Version 0.5.0.1 UPGRADED TO BETA Changelog Updated for new meta Wider variety of openings now possible, more responsive to what opponent is doing Added bot raid platoons per the updated default AI SXX lasers can now be accompanied by Avenger escorts Don't build basic fabbers if you can build advanced ones First pass at some proper naval play AI builds naval platoons at sizes relevant to the threat (will need tuning) Naval platoons broken down into squads Torpedo defences used in identical fashion to laser turrets Higher ratio of advanced fabbers to factories Bot sightings can now cause the AI to go air if it hasn't already Much greater spacing between radars At this point ignores almost all AI personality settings not relating to the economy Allowed to drop more defences at heavy MEX concentrations Tries to ensure it has advanced radar for advanced naval Added support for catalysts Updated now obsolete Need[Basic/Advanced]LandFabber to use the new Bot/Vehicle test Take the skies before building bombers Known issues Commander sometimes sits there doing nothing, primarily on maps with dense terrain First fabber always assists as its first action (CANTFIX) Doesn't seem particularly bothered about defending its base with mobile units Will not expand via teleporters, it has to use transports (CANTFIX) Will often take much longer than necessary routes to attack (CANTFIX) Fabbers don't always take the closest metal spot when building MEX (CANTFIX) Doesn't defend its fabbers (CANTFIX) Dithers with units around buildings sometimes instead of taking them out (CANTFIX) Based around a 1.0 economic multiplier and doesn't utilise eco boosts effectively Clumps up defence towers Attempts to attack with Dox underwater (CANTFIX) Builds laser turrets on water Will queue buildings on the other side of obstacles despite closer locations (pathfinding wise) being available (CANTFIX) Will scout the entire map, even when it's mirrored and so knows the spawns (CANTFIX)
The drop down you have selected is the AI personality. This applies as normal (acting as the difficulty level with the vanilla personality set). Queller changes the AI's brain, so everything after that point. So long as you see Queller in the bottom left then you're fine,
Version 0.5.1 Beta All fabbers can build naval again Removed three fabber opening Known Issues Commander sometimes sits there doing nothing, primarily on maps with dense terrain First fabber always assists as its first action (CANTFIX) Doesn't seem particularly bothered about defending its base with mobile units Will not expand via teleporters, it has to use transports (CANTFIX) Will often take much longer than necessary routes to attack (CANTFIX) Fabbers don't always take the closest metal spot when building MEX (CANTFIX) Doesn't defend its fabbers (CANTFIX) Dithers with units around buildings sometimes instead of taking them out (CANTFIX) Based around a 1.0 economic multiplier and doesn't utilise eco boosts effectively Clumps up defence towers Attempts to attack with Dox underwater (CANTFIX) Builds laser turrets on water Will queue buildings on the other side of obstacles despite closer locations (pathfinding wise) being available (CANTFIX) Will scout the entire map, even when it's mirrored and so knows the spawns (CANTFIX)
So far, it's a really nice and solid AI. Seemingly large improvements over the vanilla AI. Well done so far.
I have an issue with idle fabbers and I cannot trace the cause. It doesn't happen with the vanilla AI, but it doesn't seem to be linked to any particular Queller file. Queller has the same catch all assist job as vanilla, so if there's nothing better to do then I think they should be helping a factory. It's making me think there's an error in my files, that maybe fabbers are trying to do something they can't causing them to go idle. The idleness goes away if I removed the Queller fabber_ files. I tried bringing them back one-by-one and thought I'd traced it to the economy file, but then it just went and had the problem again on a different map.
Version 1.0 Thanks to Sorian for his patience in answering questions and for all the latest AI improvements which are totally awesome Won't move commander by Astraeus except as a last resort Reduced buffer spaces from many buildings to allow tighter base packing More aggressive about getting an air presence Will ensure it has air if it's alone on a planet Builds orbital radar if it's alone on a planet and doesn't have any Fixed bug when checking if an advanced naval factory is needed Updated for new AI features Will build advanced air fabbers when alone Added sub support Commander has more flexibility in building eco structures Uses more fabbers More aggressive in using fabbers for building factories Only use air fabbers when the skies are somewhat safe Now uses Piranhas as scouts when it doesn't have full air scouting yet Shadowed ai_unit_map file as official version is missing the Piranha Can now open with air on naval maps Can now build a bot factory on naval maps regardless of other factory choices Overhauled naval platoons Fixed issue preventing AI attacking with naval forces Resolved all known issues of idle fabbers Will try to be aggressive about getting in the water when no land attack route exists Removed beta tag Known issues First fabber always assists as its first action (CANTFIX) Will sometimes take much longer than necessary routes to attack (CANTFIX) Fabbers don't always take the closest metal spot when building MEX (CANTFIX) Doesn't defend its fabbers (CANTFIX) Based around a 1.0 economic multiplier and may not utilise eco boosts effectively Attempts to attack with Dox underwater (CANTFIX) Will queue buildings on the other side of obstacles despite closer locations (pathfinding wise) being available (CANTFIX) AI personalities will have little impact on the unit composition (WONTFIX)
Version 1.0.1 Fixed issue with Piranha scouting Fixed commander factory drain checks to use the correct factory Somehow broke my naval attack fix before releasing version 1. Fixed for reals this time. Corrected bug where commander wasn't checking drain on its first two vehicle factories Known issues First fabber always assists as its first action (CANTFIX) Will sometimes take much longer than necessary routes to attack (CANTFIX) Fabbers don't always take the closest metal spot when building MEX (CANTFIX) Doesn't defend its fabbers (CANTFIX) Based around a 1.0 economic multiplier and may not utilise eco boosts effectively Attempts to attack with Dox underwater (CANTFIX) Will queue buildings on the other side of obstacles despite closer locations (pathfinding wise) being available (CANTFIX) AI personalities will have little impact on the unit composition (WONTFIX) Uses too many air fabbers Doesn't use enough naval fabbers on naval maps
AI only works on "absurd" otherwise if set on normal, hard, relentless commander just sits there with latest build. Running on Archlinux which original AI has never worked on my linux box since they released game with dedicated server binary. LoL only the Ultron AI working on this...
I've been watching absurd Queller AIs (v1.0.1) dueling on Pacific (PA v79600). Here's a summary of 7 games: Victory to southern spawn in 13:19. I suspect I botched the lobby setup on this game; the norther AI behaved exactly as MCXplode was experiencing with normal/hard/relentless AIs, so I imagine I left it on the default "normal". There were still things to be learned though... at least from the perspective of someone who has little understanding of what's going on under the hood presumably due to having scouted out its inactive northern neighbour the southern AI forgoes construction of any static defenses and production of T1 fighters it also doesn't bother to send out raiding Dox it built up large numbers of Narwhals, Orcas, Dox and Bumblebees and then attacked in a half-assedly coordinated way, holding back the faster bots and air until the naval had engaged, then sending them in too late to fire any shots - I shouldn't criticize; as if I'd do any better PA's command rate graph was odd for this game; the south AI's APM floated between 10 and 70, with peaks corresponding to unit deployment as one would expect; the north AI's APM holds steady at 60 for the entire game, which it spent mainly standing still, shooting down a few scouts and then retreating to deep water when it started to take fire 13:00-ish is quite a long game considering the inactivity of one participant :/ Victory to northern spawn in 13:46. This was a surprise; in similar tests with the vanilla AI the southern spawn was 5 for 5. Observations: Both AIs were back in the game this time - no more sight-seeing. See?! 13:00-ish for a worthy opponent! Torpedo launchers were built to defend bases and outlying mex; the vanilla AI never built any TLs. Victory to southern spawn in 16:52. South seemed to want it more this time, rolling out naval earlier and harder, and then grinding North down. Victory to southern spawn in 25:52. AIs seemed to be neck-and-neck until 7:00 then South started to gain the upper hand, and by 14:00 it was a run-away train. Victory to southern spawn in 22:52. Same 7:00 and 14:00 pattern as last game. By 16:00 everything is going in South's favour; regardless, South makes some questionable decisions: @18:00 with strong naval presence at North's island South fails to focus down on the comm, allowing it to slip out of FoV into deep water @22:00 North's base is charred ruins, the comm is on the run, South decides the solution is T2 naval @23:00 South starts building an orbital launcher, maybe that's the answer. Victory to southern spawn in 15:34. Again, much like previous 2 games, although South pushes T2 naval @12:00. Victory to northern spawn in 28:21. A comeback for the North! No one tactic or battle was immediately recognizable as "game winning" to me, but I wasn't able to spend as much time in Chronocam this time (and the replay never appeared for some reason). Observations: I rarely see AIs use the Ubercannon, but South did once in this game, against a group of submerged Dox... and yet it won't use it against more threatening attackers?! North decided it needed 2 adjacent T2 bot factories at 23:00. "What the hell bot fabbers, you've got the plans in front of you, we've got the metal and energy, build me another one right next to it!" A lot of the "questionable decisions" I made note of here I've also seen with the vanilla AI, and despsite all that I tip my hat to both Quitch and Sorian! When I take off my spectator hat and get in the ring with either Queller or vanilla I can't hold my own above the "hard" setting. Keep up the great work guys!
This was a peaceful planet... Invasions are good. Some factors outside my control, such as the way it doesn't land a fabber above the spot of its first build, and not rallying troops to teleporters on planets where there's no other threat. But that's outside my control. The biggest problem is that it will invade without intelligence, leading to invasion stalls. Queller doesn't like sending fabbers to invaded worlds because I think the orbital fabber is interfering with the check. Even then it would only send one and then rely on factories to make more. I think I have a hack which will improve the situation. Not sure of orbital radars ending up at gas giants is a bug or the AI collating its forces at a central location for distribution. I think the former so I'm putting in a workaround for that too. Late game economy is a little rough, but I think that's because it won't send fabbers to worlds it invades so it can't continue to grow its economy. It's also not using gas giants as well as it could so I'm working on that.
14032969406840241697 North spawn on Styx. Unfortunately it's giving me that replay bug where no units/structures are visible :/
Version 1.1 This release provides a massive overhaul in how Queller tackles the orbital layer. It also brings Queller's game up-to-speed with the latest balance changes. No longer builds Piranhas when its base is threatened Will build a small contingent of Hummingbirds when alone to shoot down air fabber invaders Fixed AI building the Astraeus for a Commander evac that would never happen Added support for moving orbital fabbers between planets Higher priority given to Deep Space Radar when alone Higher priority given to Deep Space Radar when orbital has been sighted and the AI hasn't built one yet Properly checks that it can afford to run the Deep Space Radar before building it Fixed a bug with Skitters not being assigned to the correct platoon Added support for Jigs Will no longer smash with annihilaser planets Higher priority for orbital fabbers Can send bots through teleporters again Correctly uses a laser tower blueprint when checking possible placement for laser tower instead of using a laser tower single Normal, Hard and Relentless difficulties work again (thanks to MCXplode for the report) Much greater use of naval fabbers on naval maps No longer starts air Stopped the Commander spamming air factories More aggressive about building Hummingbirds to own the skies Builds orbital fabbers and Avengers from the orbital factory Will try to avoid building the SXX at gas giants as it can't send them off-planet and it has no use for them there Won't use ARKYDs for remote scouting when it has the ability to produce Advanced Radar Satellites AI will build antinukes sooner in response to a nuclear threat AI will now use Slammers in armies not raiding forces Fixed error where AI wasn't checking it could afford to run advanced fabbers before building them and thus tanking its economy after teching Corrected errors in checking how many Spinners it can build Added Boom Bot support (though the AI doesn't use them yet) More likely to build advanced radar KNOWN ISSUES TOFIX Based around a 1.0 economic multiplier and may not utilise eco boosts effectively Will use fabbers to construct factories when the commander is available Will build a late bot factory on land maps Needs a better metal/energy balance on maps with lots of orbital and T2 gameplay Too many Vanguards Poor transition from sea domination to orbital Builds too many orbital factories on gas giants INVESTIGATING Won't attack Jigs with Avengers No means to identify a gas giant - haven't been able to make Jig counting work WONTFIX AI personalities will have little impact on the unit composition CANTFIX First fabber always assists as its first action Will sometimes take much longer than necessary routes to attack Fabbers don't always take the closest metal spot when building MEX Doesn't defend its fabbers Attempts to attack with Dox underwater Will queue buildings on the other side of obstacles despite closer locations (pathfinding wise) being available Won't move orbital units (except fabbers and radar) between planets Will send orbital radar to gas giants Can't send Phoenixes between planets Will assign fabbers to a assist on a project that they could start earlier than the fabber they're assisting Will send air fabbers to follow much slower ground fabbers Can't differentiate between Dox and Boom Bots Will only determine where to build with an orbital fabber after it has arrived in orbit leading to unneccessary delays in construction Will sometimes send fabbers which arrive through a teleporter on unnecessarily long journeys to construct things Will count orbital fabber as a fabber presence when looking to send fabbers through teleporters to planets without fabbers
Thanks to everyone who helped me in this evening's testing, such as @stawos. Lots of valuable data was gained.
