Skirmish AI: E323AI 3.22.4

[slogic]

AI has problems with invisible metal makers. It refuses to switch a task & waits MM becomes visible forever.

Sometimes units shoot in wrong position. I noticed this before with Rocko's. Don't know if it is engine or AI issue.

Also i got these messages in the log:

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[20:35] (EE): CWishList::push failed for Experimental Gantry(1046, 1581) categories: BUILDER

Reclaiming is perfect. It is so perfect that AI likes it more than protecting itself. I saw an episode where commander died reclaiming features instead of finishing an enemy (yeah, it could kill him, and he event did shoot him a bit) or running away.

AI builds too less defense. It is a good example to play E323AI vs E323AI to see it does not build defenses even when an enemy assaulted the base three or more times from the same direction. You have a nice threatmap mechanism. Why don't you use it to cover a base with defense?

Are scout units dedicated to be scouts on their hole lifetime? After an enemy scout intruded into a base AI builds a scout & sends him to enemy base instead of killing that enemy on its own base territory. This scout is bypassing enemy scout (which is crushing the base) without any sign of revenge. This is crazy :)

PS. I tested your AI on Victoria Crater, Crossing_4_final, Cliffdown vs 2 KAIKs. E323AI always won. It is extremely good in resource collecting now.

[slogic]

-Metal maps appear to make the game crash at start (metal heck, speedmetal, speed ball)

I have no crash but most units don't move because these maps contain water.

But there is one strange thing. On Speed Ball 10x10 AI does not build metal makers. On Speed Metal it is more clever.

[Error323]

Hey slogic, thanks for your feedback:

AI has problems with invisible metal makers. It refuses to switch a task & waits MM becomes visible forever.

Indeed, I saw it and fixed it now

Sometimes units short in wrong position. I noticed this before with Rocko's. Don't know if it is engine or AI issue.

Hmm don't know about this

Also i got these messages in the log:

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[20:35] (EE): CWishList::push failed for Experimental Gantry(1046, 1581) categories: BUILDER

Gauntry doesn't have a builder :)

Reclaiming is perfect. It is so perfect that AI likes it more than protecting itself. I saw an episode where commander died reclaiming features instead of finishing an enemy (yeah, it could kill him, and he event did shoot him a bit) or running away.

sweet

AI builds too less defense. It is a good example to play E323AI vs E323AI to see it does not build defenses even when an enemy assaulted the base three or more times from the same direction. You have a nice threatmap mechanism. Why don't you use it to cover a base with defense?

Defense is placed at clusters with highest value. Its a fairly decent mechanism imo. In the sense that what is of high value to the AI is also of high value to the enemy most of the time.

Are scout units dedicated to be scouts on their hole lifetime? After an enemy scout intruded into a base AI builds a scout & sends him to enemy base instead of killing that enemy on its own base territory. This scout is bypassing enemy scout (which is crushing the base) without any sign of revenge. This is crazy :)

Currently yes.

PS. I tested your AI on Victoria Crater, Crossing_4_final, Cliffdown vs 2 KAIKs. E323AI always won. It is extremely good in resource collecting now.

:D

[Error323]

-Metal maps appear to make the game crash at start (metal heck, speedmetal, speed ball)

I have no crash but most units don't move because these maps contain water.

But there is one strange thing. On Speed Ball 10x10 AI does not build metal makers. On Speed Metal it is more clever.

It hates speedmetalmaps, the log and screen should say it won't play there. The reason for the metalmakers are: 1) they are epic for energy control, 2) the commander doesn't go on a walk if mex spots are not nearby, it will create metalmakers.

[hoijui]

Sometimes units soot in wrong position. I noticed this before with Rocko's. Don't know if it is engine or AI issue.

could this be becuase they target radar dots, which are inacurate? (that would not be a bug then)

[slogic]

It is a good point. I'll consider this next time. If its true then we should consider turning off sooting at dots if AI declares it will cheat. Anyway this info is for a new topic.

[hoijui]

...why?
this is normal in spring, units shooting at dots and not hitting, AI doing it is normal too, you just think it is not normal cause you see where the units are instead of the dots, it does not have to fit your eyes as a spec.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

wow this is brilliant now it makes defenses- beats other AIs into the floor no problem.

the main behavior holding back its performance in BA is that it keeps pulling its commander off lab-assisting to build wind-gens and metal makers. really, once the commander starts assisting, it should stay assisting as much as possible to maximize production. con units should do all the base production and expanding. if you can work it around to behave like that, this AI could easily threaten decent human players!

as core, it favours HLLT instead of LLTs, which makes it expand slower- if you could switch that around, its expansion would be better. in BA at least, almost every cluster needs to either contain an armed mex or a LLT.

also, in BA, vehicles are just better- making it use vehicles, whether that just be through random start-lab choice or some complicated algorithm that decides if the map is hilly or not, would be good

I want to put an EE config together- does the AI support stationary builders (nanotowers) ?

also, autogeneration of configs (all the unit names etc ready to be given catagories) would speed up config making a great deal.

[Error323]

wow this is brilliant now it makes defenses- beats other AIs into the floor no problem.

the main behavior holding back its performance in BA is that it keeps pulling its commander off lab-assisting to build wind-gens and metal makers. really, once the commander starts assisting, it should stay assisting as much as possible to maximize production. con units should do all the base production and expanding. if you can work it around to behave like that, this AI could easily threaten decent human players!

The commander does assist as much as possible, its more the problem of the wind i guess. I should give wind higher restrictions. In my opinion though (fight it if you want to) the commander should assist the lab as much as possible, this means if we are stalling it should fix that using solars and closeby mexes, otherwise metalmakers and then return back to assisting lab again.

as core, it favours HLLT instead of LLTs, which makes it expand slower- if you could switch that around, its expansion would be better. in BA at least, almost every cluster needs to either contain an armed mex or a LLT.

It favors whichever it can afford, try defining more states, they too influence what it builds in that in state 1 it will never build a HLLT.

also, in BA, vehicles are just better- making it use vehicles, whether that just be through random start-lab choice or some complicated algorithm that decides if the map is hilly or not, would be good

Working on it, do note that whats better for humans may not be better for AIs, vehicle is harder to control / micro and it cannot traverse all mountainy areas. Also they are clumsy near the base.

I want to put an EE config together- does the AI support stationary builders (nanotowers) ?

No nano towers yet (sorry), I'm hoping to get that in the next major release.

also, autogeneration of configs (all the unit names etc ready to be given catagories) would speed up config making a great deal.

If you do not provide a categorization config file, it will create a template config which sux, but is good as a base.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

The commander does assist as much as possible, its more the problem of the wind i guess. I should give wind higher restrictions. In my opinion though (fight it if you want to) the commander should assist the lab as much as possible, this means if we are stalling it should fix that using solars and closeby mexes, otherwise metalmakers and then return back to assisting lab again.

but at the moment it spends about 40% of the game walking away from the factory to make a metal maker or wind gen then walking back where it should be spending maybe 5% of the game (once the intial base is up) panic building solars etc and have cons make the rest. you could just have a single con build windgens all game for example (players do.)

It favors whichever it can afford, try defining more states, they too influence what it builds in that in state 1 it will never build a HLLT.

it only seems to make HLLTs, and it should *never* make HLLTS- LLTs are the only defence you really need in BA.

Working on it, do note that whats better for humans may not be better for AIs, vehicle is harder to control / micro and it cannot traverse all mountainy areas. Also they are clumsy near the base.

maybe, but kbots are totally cost ineffective. one NTAI riot tank normally mows through 2-3x its cost in kbots in a NTAI vs E223AI game, and instigators always beat storms.

If you do not provide a categorization config file, it will create a template config which sux, but is good as a base.

It does? for me, if there is no config it crashes back to desktop.

[Error323]

About the config, copy the BA704-config.cfg to {ModnameWithoutExtension}-config.cfg and start the AI again, it should generate a categorization file. I'll improve usability of creating those files as this is far from intuitive.

[yuritch]

Yes, the AI should create a default *-config.cfg for new mods too.

I tested the new build, seems to work fine, but still crashes sometimes (I can't find a reson, logs do not end in AI being unable to build something this time). At least it does not crash anymore if no metal makers are defined in config.

The AI is a bit reclaim-crazy now, it goes out to rectalm things even if its M/E storages are full.

[slogic]

I told AI fell in love with reclaiming.

PS. Upcoming features are too tasty:

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SIGSEGV fix, Build all land factory types, No more reclaim on full 
Determine groupsize on minimal groupsize and strength again 
Build more factories 
Increased probability of vehicle units 
Don't build lots of workers on m exceed 
Don't scan cloaked units

Damn, i got hooked on news of current AI.

[Error323]

E323AI v3.10.1 - High Templar
Changelog:

• Don't scan cloaked units
• Don't build lots of workers on full metal buffer
• Don't reclaim wreckages on full metal buffer
• Build all land factories (eventually)
• Determine groupsize on strength and minimal groupsize
• SIGSEGV fix, I think this was the last one
• No watermaps support yet

E323AI SO/DLL: E323AI-HighTemplar
E323AI SRC: E323AI@github

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A few more things, it beats RAI in a 3v1 (epic battle on comet see file).
[edit]
I also made the code that creates a new config from a template on a new mod, however the function I'm using (GetValue(AIVAL_LOCATE_FILE_R, buf)) is making the bot crash when it can't find a file . Hoijui, help please!
[/edit]

Forget that, I'm a freakin noob.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

bump for more com lab-assisting, less com building stuff

[FaerieWithBoots]

put it up against 3xRAI (arm vs cor+2xarm) on cometcatcher, but it didnt win over here ^^ (in the first 3 games).
After some tweaks to the categorisation and config it wins one out of two (┬▒). :D

This AI needs a new challenge, RAI isnt really suited for BA it seems. If it would only build 1/4 of the factorys it does now :S ...
And KAIK cant build defenses, so it is doomed from the start.

Going to test it on smaller rmaps now. Earlier versions had troubles on low metal maps Ill report the outcome here :D

Keep up the good work!

(had no crashes in a long time with this, so that seems to be sorted)

[slogic]

Do not forget that fresh installed RAI has to teach units efficiency. Also it does not assist in building units. But builds much more factories. It has potential to be competitive.

Error323, do you plan to implement difficulty levels? I can't stand against it anymore (EDIT: on large maps). When you teach AI to handle air forces its better to suicide during first 5 seconds from the game start without ability to adjust difficulty.

[zwzsg]

Just tried the E323AI from installer in Kernel Panic: It started building an installer but immediatly put it on wait, then waited for death.

I don't particularly need E323AI to be working with KP, but if not too much work, would be nice, if only not to ruin the games of n00b who'd unknownling pick it.

[FaerieWithBoots]

maybe RAI has potential, but as long as it cant support a lab with cons it has no chance against AIs that do. You really need at least 2 RAIs to compensate for the wasted metal on factorys.

[Error323]

Just tried the E323AI from installer in Kernel Panic: It started building an installer but immediatly put it on wait, then waited for death.

I don't particularly need E323AI to be working with KP, but if not too much work, would be nice, if only not to ruin the games of n00b who'd unknownling pick it.

The version in git can (and will) generate configfiles and categorization files if they aren't present for a certain mod. Its attempt will probably fail for a gg and maybe even crash, but by changing those files manually you can make it work.