Warzone 2100: Contingency (Beta now released)

[aubergine]

It's a shame the JS API can't query the research tree more directly and with more detail, as that would allow a much more dynamic sort of AI to be made that could handle any research tree (within some defined params of course) and adapt to it.

[Rman Virgil]

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Edit: I've prepared a folder for anyone that's interested in creating maps using Warzone 2100: Contingency material. I've bundled it into the next beta release: 0.1 Just be sure to extract "objectDataContingency" and tell FlaME to add the folder to Object Data Directories.

Edit #2: Shoot! The objectDataContingency folder is too big.

Selfishly, I confess, I hope this can be worked out because I'd love to include this mod in my cinematic work.

Though I've barely scratched the surface of this mod (and it will take me months to truely begin to appreciate its expansive changes in GP along with the new aesthetics), my experience with the game since '99 already leads me to some initial assessments - and a question or two.

This is surely one of the most ambitious, creative and complex mods of WZ ever made over the entire history of the game. Every bit as challenging to create as a new campaign and second only to creating the original game itself, IMHO.

My central concerns from working on such type mods in the past (complex, but not anywhere near as complex, bold and ambitious as this mod, to be sure) has been MP balance and MP Playtesting to that end. While I could be doggedly determined and comprehensive in my solo playtesting, as I'm sure you have been, MP Playtesting has always been a PITA to even get organized let alone get useful feedback. Shadow Wolf, how have you been able to deal with that MP playtesting for balance on top of the huge volume of work involved in creating this complex mod itself...?

- Regards, Rman.
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[NoQ]

It's a shame the JS API can't query the research tree more directly and with more detail, as that would allow a much more dynamic sort of AI to be made that could handle any research tree (within some defined params of course) and adapt to it.

Well, this assumes including Iluvalar's autobalance script into the AI, to find out wether a certain research is good enough to pursue (:

[NoQ]

The hang happens when NullBot tries to research a factory module. Not exactly it, but also when it tries to pursue it by researching pre-requisites. But not always.

The infinite loop we run into is the "while (cur)" loop in qtscriptfuncs.cpp.

I think we're running into this in prresearch.txt:

Code: Select all

R-Vehicle-Body01,R-Vehicle-Body01,229
R-Vehicle-Body04,R-Vehicle-Body01,234

QtScript engine just can't understand that. But why it researches Body04 successfully anyway? I guess it's because it's already available, so no need to try to understand pre-reqs.

Yeah, i removed the "viper requires viper" line and everything works well now.

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I could really use some body balance guide.

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Also, R-Sys-Spade1Mk1 is cyclic.
And R-Defense-TowerConst01.

[Cook1990]

hello registered just to give some feedback on this brillant mod of a brillant game.

i've played a few games on the 4 player squared map, let me tell you having 40 oil to begin with makes using this mod super easy, as you have plenty of power to run the 10 labs and 30 factories.

as already mentioned the current AI doesn't make use of the new weapons, so for half the game they ai's i was playing were still running light tanks, so this mod really need to be tested multiplayer and not skirmish.

another thing i noticed is as you upgrade to better walls, you still keep the old towers, bunkers, pits and hardpoints, so at the end of the game, your build menu is about 15 tabs, which makes it hard to get to the defences you want to build.

while i didn;t take any scrrenshots of those first few games, i did take one from my last game, which was on the reblanced highground map for 2 players.

would it be possible to code it into the mod to hide the redunant defences, as having a masive amount of build tabs is kinda annoying.

thanks for reading!

Cook1990

EDIT: something i should have mentioned, cyborgs are way too weak, doesn't matter when you use them in the game, they keep getting destoryed by everything, early on they're no match for cannons and rocket pods, and lator on the bots have heavy cannons (which are good agaisnt everything) and then have the seraph missle array (which just blows everything up).
cyborgs need a HP boost.

[NoQ]

Some research item models, like bunker and hardpoint, are out of scale:

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

After playing through the mod, I love it. My only deal is AI's can't function with it .. at least for now. I'm sure that will change soon.

It's also a great baseline for Cam 4. Just about everything it needs is in the mod already. Custom-named units could be added using FlaME and the API though, and that's really all I would need. ^_^

Nicely done, Shadow!

[NoQ]

The HMG Supercyborg model looks wrong: as if its machinegun is hanging in the air, not really attached to the body (:

[NoQ]

Emm, still having problems with research caused by R-Sys-Spade1Mk1, even after cyclic dependency was removed. Trying to figure out how to fix that.

upd: adding completeResearch directives to rules.js seems to fix that, not sure though no, probably false positive reported by my buggy debug code.

Anyway, here is a complete list of cyclic dependencies of length 1:

Code: Select all

R-Comp-SynapticLink,R-Comp-SynapticLink,376
R-Cyborg-Armor-Heat01,R-Cyborg-Armor-Heat01,988
R-Cyborg-HvyConst,R-Cyborg-HvyConst,0
R-Cyborg-Metals01,R-Cyborg-Metals01,449
R-Defense-Bunker3-Railgun-Hvy,R-Defense-Bunker3-Railgun-Hvy,0
R-Defense-WallUpgrade01,R-Defense-WallUpgrade01,374
R-Struc-Power-Upgrade01b,R-Struc-Power-Upgrade01b,1038
R-Struc-Power-Upgrade03a,R-Struc-Power-Upgrade03a,1040
R-Struc-VTOLPad-Upgrade01,R-Struc-VTOLPad-Upgrade01,704
R-Sys-Resistance-Circuits,R-Sys-Resistance-Circuits,1100
R-Vehicle-Prop-Wheels,R-Vehicle-Prop-Wheels,487
R-Wpn-Bomb-Accuracy01,R-Wpn-Bomb-Accuracy01,1009
R-Wpn-PlasmaCannon,R-Wpn-PlasmaCannon,1109

Here is a fixed prresearch.txt that doesn't cause hangs any longer (i just removed all the lines mentioned above):

[NoQ]

Once prresearch.txt is fixed, here is some working version of nullbot-contingency. So far it uses only one pre-defined strategy: machinegun spam.

I repeat: you'd need to fix prresearch.txt inside the mod before using this AI, otherwise the game will hang randomly.

[NoQ]

Updated the AI in the previous message to make use of a few cannon borgs and minipods in early game, before AT MGs are available. Was surprised to see how quickly cannon borgs get produced. Are you sure they're not OP? (: upd: well, i guess they die quickly enough to make a difference (:

// he still dies in 15 minutes against me on Sk-Startup

[NoQ]

The mod doesn't run on our master yet. You'd (at least) need to convert body.txt to body.ini for the mod to work on master. I'd seriously like it to work on master, because it will enable me to use the JS code profiling available only in master.

Note: This mod is likely incompatable with most other mods out there, including, sadly, NoQ's Ultimate Scavengers Mod.

By the way, you can merge USM stats and models into your mod if you like. In this case the mods will get compatible, so even if you don't include my scavfact.js into your mod, loading USM separately will work correctly.
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I hope you have a nice time reading all this when you see what i did to your thread

[NoQ]

AI updated to 0.3 in the message above, now will probably use VTOLs and be more dangerous in early game, i gave up on rockets as early AT and use only cannons right now.

[Arreon]

@ NoQ

Every time I play with your new AI, Warzone hangs up for some reason after a random amount of time.

[NoQ]

That's exactly what i have been continuously talking about for the last 8 hours.

I repeat: you'd need to fix prresearch.txt inside the mod before using this AI, otherwise the game will hang randomly.

The fixed file is attached above.

We need Shadow Wolf TJC to fix it in the mod when he comes, cause i obviously can't fix that. The AI finds looped research pre-requisites, so he hangs trying to figure out what to research first to reach the factory module, the viper body or its prerequisite the viper body. Or something like that in a few other places.

P.S. Right now the early cyborgs seem to be too weak; pure cannons rock for quite some time.