M28AI Devlog (v239)

Laso

@maudlin27
You are correct the nuke was marked when it was fired.
Replay is #24774490
I watched the replay and the bomber looks ok. Fast reactions but ok.

maudlin27

@Saver If it's the last game you played then the replay should be available, e.g. in:
C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\replays\FAPROFILENAME\LastReplay.SCFAReplay

I expect in your case M28 sent an air scout near the enemy units at some point which allowed it to detect them (e.g. since both those units have an anti-air attack, it could've been that they fired this at the air scout; alternatively M28 could've got intel with no Omni coverage, or subsequently stalled E, meaning the unit was visible for a brief period of time to it)

However in the case of nukes I'll tone down it's approach to highlighting units for enemies so if it doesnt have a visual and it is a long ranged unit (like a nuke) it should just warn in chat (since while a player might have a good idea where the unit is from the direction the missiles/arti shells come from, on some larger maps it can still be hard to infer)

maudlin27

v225 Update
17 changes, including:

New game options to make M28's micro more configurable. You can now specify the maximum number of units it can simultaneously apply dodge micro to, and/or hover micro to (previously there was just an option to enable/disable dodge micro, or to use M28Easy to disable). Refer to the "M28: Use hover air micro?" and "M28: Use dodge micro?" settings in Game Options. @Swarm133 this means you can disable its hover-micro with asfs without affecting other micro.
Gunships should use a more precise check of if the enemy has nearby groundAA when deciding whether to retreat (or search for further away targets)
T1-T2 gunships should be more cautious when taking damage so they're less likely to die (e.g. meaning jesters have a chance of surviving when fighting a single flak)
Several refinements to how ASFs decide whether to attack targets, including factoring in nearby enemy ground AA that isn't large enough to make the asfs run in its own right, but when combined with the enemy air force could turn an air win to an air loss
Changed the use of markers to a general chat message where long ranged units that M28 hasn't seen start firing at it and it wants to warn its teammates

Acknowledgements

Votex – Highlighting M28 building t3 shields to protect 1 mex from a t3 arti

Saver

@maudlin27 Thank you for your detailed feedback. I will do another test without air units in the next few days to see if the supposed case occurs again. Nevertheless, I think your improvements are a success. Thank you for your work

maudlin27

v226 Update
12 Updates, including:

Refinements to Inties/ASFs to make them more cautious if the enemy has an air threat in an adjacent zone to the one it plans on defending, or if lots of airAA units have been sent for refueling
Several tweaks to the first bomber for some rare cases where they'd get stuck not attacking a unit, and to consider hover-bombing before firing their first bomb
ACUs should be more likely to run from approaching land experimentals
4 mod specific changes, including removing AA threat from ACUs in QUIET, recognising if bombers in QUIET/LOUD fire salvos, and increasing the AirAA M28 wants to defend friendly targets

Acknowledgements

Vortex - QUIET replay on big wonder
Little Tank – Replay and highlighting a strange M28 message (where it just said “1” in chat, when it should’ve been saying it had gifted a mex)
Zhanghm – Log with some error messages relating to a unit mod

maudlin27

v227 Update
13 changes, including:

Various adjustments to air anti-air (i.e. asf) logic, increasing the number M28 wants to think it has air control (including a bugfix) and having them be more likely to follow strat bombers to protect them
If M28 wants to build an experimental, but first wants more T3 units, and lacks power, it should be more likely to build a pgen instead of a land factory
Fewer pre-emptive SAMs should be built if the enemy lacks a nearby air threat and M28 could be spending the mass ecoing.

Acknowledgements

Vortex – QUIET v225 and v226 replays

Saver

Hello I have now been able to do three tests and have not found any errors with the unit markers for threats. but I have a small comment. Is it possible to remove the markers automatically after a time of x seconds?

maudlin27

I'm not sure, as the method used by players will be via the UI, I've made a note to potentially look at in a future release

maudlin27

v228 Update aka the 'Vindex beat 1.5 M28 AIx update'
17 changes, 15 of which were based on a replay where Vindex beat 1.5 AIx on the Ditch, including:

8 improvements and bugfixes to M28's 'telesnipe defence' logic, including making it no longer think the laser can be dodged as though it was a t1 arti; the ACU should no longer stop running after a short while of being chased by a tele-laser com; it should recognise the enemy has a laser ACU sooner (if it has visual of it); PD should be built preemptively to defend (instead of waiting for the teleport to start); and other changes
Fixed an issue where M28 would try and drop plateaus but choose a tiny land zone to drop, causing it to drop early (not on the plateau)
Reduced the core base T2 builder so it no longer send all engineers to build T2 PD in response to a single heavily outnumbered enemy tank
Air facs should be more likely to be built on larger maps once M28 has 4 land facs in its main base
(unrelated change to the replay) T1-T2 skirmishers shouldn't be built if the enemy has T3 land.

Acknowledgements

Vindex - 4 replays against M28 AIx on the ditch

Trophy Award
A rare update to the trophy holder - @Vindex is now the holder of the Sladow trophy for beating M28 at 1.5 AIx on the ditch - the first time I've seen anyone manage the feat!

maudlin27

v229 Update
Smaller update with 6 changes, primarily fixing some naval issues:

Text markers that M28 places for teammates should be removed after 90 seconds
M28 should be less likely to think it has air control with small numbers of inties, and shouldn't try and attack air targets near the enemy base if it lacks air control
Fixed several issues with how M28 calculates the nearest enemy naval unit in a zone (which would lead it to ignoring units in the same zone as it for parts of the logic)

Acknowledgements

Vortex - QUIET naval replay against v227

maudlin27

v230 Update
11 changes, including:

Cybran destroyers shouldn't try and kite enemies on land
Changed M28's 'forced navy personality' approach for adaptive M28 on island start points so it only has a chance of applying (with a chance of an air personality, and a chance of the normal advaptive personality)
Adjustments to how fatboy kites (including better detection of approaching enemies and changing when it runs from the enemy vs runs to the nearest rally point)
Increased the number of engineers to be sent to dangerous zones to reclaim

Acknowledgements

Vortex and Azraeel - 2 QUIET naval replays and comments

maudlin27

v231 Update
20 changes, including:

Improvements to kiting logic (e.g. hoplites should attack a visible nearby enemy ACU instead of doing attack-move, so they stay slightly further away)
Improved novax defence so more shields get built sooner, and shields get assisted when a novax is near and damaging them.
Reworked how M28 decides where to place buildings, to offset all positions by 0.5 (which in theory means they should be built on the correct spot, since FAF for most buildings places them on the nearest .5 position, instead of the nearest integer).
T1-T2 Radar should be more likely to be built
Increased the amount of pre-emptive AA M28 shoudl get if it's worried the enemy might be thinking of sniping him
Added support for FAF's new decapitation victory condition

Acknowledgements

Sprouto and Balthazaar – Highlighting some buildings have a variable requiring a certain height variance to be buildable (hence why you can have a location that you can build a T2 pgen on, but not a Cybran T2 shield)
Gauzi – Replay highlighting a bug if M28 is the hostile AI on UEF M1 and the player takes too long to kill the T1 radar (leading to the air factory upgrading before the objective is given to kill it, in turn meaning the map doesnt expand)

maudlin27

v232 Update
11 changes, including:

Fixed a bug with gunships that meant they'd attack targets with far too much ground-AA
Increased asf production when M28 lacks air control
M28Easy should no longer go first bomber (and hover-bomb it)
If M28 has several unupgraded ACUs near an enemy upgrading ACU they should consider charging in to kill it

Acknowledgements

Radde - 3 replays against v231
Lord Foog – replay where M28Easy went for a bomber rush.

Raysor

Hi there,
First of all, thanks for all the hard work on M28AI – it’s a great addition to the game (Can't play without it to be honest).

I’ve encountered a recurring issue during my games where Ground and Air factories disappear after being upgraded to T2 or T3. This doesn’t just affect human players, but also the AI itself. Once the upgrade finishes, the factory vanishes completely and doesn’t complete the transition.

For now, I’ll stick with the previous version of the mod so I can play without issues. This post is just meant to inform you in case it hasn’t been reported yet.

Here's the log:
game_24956583_copy.log

NomenNominandum

I have the same issue

(EDIT: Also thank you for the "engi" marker for AI engineer gifting, its awesome)

Hammi

Same here as well!

maudlin27

@Raysor Thanks, this is due to a wider issue with the recent FAF hotfix rather than the latest M28 release, and I expect it'll be fixed shortly. The discord announcements section will likely be updated when the 'hotfix to the hotfix' is released:
https://discord.com/channels/197033481883222026/197078254681587712

maudlin27

v233 Update
11 changes, including:

Greater use of sniperbots to try and counter Sera and Cybran nano guncoms
Aeon ACU should be more likely to get shield instead of RAS
Engineers should no longer pause building a near-complete experimental when low on power (unless completely stalling E)
Added a workaround for QUIET and LOUD for cases where cruisers dont have the anti-air category (which was leading to Aeon cruisers being considered to have almost no anti-air threat)

Acknowledgements

Radde – 2 replays against 1.3 resource M28
Vortex – several QUIET replays against v230 M28

v234 Hotfix
Removed some debug logs that could slow the game down - Thanks to Radde and Relent0r for the replay and noting the cause of the slowdown

maudlin27

v235 Update
21 changes, all but 2 of which were based on a Radde replay:

Fixed a bug that prevented M28 upgrading a factory from T2 to T3 if its original T3 HQ was destroyed
Asfs should be a bit more aggressive around enemy ground based AA if M28 has air control
Ahwassas should micro to turn around faster when wanting to run from enemy air units, and use a more detailed longer range check for enemy air units
Added new anti-fatboy micro where experimentals should move in a diagonal path when wanting to attack a fatboy
Sniperbots should no longer be prioritised if the enemy has ravagers.

Acknowledgements

Radde - replay where M28 1.4/1.0 was beaten on Xander Adaptive

maudlin27

v236 Update
16 changes, including:

Various adjustments to selen logic so they should do a better job of running from enemies, and less likely to have 3+ covering the same mex
Various adjustments to when a second T1 pgen is built, so if M28 has a t2 factory but no T2 engineer it should still try building multiple t1 pgens at once and as a higher priority than some other actions (if high on mass and low on energy).
Subs should be more likely to target engineers building torp launchers (rather than the torp launcher being built)
5 QUIET specific changes per requests from Azraeel, making skirmishers be built less and MMLs and mobile arti be built more.

Acknowledgements

Radde - 2 mapgen replays against 134 (prompting the selen, power and naval adjustments)
Azraeel - drafting the code for the requested changes