My friends who I play supreme commander with love playing cooperatively and having very large epic games where we team up against alot of computers, but unfortunately the stock AI is not up to this, and when we play with a large number of units, the sim speed of the game just gets too slow to be enjoyable. So I created this AI in order to give us a challenge. WARNING: This is is very difficult. What we were looking for was a was just very large epic scale and difficult battles that will intelligently and unpredictably attack us and keep us down, so this AI cheats significantly in resource gathering and build speed. This however allows for efficient AI base construction that focuses primarily on unit production and the majority of the AI's unit count will be units. This reduces much clutter in the base and actually seems to improve performance of the game.
The AI:
Unlike the stock AI, this AI also makes extremely heavy use of transports. In fact it will use transports whenever possible. These transports as well as other attack aircraft will now intelligently determine safe positions to land based on your own defenses. So no more putting up a wall of AA in between your base and the enemy base and expecting all enemy aircraft to just run into it. It will actively avoid such areas. If all potential landing zones are determined to be too risky, then it will just find a safe spot near the target to land and walk from there. The AI also attempts to find the safest walking path to the target and land there. The massive use of transports which avoids land pathfinding and the decrease in computer base clutter which avoids even more pathfinding seems to actually increase the late game performance of the game. With 3 players and 2 stock AI's the game would slow down to an unplayable speed of -3 or below quite quickly, but this AI actually maintains 0 or -1 playspeed even at unit cap and late game of ~2 hours. This was observed with 3 players with Core 2 Duo's ranging from 2.4 - 3.1 ghz.
The mod:
This started as an AI but to spice things up even more I added a large number of commander upgrades and new commander features. Commanders in this mod play much like heroes in warcraft3.
Commanders:
-Gain XP represented by the kill counter
-Can spend XP a myriad of new upgrades that make them really powerful
-Upgrades you have previously bought can be re-requipped for no cost, but this is not currently reflected in the cost shown in the UI.
-Respawn at your base after death, stunned for 5 minutes
-Possess auras which enhance troops around you to combat the onslaught
-Have new upgrade slots: head, back, torso, left arm, right arm, legs, command subsystems(auras)
-Have alot of new weapons including dual microwave lasers, shotgun artillery, hypervelocity missiles, AA tractor beams, Combat frames, in addition to several other combat upgrades. Every faction's commander has different upgrades, except the seraphim which have none.
-Have a shortrange teleporter which can teleport units around the commander as well. Cooldown is 2-5 minutes depending on the distance of the teleport and takes 10 seconds to teleport. Energy requirement is low. The maximum range of the teleporter is 384.
Tech levels:
-The computer will not tech up to the next tech level unless either you do, or a certain time has elapsed. 40 minutes for T2, and 70 minutes after that for T3. You are considered tech'd up if non computer players have a total of 27 units above the current tech level. This number was balanced for 3 players since I usually play with 3 players, so each player could have 8 units/structures above the current tech level to help fight off the hordes. Which units/structures you pick is an important strategic decision.
-I wanted time spent at each tech level because each tech level has it's own gameplay dynamics, and this leads to a game with different styles of playing as the game goes on.
Misc:
-Units fall from transports when the transports are destroyed now. Makes combat landings fun. Also allows you to transport your commander without much fear.
-Enemy units are quite buffed and this ai is more suited for a long turtle style game. Quite fun with friends.
-Everything needs to be defended, the AI will attack anything that moves, whereever they are.
-The number after the ai ie "Dasani AI 750" represents the ai's unit cap which is independent of the game's set unit cap, in case you wanted to handicap yourself, or reduce the enemy unit count for increased performance.
-There is a built in no rush of 10 minutes for the AI, during which the computer will do nothing. The game's built in no rush was causing some problems with transports just hovering around.
-Once again, this ai is designed to quite unfairly kick your ***, so be warned. Upgrading your commander is key to victory.
-Playing with friends is highly suggested
-I'm sure I'm forgetting some features. I didnt keep a changelog.
Download:
The AI/mod:
Dasani_AI.scd
Fun maps to play on with 3 people on the bottom left:
Alpha7Fort.rar
Alpha7ForCenter.rar Pick the center for a real challenge.
Installation:
Drop the scd file into game data and pick the Dasani Balanced AI in the lobby. Dasani Naval DOES NOT work yet. This is very much a wip, and is currently not compatibly with anything else. Make sure this is the only non-original scd in your gamedata folder.|||List of new Commander Techs:
Common:
-Auras: Field Repair, Rapid Deployment, Blitzkreig, Fire for Effect, Defensive Posture.
-Out of combat regeneration. If your commander does not get hit for 30 seconds, he will enter fast regeneration mode.
-Legs Tactical Jumpdrive. Use early and often to help your allies or get to hotspots. I tried to model the group jump timing after battlestar galactica's fleet jumps. =D
-Commander's standard upgrades have been rearranged to different slots as well, so many new combinations are now possible.
UEF:
-Right arm Anti-matter mortar->Antimatter shotgun
-Left arm Chaingun->Improved chaingun (can target land and low flying aircraft ie gunships)
-Combat Frame Incraesed speed, hp, and regen
-Advanced Shield Generator->Fortress Shield Generator
Cybran:
-Right Arm Microwave Laser
-Left Arm Microwave Laser
-Left Arm AAgun -> Rapid AAFlak
-Left Arm Hypervelocity missiles->Improved hypervelocity missiles ( targets land and low aircraft)
-Combat Frame
-Cloaking Generator disables weapons and is on a 15 sec cooldown
-Secondary Cloak initiator allows you to cloak anytime but has a 30 sec cooldown.
Aeon-
-Left arm AAgun->AA tractor beam
-Left am second quantum disrupter
-Improved Chrono dampener
-Combat Frame ->Advanced combat frame ->Hyperion Fighting Matrix
More upgrades to come, suggestions are welcome.|||I'll try your mod this weekend. Why aren't there upgrades for the Seraphim ACU?|||My friends and I usually play as the original 3 factions so I focused on those. Seraphim will be coming though.|||Hm . . . With this mod AI ACU not build anything.|||That is the built in no-rush. It will do nothing for the first 10 minutes. It will explode with units after that.|||Really like the way you have gone with your AI very original and a good niche IMO.
Is it possible you would make one a tough match for 2 people?
And whats with the insane health on every factory mex and ACU?
good work s far!|||A single 750 AI is pretty good for 2 people, especially in the AlphaFortCenter map. With 3 I usually play 2 500's on either side of the map and its very tough. I could add a single 1000 AI, that might be good for 2 people too. The enemy factories, mexes and acu's have alot of hp because the AI doesn't build much in the way of defenses, and focuses everything on units. Every defense it makes is one less unit it sends at you. I don't really envision the enemy base being destroyed until tech 3, and with an army of experimentals backed up by upgraded commanders, or a carpet bombing with nukes. I wanted it to be an epic effort to take down their base. The cybran commander with dual microwave lasers actually takes them down quite fast. Especially when he's protected by the UEF commanders fortress shield and everything is being stunned by a Aeon commander's chrono dampener. Throw in an army of t3 artillery affected by double rate of fire aura, and things with any amount of hp die fast. The commanders were all designed to complement each other, and by their powers combined they are quite unstoppable. Different auras stack with each other as well.|||i ll try it out for sure sounds like a kind of larger supreme art of defense, a mod i had great fun with.|||I tried it out against a single 750 AIX, and I have a few questions:
Is the idea for us to turtle up? Ten minutes is a lot of time to prepare against an opponent that hasn't begun to build. I intentionally waited until about twelve minutes to scout. He had one factory and a trickle of units. The Janus fighter-bombers that I used to scout could have easily wiped the enemy off the map.
Does this mod only work on the suggested map? The AI didn't seem to be aggressive about sending units and building facs.
How do I know when I can select certain upgrades? It seemed like trial and error.|||Hi moca,
Yeah this mod is meant for you to turtle and fortress build. At 12 minutes the ai should have alot of factories and alot of hundreds of units. The AI should work on an map you use. Which one are you using that you are having problems with? I'll try it out on my machine. If you see the AI in action, you'll see that 10 minutes is just barely enough. Is anyone else having the problem of the AI not doing very much?
And about upgrades. It tells you how much xp you need and what tech level you can get things in the tooltip, the one right above the build cost, not the larger upgrade decription to the right of it. To be a certain tech level, you have to have at least 10 of that particular tech level's unit/structures. For example, if you have 10 tech 2 mass extractors, and you will be considered tech 2. From then on you can get the upgrades labelled tech2. I'm currently trying to figure out a way to let users have more information about what tech level they currently are, and what tech level the enemy is, but I haven't worked with the UI much so I don't know how to do it yet. Anyone know of an easy way to make a UI message popup somewhere?|||This is where the upgrade prerequisites are:
This is what the AI should look like at 11 minutes:
I am looking to make 3 seperate stages of the game, corrosponding to the different tech levels. I want the early part of a game devoted to tech1 combat where everybody including the computer is tech1, then everybody tech's up pretty much at once, and tech 2 begins, then you fight/struggle in tech 2, then tech3 begins and you fight/struggle in tech3. During each tech level the player needs to struggle to build his fortress base and infrastructure, as well as upgrade his commander, so that he will be ready for when the computer techs up to the next level and begins his assault in the new tech level. Preparation in the previous tech level should key to surviving the computer's current tech assault.
Currently the AI teching is controlled by 2 different ways:
Timers: They make the AI tech up at 40 minutes for tech 2, then 70 minutes after that for tech3.
Player unit counts: If the players exceeds a certain amount of tech2 units, the AI will tech up to 2. If the players exceeds a certain amount of t3 units, then the ai will tech up to 3. The certain amount is currently set to 27 total for all players combined. I'll probably be changing it to account for number of players later.
Either of these mechanisms will cause the computer to tech up, and begin it's assault at the new tech level.
These conditions are not the most obvious to the user, and I'm working on making more feedback about this to the user in the UI.|||sabrex|||The xp for your commander is the kill counter on your commander that is shown underneath his hp bar when you mouse over him. It looks like a skull. It is not shown if he has no xp.|||Does this AI only work on certain maps? i really like the idea, my cybran ACU was extremely deadly, took on four gcs.
ok back on track, i was playing on Fields of Isis, the AI built one air factory, upgraded it to t3, Very Very Slowly.... Then tried to build a bomber, it was around 30 minutes when i decided to quit.
Or maybe its a glitch of some sort?|||It should theoretically work on any map. I will try it out on that map and see whats going on. What map did you use when you used the cybran commander vs the four gcs? Do you remember what build order you had and what time you built them when you played the field of isis?|||I just played on Emerald crater vs an Aeon AIX 500. It only built one factory and didn't produce a lot of units. I just quit 3 hours into the game. BTW, what is the end condition? My T3 Arty, Mavor, Novax, and Fatboy continuously pounded the reappearing Commander. He died a million deaths.|||Thanks for playing 3 hours, never actually got that far myself. =D. Due to commander respawning there is no end condition yet, aside from knowing that you have won. Sorry I neglected to mention that. Do you happen to have a replay I could have to figure out why its not building? Hopefully I will resolve this and other issues in the next release, which should be quite soon.|||Sorry, no replay.|||well maybee it has something to do with packs interacting
some of the files present in your pack might be hooked by sorian pack or mine,
all your file are overwriting those of packs loaded before it
so if someone has you pack installed and other people packs installed at the same time in sequence
duncane pack is loaded. overwrites stock files
Sorian Ai support is loaded overwrite duncanes GetAIlist function with itself + a hooking device. no compatibility problems
Sorian pack or mine add files to the directories overwrite nothing but Basetemplate file with a tuned copy of itself no compatibility problems.
then your pack loads and overwrites everything included in Duncane pack and the GetAilist function of Sorian + his base templates. you are screwing all packs before yours but so far yours should work just fine.
But there is the schooking, Sorian pack and mine schook files of the /lua folder, up to now we know that once a file is schooked it cant be schooked again but there is maybe more to it, maybee once a file is schooked it cant be touched again, this would mean that once sorian or sorian+ajunta pack is loaded it then denies access to schooked files when your pack wants to overwrite them.
have you tried to see how your pack gets along with other peeps pack on yor machine ?
if so then we have to look for another cause for explaining whats happening to moca's games.|||What other non original scds do you have in your gamedata folder moca?|||sabrex|||mocafrost|||I found a stray .scd file (cheating options). I had forgot about that... Testing again now.
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