Spring RTS Engine

This is mainly a bugfix-release which fixes numerous crashbugs as well as a lot of other bugs which caused AAI to play very poor/stall/etc.

There are some minor other imrpovements as well, unfortunartely, the buildtables had to be modified again

The default buildtables are very new, expect better gaming experience after some matches....

Have fun!


Download:
http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=2987

Here's the changelog:

AAI v0.63

- AAI now upgrades radars/jammers

- Added MIN_FACTORIES_FOR_RADAR_JAMMER statement to mod cfg

- Added support for Expand&Exterminate

- Added support for mods with buildings as starting units (like AATA)

- Added mod cfg file for BoTA (thx to yuri)

- Tweaked defence building selection

- AAI now prefers armed metal extractors when building far away from its main base

- Fixed some bugs in the BuildTable (buildtable version changed)

- Fixed a bug causing the buildmap not to be cleared when a building has been destroyed

- Fixed a bug concerning speed groups

- Fixed various crashbugs (big thank you to nicke for helping me finding them)

Download:
http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=2987

hurray for .7z extensions, rar these days open just about everything, that and winace. gotta miss the days when people only used zip or rar formats.

Could you release sidedata.tdf that goes along with this? Spring is telling me that it's missing.

gotta miss the days when people only used zip or rar formats.

not really? :D

Cronyx wrote:Could you release sidedata.tdf that goes along with this? Spring is telling me that it's missing.

As Gnome has pointed out a million and one times;

sidedata.tdf is a file within the 'gamedata' directory of a mod archive, AI's are not distributed with a sidedata.tdf.

Do you have a gamedata folder in your root spring folder? that might cause some interference.

FLOZi wrote:Do you have a gamedata folder in your root spring folder? that might cause some interference.

I did have a gamedata directory in my root Spring directory. Testing your theory that it may be causing some sort of conflict, I deleted this directory. Now Spring is returning a new error. One regarding a missing "resources.tdf" file... the very file that was in that directory.

I've since replaced the directory after completing that test.

FLOZi wrote:As Gnome has pointed out a million and one times; sidedata.tdf is a file within the 'gamedata' directory of a mod archive, AI's are not distributed with a sidedata.tdf.

I realise that AI's are, in and of themselves, no usually distributed with a sidedata.tdf. However, no one has yet been able to tell me where to get this file, and it cannot be denied that, however it happened, I am missing it, as that is the very essence of my problem. Thus, while I understand he is under no obligation nor is it his responsability to do so, I asked Submarine, the AI author, if he would provide me with his copy of the file as a favor and nothing more, seing as how he must have that file to be running his own authored AI.

This isn't a problem that should take three days to resolve.

Submarine, I apologize for the momentary derail of your thread. I'd still greatly appriciate it if you could some how get to me a copy of the dependant .tdf files that you are using, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, as they don't seem to be included in anything I download, regardless of the source.

Cronyx, you're wrong, having submarine sidedata.tdf will not help you because it mod dependant. And it's included in the sd7/sdz of the mod

But if you have said what you have done could have help us.
That's your fault...

For exemple, have you launched the AI through the lobby, or through Spring.exe ? Are you sure to have a mod installed, what? etc..

Surely if noone elese is having this problem then they must already be included...
I've no idea how you guys launch the AI but I use springsp.exe (which appeared when i installed NTAI)

Torrasque wrote:having Submarine['s] sidedata.tdf will not help you because it mod dependant.

You're right. It is mod-dependant. But then again, so is AAI. An AI writen for AA. And this is what I'm requesting. The sidedata.tdf file that he has. The one for AA. Really anyone who has it could give it to me. You, for example. could give it to me. No one's offered of all the times I've asked for it, so I'm asking Submarine directly, seing as how I know he must have it or else he wouldn't be able to launch his own AI that he authored. Again, I realize he is not under any obligation nor is it his responsability to do so, it is just a humble favor asked from a fan.

Torrasque wrote:And it's included in the sd7/sdz of the mod

Clearly, I don't have the file. I'm at a loss as to why people don't believe that. I'm not "lying" to you. I'm not deriving any sort of macabre pleasure in attempting to decieve anyone, nor would there be any motivation to do so. I really would like to play. I'm sure it would be a grand time.

All I've wanted for the last two days... is the file. That's it.

I suppose ultimately, I may be forced to write my own sidedata.tdf file. I'm assuming that it is plain ASCII information parsed under a spesific formatting, though I can't verrify this, given that I don't have the file. So, I suppose as an alternative request, if someone could point me in the right direction for the relevant source material which documents how the file is laid out, I'll get to work writing my own.

Of course that would be nearly ridiculous, an exercise approaching intellectual bankruptcy, but I would be willing to do that to solve this problem.

It may even, if this progresses further, come down to my actually offering a bounty for the file. Say, $10 dollars over PayPal to the first person to make it available to me. Though, I'm not quite ready to do that just yet, though it may become a possibility once all other options have been exhausted.

Torrasque wrote:But if you have said what you have done could have help us.
That's your fault...

For exemple, have you launched the AI through the lobby, or through Spring.exe ? Are you sure to have a mod installed, what? etc..

All of the above. Launching through Spring.exe or SpringSP.exe results in the missing file error (the file I'm requesting a link to). Launching through the lobby results in an automatic and instant victory the moment my commander spawns.

I apologise again for the further erosion of your thread, Submarine. Though if anyone would be so kind as to enable a means of my acquisition of that file, please PM me. Last time I'll be heard from about the matter in this thread, either way.

firstly, AAI works with a lot of mod, and not only AA.
Second, you will be very happy with sidedata.tdf when you will see that after that another file is missing. You have to make a _correct_ install !
(It's not to annoy you, you really have to correct nicely this error, because making some sort of hack _will_ lead to another problem)

Are you sure to have installed AA correctly?
(having a least AASpring144.sdz and AASpring144S.sdz in your mod folder? )
And if you have AASpring144S.sdz, please stop saying that you don't have SIDEDATA.TDF because it's in. (just open it with winrar or what you want)

If it's not in then your AA installation is corrupted, download it once again, and reinstall it.

Hmm, 0.63 seems to be giving me a fatal error 'no RTTI data' occasionally. I've been pitting AAI against AAI.
0.60 definately didn't.

I get that error from regular spring playing too :)

I've tried 0.63 for a few days now, giving it about 30-ish testruns on AA v1.44.
First of all, the AI is GREAT!
Quite stable when playing vs 1 AI and vs 2 AI's. Sweat broke out when I heard that first BigBertha shot strike deep in my base... It's an awesome AI!
Very impressive search and destroy routine to hunt down cloaked units.
Great idea to add LTTs to guard mex's, still defensive buildings needs more work, but you are more than halfway there! It does need handicap to be turned up, because else it's very easy to break it's base (AA144) with a flash rush for example, did it 10 times in a row on diff maps.

Okay some things I'd hope to see improved:

- (Better) D-Gunning Commander and retreating when faced with more than 3 flash / 4 peewee units
- Networked 2 players vs 2 bots still crashes after a while on the non-hosting player with a globalAI error, please fix it!!! Co-op is really cool
- Scouting units (fleas) could have easily taken out half my base on some occations, but are only scouting... uhm.. make them stop and attack unguarded mex's?
- Use more windgenerators when avg enegy > 17
- No torpedo bomber planes or depthcharge launchers on land only maps

Good luck! Keep up the great work!!!

Cronyx wrote: Submarine, I apologize for the momentary derail of your thread. I'd still greatly appriciate it if you could some how get to me a copy of the dependant .tdf files that you are using

sorry im not at home at the moment (thats why i released aai yesterday before leaving to visit my girlfriend), i dont have spring on this computer here. why dont you just try to reinstall spring?!?

unpossible wrote:Hmm, 0.63 seems to be giving me a fatal error 'no RTTI data' occasionally. I've been pitting AAI against AAI.
0.60 definately didn't.

hm i until now i only got this error a few times when playing vs human players, i dont think it's aai related, is it?

SideData.tdf is a file spring reads out of the mods archive (XTAPEsdz if your using that mod or whatever the name of the archive that's holding the mod).

The other file game resources is something that should come installed with spring but can be overridden if another copy is in the mod file.

Neither files are related to AI's, none of the AI's use them, none of the AI's have any references to them, only the engine ever reads them.

The only mod related files that AI's directly read through the interface are mod_info.tdf and the script that starts up spring, of which OTAI & NTai read the first file, and NTai reads the second, and Krogothe expressed interest in how I got the starting positions so KAI might read the first too.

Cronyx, I suggest you completely erase all your spring stuff and reinstall from scratch, you've obviously made a mistake somewhere in adding or editing stuff that you haven't realized, deleted a file you shouldn't.....

this ai is great, it even won agaist me once :)

but one thing is strange. the ai doesnt do much as long as i dont attack it.
(builds just a litle base)
but if i send only one little peewee it starts to expand and attack...

is that behavior normal?

no its not, perhaps aai hasnt scouted your base yet?

AAI handles different starting positions on different maps very differently...sometimes it'll get stuck before it builds a factory. Sometimes it won't 'find' the space to put down more than a few factories, or won't get to tech 2.

For instance, pit two AAI's against each other on pretty much any map with random start pos's - one position gives the AAI an 'advantage' over the other. I've noticed that AAI placed in the top left of most maps will tend to create more mexes and expand better, but as i said this varies from map to map. Just some bias in the way it selects building positions or something like that.

The best 'fair' map i've found is Bypass so far. AAI's in all positions don't seem to have any problems getting to tech 2... but the ones in the north will always prevail.

Doesn't stop it being a kick arse AI though

hmm i dont know which maps you usually use, but i rarely noticed these problems... aai does not work on greenhaven and a few other maps, but most availbale maps are rather flat... (like comet catcher, painted desert, etc.)

It seems to work on greenhaven usually.. only some of the positions don't let the AI build a complete (tech 2 with all the bells and whistles) base; i suppose that's what you mean?

It's more a general trend that the top left AAI will perform better than the bottom left, bottom right and top right. It varies from map to map but is consistent on repeated battles and exchanging the positions of the AIs.