For Backers Only: AI building stuff

I wonder what do you think about adding "Random" for AI difficulty option?

Is there any way to find how the AI scores everything for threat? I'm assuming it's all in the neural networks, though the files under AI are clearly not meaningful to a human.

I noticed some strange AI pathfinding on the Dustbowl system when working on Queller (it was the most roundabout flanking maneuver of all time), so fired up the default AI to see if it did the same. In that game I noticed this rather bizarre behaviour.



It had no other build commands queued, and when I enabled order display I could see it had a series of movement orders plotted to take it on that loop course. I can see no reason why it would do this.

I don't even why @sorian why

Sorian, I'm seeing some strange behaviour in the AI around buildings. It never seems to like committing Dox against them no matter the numbers, but nor does it withdraw. In the PiP the Dox are just over the NE point.



I also noticed that once a plane flies over the AI breaks out of this pattern and commits some units,

Sorian, would the bug with Dox shooting over bot factories have caused the neural net to learn some bad lessons about the ability of bots to kill factories?

The thought of that being a neural net training for Real life bots just scares the **** out of me.

Sorian, what sets DesireEnergy and DesireMetal to true? Given that a PotentialEfficiency check exists and is used, the first explanation that springs to mind seems unlikely.

If handmade maps are returning does that mean you're planning any kind of AI hint system for maps?

hey I also have a question about AI: When makes the AI go and actually attack with the platoon?

What the AI does it it build massive amount of units and even adds them to platoons, sometimes to more than one, but then it just leaves them in the base and never attacks. I have been playing with the AI files but I can't find a way to fix that. Earlier today I had a game where the Ai had a better unit composition and killed all of my units, but then rather then pushing into my base and winning it just retreated the units into its where they sat until ma 5 holkings battery slowly killed them.

The AI does seem overly cautious around bases. Maybe it's because the bot factory bug has it thinking buildings are harder to kill than they are. Maybe it's because it's grouping stuff in the area together as a threat, not realising it can destroy the outer buildings safely. Maybe it's our micro means we assess a situation differently than the AI with its micro.

Still. At times the AI can have up to 100 units grouped into 2-3 massive platoons in different parts of their base just idling.

Also hey @sorian any chance that the ai.js file makes it into the list of files that get uplodad to server. I'd hate that everyone needed to get a ui mod for the AI to work properly.

I can't say as I've ever seen that. Are you sure you haven't set a platoon minimum requirement that the AI cannot meet?

It wouldn't be everyone, only the host. And my experience is it works as part of a server mod, but only if you first load a system, the UI is then refreshed with the ai.js values. An F5 in the lobby might do the same.

My minimum counts for every platoon are half it's maximum count except in regard of special modifiers (like artillery, defence and scout). Those are set to 0.

Example:

Code:

    "Land_Attack_Large": {
      "units": [
        {
          "max_count": 20,
          "min_count": 10,
          "squad": "Fast",
          "unit_types": "(Tank & Mobile) - Fabber - AirDefense - Construction - Artillery - Heavy - Scout"
        },
        {
          "max_count": 20,
          "min_count": 10,
          "squad": "General",
          "unit_types": "((Tank | Bot) & Mobile) - Fabber - AirDefense - Construction - Artillery - Heavy - Scout"
        },
        {
          "min_count": 0,
          "percent": 0.25,
          "squad": "Artillery",
          "unit_types": "((Tank | Bot) & Mobile) & Artillery"
        },
        {
          "min_count": 0,
          "percent": 0.5,
          "squad": "Close",
          "unit_types": "((Tank | Bot) & Mobile) & Heavy"
        },
        {
          "min_count": 0,
          "percent": 0.2,
          "squad": "Defense",
          "unit_types": "((Tank | Bot) & Mobile) & (AirDefense | Construction)"
        },
        {
          "min_count": 0,
          "percent": 0.05,
          "squad": "Defense",
          "unit_types": "Land & (Scout | Recon)"
        }
      ]
    },

Yes, but what about the check that causes the AI to begin forming the platoon in the first place in the platoon_ files? And how many units did it have vs the minimum? What if it identified multiple threats and tried to form multiple platoons, did they all have enough for the minimum count? Have you tried removing the minimums and seeing if the behaviour continues?

Code:

    {
        "name": "Land Attack Platoon Large",
        "to_build": "Land_Attack_Large",
        "instance_count": -1,
        "priority": 102,
        "build_conditions": [[{
            "test_type": "UnitPoolCount",
            "unit_type_string0": "((Tank | Bot) & Mobile) - Fabber - AirDefense - Construction",
            "compare0": ">=",
            "value0": 10
        },
        {
            "test_type": "CanAttackWithPoolUnitsLand",
            "string0": "WL_AnySurface",
            "string1": "WL_AnySurface",
            "unit_type_string0": "Mobile | Structure"
        }]],
        "task_type": "LandAttack"
    },