Sum up AI and balance

[SeriousToni]

Hello guys, I just hopped in here
I hope you shine up to my bad english because my mother tongue is german (Germany)

I've got Warzone 2.0.5_rc1 with Grims GFX Graphics Mod.

I need your help, because there are so many mods out that I just don't have the time to test them all by myself to find out which one is actually really useful. My Problem is that I play the skirmishmode against AI. I noticed that the difficulty level of the AI just changes the amount of units the AI builds and how fast he develops.
So if i make easy AI players they only try to rush me in the beginning and then develope so slowly that when I attacked them once they never come up again.
If I make a moderate or hard AI they just build and build cannon tanks and kill me everytime.
And thats where the next problem lies: I develop my light machine gun, I develop my light cannon, I develop my light flamer. But it seems to have no chance against the AI tanks! Sure, they have a bigger tank (python? that black body) and the medium cannon. But I develope the shells and the target finding and the fire rate of those "little" weapons and I have no chance with turrets, bunkers, cyborgs and tanks against the enemy tanks when they come to me!

So let me sum up my two problems to make it clear for you guys:)
The AI is so simple (they only build lots of units and attack and attack and attack until they killed me).
It seems like the weapons are not really balanced.

Sure, there are AI mods and Balance Mods out there, lots of, tons of them! But WHICH have QUALITY?
Can you tell me a good balance mod, which actually BALANCES weapons, instead of inserting new powerfull buggy weapons or open up new unbalanced cliffs while closing the others?
Is there a mod which makes the AI smarter instead of more powerfull so that it crushes me even faster?

I am not using this thread for my own pleasure. This could be an info sign for all new players (like me) who actually can't overlook the mods and maps and bugs and balances,....

Would be cool if someone is here who has some experience with different mods and knows wwhere the problems lie.

[Kyor]

The standard AI are stupid. Just build a few bunkers/ hardpoints/ towers and bb.

Actually, donwload 2.0.6, it's bugless.

The AI "Difficulty Bar" doesn't means his intelligente, the bar increases their amount of bonus cash.

[SeriousToni]

The AI "Difficulty Bar" doesn't means his intelligente, the bar increases their amount of bonus cash.

That supricing to to me!  So + means more many than I got at the start and - means lesser money for them than I have at the beginning. Good hint Kyor!

I try finding the newest patch if it helps.

[Watermelon]

There are better AI's by Troman in svn,but I dont know when and how it will be backported to 2.0 branch...

The weapons are unbalanced indeed,10% of them dominates the game completely while the rest are useless.

[lav_coyote25]

all the above has been with the game since the begining... it will take a while longer to come up with some better ai... it will come... just need to be a bit patient... and play the game to find all the little "problems / bugs / features / sticky points / bottlenecks etc..."  and i will tell you this - the original ai's  even the 1.10 and 1.11/1.12 were not all that great - the ai that we have now is a lot better ( even though it also needs to be reworked ) and the people that do work on the ai's are doing an excellent job... so...as i said - patience...  ;D

[Troman]

Is there a mod which makes the AI smarter instead of more powerfull so that it crushes me even faster?

I will release it's an older AI of mine when I will have time (Aivolution - older members will know it).
It's a non-cheating, adaptive, cooperative AI, which does act smarter than the stock AI.

[lav_coyote25]

awww geez... here we go again...  and just when i thought it was getting better....  people should be carefull of what they ask for...  usually they end up getting it!!!! ;D  aivolution  is one mean ( if one can say that of a artificial intelligence ) ba**ard 

[DevUrandom]

I am eagerly awaiting that mean little bard.

[SeriousToni]

I will release it's an older AI of mine when I will have time.

Thanks alot, I hope you can get it to work and publish it here, so that skirmish is more attractive then.

EDIT: I don't know if you know the game Populous The Beginning. There was a guy who made an ai editor for the community. This editor was like the notepad. You are able to write the ai code (like "EVERY 256 DO ATTACK_$35_6_0_0") and it saved all in the file where the game was using its ai.
I don't know how complicated that would be in Warzone2100. I programmed my own ai in Populous so maybe I could help you if it isn't too complicated, other user s could too - or maybe everyone could program his own ai

[Giel]

Maybe the Scripting Manual helps. It describes the scripting language used by Warzone.

[SeriousToni]

That reminds me of Populous again yeah ^^ But that's not a tutorial, it's just a variable declaration list. So we have to open the original scripts and imagine how that stuff works. Gonna ask Troman what he knows.

[lav_coyote25]

as i am sure troman will advise you that the link given above is the way he does it....  and is the way its been done since ... the game first came out.... but with many additions over the years... if you dont believe  - look at the original script language document... ;D

[SeriousToni]

I know thats the only way as I allready said. I send him a PM, maybe he can give me a short introducion so that I don't have to find out myself what he allready knows.

[Giel]

Actually, donwload 2.0.6, it's bugless.

You mean to say it has less bugs I hope.

[Troman]

That reminds me of Populous again yeah ^^ But that's not a tutorial, it's just a variable declaration list. So we have to open the original scripts and imagine how that stuff works. Gonna ask Troman what he knows.

Not quite true. It's not a tutorial, but look at the beginning, all the vital things are explained there with examples. If you have experience with c/c++ the scripting language won't be that hard to master once you understood how event triggers work.

Campaign scripts are also usefull for beginners.