Spring RTS Engine

Do it, zwzsg. I would absolutely love to see the response.

I would as well.

I dont know what everyone is panicing about, this is pretty tame.
as to converting aAI\Bot-libs\*.dll into a \AI\Helper-libs\*.dll:
kai had brilliant skirmishing behavior when it was managed by krogothe. if you could emulate that then we can wave goodbye to the domination of the 70 command/min microers

group AIs are deprecated, they will not be supported in the new AI Interface anymore, as all they did in the past is done with LUA today.

If it's easy, I'd like to see you do it, make a vid, and then post it for our enjoyment. You don't actually have to release (all) of it.

What's really funny about widgets is that people worry that they remove skill from the game and let newbies play on an even footing with better players.

In reality, the opposite effect happens - newbies still suck, but good players are suddenly freed from a lot of time wasted on micro and can then focus on real gameplay, so they end up stomping crappy players that much harder.

It's true for myself, at least. The more I automate repetitive micro tasks, the more easily I can beat people, even if they're using the same widgets.

I find these widgets always do the dumb thing at the critical time, like skirmish backward into my minefield which explodes

In S:44 we already have something similar. Well, not really; basically, infantry units are affected by being attacked, ie if some infantry are being shot at a lot with machinegun fire they will become suppressed and pinned (basically, they won't move, fearing doing so will get them killed). I've been bringing up a "flee" idea for quite some time, this sounds like it could be an interesting idea as a hardcoded gameplay feature (ie gadget), taken to more extremes (units breaking altogether and running far, far away)

I don't suppose this thing actually works well enough to be useful, yet?

In fact... I'd welcome this:

This makes me want to turn the KP AI gadget into a widget, spend a little time to ensure it doesn't conflict too much with manually given orders, and maybe even change its unit list to BA unit names!

Let's see it, man. Bring it on. At the very least, it'd be really cool to see a version that auto-micro'd units based on some customParams as to how far they'd move, etc., when in combat.

Now that we have choices whether to allow this stuff to work... there's really no harm in encouraging everybody to push the limits, frankly, so let's see what can be done, in terms of combat sub-AI.

Widgets that control unit behaviors and movement can be improved with experience and add upon..
the more it is used and the more broken things are found about its behavior the better it will get.

I've updated it. Units skirming enemies that they can't target has fixed and now there is a semi-working option to make them not skirm things they can't target. It's now easier to configure with options for skirming when idle, skirming when patrolling/fighting and whether to range check enemies.

BTW, back when the KPAI was triggered by the faction choice instead of the AI setting I've seen a few people use it as an assistant AI for playing.

Which makes me realise there is no need to make a widget AI, all that is needed is to add a bot with same ID as you.

Which makes me realise there is no need to make a widget AI, all that is needed is to add a bot with same ID as you.

No... for it to be any good, it needs to be able to work with things and be switchable.

For example, I'd like a "Zipper crazy monkey mode" where I can draw an area and my horde of zippers will randomly horde through it, each taking a different patrol path.

Stuff like that would be useful. Hell, I'd use something like that, it'd be a genuine improvement of the interface, and something that you just cannot possibly do manually. Maybe I'll get to writing one, after I get done with the stuff I'm working on now.

Argh wrote:

Which makes me realise there is no need to make a widget AI, all that is needed is to add a bot with same ID as you.

No... for it to be any good, it needs to be able to work with things and be switchable.

For example, I'd like a "Zipper crazy monkey mode" where I can draw an area and my horde of zippers will randomly horde through it, each taking a different patrol path.

Stuff like that would be useful. Hell, I'd use something like that, it'd be a genuine improvement of the interface, and something that you just cannot possibly do manually. Maybe I'll get to writing one, after I get done with the stuff I'm working on now.

ANYTHING that makes Zippers more powerful is a good idea on my list.