The sorian PA AI thread

Again, just talking out of my *** here, but one way to address this would be to have the AI assign probabilities of threat to all map areas that get updated by game events, scouting, etc. This might also solve situations I've seen like this:
I have one planet on lockdown, the AI has another. I have a beachead of avengers and anchors that prevent the AI from sending orbital to scout my planet. The AI builds up nukes but only uses them on my beachead and never takes a potshot at my planet.

It might be better to attach it to whatever the AI uses to decide where to scout next. I assume the map for choosing scout locations is probably based just on the amount of time since the last scout flew over. That value could be modified when the AI detects incoming artillery so that it will focus on scouting that. Once it does, the threat map could take over and it will respond as needed. It's not perfect because it means the commander wouldn't immediately run away from incoming artillery, but it is probably the cheapest way to deal with the problem without forcing Sorian to change a lot.

The best and simple fix is I think to simply get cover if being hit by artillery. And not "iiii'm siiingiiing in the-wait, it's artil"*COMMANDER DESTROYED*.

EDIT: Although it's a nice idea to let him also scout: where does the artillery come from? When attacked.

The AI still handles Dox like they can shoot while underwater.

What causes Need____Fabber to be true? I thought it was linked to fabber_to_factory_ratio_[basic|advanced], but Queller never seems to keep to the ratio despite having its sole checks be the Need____Fabber and CanAffordBuildDemand, with a priority higher than the troop units.

Sorian can you look into the issue where the Ai didnt flee and just died from the Holkins?

Indeed, I found it worked as expected in my naval tests and having just done some double checking it looks like I was using a make believe check of NeedBasicLandFabber. I've fixed them to Bot and Vehicle.

OK, but if our Holkins suddenly self-destruct, that's cheating.

If the AI can't find a location to build which meets the requirements of the placement_rules does it build it anyway, or abandon the build? Do those rules link to the CanFindPlaceToBuild check?

You noted here that NeedLandFabber was split into bot and vehicle due to the split in the AI personality file of land into bot and vehicle.. This implies some interaction between the bot and vehicle weightings and the fabber_to_factory_ratio_basic. Is this correct? Certainly my tests suggest that the AI builds fabbers before the ratio requires it when driven solely by the need test.

Here's my guess:

• The AI has a number of fabbers it needs to obtain as determined by the fabber_to_factory_ratio_basic.
• This number is then divided among the basic personality percentages for bot, vehicle, air and naval.
• So 10 factories at a ratio of 1 means 10 fabbers. Under the default personality this would mean
  • 4.5 vehicle fabbers
  • 2.5 bot fabbers
  • 2 air fabbers
  • 0.5 navy fabbers
• The AI rounds these numbers, leading to a total of 12 fabbers where you would expect to see only 10 (assuming all factory types exist), and this is why the fabber total doesn't match the ratio.

I literally just pulled that out of my backside now, it's not based on testing

But without this the AI becomes super easy to beat. Put artillery in range of the commander and dont let the ai know you have it there.

Also, does the AI ever reinforce platoons, or does it simply form new ones?

When figuring out whether to fight or retreat does the AI take into account other platoons in the area?

Oh, so NeedBasicLandFabber and NeedAdvancedLandFabber are in fact still valid tests?

So does this cover the whole planet, or only areas within the AI's bases? What constitutes a base to the AI?