Code: Select all
START_UNITS armcom corcomAAI 0.76 released
Moderators: hoijui, Moderators
-
centurion-1
- Posts: 169
- Joined: 31 Jan 2006, 20:53
You know, you could remove that set of keywords entirely and automate the processby parsing Sidedata.tdf with either the CSunParser (KAI, OTAI NTai 0.27->XE5) class or the more reliable port of the TDFParser class(XE8+)(theres a crash bug in CSunParser encased in a try catch clauseamong other things that lead the core devs to rewrite CSunParser). That way you could have a new default.cfg, and have much better mod support.
And I'm sure with a little work you could set it up to counter in disabled units by parsing script.txt and loading up a list in a vector<string> container or something similair, then everytime a node is parsed on the build tables for the first time, it will check and set a flag saying if it can be built or not and if the node should be ignored by AAI.
Of course the second paragraph may be a little off course as I'm not too clued up on the specifics of how the buildtables in AAI specifically work.....
btw you should try nanoblobz. AAI may not support units building units but thats not the only way to build stuff in nanoblobz. You do have the autofac buildings that act as factories, and you've got the holder defensive building, thus you can just sue the sheep and lord as builders and repairers.
I think reconciling factories and builders into a general unit condtruction system would be a very good use of resources. The flexibility it gives can be enormous in terms of simplifying construction mechanisms and implementing and updating new stuff. It's how NTai KAI and OTAI do it, and I can say from experienceit's well worth it.
And I'm sure with a little work you could set it up to counter in disabled units by parsing script.txt and loading up a list in a vector<string> container or something similair, then everytime a node is parsed on the build tables for the first time, it will check and set a flag saying if it can be built or not and if the node should be ignored by AAI.
Of course the second paragraph may be a little off course as I'm not too clued up on the specifics of how the buildtables in AAI specifically work.....
btw you should try nanoblobz. AAI may not support units building units but thats not the only way to build stuff in nanoblobz. You do have the autofac buildings that act as factories, and you've got the holder defensive building, thus you can just sue the sheep and lord as builders and repairers.
I think reconciling factories and builders into a general unit condtruction system would be a very good use of resources. The flexibility it gives can be enormous in terms of simplifying construction mechanisms and implementing and updating new stuff. It's how NTai KAI and OTAI do it, and I can say from experienceit's well worth it.
MOBILE_ARTY_RANGE 1000.0 -> this statement doesnt exist anymore... view recent mod.cfg for the new ones (iirc ground/hover/sea_arty_range)
@af: oh ok, didnt know that its possible to get start units from spring, i will implement that when i have time. thx for the hint
concerning unit restrictions: aai would have to recreate its buildtable anyway, you need a different buildtable.dat for any setting
unite builders/factories might be worth a try, but i need some time to do that....
@af: oh ok, didnt know that its possible to get start units from spring, i will implement that when i have time. thx for the hint
concerning unit restrictions: aai would have to recreate its buildtable anyway, you need a different buildtable.dat for any setting
unite builders/factories might be worth a try, but i need some time to do that....
in this case, the whole buildtable must be rebuilt as well as all kind of precached statistics, ratings, efficiencies, etc.
so basically you have to build a completly new buildtable (and all learning results would be lost)
a possible solution is that ppl rename/backup their mod learning files when playing with different unit restrictions (and have a buildtable per set of unit restrictions)
so basically you have to build a completly new buildtable (and all learning results would be lost)
a possible solution is that ppl rename/backup their mod learning files when playing with different unit restrictions (and have a buildtable per set of unit restrictions)
Exactly,, also whats stopping you just partially recalculating values?
I assume this is because the value a unit has in the unit table is based on some basic learning value plus the values of what it builds. If your learning setup is so hardfixed like that and inflexible I'd be very worried.
I do a similair thing with efficiency values in th next NTai, however mine are all calculated on the fly, and there's no lag at all, all lag I've experienced has been todo with attack routines I've been disabling....
I assume when a units learning value changes all the parent nodes in the build tree have to be updated? Wouldnt that mean it would be just as laggy to update the table as it would be to remove a node?
Thus why does the table need to be recreated at all? Just label its efficiency as 0 and tell AAI to ignore nodes with zero values, and then tell them to not save the zero ndoes and replace them with the original node loaded from game, or better yet only to save what changed in the table rather than the whole table.....
Maybe someone should write a patch....
I assume this is because the value a unit has in the unit table is based on some basic learning value plus the values of what it builds. If your learning setup is so hardfixed like that and inflexible I'd be very worried.
I do a similair thing with efficiency values in th next NTai, however mine are all calculated on the fly, and there's no lag at all, all lag I've experienced has been todo with attack routines I've been disabling....
I assume when a units learning value changes all the parent nodes in the build tree have to be updated? Wouldnt that mean it would be just as laggy to update the table as it would be to remove a node?
Thus why does the table need to be recreated at all? Just label its efficiency as 0 and tell AAI to ignore nodes with zero values, and then tell them to not save the zero ndoes and replace them with the original node loaded from game, or better yet only to save what changed in the table rather than the whole table.....
Maybe someone should write a patch....
-
The Master
- Posts: 4
- Joined: 03 Oct 2006, 04:12
Version 0.76 has not worked for me at all in the time I have tried it. I tried both the most recent version of Absolute Annihilation and XTA with no luck, so it must not be the mod causing issues. I am 100% certain they are compatable.
I do, however, have a good number of custom units that are meant for TA that I stuck in the Spring folder. They work fine and I have had absolutely no problems at all. The past two (maybe three) versions of AAI performed almost perfectly with the occasional crash here and there. I am wondering if these custom units may have something to do with crashing AAI 0.76, or if something is just plain wrong with it.
I should also note that two of my friends I play with frequently have the extra units, and they crash as well. During the AI loading into the map at the beginning is where it happens, then it crashes/minimizes the game to bring up an "exception in the global AI".
I do, however, have a good number of custom units that are meant for TA that I stuck in the Spring folder. They work fine and I have had absolutely no problems at all. The past two (maybe three) versions of AAI performed almost perfectly with the occasional crash here and there. I am wondering if these custom units may have something to do with crashing AAI 0.76, or if something is just plain wrong with it.
I should also note that two of my friends I play with frequently have the extra units, and they crash as well. During the AI loading into the map at the beginning is where it happens, then it crashes/minimizes the game to bring up an "exception in the global AI".
-
1v0ry_k1ng
- Posts: 4656
- Joined: 10 Mar 2006, 10:24
ok, ive been messing about with new AAI.. it still refuses to expand and look for mex's, even with its max mex distance turned up to like 30, it ignores mex's any distance away. on EE, its also builds an anti air unit 1/2 the time even after its definatly learnt cannons are the way foward. Ive messed witht he config with no sucsess.. why does it focus on anti air so much?
I think you should really make the construction thing flexible, it will not understand the new construction hubs in EE at all. Being flexible will allow it to use the nuke/metheor facilites as well. One thing: some units need special sites, like the factories of the hubs and nuke/metheors sub-units must be close to the builder. Adding support for detecting metal and geothermal spots right would be great too (I think the first is made by another code not from AAI I guess?)
a factory builds units
units build factories
thats how it was in classic TA.
AAI is built around this assumption, thus it cannot handle units building units.
Also, a conv vehicle is effectively a buildign when ti ahs speed=0; the same as a hub in ee. As a result thsi poses a enw problem since one of the ways of detecting a factory is ud->builder==true && ud->speed <1 which is true for units with speed=0, so they're told to build units but they cant so its borked. Also there's no checking build ranges. a convehicle with speed==0 detected as a builder could be told to travel to build a mex despite it having no speed so its stuck forever...
However in a flexible building system there would be no distinction between hubs factories and untis save speed and build distance checks for hubs.
units build factories
thats how it was in classic TA.
AAI is built around this assumption, thus it cannot handle units building units.
Also, a conv vehicle is effectively a buildign when ti ahs speed=0; the same as a hub in ee. As a result thsi poses a enw problem since one of the ways of detecting a factory is ud->builder==true && ud->speed <1 which is true for units with speed=0, so they're told to build units but they cant so its borked. Also there's no checking build ranges. a convehicle with speed==0 detected as a builder could be told to travel to build a mex despite it having no speed so its stuck forever...
However in a flexible building system there would be no distinction between hubs factories and untis save speed and build distance checks for hubs.
status report:
work on aai 0.78 is more or less finished. apart from various crash/bug/seg fault fixes i mainly extended/fixed/revised the new attack system. in my test games aai now sometimes retreats, aai's habit of sending in streams of units has been reduced a lot, usage of combat units to defend its base is smarter now, ...
the quality of aai's decisions depend heavily on the learning data and scouting, sometimes they are still pretty stupid (like withdrawing units to early etc.) i want to run some more tests to figure out if it's possible to improve aais combat behaviour without writing a lot of new code
work on aai 0.78 is more or less finished. apart from various crash/bug/seg fault fixes i mainly extended/fixed/revised the new attack system. in my test games aai now sometimes retreats, aai's habit of sending in streams of units has been reduced a lot, usage of combat units to defend its base is smarter now, ...
the quality of aai's decisions depend heavily on the learning data and scouting, sometimes they are still pretty stupid (like withdrawing units to early etc.) i want to run some more tests to figure out if it's possible to improve aais combat behaviour without writing a lot of new code
