVE IT. -->
<SurfaceFX name="Hover_No_Particles">
	<Surface_Settings name="default">
	<Particle_Name>NONE</Particle_Name>
	<Particle_Min_Energy>0.2</Particle_Min_Energy>	
	  </Surface_Settings>

</SurfaceFX>
It says to remove, but it's still there. Maybe there's something wrong with it, and the game knows, but it doesn't cause any problems. Or something.

It's at the end of SurfaceFX.xml, so if you want to try deleting it and see if it helps. I don't know.

Edited by Tropical Bob, 17 January 2010 - 06:51 AM.


#31 evilbobthebob

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Posted 17 January 2010 - 02:14 PM

I know the source of the SurfaceFX 'syntax error'. When the map editor is running in a mods folder, it doesn't fall back to FoC files if it can't find them; it falls back to original EAW files. The syntax error is probably a reference that's missing. When I put the FoC SurfaceFX into PR and ran the map editor, it threw up a nice exception which told me nothing useful. There's probably some cross-referencing issue somewhere.

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#32 trenthowell

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Posted 20 January 2010 - 05:22 AM

Well hell, this has been a thread I've been watching for a month (I got distracted by STO though...).

Many thanks for your work Tropical Bob, this was one of those things that bugged the heck out of me, glad to see I can give 1.1 a true run for its money now :)

#33 Tropical Bob

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Posted 20 January 2010 - 06:04 AM

Well hell, this has been a thread I've been watching for a month (I got distracted by STO though...).

Many thanks for your work Tropical Bob, this was one of those things that bugged the heck out of me, glad to see I can give 1.1 a true run for its money now :)

Yeah, sorry about the wait on that. Every time I tested it, I ran into problems. Like it not working because I referenced the wrong file and didn't know it until I released the ZIP. And breaking the AI. Etc.

I owe it to PR and Hirken for letting me know that it worked, since my attempts at knowing for certain were sabotaged by my own system.

EDIT: And, of course!, PR for giving me the proper script coding to work with.

Edited by Tropical Bob, 20 January 2010 - 12:31 PM.


#34 scotty75

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 02:30 PM

I noticed that it doesn't work when i include the bugfixes. The ai does build a space colony, but no stations of any kind.

Without the bugfixes installed the ai does build stations.

#35 Tropical Bob

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Posted 02 February 2010 - 08:42 AM

1. Are you saying that the AI doesn't upgrade the Space Colony, or doesn't build the Space Stations required for units?

2. Have you made any modifications of your own before or on top of the modifications done between the bug fixes and the colony scripting?

Neither archive has files that overlap with each other, else I would have made compatibility versions. The only thing I can think of off the bat is that:
-You're looking at a planet that has Space camouflage. Lots of them do, actually.
-The AI apparently doesn't have a limited queue like the player does, or at least limited at a much higher number, such as 20 instead of the player's 5. The AI could be queuing a lot of units up before the Colony upgrade or Station build, so it may take a while for them to actually get around to building things up.
-There's not a good GUI for Space special structure slots, which is what the Golans and Space Stations take up. The game will only show two at a time. So, really, we don't know much about whether or not the AI builds them unless we engage the planet in Space Tactical.

Edited by Tropical Bob, 02 February 2010 - 08:42 AM.


#36 scotty75

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Posted 02 February 2010 - 10:55 AM

1. Are you saying that the AI doesn't upgrade the Space Colony, or doesn't build the Space Stations required for units?

2. Have you made any modifications of your own before or on top of the modifications done between the bug fixes and the colony scripting?

Neither archive has files that overlap with each other, else I would have made compatibility versions. The only thing I can think of off the bat is that:
-You're looking at a planet that has Space camouflage. Lots of them do, actually.
-The AI apparently doesn't have a limited queue like the player does, or at least limited at a much higher number, such as 20 instead of the player's 5. The AI could be queuing a lot of units up before the Colony upgrade or Station build, so it may take a while for them to actually get around to building things up.
-There's not a good GUI for Space special structure slots, which is what the Golans and Space Stations take up. The game will only show two at a time. So, really, we don't know much about whether or not the AI builds them unless we engage the planet in Space Tactical.


1. The ai does upgrade it's space colony, it just doesn't build stations. But it could be that it's queued and that the ai will build it later, I don't know.

2. No, it was a clean install. Besides PR 1.1, I installed the slim campaign pack, and nothing else.

About that space camouflage, when in galactic, any newly conquered ai planet does look like it has build stations. Only to find that when you engage in a space battle, there are no stations.

Anyway pr seems to work fine without the bugfixes so, I just continue enjoying it this way.

#37 Tropical Bob

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Posted 02 February 2010 - 06:21 PM

The bug-fixes have a couple important bits to it though, such as fixing the Tector IV-class's firing bones, Imperial I-class's double heavy turboion cannons, Republic-class research, etc.

Just to be completely on the same page, when hovered over a planet:
-The top building row is the Space Colony level indicator.
-The bottom building row is the Land building indicator.
-The only way to see if any Space special structures (Star Bases, Golans) are built, you have to actually zoom in on the planet. The two small squares on the very left under the giant Fleet window are all we can see of the special structures.
-If you can't see any info about the Space Colony level or Space units, the planet is going to have a Base Stealth (Space) bonus. Space special structures will similarly be "cloaked".

I'd give the AI a little extra time to get its queue emptied out, then check back. I've noticed that the AI built some Star Bases at Corulag, in the same campaign as shown in my "success!" post from the top of the page. Since what you downloaded works without the bug-fixes, then it's not a mis-install or corrupt file or something like that. It could be that the "increased AI aggressiveness" part of the bug-fixes delays the building of Star Bases under the higher offensive unit priority.

#38 Tropical Bob

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Posted 21 March 2010 - 06:54 AM

"Update". The file is now on Filefront for the benefit of lurkers and in-progress registers, as well as an updated file without a duplicated entry for Anaxes.

#39 Kage Acheron

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Posted 23 March 2010 - 12:35 AM

1. Are you saying that the AI doesn't upgrade the Space Colony, or doesn't build the Space Stations required for units?

2. Have you made any modifications of your own before or on top of the modifications done between the bug fixes and the colony scripting?

Neither archive has files that overlap with each other, else I would have made compatibility versions. The only thing I can think of off the bat is that:
-You're looking at a planet that has Space camouflage. Lots of them do, actually.
-The AI apparently doesn't have a limited queue like the player does, or at least limited at a much higher number, such as 20 instead of the player's 5. The AI could be queuing a lot of units up before the Colony upgrade or Station build, so it may take a while for them to actually get around to building things up.
-There's not a good GUI for Space special structure slots, which is what the Golans and Space Stations take up. The game will only show two at a time. So, really, we don't know much about whether or not the AI builds them unless we engage the planet in Space Tactical.


The AI seems to upgrade the Space Colony to the max the planet can support, and then just leaves it there.

Space camouflage wouldn't affect it, since I notice when I'm attacking.
It can't have anything else in the queue, since it can't build anything without space stations...

Very rarely (once), the AI actually builds a space station (in my case level 1). That seems to indicate that the AI can in fact build something, but just chooses not to.

#40 Phoenix Rising

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Posted 25 March 2010 - 06:29 AM

Very rarely (once), the AI actually builds a space station (in my case level 1). That seems to indicate that the AI can in fact build something, but just chooses not to.

That doesn't totally surprise me. They should be category mask Capital or something in v1.1, which would get picked up by the build units script. That they're a pretty awful choice next to a star destroyer probably explains the rarity.



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