Posts made by maudlin27

Mapgen looks significantly better to me based on the latest comparison; I’d suggest editing the op to link to that comparison as I was leaning towards the opposite view based just on the previous mapgen minimaps, and some people may not read the whole thread when responding

I’m assuming at present it damages all units in the aoe equally; an alternative could be for it to have a damage over time equivalent of a rapid fire artillery shell - ie the impact is split into lots of small impacts covering the aoe (each with dealing damage over time for the small area around them). This would make it much stronger va shields and very large units, but no better vs acus and other small units than it currently is. It could then have a viable niche for dealing with shields without the risk of a return of the old acu snipe behaviour

@cyberdyne_skynet Graphic settings might impact things but Ive not tested to confirm.

However most benefits are likely to be a game setting thing - eg use 1-3 factions, fewer AI players, have a sub-1k unit cap, use a sub-20km sized map, play on a map with no water

I doubt you’d need to do all of these but just some of them may help

@cyberdyne_skynet I wouldn't expect UI mods to have any impact.
For SIM mods, I'm not (as yet) aware of a mod that M28 is incompatible with (in that it breaks M28 if its used), while M28 should also make use of custom units for most unit mods, and ought to also make use of custom ACU upgrades e.g. from BlackOps where the default upgrades are overwritten (but I last tested this pre-v1 release).

However due to the difficulty in figuring out the cause of issues where there are lots of mods (e.g. it may not even be M28 that is the cause, but an interaction between those two mods, and it could just be that M28 makes such an interaction more likely) my focus would be on games with just 1 other SIM mod where M28 is crashing/suffering major issues.

@ender06 Unfortunately it still desyncs for me from the start of each of your replays. However, the replay still crashed for me and after only a short time, with the following message in the log:
info: Sim crashed hard in DoSimBeat(): Invalid blueprint ID in CDecoder::DecodeIssueCommand()/DecodeCommandData()
Given the number of sim mods enabled, it may well be one of these that is contributing to the crash.
Another possible cause (given the actual replay went on for a long time and it appeared to be a high mass map so presumably went late game with lots of units) is memory - if the memory used by FAF exceeds 2GB then it becomes very prone to crashing.

Unit mods are a significant contributor towards high memory usage, particularly with AI in the game (as the memory used increases for each different type of unit built, so if you have 3 factions and a bunch of new units in addition to core FAF units, you'll get to 2GB much faster).

If playing with M28 I'd therefore suggest turning off all but one of the other mods and seeing if you get a crash, and also keeping an eye periodically on the memory used (via taskmanager) to see if it is almost at 2gb (in which case more measures may be needed, such as a lower unit cap, smaller map, more restricted faction choice, unit mods that add fewer units, etc.)

v58 Update

• 21301510 Mapgen replay - 6 changes, including making M28 slightly harder to snipe with air
• 21301625 – Winter duel - 7 changes, including making better use of very high resource modifiers
• 21305751 Mapgen - 5 changes, including fixing some issues with fatboys and T2 arti. T2 arti should now be built across the map in some cases (which will likely make things a bit worse and need toning down in a future release)
• 21306326 Mapgen - 4 changes focused on improving MML use against enemy firebases
• 21306893 Naval mapgen - 3 changes, mostly improving how M28 handles HARMs
• 21310805 Mapgen - 2 changes to increase engineer production and mex assistance where multiple mexes are upgrading
• 8 other changes, including having M28 eco less; then having M28 eco more; and stopping M28 trying to get adjacency from non-M28 teammates

Trophy awards

• Radde trophy - awarded to Triangleleaf for beating M28 with a 2.8 resource modifier
• Sladow trophy - awarded to Triangleleaf for beating a 2.2 AiX M28

Acknowledgements

• Radde for feedback on M28 shortcomings in addition to some replays
• (Ender06 - replays although I wasn't able to get them to work)
• Albert C – Highlighting how M28 tries building adjacent to a human player’s hydro

@ender06 Thanks, unfortunately both replays desync for me the moment the game starts, but if you play any further games let me know as there's a chance the replay for them won't desync.

v57 release
Campaign and replay related changes

• Added a new 'no rush' type feature to the hostile campaign AI if it 's using M28 - you can now specify in game options how long it will be before M28 applies most of its logic (including attacking). This is to help make some of the missions where the AI starts with a huge army no longer impossible:
  

• 3 fixes for Aeon M3 so M28 works as a hostile or allied AI

• 9 changes based on Radde's trophy entry (beating M28 1.4 on a naval map), including reduced ecoing so that more resources can be spent defending against navy

• 2 changes on Winter Duel (Sladow trophy entry) so more T1 arti get built and tanks should wait longer before attacking the enemy ACU

• 3 other changes, including adding a threshold for torpedo bombers to be built so the enemy doesn't trigger an emergency response when sending a single engineer across the water

Trophy awards

• Radde trophy - Radde and KuhwaKlimakleber - 1.4 resource 2v2, naval mapgen map
• Sladow trophy - Triangleleaf - 1.8 AiX Winter Duel

v56 release
More replay focused changes, mainly for dealing with nearby enemy firebases and naval production

• 18 Changes relating to winter duel replays to try and get MML faster and attack more aggressively with them
• 9 Changes mostly relating to navy from a mixed mapgen map to try and increase the build power assigned to navy when it's contested, including building torp launchers and subs
• Refinements to T2 arti targeting so they choose their target a couple of seconds before firing (instead of 20 seconds)
• 4 other fixes, including an infinite loop that could happen in some late-game scenarios

Trophy awards
Radde was lightnig fast again with replays securing the two trophies:

• Radde Trophy - Radde
• Sladow Trophy - Radde (beating a 1.7 AiX M28 on winter duel)

I'll adjust the trophy awards slightly going forward - the trophy will now to go the highest AI modifier beaten under the trophy requirements for the latest release of the AI (AiX for Sladow trophy, Resource modifier for Radde trophy); where multiple people beat it at the same modifier, it will go to the first person to beat it at that modifier.

I'll also try to keep the original post updated with the current trophy holder (i.e. ahead of the next version release)

Acknowledgements

• Radde - for providing numerous replays in addition to the trophy winning ones
• Fearghal - Replays/posts highlgithing several errors and a crash
• Triangleleaf - Honourable mention for a replay beating a 2.0 AiX M28

Thanks for confirming!

A new version of the FAF client has been released - if you have issues with the automatic updating of the client, you can download the new version here:
https://github.com/FAForever/downlords-faf-client/releases

The latest release (as of posting) is v2023.11.2.

Assuming you have windows, then download the faf_windows-x64_[version reference].exe file and run this.

Since FAF doesn't have the money to pay microsoft a fee to 'recognise' the FAF exe, windows will likely come up with the below warning message - clicking more info should allow you to run the exe. For those with concerns, this is an open source project with the code published on Github, which you are welcome to inspect.

@magge Based on the game log M28AI wasn't loaded. Can you recall how the game was setup?

For example I've seen this error before where you click on the Load presets option in the game lobby (before the game started), or click on a rehost game option, in which case it would load the AI and use the default/easy AI, so it looks like a similar thing.

If you just created a new game from the FAF client, didn't load any presets, enabled the M28AI mod and selected the AI though then I don't know what caused it.

v55 Update
Aside from fixing a couple of major bugs introduced in recent versions, this update was around tweaks to the early-game logic based on Radde's trophy winning replays.

• 21233524 - 11 changes, including slight improvements to early build order to try and reduce the tendency of M28 to stall power, and a fix to the logic for building an early bomber (that meant it was built when M28 had low power, instead of when it didnt have low power)
• 21233818 - 14 changes, mostly focused around getting more MML sooner if the enemy setups up a T2 arti firebase near M28's base
• 2 other fixes (fixing a crash caused when T2 arti tried to attack a fatboy, and a bug when M28 would consider building T3 mass fabs)

Trophy awards

• Winner of the Radde and Sladow trophies – Radde – in record time Radde beat M28 with a 1.4 resource mod on a large land map, and then crushed it on winter duel at 1.5 AiX. Will the latest changes prove enough to combat a ‘winter duel T2 arti’ attack, or is M28 doomed to failure?

The current trophy holder will also be recognised in the original post of this forum thread.

Other Acknowledgements

• Fearghal – logs highlighting error when M28 considers building mass fabs.
• sparky222b – logs/replays with M28 crashes

@sparky222b Thanks, found the cause of the crash (if an M28 T2 arti tries targeting a mobile unit), will fix it in the next update

@sparky222b Thanks for the report, do you have the replay IDs for the games?

While I dislike many of those scenarios, I'm not sure how feasible the proposed solutions are even if it was felt they were desirable.

• afk hosters - I'm not sure if it's possible for the client to get information on if all players have checked that they're ready and (if so) if it is then capable of checking over a period of 5m if everyone is 'ready' except the host and (if so) to then automatically kick the host. Even if it was possible, it'd require someone with the expertise to code.
• Kicker (kicking low rated to make room for high rated after a long period) - how to evidence? Also what about a host who is afk, and returns to see a far too low rated player in one of the game slots that would mean a very imbalanced game (although you could argue they should've just set rating limits if that was the case)
• Spawns shuffle - I dont understand this, the host can switch player positions if they want, with no need to kick someone
• Infinite balances - if host takes ages to balance then say you'll leave if theyve not settled on teams within a couple of minutes and then join a different game
• unmotivated kicks - I dont see how an options list would help - hosts could pick an option even if it doesnt apply. Also requires dev time to code such a list, and moderator time to then review the option chosen and somehow figure out if the option is appropriate in the circumstances (which seems unfeasible).

As others have said, the solution to avoiding lobby issues is either host your own lobby or join matchmaker. That and to 'add foe' hosts that exhibit behaviours you mention so you won't waste time joining their games in the future (assuming it's still an option after the various changes to FAF/the client, I've not checked).

Queuing for 3v3 mathmaker in the last couple of hours I had 4 'match found' games, of which 1 proceeded to an actual game (for which there were no connection issues) and 3 failed with me noted as the cause - client log attached. Prior to this I've probably had as many 'failed due to me' messages in my entire time playing 3v3s
ice-adapter.log
client.log
(I removed entries in the client log from before the time I recalled starting to queue so it'd be small enough to upload)

Trophies
Introducing a new 'feature' - trophies! The first person to send me a replay for a more recent version of M28 than the current trophy holder, where the replay meets the trophy requirements, will be acknowledged as the winner of the trophy in the next update notes. The two trophies are:

• The Radde trophy - Named after Radde who has sent a large number of replays fighting 1.3 and 1.4 resource M28s in recent months - awarded to the first person or team to beat M28 on a 15km-20km size mapgen when M28 has a 1.4 AiX resource bonus (i.e. it can still have 1.0 build rate bonus), with no SIM mods other than M28AI. 1v1 or teamgame submissions accepted (teamgame must have mirrored start positions and equal M28 numbers to player numbers)
• The Sladow trophy - named after Sladow, who beat 1.7 AiX M28 (v39) - this trophy is awarded to the first person to beat a default AiX M28 1v1 (i.e. 1.5 resource and 1.5 build rate cheat modifiers) - i.e. any map, any mod.

Note the requirements for the trophy are subject to change with each release of M28.

v53 Update
Kiting and anti-firebase improvements, including:

• 7 Changes mostly relating to trying to have hoplites do better at surviving against an enemy guncom (although the changes should be relevant to mongoose and sniperbots as well)
• Replay 21200371 - 5 improvements relating to enemies setting up T2 arti firebases near M28's base
• Fixed M28 not building navy on the map Sludge (along with 2 other minor changes)
• Replay 21193022 - 7 changes, including improving the speed with which the rear M28 position will get T3 air and fixing a bug that lead to loads of TMD being built
• Replay 21206374 - 6 changes, including TMD being built against Seraphim cruisers+aircraft carriers, and T2 being built against nearby enemy naval threats
• 2 other changes, including having hover/amphibious units in the water retreat back to base rather than to the middle of the water zone they're in

Acknowledgements

• Zhanghm – doing some testing on high memory scenarios to confirm the theory that the variety of units built in a game is likely the biggest factor in memory usage.
• Radde – Land and naval replays, both 1v1 and team games, which highlighted a number of improvements required.
• Fertgl – Screenshot/replay showing a poor choice of rally point by M28 on water for hover units.
• Gatorized – Image referring to M28 not building navy (fortunately I was able to recognise the map from the screenshot, but for future reference a replay ID would make it easier for me to identify the issue).
• Jip - Fixing a bug with the navmesh, being quick to merge a pull request fixing a categorisation bug, and continuing to fix minor FAF lua error messages

v54 Hotfix

• Fixed a bug that would break M28's logic in some cases when faced with a nearby enemy firebase.

@jip I’m not sure it would just have been that as the results would change after waiting an amount of time but that time would vary from memory - eg sometimes I recall it mightve been 40s plus into the game that it started to be accurate. Then again it’s been several years since I last looked into it as it had massive performance issues as well (taking ages to calculate) which made it near-unusable for my purposes at the time regardless of its accuracy

If you're using the Unit:CanPathTo({X,Y,Z}) function that predated Jip's work on the navigational mesh it's unreliable - I gave up on using it fairly early on with M27 in favour of a homebrew approach (since at the time the navigational mesh work wasn't in place).

For example, I found that the ACU would return false on being able to path to a destination at the start of the game, and then a short while later would return true to the same location (despite not having moved).

I'd suggest just using Jip's navigational mesh instead - for example, to check if two locations can be pathed by land units:

local NavUtils = import("/lua/sim/navutils.lua")
local iStartLabel = NavUtils.GetLabel('Land', {x1,y1,z1})
local iEndLabel = NavUtils.GetLabel('Land', {x2,y2,z2})
if iStartLabel == iEndLabel then
    --you can path from start to end by land
end