How to improve the AI without the Devs doing too much testing?
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@Schulz
I can tell you that the current AI is heavily weighted in defending Capitals and if there is no Capital it is still capable of defending factories, but you are correct the AI will not defend factories with same logic/determination as a Capital.As you probably know Trevan will be working on a variant AI over the winter break, it sounds very ambitious, so I would not post anything as individual issues yet, but do keep a log, thats what Im doing, as the Devs dont currently have the time to look at old AI issues.
Trevan also said
I'll see about adding a way to allow the map to set the various weights.So lets hope he does. :winking_face:
When we get the new AI it will generate its own AI weakness and that's the one to concentrate on.
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@LaFayette , would you prefer having custom AI weights to be written in the map xml? Or as a separate file in the game directory? The weights would control how important a capital, factory, resource, etc should be considered when building out the diffused field. There will also be a diffuse rate that can be controlled.
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@Trevan Would either make it more compatible with current maps?
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I don't think either will affect current maps. There'll be default weights that maps will automatically have. Maps will have the opportunity to override the defaults. I think putting it in the map xml might be better because then a single zip file might have multiple xmls that need different custom weights.
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@Trevan The other option would be to do it like objectives are done.
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@ff03k64 Objectives aren't quite the same thing. The AI should actually utilize objectives in giving values of territories.
The weights are more on how should parts of the game be valued. Say the game has IPCs and Oil. All territories produce IPCs but only a few produce oil. If the AI values IPCs and Oil identically, then a territory with 3 IPCs will always be more important than a territory with 2 Oil. But, most likely, 2 Oil is better than 3 IPCs. The AI might be able to learn that but to give it a hint, the map maker could say that each Oil is worth 3x. Now, the territory with 2 Oil is actually worth 6 instead of 2 and the AI will go for that.
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redrum has done an excellent job with the AI! It has improved at least 10 fold since I first tested it so gg
I will battle and test the current AI again when I'm in the mood but I will say again this game and its' engine and the Ai will always be elite and maybe the greatest RTS of all time!
By the way, I'm busy with physics theories and doing a math paper that is a million dollar challenge through an institute and also I'm a researcher for a famous night time radio show host and I've been followed by famous authors for my history theories and discoveries that you know nothing of yet but will tell yous eventually
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@Trevan i just meant you could do an AI properties file like how there is an objectives property file for multiple xmls.
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@ff03k64 oh, I didn't know about that. How does that file work?
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@Trevan said in How to improve the AI without the Devs doing too much testing?:
@LaFayette , would you prefer having custom AI weights to be written in the map xml? Or as a separate file in the game directory? The weights would control how important a capital, factory, resource, etc should be considered when building out the diffused field. There will also be a diffuse rate that can be controlled.
@Trevan having just done a map with 5 xml variants for you, I could see map makers wanting to customise the AI per xml file, so they can customise each scenario/xml.
If there was one ai.properties file it would effect all xml variants with the same parameters/logic.
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@Trevan said in How to improve the AI without the Devs doing too much testing?:
@ff03k64 oh, I didn't know about that. How does that file work?
I don't know the details specifically. But it has the name of the xml, or the name of the map as part of the objective. I would guess that you could also have an AI properties file that could be called something like mapname.AIproperties as well.
I believe world_war_ii_global has a single objectives file for multiple xml games.
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I think it would be best to have a separate file for AI weights. It would make it easier to try different weights.
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Im now agreeing with ff03k64 and RogerCooper a separate file is best, something like xml-name.AIproperties as this covers all bases, its easier to change and its per xml file.
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We should be cautious about baking an engine dependency into a map. To continue supporting the map, historically any map properties we have to continue support ad-infinitium. Perhaps such a property file we could just ignore one day, but some caution should be used. I'd also wonder if the weighting values couldn't be computed by the AI, I also wonder if the formula that we are tweaking is truly the right formula and has the right considerations and coefficients to begin with.
FWIW, I think experimenting with a custom compiled game with different formula weights would be a good first data point to know how much value there is in tweaking the values. Once we've gained that experience, we'll be in a better position to judge whether per-map differences are impactful.
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I would really want allowing map makers to create separate AI files for their games as well.
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