Slow response pathfinding. maybe an idea

[cytrex]

I' m sure everyone has seen this happen especially in skirmishgames as soon as the original game was launched.
Till today i have the same problem, when the AI players gets stuck, response times can go to 10 or more seconds before
the command (building a turret for ex.)  is executed.

What i noticed is that the AI retreats all vehicles when they receive dmg after a while, causing traffic jams on the map
(especially when using long range defences like hellstorms etc.). this is where the pathfindingproblem kicks in.

I think if you set the AI player to the "Do or Die" command,instead of "retreat at medium damage", a lot of those problems will be solved.
Retreat at medium damage doesnt work anyways for the AI, because they come back damaged again.

Well just a thought, and maybe easy to implement (maybe as an option AI player settings?).

[doom3r]

I think it is more "intelligent" to let AI choose if his units needs to retreat or not, depending on many factors, like how many total units AI has, if he has repairers, if he needs more firepower even coming from damaged units.

The best thing to do is to rewrite the pathfinding code, which I think wont be that easy...

[Audacitor]

Hmm, I'm nit sure about doom3r's suggestion.  We don't want the AI to be so intelligent that the player doesn't really have to do that much work.  Although, if the player is allowed to modify how those factors are taken into account, it might be add a new dimension to the game.  It'd be tough, though.  For example, I assume that when you say "total units", you mean total units in nearby radius or total units in combat.  That would require a ton of code to decide whether or not a unit is in said radius or is in combat.

I mean, it's definitely something to look into, just not until the code is stable.

[Buginator]

I mean, it's definitely something to look into, just not until the code is stable.

Define stable.
Some would say it is pretty stable right now.  (At least the latest trunk release.)
Does that mean it don't crash?  No, but I haven't had a crash that I didn't fix in awhile, and one of these days, it will migrate into the latest version.  People got a bit busy, so these delays happen.  Can you play games longer than you could before?  Yes.

[Troman]

Well just a thought, and maybe easy to implement (maybe as an option AI player settings?).

I seriously doubt it will have any effect on the slowdowns, but you can find it out. And this is how: you will have to modify playerX.slo files (X is 0-7), those are located in data\multiplay\skirmish folder.

Search for this text:

Code: Select all

DSS_REPLEV_LOW

and replace it with:

Code: Select all

DSS_REPLEV_NEVER

For an explaination look here

[cytrex]

Well ty for the quick response, i will change that code and see how it affects the skirmish pathfinding problems.
And yes i ment to do this for all the AI units, untill a better solution is found someday.
Cause i think after playing all other RTS games, this one is still the best, and you guys doing a great job here!

[doom3r]

Cause i think after playing all other RTS games, this one is still the best, and you guys doing a great job here!

You can say that! 

Btw, try playing a bit with do or die on and report if you found something useful...

[Per]

Are there some maps where the slow down in path finding occur more frequently than others? If so, which maps are those?

[cytrex]

Yes, maps where the AI easily gets stuck when sending units to your base and
meeting their own units for repair on their way in small passes.
Always when this happens, responsetime from your own units gets longer up to 10 sec.
(when the amount of landunits increases at AI side)

Responsetime i mean clicking one or more constructunits to build or repair, it takes up
to 10 secs or more before they respond.

And this problem is platform independent, nothing to do with proc/vid speed.
(playing on quad core 3.4ghz/ 8800GTX SLi, other pc's and some mac pro's.)

p.s and btw code is pretty stable here on all platforms. no major errors yet. (Xp, Vista all versions, Leopard).

[Buginator]

Yes, maps where the AI easily gets stuck when sending units to your base and
meeting their own units for repair on their way in small passes.
Always when this happens, responsetime from your own units gets longer up to 10 sec.
(when the amount of landunits increases at AI side)

Responsetime i mean clicking one or more constructunits to build or repair, it takes up
to 10 secs or more before they respond.

And this problem is platform independent, nothing to do with proc/vid speed.
(playing on quad core 3.4ghz/ 8800GTX SLi, other pc's and some mac pro's.)

p.s and btw code is pretty stable here on all platforms. no major errors yet. (Xp, Vista all versions, Leopard).

What version are you running?

As for maps, would help if we know the names.  If they are official pumpkin ones, or some map that someone did.

Also is the map flat or does it have lots of cliffs and such?

I *think* that flat maps don't have these issues, but need to verify.

[cytrex]

Indeed flat maps dont have this issue (units have enough room to pass eachother)
and im talking about the original maps, with cliffs, narrow passages.
So basically all original maps except the "flat ones"

But i am going to test with the new settings, i let you know asap if it helps.

[Per]

Paths in Warzone are stored and executed over a longer time. However, if the path fails (obstruction), then maybe the game tries to recalculate the path again and again until it succeeds, and if it doesn't, just keeps hogging path-finding, which only one droid gets to do at a time. I guess one solution to this problem would be to "punish" droids that can't find a path with a rapidly increasing "time out" before it is allowed to enter path-finding again.

[cytrex]

Maybe it's me but .slo files are not located there (did org install from downloadsection here).
Not in programfiles/warzone or mydocuments, tried to search for them, no data\multiplay\skirmish exists (Vista).

Only place i found references was in wz executable. and indeed they point to that location but not there...maybe its the beer :p

[DevUrandom]

warzone.wz is a zipfile containing all data...

[doom3r]

try using 7zip to unpack it