The sorian PA AI thread

Thats alright on the "normal" difficulty, but if i can win against absurd within 5 minutes (exluding the comm that moves super fast and shoots fast) then things are a little more of an issue, especially late game G.W. being easier then early G.W D=

Seriously late game is easier? I've found it gets harder as time goes on. I'm now in multiplanet systems where they have orbital things I don't. I've had to Unit Cannon or Nuke my way to victory.

For smaller systems it is harder, and you have a less of a chance of getting "lucky" with the first tech cards, less 1 planet systems to start with and facing off the faction leaders early (the orange and red you need to be prepared). Its also another problem with G.W. is that bigger systems are easier then smaller ones, still even then i often find it easier for later games because i get lucky on tech, theres very little parts to the game where skill matters, its in the tech-cards and systems you play on.

This "bug" has been in the game since I bought it, so I thought to bring it up.
You know how fighters assisting land platoons need extreme micro because they keep on wandering into enemy land based AA defense?

Well it is annoying. An unnecessary inconvenience. It would be nice for the AI to have the fighters calculate the range of land based AA and avoiding it while staying ~ 100m near the target it is assisting so that it wouldn't commit suicide.

Isn't it part of AI

It's more of a gameplay mechanic; it doesn't actually have anything to do with the AI that this thread is about.

Something I suspect the AI doesn't do right now that might be a nice addition is that when it has a nuke, and the enemy commander is nukable but not killable by one nuke, it lowers the commander's threat so that air and ground units attack it. At this point it doesn't need to kill the commander, only remove enough health so that a nuke will.

I think he just misunderstood, you don't work on unit AI at all, right?

I guess it's fitting to ask who does? Cx

How about: Nobody?

If I'm not entirely mistaken, then unit "AI" was only subject to some bugfixes since the introduction of the command system, and that's it. Well, actually they don't even have an AI or anything which could be called such. They are just controlled by the first order logic command scripts, that's it.

They move according to vector field generated by their given command, choose targets according to the priority list given in their unit description, and are slightly affected by the push mechanic and the flocking algorithm.

They are not performing ANY situational analysis, except for seeking additional targets while they have no primary, reachable target set.

Still artificial intelligence.. Just not- Intelligent. :l

this has been mentioned before but still valid

AI should really consider building at least one anti-nuke launcher before building nuclear missile launchers

Sorian, before the new build launches I think you should look at the difference between North and South AI on Pacific. The North one will often build one vehicle factory then just sit there and assist it, it never takes the metal on the coast nor builds another factory. The Southern AI spawns in a different place due to the current Pacific metal bug and doesn't suffer from this issue.

While the AI works fine on Pacific in Pte, I thought it would be handy to examine as it might be indicative of some underlying bug that could crop up in the future or in certain game situations.

EDIT: I realise now the new release patch is already out. Ah well.

Wow. You are stretching the definition of intelligence very far.

In a Queller test on PAX Prime running the latest build the AI turned up with an Astraeus carrying a fabber. It came down over the water, then just sat there. It never unloaded its cargo.

Over the weekend I did a little experiment in stable build 79600 with evenly matched AIs playing 1v1 on Pacific. I didn't see any of the aforementioned single vehicle focus; in fact, AIs now seem to understand that there's no role for vehicles on Pacific, often starting with bots or air. Here's a summary of 5 games [SPOILER - victory to the south]:

1. Lobby ID = 11144406690156464460, Absurd AIs, duration = 18:25, southern victory
   
2. Lobby ID = 7511714723055814467, Absurd AIs, duration = 11:39, southern victory
3. Lobby ID = 6547567078042554124, Relentless AIs, duration = 26:53, southern victory
4. Lobby ID = 5230343038687286593, Absurd AIs, duration = 11:19, southern victory
5. Lobby ID = 15205792829772298302, Hard AIs, duration = 36:16, southern victory

Aside from spawn location the deciding factor appears to have been one AIs failure to build naval early (or at all in some instances). Some other weird AI behaviour:

• Failure to build torpedo launchers... ever.
• Dox groups being sent to and hanging around at underwater mex locations, mimicking land-based raiding and map control, but obviously pointless.
• Prioritizing destruction of any and all in-range units and structures before firing on a commander.
• Failure to move an attacking unit to re-position for an effective firing solution (i.e. when a Barracuda's torpedoes are blocked by a peninsula/island it doesn't re-position)

Are these only for the absurd AI? Otherwise the issues mentioned could just be because the AI is so gimped.

He mentions which AI in the description of the games. Most were Absurd, though he also tested Relentless and Hard AI's in a couple of games.

@cdrkf He didn't mention during which games he saw the issues, so I feel it's better that he clarifies and that he knows for the future of his AI reporting.