AI for Drones Faction: Das Schwarm!

[knorke]

When the NKG discovered the new resource filled worlds of the outter rim they were happy as fuck. But then they were not happy because mining the minerals was hard work.
So built mining drones to do the hard work and were happy as fuck.
But then they were not happy because remote controlling was too hard work, too.
So they decided to put an AI into the drones and then was when it all went wrong.

The testing did not start well:

The AI drones would often clog up on top of each other which was funny but ineffective. So the drones were made more effective.
But now they multiplied faster then their build-in selfdestruct mechanism could destroy them.
To be able to continue testing, battle ships were were used to blow up piles of drones.
In some cases meteors had to be summoned.

Soon wrecks and meteors filled the landscape.

SUDDENDLY the drones were fed up with being nuked from orbit all the time....

... and turned against their creators!

Now, somewhere in the vast nothingness of space, some former mining robots are on the loose and it's ON!
-----------


New Lua AI for CT, plays Drones faction only. (if you put it as NKG, it will do nothing)
Should work on all the CT_ maps.
How it plays:
It is not very competive, I wanted it to be more like "wild life" that roams around the map or something. Like a very non-aggressive version of chicken. But then I was just happy that stuff was moving at all.
There is no military logic yet. It builds fighting units, but does nothing with them. It tries to follow some "stages" when building up ie
first stage is to make a factory, if that is complete make 5 fighters etc.
It will always try to complete the "lowest" stage first before working on the others. When all stages are completed it makes a lol-attack which is not very impressive because it only makes ~50 units.
blablabla?
In lobby it is called "SchwarmAI" (there is also an older "KPTAI" which currently is broken iirc)
I hope I did not forgett to commit anything.
Needs CT version r1393.

If somebody plays a game VS this, please uploade the replay otherwise it is very hard to improve. I am now so used to how the AI works and unconsciously always try to make it not stall etc.

[MidKnight]

Cool!
I'm interested in hearing how FFA games with drone "wildlife" play out.
People could direct the swarm at enemies by luring them with scouts...
Kind of like a proxy war!

...or a drone attack could start a massive battle by accident. It'd be cool!

[SanadaUjiosan]

--snip--

Fact: Not CT canon

Will have to play with this to see what we can do with it.

[yanom]

congrats! u make an AI for CT! and it works pretty well. Just make it attack and you'll be golden.

[knorke]

Fact: Not CT canon

its loosely based on what happend during actual programming.

Attacking will be next. For now I am interessting in finding out how good it manages to build/rebuild after being attacked. Replays prefered.
Heres one which basically shows what the AI can do and also its problems:
http://replays.adune.nl/?3183

[yanom]

Fact: Not CT canon

its loosely based on what happend during actual programming.

Attacking will be next. For now I am interessting in finding out how good it manages to build/rebuild after being attacked. Replays prefered.
Heres one which basically shows what the AI can do and also its problems:
http://replays.adune.nl/?3183

how do i give you a replay?

[knorke]

replays are saved as .sdf files in demos\ folder (same directory as your maps\ folder.)
just attach to forum post or upload to some file hosting site.

[Wombat]

if u use tasclient, open replays window, find replay u want and just click upload, thats all (u will find it on replays adune)

[yanom]

if u use tasclient, open replays window, find replay u want and just click upload, thats all (u will find it on replays adune)

I use springlobby (linux), where would the replays be? and also, do i have to push a record button ingame?

[SanadaUjiosan]

No, the lobby records all games. (At least does in Windows, not sure about the scary land that is Linux )

[yanom]

No, the lobby records all games. (At least does in Windows, not sure about the scary land that is Linux )

ok, good, i've played tons of games vs. Schwarm (it sometimes wins :!).

Umm... anyone know where they are?

[yanom]

oh, ok, I found them. Attatched is a .zip'ed folder with all of my Conflict Terra games today and yesterday. enjoy!

[knorke]

thanks!
i find such feedback/replays very valuable because it is hard to make something (game, ai,map,..anything) "blind". it helps to see what it plays like for others.

[yanom]

my observation: the AI is really good a spreading out accross the map, mining meteors and producing lots of units. if it could be programed to launch raids on enemies it'd be pretty fearsome.

[yanom]

New replay, where i did drones vs drones and tried several new things:

-Making an air-only army
-Using Clone as my only unit-production method
-Having a big swarm of engineers that roamed the map, sucking recent meteor drops clean in seconds.

So, is there anything i can do to help with Schwarm, or CT in general? I've recently been learning programming (Java) and I'm good with Linux sys admin stuff.

[knorke]

You will have to ask sanada or oksnoop2 for details on what exactly needs to be done. for some ideas see the issue tracker:
http://code.google.com/p/conflictterra/issues/list

With the AI I currently dont need help I think (its more a matter of finding time etc) but feel free to play around with its code.
Some start places for spring modding:
on scripting: (game mechanics, ai,...)
http://springrts.com/wiki/Lua_Scripting
on unit making:
http://springrts.com/wiki/Game_and_Unit_development
http://springrts.com/wiki/SpringTutorialGame

if you are familiar with linux, CT page could need a better setupguide for linux I think. atm it is very short:
http://code.google.com/p/conflictterra/ ... pidOnLinux

-Using Clone as my only unit-production method

I too think that is most effective. Though cloning needs energy so it is better not to clone all units at once, as not to stall. Otherwise you can end up paralyzing your whole army at 90% cloning process or something.

[yanom]

wrote a new linux setup guide:

Code: Select all

        INSTALLING CONFLICT TERRA ON LINUX

        Conflict Terra is a still in an "Open Beta" stage, so it's constantly being
updated. To install Conflict Terra on Linux, you'll need the "rapid" tool.
Instructions on getting this tool can be found at:

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/rapid-spring

However, you may not need to go through those steps to get rapid. Many linux
distros include rapid in their package managers. For example, users of most debian-
based distros (like Ubuntu) need only install the package "rapid-spring", like so:

sudo apt-get install rapid-spring


Once you have "rapid" installed you can instruct it to install Conflict Terra with the
command:

rapid pin ct:test

and you can update all of your rapid packages with the command:

rapid upgrade

[SanadaUjiosan]

My current agenda for CT, which I am working on, is to get all of our existing maps dealt with, in terms of fixing problems and adding more things like features and skyboxes.

When that is done, I am going to start remaking the NKG navy from scratch. That will be an exciting time.

CEG work has been put off due to limits in know-how. Muzzle flares were easy (after all of the annoying kinks were worked out), but things like projectile explosions proved to be too hard to overcome in the manner we wanted to overcome them in (maintaining our "style") Its not completely abandoned, but for now I feel I can better spend my time being productive than banging my head into a wall.

Knorke has been working on the AI, a great addition. I am not sure what Knorke has planned exactly, and I doubt it involves this, but we'd love to have a working NKG AI as well. The presence of a Drone one is awesome, but its crummy for only one faction to have an AI, you know?

I am not sure what Oksnoop2 has planned, or if he has anything planned. The drones are mostly done, I believe, with the exception of the possibility of an AA unit, or the AA role being given to an existing unit. The PN, as always, needs to be worked on, and I don't remember what snoop's last plans were for that.

Outside of this, not entirely sure what you could help with. Most of the help we've wanted in the past has been coding help, as neither snoop or I are programmers at all. There are some things we'd like to implement, but no one has helped us achieve those yet. They can (probably) be found on our issues page.

You should idle in #ct in the lobby, if you don't. I'm almost always in it when I'm at my computer (unless the IRC bridge is down). We could definitely use some playtesters for the maps I've been refining.

I'm wanting to get back into the groove of active development. Glad to see someone else is interested in CT again.

edit: I went ahead and spliced your bit into our guide yanom. How does it look?

http://code.google.com/p/conflictterra/ ... pidOnLinux

edit 2: Knorke, I noticed in the last replay yanom posted that an error message for the cloning gadget popped up, I think when the ktridrone was told to clone. I can't remember the particulars, but you were the last to touch the cloning gadget. Any input? Did you see that too?

[knorke]

aah get your own thread or something!

error message for the cloning gadget:
yea noted that too and also had it happen myself but dont know whats with that.
The change I made (commenting out that units turn off when cloneing) is imo not related to it.

AI for NKG:
if i could clone myself like a drone...

[SanadaUjiosan]

Get moar energy!