AI Development Guide and M27AI v81 Devlog

[maudlin27]

@veteranashe Yes to work effectively on 1 mex style maps would essentially require the disabling of most of M27's logic and use of a very prescriptive build order, and might not be that fun either (as I'd probably go for the T2 bomber rush tactic rather than the 'carefully eco into mass fab farms/RAS SACU' approach). I did have it down as a possible future goal but with my focus on M28 now I think it's unlikely that M27 will focus on that (in part as well because until now no-one had ever commented on it).

I'll note it down as a possible thing for M28 to look at though as one of my aims is for it to generally be much more compatible than M27

[maudlin27]

v72 mini-update

• Fixed AiX modifiers not applying to M27
• Team messages warning about units such as enemy T3 arti should no longer trigger from friendly fire
• Reworked brain setup to align with new FAF approach from June re aibrain classes
• Fixed bug preventing upgrades beyond a gun upgrade being obtained, and added support for the new Cybran nano and aron extra range upgrades

Thanks to Ice-IX who flagged that AiX modifiers weren't working for M27, and someone else (forgot to note down who) highlighting the T3 arti detected message issue for friendly fire.

[veteranashe]

I missed your reply, I was just more curious if, you think, there would be some gain by having the ai count the mexes in the map and then use that to change build order and tactics.

[maudlin27]

v73 update
Mini-update - fixed incompatibility with M28 (that could break M28 if they were both in the same game), and updated some hardcoded values on energy storage to reflect the recent FAF balance changes requiring more energy for overcharge.

[Laso]

Hi, i played a game with M27. He builded some satellites and fired at my T3 arty. The satellites did damage to all schields and not only to the one it hits. it would be nice to take a look.
https://replay.faforever.com/20797133

[maudlin27]

@laso If the shields overlap then that's a FAF game balance feature - when 1 shield takes damage, any overlaping shield takes a percentage of the damage (around 10% I think)

[maudlin27]

@veteranashe While it's still far weaker than a human, the latest version of M28 (v32) should do better on 1 mex maps

[maudlin27]

v74 Update
Minor bugfixes that I noticed when I was testing M28 against M27 (relating to the FAF mobile factory change and the Aeon gun upgrade change)

[maudlin27]

v75-76 updates

• v75 - AI ratings support added
• v76 - Fixed an issue with M27 tracking weapon fire events (to support a relocation of the underlying code in FAF that took place last summer)
• v76 - Fixed the warning message given to allies when a nuke launcher is detected, so instead of saying "M27OverseerEnemyNukeLaunchers" detected, it will now give the name of the unit.

[maudlin27]

v77-78 updates

• v77 - Fixed a bug caused by a change in category in the paragon
• v78 - Fixed a rare bug that could break M27's engineer logic

[Resin_Smoker]

So any advice (or examples) on setting up custom units to be used by the AI, as I'm sure this has changed since I was last around.

[maudlin27]

@Resin_Smoker Enable the mod with the custom units.

I.E. M27 and M28 should automatically make use of custom modded units, provided the categorisation of the custom unit blueprint aligns with a category M27/M28 is trying to build (the majority of the time I’d expect it to). You could use unit restrictions to disable default versions of units to make it more likely it picks the modded version instead but M28 will handle unit restrictions better

[Resin_Smoker]

@maudlin27 So just the unit categories is all that's needed... nice!

Now if someone could fix the custom unit icons so they work without having to copied into every factions folder that would be sweet.

[maudlin27]

Just a note that if you want to play M27 you'll need to play it on FAF Develop, as the last FAF release broke certain AI functionality and means M27 won't work. This should be fixed in the next FAF release.

[Devyatyi9]

i have a game crash with mod M27AI or M28AI
https://pastebin.com/T9hZyXY0

warning: (xsc9011) has no death weapon or the death weapon has an incorrect label!
warning: defaultunits.lua OnImpact: did not find a deathWep on the plane! Is the weapon defined in the blueprint? xsc9011
warning: Unable to load texture: c:\programdata\faforever\gamedata\units.nx2\units\urb2302\urb2302_specteam.dds

[maudlin27]

Not clear that it's M28 that's causing it, the mod list looks like it is quite long:
info: MOD LIST SET TO:
info: RNGAI (faf0863e-4c91-4bc0-ac2d-20e3f69432d5)
info: AI-Swarm (a13ac591-b2d9-4d94-0285-3d4b3cce6b97)
info: AllFactionsFixed (58c232c2-f7e8-4256-8892-85fbb9687a69)
info: AI-Uveso (62e2j64a-AIUV-112-89465-146as555a8u3)
info: M27AI (f27c55b4-v078-55b4-92b6-64398e75e23f)
info: OOF ACU Death Sound (BBEFBDF1-3C21-4CD6-89EE-86EA42218C0C)
info: Redux Strategic Icons Small (redux-icons-small-01)
info: M28AI (fnewm028-v115-55b4-92b6-64398e7ge43f)

This error appears a lot at the end of the log:
warning: Unable to load texture: c:\programdata\faforever\gamedata\units.nx2\units\urb2302\urb2302_specteam.dds
So it could be a graphical issue.

My suggestion would be to turn off as many mods as possible and see if you still get the error, and also post that error/link to the log on the technical support forum in discord (or here) to see if anyone else has an idea what the issue would be.

[maudlin27]

v79 Update
After one of the Rainbow Cup games on Adaptive Flooded Tabula Rasa where one of the M27 ACUs thought it could walk to another plateau (and ended up getting stuck underwater while its base was destroyed) I've updated M27 to make use of FAF's navigational mesh. Unlike M28 (which was ddesigned from the ground up with use of this navigational mesh in mind) M27's use of it is limited and also has the risk of unforseen issues, but my hope is that it ends up being slightly faster and a bit more accurate than M27's previous approach.

[maudlin27]

v80 Update
Fixed a bug from v79 that caused M27 to no longer build navy

Acknowledgements

• Relent0r - highlighting that M27 wasn't building navy on a naval map

[maudlin27]

v81 Update
Fixed another bug from the navigational mesh changes which resulted in M27's initial build order being messed up (with the ACU not building any mexes)

Acknowledgements

• Relent0r - Noticing M27's early game performance was significantly weaker than before

[Spyder1495]

Hello, I tried playing both M27 and M28 AI along with some other mods. They worked and fought great, but there were only 1 problem made me a bit unsatisfied. Only M28 can use Brewlan units set. M27 on the other hand, didn't run properly. If i let the utils.lua file of the Brewlan stay, M27 AIs won't do anything but standing. When i removed it, they worked again but no Brewlan unit was built (such as advanced T3 Mass Extractors or Field Engineers). I reported this once on FAF vault, can you try and update a new fix for this problem again please.