AAI v0.86 released - AAI v0.875 in SVN

[merijn]

workaround is having two spring instances (two PC's will work for sure).

[BlueTemplar]

Weird... usually before playing vs an AAI on a new mod, I spectate a 4 AAI ffa before to help him learn it, and it never crashed!

[sanderbakkes]

Weird... usually before playing vs an AAI on a new mod, I spectate a 4 AAI ffa before to help him learn it, and it never crashed!

that indeed works fine with N x 1 AAI.dll, however, with 1 x AAI_copy1.dll and 1 x AAI_copy2.dll, the setup i need, it crashes

[yuritch]

That probably means you haven't found ALL instances of AAI referring to its folders. I suggest doing a full-text replace of 'AAI' with something like 'AAIm' (for modified) in a copy of AAI source folder. That surely worked for me with AAI 0.76 way back when I tried to make it battle the (then new) AAI 0.8 by renaming the 0.76 to another 3-symbol name. And it worked w/o crashes.

[YamroZ]

Where can I find a CA config file ?

I don't know how to create one myself, so maybe someone could share he's own ?

[SupaSonic]

Um... Is there a mirror? unknown-files seems to be down atm.

[KingRaptor]

AAI v0.86 binaries

CA r1675 config
Not very smart, but it'll do. You may have to right-click and Save Target As.

[YamroZ]

Thank you very much :]

Oh well, I see that as for now neither AAI nor RAI supports morphing.
Are there any plans to change that ?

[mistahnice]

How would I go about supporting the morphing found in CA in this mod?

[jseah]

Why does the AAI arm player keep spamming Jethro's?

I just installed Spring a few days ago and I get flattened in 3v3 matches playing Arm vs Core AI. Balanced Annhilation.

The Core AI is ok, but susceptible to rushing. The Arm AI... oh well, it has got to learn the Jethros don't work well vs Slashers.


The AI commander also doesn't learn when it can't get to a spot. It orders the commander (in the start of the game) to go build a solar collector somewhere it can't reach. Which follows with it walking around in small circles for the rest of the game.

[yuritch]

AAI cannot learn anything about building placement, it's learning is all about combat effectiveness of units (the only buildings that are placed according to learned data are defensive turrets). Newer AAI versions should have less "units try to go to where they can't get" problems however, but those are for svn Spring only atm.
As for Jethros, make it learn they aren't that good. Make a game with 2 ARM AAIs against each other (set human player to spectator) on Comet Catcher for ex. (there are no inaccessible areas on that map) and wait for one of the AIs to win. They should learn ARM units well enough after that.

[jseah]

I would have thought that the AI could learn that Jethros are nearly useless in a land battle after it (and me) got flattened three times on the same map...

But I'll try it.

[yuritch]

Another thing to consider: I think (though I'm not 100% sure) that crashed games don't provide any learning data to AAI (ie it saves whatever it learned after the game ends, which don't happen after a crash). That could have been the reason why no unit data was saved.
AAI would learn Jethros aren't the best when it sees a unit that belongs to the same race and performs better. For that reason both AI players should be ARM (ARM AI that sees itself owned by CORE units cannot really learn which ARM units are good...) so that one of them is likely to produce that unit in numbers. Or you can take control of one of the AIs (via shared com or .cheat .player <num>) and order 10 or so different units at the factory (Rockos for ex.). AI will send them to battle and may get enough data to switch the production.

[submarine]

Another thing to consider: I think (though I'm not 100% sure) that crashed games don't provide any learning data to AAI (ie it saves whatever it learned after the game ends, which don't happen after a crash). That could have been the reason why no unit data was saved.

This is correct, each instance of AAI saves its learning data at the end of a game

[jseah]

Ah! Many thanks for the advice then!

I see now that the AAI only builds Jethros in large numbers on maps I never finished. They still build about half their army as Jethros on the others though. =(
This is probably because I hit shift-esc when the situation is hopeless (I had a Bertha hitting my base and can't get a Keeper up, with two armies knocking on my door) but I can probably hold out for a long long time.

I tried the 1v1 ARM AAI match and they just got stuck trying to build on top of the commander. So I switched to 4 way FFA. (one guy got stuck and subsequently destroyed)
The game didn't end. I even left it running overnight on 3x speed and they just attempted to Bertha each other to death (while spamming Jethros, which were useless and Bertha fodder) which obviously didn't work as they re-build their base faster than they destroy it.

It was the first time I saw an 8 hour game (with 3x speed makes 24 hours) nowhere near completion =(, the Berthas had experience 20+ XD...

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I'll try playing with an AAI on the same ID. Though I've already tried that.

Also, my Core AAI is now starting to build more and more Crashers for no apparent reason. Does it have something to do with the AI now using planes to scout?

[hoijui]

maybe this will impurify the AAI learning data, but you can also do the following:
- enable cheating (in chat: .cheat or /cheat for SVN versions of spring)
- .team X (X between 0 and numPlayers-1)
- Ctrl-A to select all units
- Ctrl-D to destroy all
this way, the game will end "properly", and AAI should save its learning data, i guess.

[yuritch]

AFAIK Shift-Esc also ends the game 'properly' in AAI sence, it's only crashed games that cause learning data to be lost.
In my experience AAI vs AAI games tend to end in one side winning though (not counting crashes and hangups, which should be fixed in current svn btw), stalemates are rare. Maybe it's mod dependent, the one I use with AAI has very few defences.

[AF]

or one could implement a ".saveaai" command via the chat console.

[jseah]

Bah. If only Jethros could hit ground in BA.

My Core AAI can defeat 2 ARM by now. If I make it 3v1, they Bertha the Core player to death.

How does the AI learn anyway? By counting enemy resources destroyed / cost of units? I might have screwed up the learning by building too many planes in my games. (though I'm sure I spent more on my ground army than planes)

[yuritch]

Are you using the 'stock' mod config? There are lines that control anti-air unit production in it, those might be set too high.
AAI learns by taking note of which unit kills what. If some type of unit kills a lot of things, it will get built more. It may be a bit more complex than that, ask submarine if you want to know the details.