[SERVER] AI Bugfixes and Enhancements

The base game AI implementation for Planetary Annihilation: TITANS features a number of flaws, primarily due to the AI failing to keep up with an evolving unit roster over the course of the game's lifespan. This mod aims to fix those issues.

Please note that there are many ways to resolve the issues handled by this mod; while its purpose is bugfixing, the solutions chosen are in accordance with my interpretation of how best to resolve them, without straying away from the AI's current implementation.

Installation

You should download and install this mod via the Planetary Annihilation: TITANS in-game Community Mods.

If you are using PAMM you will need to download the mod from GitHub.

What It Does

• Prevents hover units getting stuck on islands with land armies.
• Ensures Bluehawk Mobile Tactical Missiles are handled as a long-range unit.
• Recognises that the Advanced Naval Factory can be effective even without a naval route.
• Builds the Phoenix Advanced Fighter.
• Builds the Horsefly Advanced Strafer.
• Prevents the inclusion of factories in mobile unit ratio checks.
• Removes unnecessary economy checks from Titan builds.
• Uncaps the Drifter Hover Tank build ratio when there is no land route.
• Prevents the creation of naval fleets consisting of only Barnacle Naval Barges.
• Prevents orbital scouts from getting stuck on gas giants.
• Tries to avoid placing land factories in areas without land routes.
• Builds Metal Extractors using Orbital Fabricators.
• Builds Torpedo Launchers.
• Builds the Stryker Attack Vehicle.
• Builds the Piranha Gunboat.
• Ensures Spark Tesla Bots are always built by the Unit Cannon.
• Ensures Locust Nano Swarms are always built by the Unit Cannon.
• Adds a new difficulty Normal+ between Normal and Hard.
  
• Builds the Icarus Solar Drone.
• Builds the Stinger Anti-Air Bot.
• Adds a Random option for difficulty selection.
• Prevents amphibious units getting stuck on islands with land armies.

What It Doesn't Do

• Fix these issues in Galactic War, as this mode cannot load server mods.

CHANGELOG

Version 2.14.0 - 2023-09-02

• Build land titans
• Add minimum threat levels required before Titans are built

Version 2.13.0 - 2023-06-19

• Updated for PA 116982

Version 2.12.0 - 2022-09-19

• Updated builds in accordance with changes in PA 116242

Version 2.11.1 - 2022-08-08

• Fix icon

Version 2.11.0 - 2022-07-22

• Support amphibious platoons
• Random personality selection properly handles Penchant AI faction specific personalities
• Random personality selection excludes Queller AI from Bugs slots

Version 2.10.0 - 2022-01-30

• Add option to have AI difficulty chosen at random

Version 2.9.0 - 2022-01-14

• Disabled land titan builds due to it causing army pathing issues

Version 2.8.3 - 2021-08-06

• Ensures Stinger Anti-Air Bots are always built by the Unit Cannon

Version 2.8.2 - 2021-07-28

• Update Normal+ for changes to Normal - with thanks to quildtide

Version 2.8.1 - 2021-07-13

• Require a naval threat before building torpedo launchers to avoid some occurrences of CanDeployNavalFromBase being unreliable

Version 2.8.0 - 2021-07-10

• Remove Reckoner metadata as this is now in the replay feed
• Builds the Stinger Anti-Air Bot

Version 2.7.0 - 2021-06-13

• Builds the Icarus Solar Drone

Version 2.6.0 - 2021-05-30

• Don't build land and air Titans unless the enemy presence is one they can attack
• No longer checks the energy requirement for the Helios as it won't use the teleporter

Version 2.5.0 - 2021-05-11

• Add metadata to allow Reckoner to differentiate vanilla and bugfix AIs

Version 2.4.1 - 2021-04-28

• Correctly assign Normal+ difficulty in a new lobby if it was the last difficulty used

Version 2.4.0 - 2021-04-27

• Added Normal+ difficulty between Normal and Hard

Version 2.3.1 - 2021-01-19

• Fixed incompatibility with Legion

Version 2.3.0 - 2021-01-15

• Commander builds Orbital Launcher
• Commander builds Umbrella

Version 2.2.0 - 2020-10-29

• Avoid trying to form invalid squads
• Improved compatibility with Second Wave

Version 2.1.0 - 2020-10-09

• Land Titan builds require some space around them
• Ensure artillery and tactical land units include each other in their ratio checks
• Scout with Stryker Attack Vehicles

Version 2.0.0 - 2020-06-25

• Remove dependency on AI Mod Compatibility Framework

Version 1.4.0 - 2020-05-29

• Builds the Stryker Attack Vehicle
• Builds the Piranha Gunboat
• Ensures Spark Tesla Bots are always built by the Unit Cannon
• Ensures Locust Nano Swarms are always built by the Unit Cannon
• Further adjusts how specialist unit ratios are measured to avoid units sitting in the base without a platoon

Version 1.3.0 - 2020-04-25

• Enable building of Basic Metal Extractors by Orbital Fabricators
• Enable building of Basic and Advanced Torpedo Launcher
• Removed unnecessary file shadowing

Version 1.2.1 - 2020-01-26

• Ensure land combat fabber build checks match the ratio check in the platoon template

Version 1.2 - 2020-01-19

• Reversal of island approach, now tries to avoid putting land factories on islands

Version 1.1 - 2020-01-18

• Prevents orbital scouts from getting stuck on gas giants.

Version 1.0.2 - 2020-01-18

• Improve compatibility with Legion Expansion

Version 1.0.1 - 2020-01-18

• Fix a spacing error.

Version 1.0 - 2020-01-18

• Prevents hover units getting stuck on islands with land armies or in ponds with naval fleets
• Ensures Bluehawk Mobile Tactical Missiles are handled as a long-range unit
• Recognises that the Advanced Naval Factory can be effective even without a naval route
• Recognises that the Basic Vehicle Factory can be effective even without a land route
• Builds the Phoenix Advanced Fighter
• Builds the Horsefly Advanced Strafer
• Prevents the inclusion of factories in mobile unit ratio checks
• Removes unnecessary economy checks from Titan builds
• Builds the Atlas Titan
• Builds the Ares Titan
• Uncaps the Drifter Hover Tank build ratio when there is no land route
• Prevents the creation of naval fleets consisting of only Barnacle Naval Barges

Version 1.1 - 2020-01-18

• Prevents orbital scouts from getting stuck on gas giants

Version 1.2 - 2020-01-19

• Reversal of island approach, now tries to avoid putting land factories on islands

But, Quitch, isn't this suboptimal? No, because the AI's island detection is dodgy at best, so by having it avoid islands as best it can you still end up with a smattering of land factories on them. This leads to something that more closely resembles optimal play, with significant improvements seen to its performance on maps like Pacific.

Version 1.2.1 - 2020-01-26

• Ensure land combat fabber build checks match the ratio check in the platoon template

so i take it this is purely for the standart AI difficultysettings but leaves annything queller related allone?

This is purely for the base game AI. Queller already had fixes in place for most of these items, and where it didn't it needed to implement its own fix.

Version 1.3.0 - 2020-04-25

• Enable building of Basic Metal Extractors by Orbital Fabricators
• Enable building of Basic and Advanced Torpedo Launcher
• Removed unnecessary file shadowing

Version 1.4.0 - 2020-05-29

• Builds the Stryker Attack Vehicle
• Builds the Piranha Gunboat
• Ensures Spark Tesla Bots are always built by the Unit Cannon
• Ensures Locust Nano Swarms are always built by the Unit Cannon
• Further adjusts how specialist unit ratios are measured to avoid units sitting in the base without a platoon

Version 2.0.0 - 2020-06-25

• Remove dependency on AI Mod Compatibility Framework

Version 2.1.0 - 2020-10-09

• Land Titan builds require some space around them
• Ensure artillery and tactical land units include each other in their ratio checks
• Scout with Stryker Attack Vehicles

Version 2.2.0 - 2020-10-29

• Avoid trying to form invalid squads
• Improved compatibility with Second Wave

Version 2.3.0 - 2021-01-15

• Commander builds Orbital Launcher
• Commander builds Umbrella

Version 2.3.1 - 2021-01-19

• Fixed incompatibility with Legion

Version 2.4.0 - 2021-04-27

• Added Normal+ difficulty between Normal and Hard

Version 2.4.1 - 2021-04-28

• Correctly assign Normal+ difficulty in a new lobby if it was the last difficulty used

Version 2.5.0 - 2021-05-11

• Add metadata to allow Reckoner to differentiate vanilla and bugfix AIs

Version 2.6.0 - 2021-05-30

• Don't build land and air Titans unless the enemy presence is one they can attack
• No longer checks the energy requirement for the Helios as it won't use the teleporter

Version 2.7.0 - 2021-06-13

• Builds the Icarus Solar Drone

Version 2.8.0 - 2021-07-10

• Remove Reckoner metadata as this is now in the replay feed
• Builds the Stinger Anti-Air Bot