Who fixes the AI?

John Cordell · Post by **John Cordell** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 3:24 pm

Who fixes the AI? That's basically the question. I think everybody knows what i mean by that. Debug the AI vs AI attack routines (collision & maneuvers), enrich the AI vs Player attacks so that they aren't too boring or too frustrating.

So who (can and) wants to do it? Anybody?

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 7:37 pm

Spirit is THE AI expert. Having said that, I was supposed to try and do some AI work with Bodo, moving some of the Python code into C++ and into a dll/so. But Bodo was going to start the work in C, while I was busy with modelling, but he seems to have disappeared. Anyways, afaik, spirit is the only one who knows the AI well.

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:57 am

I have to update the frmation flying in the exe before I do anything in the xml... this said, try to increase "space drag" a little and see if this gives you mre WCish movement.

I've been playing Prphecy lately and the AI for that was spot-on.

Post by **hurleybird** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:12 am

Eh... I kind of disliked the prophecy AI, seemed a step down from 4, very arcadish IMO.

John Cordell · Post by **John Cordell** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:12 am

What exactly does space drag and where do i have to put it in, vs config?
Hurley, everything is better than the current AI. It flys strange, stupid as hell and is really no fun to play with :/

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:40 pm

Er, thanks on the AI ^_^;

Yes, it's a vegastrike.config option, see the WCU install.

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... 9602#59602

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:31 am

Awright, now that I can compile VS again, let's get to work! What do you need done, John?

John Cordell · Post by **John Cordell** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:31 pm

AI ships shouldn't crash into other AI ships.
AI ships should fly smooth turns.
AI ships shouldn't slide or do stuff the player can't do.
AI should fly more maneuvers.
AI should be fun to fight against and not a pain because you see how stupid it is. Look at WC3 and 4 or even Freelancer and get some ideas what you could make them do.

btw. Spirit, how have you fixed the tractor beam?

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:17 pm

I haven't, but someone else has

if you mean how I fixed it in WCU, it was a fairly ugly hack involving autotracking. VS now has a much better one.

Fireskull · Post by **Fireskull** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:17 pm

If you want a few maneuvers for AI, I can send descriptions of them to you spirit.. I know a couple of tricks, and they DO work.

Actually, it would be best if we could somehow hook up in a MP space sim so I can show them to you, but eh

I can try to draw something using Windows Paint.

John Cordell · Post by **John Cordell** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:49 am

Fireskull it would be awesome if you could draw them and send me a copy as well okay?

Fireskull · Post by **Fireskull** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:02 pm

Ok....

I will do a couple tonight just to show that I mean some bussiness, but I wont be able to send all of them for a while cause Im leaving o vacations tommorow.

rockstar · Post by **rockstar** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:44 pm

"AI ships shouldn't crash into other AI ships."

Why not? This is something what might happen - at least sometimes - in the heat of a battle. Not all pilots are aces...
Flying risky maneuvers should offer you the possibility of eliminating enemy ships by AI pilot mistakes.
Guess it's quite hard coding incidents like this, but I've just wanna have mentioned that I do not agree with this point on Mr.Cordell's list.

Post by **klauss** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:26 pm

Don't worry, Rockstar.
As hard it is for humans to avoid those collisions... it's even harder for the AI. It's really not easy thing to make an AI plan their maneuvers in advance like that.
Although I would love that kind of AI... I just don't see it happen in the near future. Perhaps after the C++ AI modules I'm planning it would be thinkable - not before.

A lesser level of intelligence, though, could simply make them turn in time before the collision - but nothing can help the unhelpable position in which you can sometimes get into, where you have to hit a rather improbable trajectory in order to avoid collisions.

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:22 am

In the meantime, I got to "reload" the fighters-launched-as-missiles and the fighters-ejected-as-cargo properly when made to autoland.

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:18 pm

And to take off properly without ugly xml hacks.

Fireskull · Post by **Fireskull** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:53 pm

Hm

I am back from my vacations. I should send some stuff to spirit soon but in the night I got back my personal life turned itself upside down. I received a -very- strong blow and Ive never felt worse.

I dunno how long it will take for me to recover, but I bet you guys arent willing to wait months for someone to fight depression. So, I have to skip helping with AI.

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:58 am

yo, what's wrong? can I help?

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:21 am

Hard blows are nothing you "receive"; hard blows are the things you did or didn't do that you regret. Those haunt you for the rest of your life. Death of a loved one... nah; you get over those things in days.

Post by **klauss** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 4:08 pm

@chuck: Sounds like you never lost a son. Neither did I - I have none - but I know a friend who did. You can see it in his eyes: he'll never recover.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 4:33 pm

Oops... Yeah, a son or a daughter, that would be really hard. I guess it also depends on the circumstances, like a close one getting murdered. I was thinking just about natural or accidental deaths of parents or siblings; things that are out of your control or responsibility, whether in fact or perception; and that don't leave you asking "why?" forever, of course.