Best posts made by maudlin27

Installation notes
To play with M27AI, go to the mods section in the FAF client and search for M27AI. Download the mod, then when hosting a game make sure you have enabled the M27AI mod. This should allow you to then select M27AI as one of the players in the game.

Further details including screenshots on how to setup custom AI are included on the FAF Wiki:
https://wiki.faforever.com/en/Custom-AIs

Summary of how M27 plays compared with default/sorian AI
M27 is intended for players in search of a greater challenge than the default/Sorian AI. Some of its features include:

• Adaptive playstyle, responding to player actions, and actively seeking out vulnerabilities in player forces and building units to exploit these
• Making use of player tactics/unit microing and certain 'try-hard' type approaches, for example kiting with units, hover-bombing, synchronising MMLs to overwhelm TMD, manual reclaiming, ctrl-King T2 mexes to build T3
• Being built with FAF balance/meta in mind

To give a couple of examples of the challenge it provides compared to the default and Sorian, 1 (normal) M27 AI has managed to beat an Adaptive and/or Sorian adaptive AiX with a 2.0 modifier, and also beaten 7 Sorian adaptive (on the same team) on Setons, and is consistently the winner of AI vs AI tournaments (although RNGAI is a close second and worth checking out as well since it offers an alternative play style).

M27AI background and status
Following the 2021 Supreme Computer Cup I was inspired to have a go at developing a basic AI for FAF. As I had zero experience of coding in Lua, I thought at the same time I would write down things as I learnt them to have both a guide for other people interested in getting started in developing an AI, and a dev log for the creation of my AI.

See below for a link to the current AI development guide and devlog (2022-12 update - as people were having issues viewing the original file I've split it out and have separated the main 'devlog' part of M27 development from the more general notes on getting things setup to develop the AI and useful functions)
Devlog extracts: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uQlEoN-kti7G2MnhwD60uaaHwVevPNYH/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100973959280546778272&rtpof=true&sd=true
Development guide extracts: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1puzW5hKcOBNE7wu7bXj6qXfTJ60r2f93/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100973959280546778272&rtpof=true&sd=true

You can also access the mod on Github:
https://github.com/maudlin27/M27AI
While in theory it should be possible to install the mod by copying the M27AI folder (from Github) into the FAF mods directory, some people have reported issues with that. It's recommended that the mod is installed through the FAF client (via the mod vault).

I've copied the current overview from the guide below:

This document is intended to do 3 things at once (meaning it does none of them very well!):

• Act as a guide to people new to FAF AI development, including collating any other useful resources out there on AI development
• Be a sort of dev log of my thought process and development steps for creating my first FAF AI, with extracts of code thrown in
• Form my main ‘todo’ list for further developments of my AI
  If you see any errors, or have any comments or suggestions (in particular any AI developers who read this since you’ll probably know better/easier ways of doing things than the methods I’ve chosen) let me know and I can update the guide where relevant.

If you’re here for useful resources and/or details of how to write AI and don’t care about the dev log aspect then just skip to section 2) Setup and background and section 5) Index of useful functions, and/or browse the index for points that may be of interest.

Latest changes (v70-72 summary)

V70 summary of changes:
Update based primarily on issues spotted from the first weekend of the Rainbow Cup tournament:

• Fixed a bug that caused MAA to stay way too far back from the ACU when there were nearby enemy tanks (i.e. the MAA would run away from the tanks even if they were needed to protect the ACU from gunships/bombers)
• Significantly improved the speed at which the AI will try and get T2 PD if the enemy gets a guncom and attacks its base
• Added new capture logic to capture certain civilian units on the map (e.g. titans on big bang dry)
• 6 other bugfixes, and 12 misc changes, mostly relating to building ground based anti-air, and being a bit more cautious with bombers (including not overbuilding them once a very large bomber force has been assembled).
  v71 - 8 Minor bugfixes and tweaks
  V72 - 4 fixes, including AIX fix
  v73 - M28 compatibiltiy fix and energy storage adjust for FAF balance change

Note: Most of my focus is currently on M28 - the below links to a separate M28 devlog:
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/5331/m28ai-devlog-pre-release

Areas of focus by version (history):
v1-3: Release
v4 - Intel and threat detection
v5 - Use of ACU and hotfix
v7 - Engineers and building upgrades
v9 - Air
v10 - Anti-Turtle
v11-v12 - Pathfinding and misc changes
v13 - Anti-navy
v14 - ACU and mobile shields
v15-v18 - CPU optimisation and hotfixes
v19 - Rally points and air domination strategy
v20 - Late game
v21-23 - Eco management
v24 - Bombers
v25 - Misc
v26 - Nukes
v27 - T3 Arti
v28 - Game options/compatibility
v29 - Optimisation and TMD
v30 - Czar, Soulripper and Defences
v31 - Bombers (again) and TML
v32-33 - Plateaus
v34-35 - Turtling
v36 - Skirmishers
v37-38 - Game enders
v39 - Quantum optics
v40 - Deceiver
v41 - Hives and shield disruptor
v42 - Misc and multi-TML defence
v43 - Misc and UEF experimentals
v44-46 - Teamwork
v47 - Optimisation
v48 - Personality
v49 - Hotfix
v50-51 - Navy
v52 - Desync hotfix
v53 - Shield boats
v54 - Temporary eco strategy
v55 - Experimental defence
v56 - Stealth boat
v57 - Pathfinding (again!)
v58 - Misc (RC tweaks)
v59 - Gunships
v60 - Naval enhancements
v61 - Stats
v62 - Land spam
v63 - T3 arti prioritisation
v64 - Mass fabs
v65-v66 - Skirmisher and T3 arti tweaks
v67 - Misc
V68-tml enhancements
v69 - Misc
v70 - Guncom defence and capture
v71 - 73 Mini updates - bugfixes

What is M28AI
M28AI is intended as a long term potential successor to M27AI, involving a complete rewriting of the AI framework to run significantly faster and provide greater tools for the AI to make use of. While currently weaker than M27AI on most maps (as of the release version, May 2023), it is hoped it will steadily improve over time.

Why should you use M28AI

• Runs roughly twice as fast as M27AI in teamgame scenarios
• Chance to see the AI improve and influence it's development via feedback
• Different playstyle to M27AI
• Greater compatibility with mods and unusual game settings
• Compatible with campaign missions (FA, SC and custom campaigns) as an AI teammate (in co-op)

Find out more information

• This forum thread contains summary information of M28AI updates
• A detailed devlog is available where I've noted my progress with M28AI and include far more details on updates made (e.g. the devlog relating to the v1 release of M28AI is more than 100 pages!)

Provide feedback

• Send me a message on discord (maudlin27), either via direct message, the AI development discord (https://discord.gg/jTvFqGKC) or alternatively there's a general AI feedback channel in FAF.
• You can also post in this thread

Where providing suggestions or highlighting bugs it'd be helpful if you would describe the issue, include the replay ID, and the time in the replay where the issue occurs.

Playing offline
If you want to play against M28 offline and can't access the FAF client (e.g. due to DDoS attacks), you can download the mod from Github and ensure the M28AI folder is saved to:
C:\ProgramData\FAForever\user\My Games\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\mods\M28AI

The mod files can be obtained from Github by downloading a ZIP of the code (and then extracting these):
https://github.com/maudlin27/M28AI

While the game can be run offline either by clicking the offline mode from the FAF client, or running the shortcut C:\ProgramData\FAForever\bin\ForgedAlliance.exe /init init_faf.lua

Trophy holders
Introduced from v54, this recognises the person to complete a challenge with the latest version of M28, going to the first person to beat the highest M28 cheat modifier above a minimum level.

• Radde trophy - beat a 1.4+ resource M28 on a 15km+ mapgen
  
  Current holder - Triangleleaf (v57, 2.8 resource mod)

• Sladow trophy - beat a 1.5+ AiX M28 on any map
  
  Current holder - Triangleleaf (v57, 2.2 AiX)

M28AI's release day has arrived!

The main changes made from before were focused on compatibilty, (cpu) optimisation, and increasing its difficulty.

Compatibility
Tested M28AI with the following mods and map settings (usually this just consisted of a single game, so please let me know if you come across any issues):

• Maps with water starts (including all-water maps such as Dreadnought Chasm)
• Survival maps
• AI Wave survival mod
• Flying engineers mod
• Norush game setting
• Low unit caps
• Crazy rush
• Nomads
• BlackOps
• BrewLAN
• Max AiX modifier (IIRC 5.9)

Optimisation
Big thanks to @Jip who helped me achieve a significant reduction in the time taken by M28AI to analyse the map at the start of the game. Previously M28AI was taking more than 2 minutes on 10km maps such as polar depression, with one of the functions being run taking c.102 seconds. With Jip's help this function's time was reduced to roughly 0.2 seconds, with M28AI completing its analysis in most cases in 30s or less (slower CPUs will take longer). The devlog contains more information and profiling for this.

This also allowed me to make use of more accurate water zone generation (without increasing the analysis time).

Jip also helpfully provided code to allow M28AI to get the navmesh label (broadly, whether a particular part of the map is pathable by particular units) for a particular point on the map (which was needed for the optimised code mentioned above to work properly).

Competitveness
Various tweaks and improvements were made to make M28AI provide a harder challenge. As part of this I made sure that M28 was capable of beating RNGAI and/or DilliDalli AI on a number of maps (including those maps I'm aware of where they're capable of beating M27AI some of the time).

Rather than try and achieve >50% win rate on all these maps, I instead just aimed for a single win, and did the AI version of 'save scumming' with replays until M28AI either won the replay, or creating a new game on the map resulted in it winning. Outside of Astro Crater (where M28AI is able to beat M27AI a majority of the time) I didn't test M28AI against M27AI. This is because I realised early in the development of M28AI it was too demotivating to watch it get crushed by M27AI (wheras against RNGAI and DilliDalli AI even if it loses often it's a close fought game, providing me with motivation to try and improve M28AI as opposed to giving up).

As a rough count this process involved 109 tweaks and improvements to M28AI (examples of more impactful changes within this include T2 artillery construction, destroying obsolete radar, and basic logic for building and managing bombers).

Since I've played a grand total of 1 game against M28AI (just to make sure M28 didnt take control of my units when it was my ally against 2 enemy M28AI), I expect it will need a lot more changes to improve its performance against players and become 'cheese resistant'. Almost all games were 1v1s (since they're faster to test) so although the code was all written with the aim of working in team game scenarios, I expect these aspects of it logic will be a bit rougher around the edges.

Please let me know if you have any feedback, suggestions, or encounter bugs.

Progress update: The end of the beginning? or the beginning of the end?

A lot has happened with M28 in just 2 weeks, such that I'm hopeful that it's release date could be in a matter of weeks rather than months. To summarise what's been implemented:

• Naval logic, including building and upgrading naval factories, building naval units, and using naval units
• Novax
• Nukes
• TML
• T2 PD (although in a very limited/niche way comapred to M27)
• Ahwassa
• T3 arti
• Various small changes to improve its performance slightly (e.g. less likely to overflow mass, doing better on maps where it can only reach the enemy with air, logic for engineer order reprioritisation)

M28 now has all the core features that I'd set out to implement ahead of the release (some original points such as T3 bombers were pushed to be post-release but others like T3 arti and T2 PD that were planned for post-release have already been implemented). The main areas it needs work on are compatibility (making sure various niche scenarios work), and a new set of 'competitiveness' related goals I recently added - in short, making sure that while it may not be as good as M27 it should perform similar or better to the other custom AI when released.

The most exciting point for me personally though is the performance gains M28 is still suggesting it will provide compared with M27. When I'd previously ran it on the scenario I used for M27 for benchmarking (4v4 UEF on Africa) it was significantly faster, but that was before air and naval logic were added, and there was always the danger that I could spend half a year building an AI hoping it would run faster, only to find out it was slower. Now though it has almost all core features, and is still much faster (more than double the speed).

• For example, taking M27's 'benchmark' map of a 4v4 UEF mirror on Africa, M27 v67 took 167s to run the first 10m, and encountered stuttering for 20.8 seconds cumulatively.
• By contrast, M28 took 67s, and the cumulative time of freezes was just 0.4 seconds. The only main caveat to this is it freezes the game for a while (probably at least 1 minute) at the start of the game which is much longer than M27, but overall it should still be faster for games running 10+ minutes even after factoring this into account.
• Although not tested (as it's hard to produce an easily comparable scenario), I'm also confident that logic for T3 arti should be far lighter on the CPU than M27's approach which should help late game (as I suspect this was a likely culprit of some of the slowdown, along with M27's preference for swarms of T1 bombers).

@thomashiatt said in Game Councilor:

Your only abuses of privilege, in my opinion, are radically altering the balance of the GC, and making numerous UI changes that are all enabled by default. If you make changes to the UI, either release them as UI mods, like everyone else does, or just do not enable them by default. Respect me enough to let me opt-in to your changes, or else I will complain about it.

I'm failing to see how providing a UI option that can be opted out of is an abuse of privilege. If a UI change will make things easier for newer players, then it makes sense for it to be enabled by default. Also worth noting how you comment you'd be pleased if Jip focused on fixing bugs as they are found, yet the GC change you complain about I think was a bugfix. From what I've seen Jip also keeps in contact with the balance team about changes that will have a balance impact and fixing that bug is hardly an abuse of his position (it'd be a different matter if the balance team told Jip not to fix the GC issue and Jip ignored them and put through the change anyway and refused to revert it, but that would be a matter for the balance team to raise anyway. Tagada's also already flagged that the GC is being rebalanced so I expect it'll be in the next balance patch).

While I'm no fan of the factory changes, Jip's worked wonders with FAF over the past 1.5 years. You may not be interested in graphics or performance but other players are (making up a 99.9% figure to support your argument also does you no credit). Even if you're not interested in them, changes that in the long term significantly improve FAF's performance and/or graphics are a good thing since they make the game more attractive to new players as well as increasing the potential pool of players (you dont need as good a CPU to play on most FAF maps). Jip's also clearly listened to the feedback on factory changes (per the various forum threads inviting suggestions), so while in the short term the factory change may not be an improvement, hopefully in the long term it is.

Jip's also significantly improved documentation on FAF and made it significantly easier for current and future contributors to improve FAF (another of the stated aims in the original posts in this thread).

It's one thing to give Jip feedback that you don't like a change, quite another to accuse Jip of an abuse, while the changes that prompted your accusation related to attempts to improve the graphics of the game (which as Jip rightly pointed out was one of the key areas of focus flagged in his post above). Overall the changes Jip's brought have significantly improved FAF, and I hope Jip doesn't get disheartened reading comments such as yours accusing him of an abuse of privilege.

Progress update:
Most of my work (when I wasn't updating M27 for the rainbow cup) has been focused on having M28 function on maps with water - for now, without building a single naval or air unit. This took far longer than I expected despite using a very similar approach to how M28 handles land units, and I expect there will still be a number of issues to work through once I have M28 able to build naval units (although most of the hard work should be done now).

• Shields should be built to defend against enemy T3 arti/novax
• SAMs should be built across the map if lacking in air control (which M28 will since it doesnt built any air units!)
• Added logic to consider locations on an island by island basis, so engineers can move from one island to another, and establish a beachhead on an island to try and take control of it
• Put in place framework for 'water zones', which divide the map up into areas similar to what M28 does for land zones, so that naval forces can be handled on a localised manner. These zones are much larger than land zones in size, and for now use simplistic pathing which I expect I'll need to revisit at some point if I can speed up the logic for this.
• Combat units in water are now managed, and will consider fighting other water based threats or to move onshore (if amphibious) to fight for an island
• Engineers can now reclaim and build underwater mexes

I'm also going to start using branches for future updates (so if anyone's running the AI off github, the main release version is likely to be more stable as sometimes when I'm in the middle of a major update Ill post the changes to backup them, which could lead to the logic breaking if trying out the latest branch)

Having only started following the FAF forums and news the start of this year I'd not come across the PC election before, but one thing that's surprised me is just how long the process has gone on for. To summarise the timings for the PC election that's almost now finished:

• 6 May 21 - election announced, candidates requested
• 30 May - Signups closed (includes 1 week extension to accommodate further debate following disqualification of certain candidates/clarification of conditions to apply)
• 6 June - voting begins
• 6 July - voting ends

So essentially, 3 months taken up with the PC election.

Regardless of whoever wins the current election, I'd suggest shortening this period significantly, as 1/4 of the PC's time will potentially be in 'election mode'.

I'd therefore suggest allowing 3 weeks for candidates, and then 3 weeks for voting, to halve the time involved overall, for next year's election, while still giving enough of a period to allow most people who might be on holiday at some point in that time to be able to stand and/or vote, without having the election go on for so long.

I'd also be curious if anyone has stats on the timeframe of when votes were cast, as I suspect they will be weighted significantly towards the start of the voting period (which would give further support for there not being a need for a whole month to vote). If this isn't the case and votes tend to be evenly spread over the time period (or even weighted more towards the end of the voting period) then it may still be worth retaining 4 weeks for voting.

v9 Release
Main changes were reworking how Ahwassas target units (including a bugfix that stopped them targeting buildings) and replay based changes (12 tweaks and bugfixes in addition to the Ahwassa changes), including:

• Ahwassas should be more aggressive, particularly in larger numbers, while also being slightly better at avoiding ground AA fire
• MMLs should be slightly more likely to try and overwhelm a TMD defended positon
• ACU should be more aggressive (by factoring in the threat of allied units approaching its current position)
• Fixed some bugs with gunship targeting logic
• Adjusted experimental behaviour slightly so they're less likely to attack-move if an enemy experimental is attacking them just outside their range.

Also implemented logic provided by Jip to make M28 compatible with the upcoming FAF develop release.

Acknowledgements:

• Jip - Providing voice chat and code for the upcoming FAF develop changes (that introduce a new brain class for each AI)
• Azraeelian Angel - Human vs AI replay
• Radde - Human vs AI replays

UEF
Order: The United Earth Federation is the successor to the empire that once controlled the galaxy. The UEF imposes its authority with durable armies designed to control territory.
Cybran
Freedom: The Cybran Nation began as a cyborg conspiracy to liberate workers enslaved by the Earth Empire. Because it began as a resistance movement using hit-and-run tactics, its armies are fast, stealthy, and versatile.
Aeon
Purity: The Aeon Illuminate is a religious order based on devotion and sacrifice. Followers of "The Way" are zealous and single-minded missionaries. Aeon units tend to excel at only one single purpose.
Seraphim
Revenge: The Seraphim are alien invaders from another dimension. Seeking revenge for a bio-weapon attack by the Earth Empire, and fearing humanity's genocidal intentions, Seraphim weapons create overwhelming destruction.

v47+ note - the page numbers for sections 4+ will be slightly different in the actual version (since I'm no longer showing the section 3 topics below I wont be updating the below listings often)

1. Overview 35
   1.1) AI goals 35
   1.2) Background 36
   1.3) Approach 36
2. Setup and background 37
   2.1) Lua editors and IDEs 37
   2.1.1) Intellij IDEA 37
   2.1.2) Visual Studio (VS) 38
   2.2) Other guides which include a section on AI: 39
   2.2.1) General information: 39
   2.2.2) How AI in FAF works 39
   2.2.3) AI markers and how AI uses them: 40
   2.2.4) Hooking (e.g. replacing/appending existing game code) 40
   2.2.5) Creating custom scripts for Sorian AI: 40
   2.2.6) Pathfinding 40
   2.2.7) How platoons work 40
   2.2.8) AI Research (non-FAF related) 41
   2.3) Lua coding 41
   2.3.1) How to code in Lua 41
   2.3.2) Stand alone Lua code testing 41
   2.3.3) Lua optimisation 41
   2.3.4) Common causes of errors for non-Lua coders 41
   2.4) Debugging in FAF 42
   2.4.1) Console 42
   2.4.2) Cheats 42
   2.4.3) Log window and error messages 42
   2.4.4) Debug window and shortcuts 43
   2.4.5) Platoon names for debugging 43
   2.4.6) Function hooks and identifying infinite loops 43
   2.4.7) Destroyed objects 44
   2.4.8) Fast speed 44
   2.4.9) In-game tools and information 44
   2.4.10) Other shortcuts and game startup options 46
   2.4.11) Suggested shortcut 47
   2.4.12) Using FAF Develop 48
   2.4.13) Error handling 49
   2.4.14) Optimisation – benchmarks and monitoring 50
   2.4.15) Debugging via replay 51
   2.5) AI development discord 52
   2.6) Core FAF Lua files 53
   2.6.1) Accessing core Lua code 53
   2.6.2) Other built in functions 53
   2.6.3) Unit blueprints 53
   2.7) Testing AI against other AI 54
   2.7.1) Simple offline testing 54
   2.7.2) Mass offline AI testing 55
   2.8) Getting started – using a simple AI template as a starting point 56
   2.9) Downloading and setting up MicroAI 56
   2.10) Giving the AI mod your own name 56
   2.11) General - Hooks, and getting the code to recognise if it’s running your AI 56
   2.11.1) Hooking – Unit callbacks/events – applied example 57
   2.12) Github 61
   2.12.1) Github advantages and Github desktop 61
   2.12.2) Linking Github with a local repo via creating your own init file 61
   2.12.3) Pro Git ebook 61
   2.12.4) Git commit messages 62
   2.12.5) Own notes – contributing to FAF Git 62
   2.13) Uploading your AI to FAF 62
   2.13.1) Pre-upload checklist 62
   2.13.2) FAF rules on uploading mods 62
   2.13.3) Uploading to FAF 63
   2.14) Other AI documentation 63
3. AI changes 63
   3.1) Build order - Changing the initial build order 63
   3.1.1) Adding/removing buildings 63
   3.1.2) Change build order based on map resource positions 64
   3.1.3) Build order conditions 64
   3.2) Build order – ACU builds without moving at start 65
   3.2.1) BaseTemplate 65
   3.3) Build factory and power to benefit from adjacency 66
   3.3.1) Record all mexes on the map, and reference this information 66
   3.3.2) Determine com start position 67
   3.3.3) Identify mexes near to start 68
   3.3.4) Hook onto the core code relating to building a structure at a location 68
   3.3.5) Call build order from custom aiBrain function, to edit how things are built 69
   3.3.6) Adjust build template based on mex location - conditions 70
   3.3.7) Adjust build template based on mex location – build location adjustment 70
   3.3.8) Build initial PGens by existing factory 71
   3.3.9) Adjacency bonus where ACU is away from start location 73
   3.3.10) Referencing unit blueprints for information such as unit size 75
   3.4) Platoons and sending engineers to reclaim 77
   3.4.1) How platoons work 77
   3.4.2) Send the first engineer on reclaim duty 82
   3.4.3) Determine where to send the engineer to reclaim 83
   3.4.4) Identifying reclaim mass value 84
   3.4.5) Find out if a location is accessible by ground: 84
   3.4.6) Mapping reclaim locations and assigning preferred location to an engineer 86
   3.4.7) Don’t send early reclaiming engi if there’s minimal starting reclaim 86
   3.4.8) Issue new reclaim command if engineer becomes idle 87
   3.4.9) Send more engineers to reclaim later (as lower priority) based on the reclaim currently on the map 87
   3.4.10) Send 5 engineers at the start to reclaim and build mexes 88
   3.4.11) Reclaiming trees when no main mass left 89
   3.5) Building and assisting hydro 89
   3.5.1) Check if hydro near start area and have engineer build hydro 89
   3.5.2) Have ACU assist engineer with hydro 90
   3.5.3) Get ACU to continue build order after hydro complete 90
   3.5.4) Subsequent build order changes 92
   3.6) Attack force composition changes and check of AI performance 92
   3.6.1) Build Moar Tanks 92
   3.7) Pre-v1: AI Progress check 92
   3.7.1) Land factory buildings and other build order refinements 93
   3.8) Raiding AI 95
   3.8.1) Raiding behaviour - overview 95
   3.8.2) Queue up move commands for mexes 95
   3.8.3) Identify mexes to target 96
   3.8.4) Locating mexes near to an existing pathing route 98
   3.8.5) Determine when raiders need new targets 99
   3.8.6) Handling complications (stuck units, move orders built on, platoon units dying) 99
   3.8.7) Change factory rally point so units are assigned orders sooner 101
   3.8.8) Making use of platoon names for debugging 103
   3.8.9) Ensure 1 land scout included in each platoon 104
   3.8.10) Use microbots before switching to tanks 104
   3.8.11) Have scouts stay with the platoon 106
   3.8.12) AI scouting, threat detection, and identifying nearby enemy units 107
   3.8.13) Attack engineers en-route: Overview 110
   3.8.14) Tracking when have reached movement points 110
   3.8.15) Determining the platoon minimum range 110
   3.8.16) Identifying nearby enemy units and assessing their threat 112
   3.8.17) Actions based on enemy threat 114
   3.8.18) Avoid attacking enemy mexes for small platoons 115
   3.8.19) Other issues – cheating, walls and min range 116
   3.8.20) Larger raiding platoons 117
   3.9) Large attack wave 117
   3.9.1) Checking when to form a large attack wave 117
   3.9.2) Generalising raider AI 118
   3.9.3) Creating separate platoon AI for the large attack force 118
   3.9.4) Run nearer to base when outnumbered 119
   3.9.5) Recalling nearby raiders to join attack force 119
   3.9.6) Updating threat assessment for ACU health and upgrades 121
   3.9.7) Don’t chase small numbers of faster units 122
   3.9.8) Switch to hunt and kill enemies once reached destination 124
   3.10) Pre-v1: AI Progress check 124
   (3.11 onwards - left out due to post size limitations)
4. Future possible changes 512
5. Index of useful functions 592
   5.1) Map, game setup and general aiBrain information 594
   5.1.1) aiBrain - general 594
   5.1.2) AI Brain – Economy 595
   5.1.3) Map Markers and start positions 596
   5.1.4) Map size and playable area 597
   5.1.5) Terrain info 597
   5.2) Getting a list of units by category, location, or other method 598
   5.2.1) All units that meet a particular category 598
   5.2.2) Units at/near a location 599
   5.3) Unit information 600
   5.3.1) Units on radar 600
   5.3.2) Blueprints and unit categories 600
   5.3.3) Unit upgrades (enhancements) 602
   5.3.4) See 5.4.10) Other unit commands 602
   5.3.5) Location and pathfinding 602
   5.3.6) Unit’s ai Brain owner 602
   5.3.7) Unit’s current commands and whether it’s alive 603
   5.3.8) Unit bones 603
   5.3.9) Shields 603
   5.3.10) Units with missiles/anti-nukes 603
   5.3.11) Unit resource usage 604
   5.4) Unit and platoon commands 604
   5.4.1) Building 604
   5.4.2) Assisting 605
   5.4.3) Pausing 605
   5.4.4) Reclaim 605
   5.4.5) Factory specific commands 605
   5.4.6) Movement and attack-move 606
   5.4.7) Transport 606
   5.4.8) Combat related 607
   5.4.9) Stopping 607
   5.4.10) Other unit commands 607
   5.4.11) Upgrades and enhancements 607
   5.4.12) Current commands and targets 608
   5.4.13) Unit status 608
   5.4.14) Change a unit’s name 610
   5.5) Platoon additional functions 610
   5.5.1) Units platoon handle 610
   5.5.2) Get AIBrain 610
   5.5.3) Get units in a platoon 610
   5.5.4) Disband 610
   5.5.5) Platoon exists 610
   5.5.6) Platoon position 610
   5.5.7) Get all platoons 611
   5.5.8) Platoon ai plan name 611
   5.5.9) Add units to a platoon 611
   5.5.10) Army pool and removing units from a platoon 611
   5.5.11) Create a platoon 611
   5.5.12) Change or reset an AI plan 612
   5.5.13) Platoon movement formation 612
   5.6) Weapon information 612
   5.6.1) Get a unit’s weapon 612
   5.6.2) Get information on that weapon 612
   5.7) Time and thread related 612
   5.7.1) Game time 612
   5.7.2) System time 613
   5.7.3) Wait/delay the code 613
   5.7.4) Fork thread (run independently) 613
   5.8) Events 614
   5.8.1) Creating custom events 616
   5.9) Changing the game itself 616
   5.9.1) Spawning units 616
   5.10) Other 616
   5.10.1) Visual changes – Draw Circles and Lines 616
   5.10.2) On Intel Change 617
   5.10.3) ScenarioInfo.Options 617

The Spawn ACU at start positions mod allows you to spawn ACUs under your control at specified start positions at the start of the game.

For example, say you're playing a 4v1 on Setons but don't want the disadvantage of only having 1 ACU to start with. This mod allows you to have an ACU at each of the standard start points, under you control.

To use it, enable the mod and then select "Spawn ACU" as the player/AI in each of the slots where you want to spawn an ACU, and specify the faction of the ACU to spawn.

At the start of the game the Spawn ACU AI will then be defeated and their ACUs will be given to a human player on the same team.

Let me know if you encounter any issues using this.

AI biweekly/monthly tourney: 20km Combined arms
The theme of this map was 20km maps that allow use of land, navy and air. The maplist chosen was:

• Crossfire Canal - FAF version
• Norfair
• The Ditch - FAF version
• Setons Clutch - FAF version
• The Bermuda Locket - FAF version

Setup
Setup is similar to the last tourney - 12 AIs are split into 4 groups. The weakest 4 are eliminated in the first round, with the winners from one group fighting the runners up from the other in the quarter-finals in 3 matches.
As there were 5 maps, maps were chosen randomly for the group and quarters, and then for the semis and finals each map was played.
Starting positions are the default first and second positions set by the map (e.g. on Setons this means a 'mid vs mid' battle)

Changes to AI
5 of the featured AI have released new versions since the last tourney: M27, Swarm Terror, SCTA Arm, Sorian Edit, SCTA Core

The results
Group stages

Quarter finals

Semi finals

Finals

Total wins by AI

Detailed results
The full results can be seen in the 'DetailedResults' worksheet of the following file:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i2ObsZ49S9gUTgWw0E68qZ8VrOkaP_Jk/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100973959280546778272&rtpof=true&sd=true

Other Observations

• While some AI attempted to build navy, in all cases it proved ineffective with the mass invested in navy far exceeding the mass killed. Neither of the finalists built a single naval unit the entire tourney.
• The finals were closer than the scoreline suggests, with DilliDalli dominating land on most of the maps and winning map control (e.g. holding 5 out of the 6 islands at one point on Crossfire Canals, and effectively raiding and even claiming mexes behind M27's main base on Setons). The finals ended up being an air vs land contest on most maps.
• SCTA Arm managed to have 2 T3 tanks solo a GC (GC's shot was blocked by cliffs) but it wasn't enough to let it claim a win
• Heroic unit of the tourney: DilliDalli's lone striker vs M27 on Setons which managed 19 kills and 1,720 mass kills raiding mexes
• Notable changes in fortunes: Swarm managed a turnaround in speed, going from the slowest AI to claim wins in the last tourney to getting the second fastest win (11m21, beaten only by Dilli who got a win in 10m48)

Latest changes (v66 summary)

• Refinements to the logic for experimentals to dodge shots (and more generally) so they're hopefully less likely to turn around in a full circle doing no damage while being attacked
• 7 tweaks to T3 arti targeting logic, none of which are major but which for example now assign a value to heavily shielded units (previously none was given), firing infront of mobile units, reducing the value of targets that we have fired a huge number of shots at without killing, and factoring in how long it will take for the T3 arti to turn towards the target
• 15 other misc changes or bugfixes, a number of which relate to decisions on when units should retreat (e.g. MML running from ravagers, skirmishers running from PD, GC/Monkey/Ythotha being more likely to run from a fatboy based on how close it is)

Acknowledgements:

• Radde - several teamgame replays on both land and naval maps
• Jip and Magge for highlighting a missing units error message that appeared a lot, and also Jip for helping me figure out how to determine which direction a T3 artillery is aiming at.

Aeon gun's increased range is massive - you can reliably kite enemy guncoms with it, and they're forced to either hope you slip up with the kiting (letting them get within range), have a load more nearby units to charge at you, or get enough T2 PD up to stop you. Oh and a cost decrease to gun upgrade is a buff to the gun upgrade.

Aurora I don't like but it does at least give a clear difference to the other factions who all have a very similar main tank.

Mercy - discussed a load in a separate threat - I'd prefer the oppsosite of your suggestion - instead of making them survive against MAA, make them die to MAA. IMO if the enemy has MAA by their com it should counter mercies. Making Mercies able to tank T1 MAA shots for a while would make them insane.

GC - It gets omni and the claws, which are really powerful against some matchups. As an extreme (unlikely) scenario - I can beat other land experimentals with certain SACU mass equivalent combinations. Try that against a GC and it'll easily crush them due to its claws [Edit: Forgot that the sandbox scenario I was recalling was UEF Shield SACUs with Percies underneath them and for some reason thought the claws got the SACUs - instead it got the shielded percies]. It also easily beats a monkeylord, and its 'crush when walking' is more meaningful due to its huge HP.

Czar - compare this to soulripper, there's just no contest. It's incredibly versatile - you can charge at the enemy com under shields with SAMs nearby and kill it (try that with a soulripper and you've just given them a big mass donation). You can kite enemy asfs with it; you can use it in a more attritional style thanks to its shield; you can do surprise attacks by storing air units inside it, etc.

@cpt_cnullrufs sports are banning players that are representing Russia from competing. Big difference to banning/discriminating against someone just because they live in Russia which is what you seem to be suggesting.

AI biweekly/monthly tourney: MapGen
The idea of this tourney was to use MapGen to create a map for the AI to fight against for 5km, 7.5km, 10km, 15km and 20km. Due to the AI tourney still being run manually a single map was used for the map size for the tourney (rather than generating a new random map every time). The maplist chosen was:

• neroxis_map_generator_1.8.5_vgf5tqx2uxrcu_aicae_
• neroxis_map_generator_1.8.5_uydyqpk4utuuu_aidae_
• neroxis_map_generator_1.8.5_xaghpcvo2lnrk_aieae_
• neroxis_map_generator_1.8.5_bvwpdifwrols4_aigae_
• neroxis_map_generator_1.8.5_44sxnthefcek6_aiiae_

Setup
Setup is similar to the last tourney - 12 AIs are split into 4 groups. The weakest 4 are eliminated in the first round, with the winners from one group fighting the runners up from the other in the quarter-finals in 3 matches.
As there were 5 maps, maps were chosen randomly for the group and quarters, and then for the semis and finals each map was played.

Changes to AI
3 of the featured AI have released new versions since the last tourney: M27, SCTA Arm, SCTA Core

The results
Group stages

Quarter finals

Semi finals

Finals

(M27 and RNG drew 1 game)
Total wins by AI

Detailed results
The full results can be seen in the 'DetailedResults' worksheet of the following file:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i2ObsZ49S9gUTgWw0E68qZ8VrOkaP_Jk/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100973959280546778272&rtpof=true&sd=true

Other Observations

• Notable changes in fortunes: In the final, RNG had c.25 mass to M27's 621, yet still managed a draw (M27 attacked RNG's base with its ACU leading to both ACUs dying)
• The 7.5km map featured two land masses separated by water, which caused several AIs issues
• Although SCTA failed to get a win it managed to match Sorian Edit for map control and eco for much of the game, with both games going over an hour
• The group stages required two deciding matches to determine groupings, with an extra Dilli vs Adaptive and Sorian Edit vs DilliDalli match due to them getting the same number of wins as each other.

Thinking about the teleport change more, I don’t understand if telemazor is still considered overpowered, why isn’t it being nerfed directly? I don’t see anyone complaining sera-tele is op, or tele-sacu, or tele-gc; it adds variety and fun to the game to have these, and they’re going to become completely unusable after this change.

Why not just nerf the teleport upgrade for the cybran acu? There’s already precedent for the same/similar upgrade to cost different amounts and have different effects (nano; ras; etc), why not teleport?

For example, double the upgrade costs of only the cybran acu; or (less desirably since it impacts the ability itsef) give the cybran acu only a range limited teleport.

Alternatively why not massively decrease the build cost of teleport? With the short range it’s far more likely to be a one way trip and much easier to counter, so why does it need to cost as much as it does to get the upgrade in the first place?

Veterancy adds greater depth and makes games more interesting. There have been plenty of entertaining moments both in games and watching casts where for example an ACU is about to die and gets a sudden rank of veterancy allowing it to just escape a kill. It also gives a spotlight to units that have a massive effect for their cost (e.g. units that reach 5 stars).

However Ive no issue with allowing a unit's mass kills and veterancy progress being visible to all players (if it was possible)

AI biweekly/monthly tourney: Sorian vs the world
The idea for this tournament was to see the highest AiX modifier that each AI could beat Sorian Adaptive at, on a selection of 5km, 10km and 20km maps from the current map pool, hopefully highlighting how much more comeptitive the FAF custom AIs are, as well as giving a better gauge of the distance between different AI than the previous tournaments win rate. The maplist chosen was:

• Mirage
• Stickleback Ridge
• Open Palms
• 8 - Badlands_v4
• The Bermuda Locket - FAF version
• Crossfire Canal

Setup
Each AI entered will face off against Sorian Adaptive AiX (with no omni). If they win, then they repeat the fight but with Sorian Adaptive getting +0.1 to its modifier, until the challenging AI no longer wins. This is done for each map separately. This resulted in a mammoth 245 games being run, so I doubt I'll be repeating this format due to the massive amount of time it ended up taking (for comparison, the last tournament took just 51 games)

Changes to AI
There were significant changes to the AI this time. In addition to a new version of M27, Sorian Edit, and SCTA, there was a major update for RNG (the first in many months), and we have a new AI entrant with Uveso Rush featuring for the first time!
The results
Summary

Results by map

Detailed results
The full results can be seen in the Data worksheet of the following file:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i2ObsZ49S9gUTgWw0E68qZ8VrOkaP_Jk/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100973959280546778272&rtpof=true&sd=true

Other Observations

• Uveso was the dominant AI on badlands (due to its ability to punish Sorian Adaptive for sending its ACU to attack on its own early on), managing a win against a 2.2 AiX (it lost against a 2.1 AiX that was running at the same time hence why 2.0 is shown in its results). In contrast as an AiX 1.2 it lost to a 1.0 Sorian Adaptive on Crossfire Canal.
• Crossfire Canal was by far Sorian Adaptive's best map, with 3 of the AI (Sorian Edit, SCTA Core and Uveso) needing AiX modifiers to beat it (although not strictly correct, if an AI needed an AiX modifier to win I've shown each 0.1 modifier as decreasing the Sorian AiX beaten by 0.1, so an AI needing a 1.5 modifier to win would show as 0.5)
• Surprisingly, Adaptive AI was better than Sorian Adaptive, beating it on every map with no modifier, and beating 1.2 on Mirage.
• There were compatibility issues between Sorian Edit and Sorian Adaptive on some maps, so results for these have been omitted
• 3 AI managed the achievement of beating Sorian Adaptive AiX 2.0 or better - M27 and RNG (2.0, Stickleback Ridge) and Uveso (2.2, Badlands)

Edit: Note that some of the AI aren't intended for 20km or water based maps, which will be a reason for poor results on Crossfire (e.g. SCTA isn't meant for such maps). Excluding crossfire from the results would give the following:

Biggest issue you’ve already noted (Connection issues)

Outside of that I think for want of a better term I see the ‘New player experience’ the next issue, which covers lots of different subpoints - ie how to retain new players so the playerbase hopefully grows (although noted the growth in previous years is unusual anyway given the playerbase for games is expected to decline over time). I think Penguin did a thread a while ago on this point that got lots of responses.