The sorian PA AI thread

Ah, OK. So you can specify different criteria for one squad, ala

Code:

        {
          "unit_types": "((Tank | Bot) & Mobile) & (AirDefense | Construction)",
          "min_count": 0,
          "percent": 0.2,
          "squad": "Defense"
        },
        {
          "unit_types": "Land & Scout",
          "min_count": 0,
          "percent": 0.05,
          "squad": "Defense"
        }

And then those different units would be crammed together in defense.

One behaviour not mentioned was escort. What does that mean to the AI? How does it differ from defense? Attack things that come into the guard radius only?

Shouldn't it instead try to micro on the edge of the ENEMY max range (+bias) instead? Respectively:

min(enemey range + bias, own range - bias)

I don't think so, no, because the priority is to bring all your guns to bear and the micro is to dodge shots. A Dox and Bolo have the same range, if the Dox micro at the edge of a Bolo's range under AI control then the Dox lose. Dox swarm tanks, they don't take them at range.

Also, sorian, now you've introduced multiple personality tags you're only one (tedious) step away from enabling multi-AI support. Just add a personality check to the top of each block for the "sorian" tag, and boom.

Also, while we're at it, I'm seeing instances (this is in PTE) of factories stopping building and I see no reason for it.



Base got hit with a nuke, but with that float the AI should be fine to build. Could this have interfered with CanDeployLandFromBase? Other than that the only checks are cost and personality, and all these factories were working fine earlier.

When the AI forms a platoon to move through a teleporter, is the platoon dissolved on the other side? The behaviour I've seen suggests it's forming new ones as the units arrive, but thought I'd confirm.

.

I think personality_tags doesn't work.

Code:

'Vanilla Uber': {
            metal_drain_check: 0.52,
            energy_drain_check: 0.57,
            metal_demand_check: 0.72,
            energy_demand_check: 0.72,
            micro_type: 2,
            go_for_the_kill: true,
            priority_scout_metal_spots: true,
            enable_commander_danger_responses: true,
            neural_data_mod: 1.0,
            adv_eco_mod: 1.3,
            adv_eco_mod_alone: 0.85,
            personality_tag: "uber"
        },
        'Vanilla Artillery': {
            metal_drain_check: 0.52,
            energy_drain_check: 0.57,
            metal_demand_check: 0.72,
            energy_demand_check: 0.72,
            personality_tags:
            [
               "uber"
            ],
            micro_type: 2,
            go_for_the_kill: true,
            priority_scout_metal_spots: true,
            enable_commander_danger_responses: true,
            neural_data_mod: 1.0,
            adv_eco_mod: 1.3,
            adv_eco_mod_alone: 0.85
        },   

Of these two, only Vanilla Uber will work, Vanilla Artillery will sit around doing nothing (Queller requires one of five tags to build anything). This is in PTE of course.

To confirm I added the following to the vanilla AI and loaded up Absurd.

Code:

{
   "build_list":[
      {
         "name":"Wall",
         "to_build":"Wall",
         "instance_count":1,
         "priority":5000,
         "builders":[
            "Commander"
         ],
         "build_conditions":[
            [
               {
                  "test_type":"HasPersonalityTag",
                  "string0":"PreventsWaste",
                  "boolean":true
               },
               {
                  "test_type":"CanAffordBuildDemand"
               }
            ]
         ],
         "placement_rules":{
            "buffer":3,
            "threat":{
               "influence_type":"AntiSurface",
               "compare_type":"<",
               "radius":10,
               "value":50
            }
         }
      }
   ]
}

It built no walls. When I removed the HasPersonalityTag block it built walls.

On a side note, you've changed the metal_drain_check on Absurd to 0.55. This causes it to go MEX first. Might I suggest 0.54? This will allow it to go factory first while leading it to run less tight on metal than 0.52 did.

Certain CSG will stop planes when they fly over them. The AI doesn't appear to ever unstick these platoons unless they're engaged in combat.

Sorian, is there a way to run server.exe to have it just run an AI game with chosen personalities without launching the GUI? I'd love to be able to quickly run a number of games to test whether change X is really beneficial. I see there's a --no-players options, but I can't figure out if it can be used the way I want or if it's intended simply in conjunction with the neural net training.

Targeting boo boo by the AI here





The AI's Sheller doesn't fire on the Commander at any point during the period shown. Had it done so it would have won the game. It ends up losing to an Inferno drop because it wanders its Commander out of the base.

Would including AllMetalSpotsFull tests help the AI avoid trying to find metal spots that don't exist, or is this already a part of the CanFindMetalSpotToBuildBasic test?

Also, this still happens.

Yeah, two armies, one metal spot, two MEX.

Another addition to the Quitch wishlist: the ability for the AI to use teleporters on a single planet

It seems perfectly doable to setup the AI to erect a teleporter in a probably useful location to ferry its armies around, but right now it won't actually use them. Prepare for some non-coder stuff here Would it be possible for the AI, when sending army A from point X to point Y, to look at whether a trip to the nearest teleporter and out the exit point would be faster? Or even to only consider this when forming a platoon and ignore the distance to teleporter (since both would be in the main base) and then just look at whether the exit point is closer? As the crow flies distance stuff for simplicities sake.

Obviously there are ways for that to go wrong, such as the teleporter ending up on an island or something, but it would be useful for larger maps.

More Quitch wishlisting:

1. Ability to detect ratio of CSG to planet radius size (for making an educated guess as to how chokey the map is)
2. DistFromNearestEnemyThreat is configured at the start of the game to equal the distance to the nearest possible enemy spawn
   
3. Ratio of enemy players to planet radius (for FFA customisation)

Now back to tearing my hair out on figuring out how best to integrate Grenadiers into Queller

Also: a pony.