[3.1+] NullBot: an adaptive skirmish AI

[Giani]

I have put it in any directotry possible, but NullBot is not available in the beta 11.

Put him in mods/autoload.

[themac]

Ah, tnx, that works for me. I did put it in the mods folder before, but I did not know about the need of the autoload folder.

[Tenoh]

i see new version there but what about the notes about changes?

[NoQ]

Tenoh: posted in this thread, as usual.
Giani: will have a look now.

[NoQ]

Giani: i can't find the frowny_v1 map on which the savegame was made, this version is not present in tmp500's thread, could you provide a copy somehow?

[Berg]

Just uploaded this in case giana dont have it

[Giani]

giana

[NoQ]

Emm. I officially give up loading this savegame, it just keeps saying mod not found (even though all three necessary mods are in autoload).
Need to have a closer look, probably there's some bug in game with mods loading.

Could you check that the sky color is what you expect after loading the game (that is, corresponding to the sky mods you use ... are these other mods loaded?) or check out stderr for mod loading problems. The AI can't do much if its script isn't loaded.

#3567

[Giani]

Nullbot doesn't research composite alloys for tanks and either for cyborgs ...
Here you have a savegame, maybe it helps:
(It has loaded Nullbot(as a mod), ultimate scavenger mod, arizone(sky mod of aubergine) and the Enhaced SitRep mod )

[NoQ]

Emm, i repeat, i can't load savegames with multiple mods #3567 (can you?)
I just had a look in resstate.ini in the savegame and i saw some tank and borg alloys researched (for instance, second borg alloys are researched for all players).

[NoQ]

v1.35 released.

Changes:

• Send single units (or little groups) to knock out unprotected derricks.
  
  • Check out how it behaves on large maps with a lot of scattered oil,
    
    • For instance, try 1x1 match against him on 4c-VisionX2.
• Do more fundamental research.
  
  • Also, build more research labs, at least one for every three derricks.
  • You will now see VTOLs earlier.
  • Probably fixes those "doesn't research pythons" issues.
• Backport fixes from USM to the nullbot-scavenger AI (don't stall at unit limits).
• Pick up artifacts (in addition to picking up oil drums that was already implemented).
• Always make attempts to capture a derrick even if safeDest() returns false on it (just more rarely).

[themac]

tnx, testing it

[iap]

HI, I tested the "turtle" NullBot (played against it in hard mode).
It was all right as far as I can tell. I do have some suggestions:
* I've found a lot of defenseless oil derricks. If it's an AI about defense, why it's it defensing the derricks?
* There was no combat units at all! It did try to make VTOLs, but by the time I got there, it managed to construct only one factory with one VTOL.
* I wasn't surprised. I mean, yeah, I've choose to play the turtle mode so I should expect a lot of defense buildings. So maybe I just miss a "randomly chosen AI mode" button, or maybe the defense layout should be more versatile or tactical. I know the second option is a hard one, so the first is ok by me.

Now a bug witch I'm not sure it's related to this AI, but it happened only this time with the AI.
* Sometimes the music and the sound breaks and the game starts to lag. It happens when I'm close to the enemy, but it's not related to how many units are on the screen or how many are firing.

Next time I will play with another AI mode to what happens to it.
Thanks

[NoQ]

I've found a lot of defenseless oil derricks.

He will loose the battle pretty quickly if he spreads his defenses around many spots. Unlike units, towers don't move, you know. You can protect all spots at once with all your tanks, but every tower can only protect one spot. Even with that, he can't really hold against a well-made straight attack with anti-building weapons, even with an equal amount of oil.

There was no combat units at all!

That was intended.

It did try to make VTOLs, but by the time I got there, it managed to construct only one factory with one VTOL.

Depends on how much money it had. I think that in some recent version i made him build defenses more actively, which means he has even less money for VTOLs.

So maybe I just miss a "randomly chosen AI mode" button

Use the base AI for that, it chooses one of the modes randomly. It doesn't choose turtle though, because it'd be too much of a disappointment if the AI doesn't attack you in some random games. Not sure what are you talking about though, or how is it related to the issue.

maybe the defense layout should be more versatile or tactical

Completely impossible. There is no such thing as "where" in the API i can use. I can't even find out whether a cetain map tile is passable or not. On a side note, you can try playing against Turtle AI on master version of Warzone (from git, which will eventually turn into v3.2). The AI makes use of gateways when run on master, so it will make more sensible defenses on certain maps.

the game starts to lag.

This AI takes up a bit more CPU resources than Nexus. This is a known issue, i'm trying to improve it. Note: pretty much any move any AI does must stop the game completely until it finishes thinking. As far as i remember, DyDo used to be relatively slow too.

[iap]

So maybe the whole point of turtle AI is to teach me a lesson?

By the way I didn't find a "generic" NullBot in the AI selection screen, as I did last time.