AAI 0.76 released

[submarine]

edit: updated download links



I took quite a long time but now i finished my work on AAI 0.75. Lately many bugs got in the way of a quick release. Some of them had been AAI related and are now fixed - but some occured within the spring engine and will be fixed with the next release. The main feature of this release is a compeltly new attack management. Compared to the previous algorithms it is far more flexible and extendable, however there are still many things I will deal with in the coming versions (e.g. AAI still tends to "streams" of attacking units, retreating has not been implemented in most cases, use of mobile artillery still not implemented). At the moment the new attack system does not work with air only mods such as FF at all. AAI will build a base as well as combat units and react to the actions of the player but it will not attack in a proper way.

!!! Linux users please note that AAI now gets a local writable directory from spring and will save (and expect) its files there !!!

Many, many thx go to Nicklas Marcusson for lots of help with debugging, testing and other programming issues (and the insight that moose can be quite speedy)

Furthermore i want to thank
- the guy who implemented the CMD_FIGHT command, it helps me so much
- Gratz for providing me with a cfg file for TA Battle Fleet
- AF for pointing me at UnitDef::type for detecting bombers




Installation: Please have a look at the /aai/readme.txt within the archive


Download: (AAI 0.76)
http://fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=3932




Here is a more detailed changelog:

AAI 0.76

- Fixed the most common crashbugs in release mode

- Added basic attack behaviour for air only mods


AAI v0.75

- Completly redone attack system: AAI will now attack more elaborately (attackers move on if are cleared, bombers returning to base when target destroyed, attack groups now retreat under several circumstances, combat groups are guarded by aa units - however it still tends to send in streams of attackers - will be adressed in one of the next versions )

- Added MAX_ATTACKS statement to mod.cfg which determines the max number of independent attack waves at the same time (set to 5 by default)

- Modified artillery sorting in preparation of artillery support in one of the next versions. Added GROUND_ARTY_RANGE, SEA_ARTY_RANGE and HOVER_ARTY_RANGE statement to mod cfg. These replace the former MOBILE_ARTY_RANGE statement (it's no longer valid, remove from old cfg files)

- For linux users: AAI will now store its files in the only writable datadirectory automatically (where spring saves all its other files)

- AAI now tries to get a safer rally point if combat units are killed en route

- Builders now try to flee when attacked

- AAI now takes allied buildings into account when expanding its base (to prevent AAI from building within the base of someone else)

- Improved AAI's building placement at the beginning of the game (buildings will not be spread out that much anymore to reduce walking time of commander (thx to Accid_UK for the idea - should have been already implemented in 0.70 but has somehow been commented out)

- Tweaked economy/factory/defence building placement and selection

- Fixed a bug that prevented AAI from building naval power plants

- Fixed a bug which sometimes caused builders to leave their construction site

- Fixed a bug that caused AAI to temporarily run out of scouts when requesting several scouts it could not build at that time

- Fixed a bug that caused serious confusion concerning unit speeds (unfortunately mod learning file version had to be changed)

- Fixed a very rare crashbug in the building placement algorithm

- Fixed a possible crash bug in the airforce handling (thx to Nicklas Marcusson for reporting it)



Download: (AAI 0.76)
http://fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=3932

[Argh]

Does it work with NanoBlobs yet?

[Gatorade]

Good times, good times. FYI: In regards to mods with which AAI works, if a new version of a mod is released, it does not work to change the cfg file name to reflect the version number in the hopes of using AAI with the new version. I had that problem with AA 2.11=>2.21, anyway.

[Reth]

Mod: XTA, AA, probably any..
Map: Small Divide
6 AAIs

Seems to commonly crash when they are in the process of building their first 2 extractors.

[yuritch]

FYI: In regards to mods with which AAI works, if a new version of a mod is released, it does not work to change the cfg file name to reflect the version number in the hopes of using AAI with the new version.

That can happen if some of the units mentioned in the config (like commanders or scouts) were removed from the mod. Another possible cause is the config containing obsolete tags (like MOBILE_ARTY_RANGE that was changed to GROUND_ARTY_RANGE, HOVER_ARTY_RANGE and SEA_ARTY_RANGE) - that is mentioned in the changelog.

[submarine]

lol

6 AAIs on Small divide? a bit much isnt it?

[Tim Blokdijk]

...
edit: for those intersted in the source i'll try out how to commit (yeah first commit for me) tomorrow

[LathanStanley]

/me is interested

[nicke]

Mod: XTA, AA, probably any..
Map: Small Divide
6 AAIs

Seems to commonly crash when they are in the process of building their first 2 extractors.

Yep tested with 6AAIs and got the same crash, i have notified submarine with the details.

[submarine]

hmm unfortunately i ran 5 games with the same settings wiothout a crash

and my attempts to commit aai to svn failed

[rattle]

AAI always seemed to crash for me when there was more than 4 or 5 AAIs in a game. And certain mods were crash happy as well.

[Tim Blokdijk]

hmm unfortunately i ran 5 games with the same settings wiothout a crash

and my attempts to commit aai to svn failed

What is failing? I think someone here can talk you through it. You can probably also ask Tobi, he should know how you can work with svn under Windows.

[submarine]

i always got error messages saying

"'..../aai.h' has inconsistent newlines"
"inconsistent line ending style"

for several files

but now i mailed tobi the source files, he'll upload it

[Tim Blokdijk]

The error is about "newline" (Linux) and "carriage return + newline" (Windows) line endings.
For some reason some of your files use the NL and others CR+NL line ending.
Maybe even within the same file..?

If you don't know what this is about and like to read up on it I suggest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline

I think that using a good editor and sticking with CR+NL should solve any further problems.

[submarine]

@tim: thx

@tobi: i just checked out the svn - it seems you forgot to upload the new files (aaiattack.h/.cpp, aaiattackmanager.h/.cpp)

[Dash_Riprock]

It crashes after about a minute in FF 1.19 in any map when there is more than one AI. One AI is perfectly stable.

[submarine]

thx i'll get ff 1.19 and run a test, 1.18 worked thopufh

[Tobi]

@tobi: i just checked out the svn - it seems you forgot to upload the new files (aaiattack.h/.cpp, aaiattackmanager.h/.cpp)

Fixed

[submarine]

It crashes after about a minute in FF 1.19 in any map when there is more than one AI. One AI is perfectly stable.

hm got ff 1.19 now, two games ran stable (just without much attacks since the new system doesnt work with air only mods atm)

which maps did you use? did modify your mod cfg file?

[rattle]

FF is the only mod which never seemed to work for me. Almost every version of it crashed when AAI built a shipyard.