M28AI Devlog (v90)

This might be a better replay (fewer mods): https://replay.faforever.com/21630530
By 19 minutes you can see M28 has plenty of mass & power, but most engineer are idle. I see a paragon queued up but for some reason the engineer just isn't starting it.

Unrelated note: Does it actively avoid building saucers? It seems to build every other T4 but I haven't seen a saucer in a long time.

@bsee Thanks, one issue is if it tries building its late-game template near the map edge - I'll have it fixed in the next release.
The other issue is I'm guessing a FA game engine bug where a unit can be given an order to move and build, yet doesn't move - a human player would just give a slightly different order, whereas the AI tries the same order again and again. I've added a workaround for the scenario in that replay, which hopefully will resolve most instances (as I already had a workaround present for the main engineer logic, but my 'shield template' logic is a special case).

Re Czars there are lots of reasons why it might not build them. Generally, I'd expect it to try and build them if it has air control, hasn't moved into the 'build T3 arti/game ender' stage (which is more likely at the high mass income levels in your game), hasn't built lots of experimentals already, and has space to build them. It is intentionally less likely to build them than Seraphim is to build Ahwassas though (mainly because Ahwassas are far better than Czars, even moreso for an AI)

v65 Update
A mixture of bugfixes, small adjustments, and a bit more personality for M28:

• 6 Bugfixes, including with M28 trying to build its special shield template on the edge of a map (and failing to build half of it), and fixing an issue where M28 would think it was defeated if a non-M28 teammate died
• 4 Early-game adjustments, such as delaying when M28 upgrades to T2 when it decides it wants to spam T1 land
• 5 Changes based on replays from Sladow, including fixing an oversight with land scout production that meant they would be far less likely to be built
• Added a wide variety of messages for when M28 is killed or wins the game

Acknowledgements

• Bsee replay highlighting an issue with M28’s late-game shielding where the location is near the map edge
• Sladow replays and noting issues such as M28’s lack of land scouts
• !MarLo – confirming that I likely can’t get Campaign videos/audios to play due to how FAF loads campaign files.

Trophies
No change to the current trophy holders (although Sladow came close to claiming the trophy bearing his name)

v66 Update
Hotfix for a number of bugs identified in a replay, with 10 fixes and other changes made, including:

• Fixed several bugs causing engineers to idle late-game
• Fixed major bug introduced in v65 to M28's asf/intie logic that would cause them to stop moving
• Fixed an oversight with M28's scouting logic that would effectively cause spy planes/air scouts to get stuck 'scouting' a mountain ridge and never scout the enemy base
• Adjustments to what experimental gets built for Aeon, hopefully improving the decision making after a paragon is built and making a Czar more likely to be built
• MAA should be more cautious when the enemy has a stronger nearby land force.

Acknowledgements

• Lancer Dudo – Noting they fought against M28 when posting their replay for review; the replay highlighted a number of bugs with M28, one of which (its air scouting logic) has presumably been present since the original release of M28.

Trophies
No changes to the current trophy holders from v59: Radde (Sladow trophy); and Radde, Mhad and GhillieWolf (Radde trophy).

v67 Update
Another small hotfix update, involving 10 fixes/other changes, including:

• Fixed an issue with the Holy Raid custom campaign mission where an M28 teammate would reclaim the Cybran labs you were meant to protect (causing the mission to fail)
• Fixed a bug with M28's decision on what experimental to build (introduced in v66) that could cause its logic to fail in some cases
• Added a further workaround for nuke launchers to try and reduce cases where a yolona oss ends up idling forever
• Slight increase in start and end of game messages

Acknowledgements

• QAI3000 – Replay highlighting bug with M28 reclaiming objectives on the Holy Raid campaign mission.

M28AI commy did not build ... just stood there. UEF and Aeon tested and failed.
Was working fine before latest update.

@aware Do you have a replay ID?

@aware Strange. I just ran the test and there was no problem. Maybe you should update your game gamedata?

We gave up on M28AI last night as it failed to do anything after two attempts .... We were doing 4 humans vs 4M28AI on a custom 80 x 15 map that is not in vault.
We loaded four M27AI and it ran fine with good speed. AI built lots of torpedo bombers, battleships and criusers.
We wanted to play against M28AI because it builds a more diverse navy with multiple shipyards and a wider range of ships including Experimental ships.
Mods:
Total Mayhem
All Faction Quatem Gate
M28AI mod

Settings
1250 units
Restrictions .... T1 Air, T3 Air, T4 Air, Paragon, Sat, T3&T4 Long Range Canons, Nukes, T1 Hydrocarbon Perimeter Monitor.

One of our team said he was getting an error saying that M27AI was active and could not be found while I had M28AI only loaded and all four AI were doing nothing. I think that was caused because I had M27AI mod selected in the client with only M28AI in the game.

The boys want to play M28 tonight so I am gonna sort it today.

Tried game with No restrictions and M28AI started to build. I think T1 Air restriction might be the cause. It can still build T1 Air plant with the restrictions i had set. Can only build engineers and spy planes.
Doing more testing now.

@aware What would help would be a replay ID number of the game where it didn't do anything, as without it's unlikely I'll be able to fix it

Its not the T1 Air restriction.

#21677818

@aware Thanks, sorry missed the part about the map not being in the vault, are you able to send me the map (e.g. via discord), and/or do you get the same issue on a map that is in the vault (in which case could you send the replay ID of a game on a vault map)?

#21683677 vault map

M28AI is working with a new and different set of restriction. At this stage i am not sure what restriction I had in place that caused the AI to not build. Running a test now on the custom 80 x 15 map to see what units are now available that were restricted before. This will take some time.

M28AI run ok on the big map ... I should be able to compare the list of restrictions in the logs.

The only unit restriction that I'd have expected might cause an issue from the list you gave (as I'm not sure if I've specifically tested it) is restricting use of hydrocarbons, but I wouldn't expect that to stop M28 from building anything (but rather it might get stuck with just 1 factory and not much else depending on if I'd implemented a backup for such a scenario to make it build t1 pgens).

@aware How did you create the game? E.g. was it a brand new lobby, with no clicking on the load presets button?

Reason for asking is that although 21683677 appears to show M28AI for 4 of the players, none of the logs for loading the M28AI mod are present (an issue I've seen happen previously when a 'rehost game' button was used, and/or a 'load presets' button).

@maudlin27 a slightly separate data point, I've had no issues with the AI working in any games so far.

I did want to note that when we were having the shield logic issue, @bsee and I went back to v56 (the newest without shield issues) and found it more aggressive and built dramatically more experimentals, specifically land experimentals. This made for a much more difficult and dynamic game particularly with Total Mayhem. Same 1.3x cheat and build multiplier. Not sure what the difference is in your build logic since then, but wanted to call it out if you're able to take a look.

Thanks!

@ender06 Thanks, I'll keep it in mind when considering reviews, but it will depend on the map and game state. If it's a land based map and M28 is only getting a couple of land experimentals before switching to T3 arti or game-enders (and the opposing team hasn't started their own t3 arti/game-enders) then let me know the replay as it might need tweaking.