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Pureon

WFG Retired
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Posts posted by Pureon

  5. Suggestions

    in Game Modification

    Posted

    The editor still needs a lot of work, selecting between circular, square, and rectangular maps is planned for the user interface.

    I wouldn't worry too much about map size, one of the maps i opened was bigger than any map I'd ever seen in an RTS, so it is possible. The limit will always be your computer, there's no fun in having a map so big that it's completely unplayable.

  8. AI

    in Game Development & Technical Discussion

    Posted

    Once Alpha4 is released hopefully we'll get more feedback about the AI, and we'll probably see a few more AI scripters show up once they've seen an AI is now functioning within the game. I've managed to create an AI that works independently from TestBot, cunningly named PureBot, so it's very possible for the community to experiment with what we have. Whilst watching TestBot in action, these were some random thoughts:

    1) If food sources are nearby, such as animals or bushes, these should be gathered prior to multiple fields being built.

    2) Field building should be limited to flat land, or we'll need to rethink how fields are modelled (can model props conform to landscape height?). Testbot was building fields on hilly terrain which didn't look very good.

    3) Can AIs be given extra resources or have a resource gathering multiplier/limiter? (Cheating AI)

    4) Soldier gatherers should aid in gathering resources until they are required to attack. Maybe only relevant when larger attacking forces are employed. PureBot had an attacking force of over 40 units, which meant it got very crowded around the AI's CC :D

    5) Attack-move will have a big impact - It'll stop the attacking army being picked off all the way to the CC by long range units.

    6) Running an AI on Miletus causes errors (Because the AI only has ships to start with). Perhaps Miletus shouldn't be the default choice map for Alpha4.

    I'll stop there :)

  10. AoM-like pathfinding/movement

    in Game Development & Technical Discussion

    Posted

    Though, I wonder how easily this could get really effed up in the hands of less experienced designer.

    The answer is very easily, most map designers kept it very simple or didn't even use AI pathing nodes making maps almost useless for singleplayer matches. It took a few years of testing. Alongside the pathing nodes, you also had defense markers, expansion markers, naval (port) markers, and island markers - so a lot of the singleplayer AI gameplay was pre-defined by the map designer for the AI to follow. As I said before, it didn't quite work...

  11. AoM-like pathfinding/movement

    in Game Development & Technical Discussion

    Posted

    Very interesting read. Pathfinding is way beyond my abilities, but after reading through your post twice the AOM method is starting to make sense now.

    Another approach used by some RTS games for medium-to-long range movement is to use predefined node networks. These nodes would be added by the map designer, probably using the map editor, to guide units around the map. A simple example looks like this:

    TCover.jpg

    This type of pathfinding probably wouldn’t be very useful for 0AD, I don’t like it personally because I find it too linear, but it’s how Supreme Commander worked so I have some experience placing AI nodes. Short-range movement is a whole different story, as are random maps...

  15. AI

    in Game Development & Technical Discussion

    Posted

    Sounds good :). I guess there's still lots of things that aren't easily understandable without searching through the code - would some documentation be helpful at this stage? If so, what kinds of things would be most useful to document? (The data that common-api/base.js receives from the engine? The way the simulation components send data to the AI scripts? The way common-api exposes entity data? The way testbot does its stupid broken planning thing? How to get started with writing and running scripts? etc)

    You're so nice to us :)

    I mostly mod AIs without ever reading any documentation (not that commercial releases come with AI documentation). I didn't poke around in the common-api files, just experimented with the testbot javascript to see how easy it was to mod. Any documentation should make it easier for experienced developers like yourself to expand the AI. Could someone like marsha develop the AI further using the current implementation, or is the AI system likely to change?

  22. Alpha feedback

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Can any of this be used for PR purposes? Or does it need to be committed first?

    I need to stop modelling and start committing (before you guys decide to ban me). Gone are the days when Mythos would commit things for me :(

    Awesome work! Do you intend to have men on the benches of the wagons eventually?

    Eventually some of them could have operators, but for now these will all be static eyecandy objects without men or horses.

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