DyDo skirmish AI: ver 2.1.1 (21 Apr 2010)

[Berg]

Yesterday I played a 4 way battle with Dydo lastest version on your site.
Map was one of my creations Base 1=Gerneral 1
Base 2=Gerneral 3
Base 3=Gerneral 2
I was in Base 0 this map is 4 islands in a sea of rubble you can build defence structures in the rubble but not buildings
you can't move forces across from one base to the othee unless they are cyborgs
You need vtol power to attack the enemy

Scene set.
The generals built according to there pre set design base one was first to fall being attacked from 2 sides by base 3 and myself.
The general in base 3 was the first to have vtol power and imediatly attacked the other 2 generals this was lots of fun to watch.
I built mortars around base one to attack its air defences on the sides of its island and was constanlty harrased by general in base 3
Base 2 has some vtol attack my ground defences but with little effect.
Needless to say as the war continued base three became the hardest to overun as its air defences and vtol attacks made it hard to approuch
The AI is looking good
Keep up the good work

Regards Berg

[DylanDog]

Please help me to test DyDo-AI 2.0.4 which is the DyDo Release Candidate to be added on WZ 2.3 RC 2.

2.0.4 fixes also this issue.

[Berg]

can't load
this errors have shown in stderr.txt

Code: Select all

error   |08:59:50: [loadDroidWeapons] Unable to find Template - Cyb-Hvy-A-T
error   |08:59:50: [resLoadFile] resLoadFile: The load function for resource type "STEMPWEAP" failed for file "assignweapons.txt"
fatal   |08:59:50: [resLoad] Failed to parse wrf/stats.wrf
fatal   |08:59:55: [startGameLoop] Shutting down after failure

PS.running warzone 2.3.beta10

[DylanDog]

@ Berg

this is strange, are you using any other mod together with Dydo? I do not get such error. The templates exists in template.txt, can you please post the warzone.rpt file?

[Berg]

You are correct I had another mod running global Modified .wrf

Removed mod dydo runs correctly now.

Sorry about that But it was a graphics mod that i had forgoten about

[Arreon]

I have some suggestions for the AI:

1: Add the scourge (small), flashlight, and Rail-Gunners for the AI to use.

2: When the time comes to change tiers, make the AI less dependent on Thermite, Auto-cannon, and HPV cyborgs. The AI uses them too much. I want to see the Needle Gunners, Flashlight, Scourge, and all the T3 super cyborgs.

3: "Teach" the AI how to use range to its advantage. I usually outrange any cyborgs and tanks that approach my base.

[Mats]

Played Rolling Hills 4 way FFA vs 3 DyDo AIs. Just turtled to see what they did. One got destroyed before I even got the satelite link to see the map... The other two, one kept attacking me, with reasonable size attacks and fairly strong tanks, eventually up to the point of using gauss cannons on heavy neXus bodies. But, the other AI, was still attacking with lancers and mini-pods on wheels/hover medium bodies!

Some quick suggestions from this one play:

DyDo harrassed me more with VTOLs than ground attacks. They were easily dealt with by flak and then SAMs. Just lost one factory and one derrick once each to the VTOLs. DyDo needs to either use VTOLs less, or do bigger strikes!

Attacks on the ground used decent tanks, but were not strong enough. Would be better if DyDo could do less often, but much bigger attacks.

It also doesn't seem to know how to use artillary. Would be great if it could use artillary to attack you...

Anyway, DyDo did play better than the normal AI and is looking good. Will be trying it out much more. Keep up the good work!

[DylanDog]

1: Add the scourge (small), flashlight, and Rail-Gunners for the AI to use.

DyDo builds already 6 templates with scourge (only with Retribution, Vengeance and Wyvern bodies).

2: When the time comes to change tiers, make the AI less dependent on Thermite, Auto-cannon, and HPV cyborgs. The AI uses them too much. I want to see the Needle Gunners, Flashlight, Scourge, and all the T3 super cyborgs.

I thought that was already implemented but I just noticed I "forgot" to prioritize cyborg Flashlights against Flamers, thanks for advising (Currently Flashlight cyborgs are built when they are the best cyborg template available only). I will implement this in the next DyDo version. I will also check the other techs.

3: "Teach" the AI how to use range to its advantage. I usually outrange any cyborgs and tanks that approach my base.

I have already implemented this in DyDo 2.x: the range is assigned to each single droid by checking the type of weapon and using (in almost all cases) the best range, the one with the highest Accuracy, according to this table.

The droids which use short range are (from DyDo AI code):

TANKS:

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droid.weapon == Flamer or droid.weapon == PlasmFlamer or droid.weapon == Inferno or droid.weapon == NeedleGun or droid.weapon == RailGun or droid.weapon == GaussCannon or droid.weapon == PlasmaCannon or droid.weapon == EMPCannon or droid.weapon == AGun or droid.weapon == MGun or droid.weapon == TwinMGun or droid.weapon == HMGun or droid.weapon == TwinAGun

CYBORGS:

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droid.weapon == cybGren or droid.weapon == cybLancer or droid.weapon == cybScourge or droid.weapon == cybSuperHPV or droid.weapon == cybSuperScourge or droid.weapon == cybTankKiller
   

DyDo also assigns "long range" to following weapons, I am not sure this is a good thing as their accuracy is higher on the short range, what do you think?:

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droid.weapon == LCannon or droid.weapon == MCannon or droid.weapon == ACannon or droid.weapon == HCannon or droid.weapon == TACannon 

[DylanDog]

Played Rolling Hills 4 way FFA vs 3 DyDo AIs.

Which personalities were using DyDo? was it yourself against 3 DyDo in the same team (1vs3) or all vs all? just for my curiosity.

But, the other AI, was still attacking with lancers and mini-pods on wheels/hover medium bodies!

This means one AI has not been able to develop researches, maybe it had not enough derricks...have you checked out the stderr.txt file just to be sure everything was ok?

DyDo harrassed me more with VTOLs than ground attacks. They were easily dealt with by flak and then SAMs. Just lost one factory and one derrick once each to the VTOLs. DyDo needs to either use VTOLs less, or do bigger strikes!

Ok, will see what I can do here, DyDo 2.x already shouldn`t attack enemy bases with less then 7 VTOLs, was it the case?

Attacks on the ground used decent tanks, but were not strong enough. Would be better if DyDo could do less often, but much bigger attacks.

Then people will complain the game is boring? it is really difficult to find the right balance here. i`ll see what can be improved here.

It also doesn't seem to know how to use artillary. Would be great if it could use artillary to attack you...

Correct, usage of artillery needs to be implemented/improved. I want to improve the defense side first, then will work on the attack side of this topic.

[Mats]

Ok, will see what I can do here, DyDo 2.x already shouldn`t attack enemy bases with less then 7 VTOLs, was it the case?

DyDo only attacks with less than seven VTOLs if some get destroyed on a run and it can't replace them all in time for the next run. An attack by 7 VTOLs seems to be easily stopped though, more would be better. Whirlwind AA and they are finished. Maybe they can target AA sites more? Not sure.

Then people will complain the game is boring? it is really difficult to find the right balance here.

True, will be interesting to see what you come up with. Maybe can DyDo decide partly randomly if it's going to massive attack or normal attack?

I want to improve the defense side first, then will work on the attack side of this topic.

Awesome.

Played a few more maps with DyDo, 1 v 1 skirmish. Not too hard to beat, but looking good!

[Black NEXUS]

I have a Question,

can you upload this AI with SVN? It is hard for me to chance all Things with every new Version. I use an adapted Version for my Mod, because i must insert my new Buildings and Templates.

Why prop, the templates are sorted the wrong way, so the last 0 and the smallest have the bigest number?

[Mats]

Having now played quite a lot of skirmish vs DyDo I see it has a big problem - It almost always attacks your base in the same place, for example, we have a position like this:

entrance rock

my base entrance <---- DyDo always attacks through here

entrance rock

So you can just fortify one place and then attack DyDo knowing your base is safe. It doesn't seem to attack oil derricks with tanks very often too. VTOLs are often striking them, but tanks very rarely. They seem to just go at your main base all the time.

Using the Laser satelite:

Always targets factories and cyborg factories - Cheap to replace (only 300 for fully upgraded factory lost). Maybe it could target your lassat, expensive stuff like satelite uplink or groups of tanks/cyborgs that are still?

DyDo is always using a few hardpoint/bunkers in its base with cyborgs backing them up, same as the normal AI. So anti-cyborg rush (machine guns/laser tanks or flashlight/assault gun cyborg for example) and their defence is gone. Too few hardpoints are in there to do any real damage before you destroy the factories.

DyDo does seem to attack well in the first stages of the game though, first putting lots of pressure on your base with mini-pods, MRLs and then lancers on wheeled tanks and then with medium and heavy cannon/HPV tanks. If you survive this stage though (which isn't too hard as long as you keep your base defended well), there isn't really much resistance as the game goes on.

[DylanDog]

True, will be interesting to see what you come up with. Maybe can DyDo decide partly randomly if it's going to massive attack or normal attack?

DyDo attack rule is the following:

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droidsRequiredToAttack = MinDefendingDroids+MinAttackingDroids+RandomUnitsToAdd

MinDefendingDroids is a constant related to the type of AI (for General1 is 5)
MinAttackingDroids is a constant and is 7
RandomUnitsToAdd is a random number between 0 and 10, this random number is changed every 5 minutes
MinAttackingDroids + RandomUnitsToAdd are then the units used to attack.

This rule apply to two teams, cyborg team and tank team. This means DyDo can have two attacking teams.

There is also some more check in the AI code which forces attacks every 5-9 minutes, but this is quite complicated to explain. This further checks just put together the droids of both teams to increase the probability to reach the droidsRequiredToAttack

Played a few more maps with DyDo, 1 v 1 skirmish. Not too hard to beat, but looking good!

After months of developing I got to the conclusion that it is almost impossible to develop an AI which can play well, without cheats, in 2, 4 and 8 players game. I think that DyDo is ok in 4-8 players game, as you can use alliances to balance the game.

I am thinking about to develop (not now) a new version of DyDo just for 1vs1 games, an AI which is able to recognize the map it is playing on and whose behavior is therefore related to the map itself. This is along term plan...

It almost always attacks your base in the same place

This should not be the case, if it happens too often than I have to review the AI code. I introduced already a very simple algorithm to make DyDo attacking from different directions...are you sure your base could be attacked from different sides? on which MAP were you playing and in which position? also was is a 2,4 or 8 player game?

When DyDo attacks, it sends the droids to a point in the map for gathering them before launching the attack. Actually DyDo uses three different points to gather the units. So attacks should come from three different points.

Anyway I agree this part can be improved, I will see what I can do.

Using the Laser satelite: Always targets factories and cyborg factories. Maybe it could target your lassat, expensive stuff like satellite uplink or groups of tanks/cyborgs that are still?

I find this a good idea! I never thought to hit group of droids, will change this in the next DyDo version.

can you upload this AI with SVN

The last version of DyDo is already on svn (thanks to buginator). The issue is that I have no experience with svn therefore I rely 100% on the great WZ developers now, I need to play a bit with svn...(sorry I am not a programmer!)

Why prop, the templates are sorted the wrong way, so the last 0 and the smallest have the bigest number?

Because I started developing DyDo using BecomePrey as starting "template", while the Dydo and BP slo files are now 95% different from each other few things in the VLO files are still similar. Anyway, where is the issue with this? I the new version of Dydo I am working on for example the cyborgtemplates looks like this:

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	//Anti tank
  superCyb[0]		TEMPLATE	"Cyb-Hvy-A-T"      //[1][36]Super Scourge Cyborg 
	superCyb[3]	TEMPLATE	"Cyb-Hvy-TK"       //[1][0]Super Tank-Killer Cyborg 
	superCyb[7]	TEMPLATE	"MP-Cyb-ATmiss-GRD"//[1][21]Scourge 
	superCyb[9]	TEMPLATE	"CyborgRkt01Ground"//[0][24]Lancer
	
  //All Rounder
        superCyb[1]	TEMPLATE	"Cyb-Hvy-RailGunner" //[1][2]  Super Rail-Gunner
	superCyb[4]	TEMPLATE	"Cyb-Hvy-HPV"        //[0][51] Super HPV Cyborg 
	superCyb[5]	TEMPLATE	"Cyb-Hvy-Acannon"    //[0][50] Super Auto-Cannon Cyborg 
	superCyb[6]	TEMPLATE	"Cyb-Hvy-Mcannon"    //[0][49] Super Heavy-Gunner
  
  //Anti Personnel
	   //Flamers-Lasers
        superCyb[2]	TEMPLATE	"Cyb-Hvy-PulseLsr"  //[1][1]Super Pulse Laser Cyborg 
	superCyb[10]	TEMPLATE	"MP-Cyb-Laser1-GRD" //[0][59] Flashlight Gunner 
	superCyb[12]	TEMPLATE	"Cyb-Thermite"      //Thermite Flamer 
	superCyb[15]	TEMPLATE	"CyborgFlamer01Grd" //flamer
	   //Guns
        superCyb[11]	TEMPLATE	"CyborgRotMgGround"   //[0][25] Assault Gunner 
	superCyb[14]	TEMPLATE	"CyborgCannon01Grd"   //heavy Gunner 
	superCyb[16]	TEMPLATE	"CyborgChain01Ground" //Machinegunner
  
  //Kinetic
	superCyb[8]	TEMPLATE	"MP-Cyb-Needle-GRD" //[0][58]Needle Gunner 
	superCyb[13]	TEMPLATE	"Cyb-Gren"          //Grenadier 

As you see the numbers and positions are not really important, you just need to use them correctly in the slo file!

2: When the time comes to change tiers, make the AI less dependent on Thermite, Auto-cannon, and HPV cyborgs. The AI uses them too much. I want to see the Needle Gunners, Flashlight, Scourge, and all the T3 super cyborgs.

I am working on this in the new DyDo verison.

[Berg]

we tried to get a multi-player game going with dydo-ai it went down with this error log from fastdeath.

[DylanDog]

we tried to get a multi-player game going with dydo-ai it went down with this error log from fastdeath.

I know (see also this ticket) and I have fixed in DyDo 2.0.6

I think this issue does not appear if you play the WZ 2.3beta10 instead of "Version 2.3 branch r10007"