FfH2 AI Mod (Highly Experimental!)

[Skyre Noktis]

I've just briefly looked through code for the new version of your mod. I'll try integrating some of the tech and building beelines tonight to see what effect they have.

 

[Turinturambar]

How did you get the ship promotions to work? I copied your changes to the spellinterface.py, but apparently fixing the original code is not enough.

 

[Skyre Noktis]

You need to raise the AI weights in the spells XML file or it won't actually use them. Also, the AI will still have a problem with Galleys as it won't see them as transport ships without DLL changes.

v0.3 out tomorrow...

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

will 0.3 also have Turinturambar's changes merged in? and maybe even Sephi's?

I'm really loving these very welcome improvements of the AI. makes the game a lot more enjoyable. thanx for the effort

 

[Skyre Noktis]

It has Turinturambar's changes, modified a bit to better fit in with some of the changes to the DLL.

I will be looking at mage AI (à la Sephi's mod) and other combat-related things for the next version (promotions, etc.).

v0.41b being released complicates things a bit. I'll probably release a version for 0.41a (BTS v3.17) tonight and then an otherwise identical version of 0.41b (BTS v3.19) as soon as I get all the changes from the patch merged in.

 

[Turinturambar]

You need to raise the AI weights in the spells XML file or it won't actually use them. Also, the AI will still have a problem with Galleys as it won't see them as transport ships without DLL changes.

v0.3 out tomorrow...

View attachment 218180

Whoah you implemented sensible pirate cove construction.
Extremely impressive screenshot just going by the scores. Also it seems that you managed to boost the Elven AI quite a bit. Amelanchair usually disappoints in my games.

 

[Skyre Noktis]

I find the elven leaders almost always do well if they get to Hidden Paths fairly early. From then on, Guardian of Nature + cottage spam can't really go wrong, unless they got really screwed over starting location-wise.

As I said a few posts up, I'm pretty happy with how with the AI's handling of its economy now. I'm not sure how much further it can be pushed without substantial changes to the city governing logic or whether it's worth it. After all, if you're still beating it tech-wise, you can just go up a difficulty level. Getting it to fight effectively is the big priority now.

 

[Sephi]

That looks very impressive, indeed. I only did a few gameutil.py changes so far, but that Malakim dude is a real freak. I think he could have had tier4 units around turn 270-280 on noble difficulty, but he preferred to go for blasting powder.

 

[Skyre Noktis]

New version for FfH2 v0.41a/BTS v3.17 is out. Expect a v3.19 version sometime in the near future.

that Malakim dude is a real freak. I think he could have had tier4 units around turn 270-280 on noble difficulty, but he preferred to go for blasting powder.

Teutorix requires Blasting Powder, doesn't he? That would help explain things.

 

[Sephi]

Teutorix requires Blasting Powder, doesn't he? That would help explain things.

Yeah, I guess that is the reason. Do you have all SDK changes commented or only the bigger ones?

 

[Secret_Squirrel]

Tried this on multiplayer with a friend on a standard erebus continents map with teams of 2. With vanilla ffh we have no issues whatsoever with stability but with this mod active, early on we get an OOS. If its any help, heres the log. I would love to use these AI tweaks in our games but without the stability that vanilla ffh has it just isnt worth it.

Good luck with ironing out this one.

 

[skunkpuppy]

This is really excellent work! Exactly what FFH needs!

I was wondering if there were any AI improvements planned for the Sheaim. I like to play them partly because the whole Sheaim-AshenVeil-Armaggedon thing is so compelling storyw-ise. It also seems to be an important mechanic in the gameplay.

However I notice that the Sheaim in AI hands, together the Ashen Veil religion, never seem to take off no matter what the map. That's a great pity because it effectively means that Armageddon never is a real threat to the rest of civilisation, like it was meant to be.

Is it possible to mod some AI improvements for the Sheiam? Perhaps make them build Planar Gates and the relevant necessary buildings (Mages Guilds, Public Baths, etc) more effectively? Or perhaps tweak their technology preferences so they don't crash economically all the time?

 

[Turinturambar]

This is really excellent work! Exactly what FFH needs!

I was wondering if there were any AI improvements planned for the Sheaim. I like to play them partly because the whole Sheaim-AshenVeil-Armaggedon thing is so compelling storyw-ise. It also seems to be an important mechanic in the gameplay.

However I notice that the Sheaim in AI hands, together the Ashen Veil religion, never seem to take off no matter what the map. That's a great pity because it effectively means that Armageddon never is a real threat to the rest of civilisation, like it was meant to be.

Is it possible to mod some AI improvements for the Sheiam? Perhaps make them build Planar Gates and the relevant necessary buildings (Mages Guilds, Public Baths, etc) more effectively? Or perhaps tweak their technology preferences so they don't crash economically all the time?

The problem with the Sheaim is that they have very bad economic traits and have basically only one winning strategy: Spam deathnodes and death2 mages combined with pyrezombies. Obviously the AI does not understand this yet.
Planar gates are actually a reason why the AI is bad with them. They aren't hammer efficient. At 300 hammers you have to get 3+ creatures out of before you regain your hammers and the AI would be better off just by spamming pyre zombies.

 

[Skyre Noktis]

Tried this on multiplayer with a friend on a standard erebus continents map with teams of 2. With vanilla ffh we have no issues whatsoever with stability but with this mod active, early on we get an OOS. If its any help, heres the log. I would love to use these AI tweaks in our games but without the stability that vanilla ffh has it just isnt worth it.

Good luck with ironing out this one.

I'm afraid I don't play multiplayer so it would be difficult for me to debug OOS issues. Someone would have to help me out as I don't have the vaguest idea how they work and that log means nothing to me.

However I notice that the Sheaim in AI hands, together the Ashen Veil religion, never seem to take off no matter what the map. That's a great pity because it effectively means that Armageddon never is a real threat to the rest of civilisation, like it was meant to be.

Is it possible to mod some AI improvements for the Sheiam? Perhaps make them build Planar Gates and the relevant necessary buildings (Mages Guilds, Public Baths, etc) more effectively? Or perhaps tweak their technology preferences so they don't crash economically all the time?

Yeah, I'm going to go with what Turinturambar said and say it's the traits that are the problem. Tebryn has *nothing* that's useful before he starts producting arcane units. Os-Gabella has industrious, but that's not really a huge help, either, and her shunning half the map can't help her on the tech and resource trade side of things.

Also, Planar Gates are pretty expensive when they first become available, but the Sheaim always get Knowledge of the Ether early (it's on the way to Corruption of Spirit, they like arcane units, Tebryn's favourite wonder is the Catacomb Libralus) and put lots of hammers towards those when they could be used on things that give them more immediate benefit.

Ashen Veil tends to be much scarier if Keelyn founds it.

 

[skunkpuppy]

The problem with the Sheaim is that they have very bad economic traits and have basically only one winning strategy: Spam deathnodes and death2 mages combined with pyrezombies. Obviously the AI does not understand this yet.
Planar gates are actually a reason why the AI is bad with them. They aren't hammer efficient. At 300 hammers you have to get 3+ creatures out of before you regain your hammers and the AI would be better off just by spamming pyre zombies.

What a pity! Perhaps there is some way to force the AI to turn all its nodes to death only? When I play them I spam cottages all over so as to alleviate their poor economy. There comes a turning point when the mages and summons come online and then after that it gets much easier.

 

[cyther]

You might be able to set the build weight in the leader XML for Death Nodes to something really high. That would probably make Tebryn/Gabella spam Death Nodes and their casters would start will high level death spells when building or upgrading.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Would it be possible to block planar gates until the AC is at a certain point? Say, 50 (the point at which gates suddenly get a lot more effective)? If the Sheaim have a strong enough economy to spam gates, they should have had no trouble driving up the AC that far.

 

[skunkpuppy]

I would suppose that the difficulty is getting the AC that high in the first place. Without human intervention the AC rarely gets high enough for any ill effects to be felt. Which, again, is a terrible waste of a brilliant gameplay mechanic.

 

[Snuis]

Hello, i just tried my first game with your AI mod, playing as Sheelba.

Firstly, i started at peace with animals too (bears and lions didn't attack my units). That's not intentional is it?

Secondly, when i used For the Horde, shortly after Orthus appeared, i was gifted exactly four (4) units (on a huge map swarming with raging barbarians). After i closed the worldbuilder (entered to verify the amount of barbarians) the game crashed.

So i quickly played another Sheelba game until Orthus appeared, casted the worldspell, got 6 units and the game crashed upon entering the worldbuilder this time.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Sephi]

Tried this on multiplayer with a friend on a standard erebus continents map with teams of 2. With vanilla ffh we have no issues whatsoever with stability but with this mod active, early on we get an OOS. If its any help, heres the log. I would love to use these AI tweaks in our games but without the stability that vanilla ffh has it just isnt worth it.

Good luck with ironing out this one.

Did both of you had the same version of this mod? I merged only a few of Skyres changes and had no OOS problems. OOS logs are only usefull, if you post both of them (yours and from one player who is out of sync with you) so that they can be compared.