Peppe

Some quirks still to saving money money later in the game.  We'll see how your test games go, but i think saving for troops caused the losing team to hang around their stronghold.

Quick test results.

Standard Pacov (tm) settings.

UB (human)/Sedna/QoT v UB (AI)/Sedna/QoT

The findings:

(1) I think the upgrade priorities+timing are now correct. FS1 at warscore 700+, XP1 at warscore 1400+, Cur1 at warscore 1700+. So far, so good.

(2) Monk management is much better than in v25n, but still faulty. I ended up with no monks (neither was I sent any afterwards) after I died once, while enemy Sedna was observed running around with 4 (!!!) monks. That said, the AI indeed shares monks after resummoning/porting. The sharing mechanics are very hit-and-miss, though.

(3) AI is still unresponsive to portal capping. Moreover, it seems to affect the AI in a weird way. When I captured the whole lane, the AI just got stuck in the middle, going nowhere (capping priorities conflict?).

(4) AI is fantastically uncoordinated and totally egocentrical It won't help teammates, it won't even pursue a wounded enemy down to 100 hp that just killed another AI, if there is a flag (already captured!) it can stand on. Also, it has pathfinding issues. Probably doesn't take enemy towers and allies into account. Let's say I attack the enemy UB at mana tower. Instead of running to allied Sedna that is standing on mana flag, it will usually run in the opposite direction, getting damaged by towers en route.

Peppe: Just set a class var on any unit that has a monk attached, with a handle to that monk.  Then check for that when assigning healers, and make sure you check whether or not the healer is dead.  That'll insure nobody gets more than one.  If the unit receiving the healer dies, the class var will be cleared upon his respawn, allowing him to receive another healer when a general summons one.

If you want to get all fancy, you can even add an OnKilled callback to the unit receiving the monk that informs the AI when his healer will be returning to him, allowing him to immediately assign it to another unit.

Also, what's the issue with the flagunit handle?

I also just noticed that your Rook blueprint override is clearing out two of the UberFix changes to Rook.

Remove the HRook_unit.bp, and add this into a mod_units.bp in the mod's root folder: http://pastebin.com/LxzCGk4u

Also, you'll want his Poisoned Arrows ability to compensate for the reduced ROF - right now it's not worth taking, as it will not activate often enough.  Doubled activation chance should be ample - put this in an empty HRook_Abilities.lua in hook\units\heroes\HRook:

Huh.. it.. shouldn't.  I'll take a look at the .26 code, and see what's going on.

Yeah, just something like 'unit.HasHealer = healer', where healer is a handle to the priest being assigned.  Then check for 'unit.HasHealer and not unit.HasHealer:IsDead()' when trying to assign new healers.

If the unit dies, it gets cleared automatically, although like I said, you might want an OnKilled callback (I can look up how to do that if you want, it's not difficult) on the unit as well, so your general is immediately informed that his priest assignee is dead.

Trying to move my rook changes to a mod_units file as you indicated, but getting a syntax error.  Used the code you posted and getting:

warning: 00:00:09: SCR_LuaDoFileConcat: Loading "d:\stardock\demigod\bindata\mods\skirmish_ai_v26a\mod_units.bp" failed: d:\stardock\demigod\bindata\mods\skirmish_ai_v26a\mod_units.bp(4): `}' expected (to close `{' at line 1) near `='

The brackets all match up as far as i can tell.  Not sure why its complaining

That is working.  Thanks.

Flag owner still came up nill.  The warning message is commented if you want to continue to search for the equivalent value to the findflag table.  If the search for the flag bugs you

Line 56 #WARN('Flag unit' .. tostring(captureFlags[1].FlagOwner))

.26c

http://www.filefront.com/17577318/Skirmish_AI_v26c.zip

http://www.filefront.com/17577323/Skirmish_AI_v26c.exe

Troop upgrade shared responsibility between AI's.  If there is one AI it will save the full amount for priests, angels, cats starting at warrank 7. 

• A single Normal may not get money fast enough for this.  Will need to test.

If there are two one will save for cats and the other will save for the other two.

Forced shopping trip for the savers at warrank 3, 8, and 10.   The AI(s) that can afford currency or troop upgrades should return to base promptly (run or teleport).

update the op when you get a chance to reflect current versions - show's b

AI skirmish (mod version) .26c/uberfix 1.03RC4

Settings:  Cataract/High Towers - all other settings on default
AI settings:  normal

rook (human)/ub/da/ v rook/ub/da

Observed results:

First shop for both AI's on my team looked good (got banded/scalemail)

after geting sent back to back once pretty quickly, my ub went to crytal and left... then turned back around and actually shopped

Watched the ub on left side of map then for a bit... we already owned the mana flag, but he then ignored the tower closest to him and walked towards a tower closer to the gold flag and attacked that (taking damage from the closer tower and the one he ran up to spit on).

Sidenote - the ai bought FS1 BUT did not announce it.

AI did announce buying xp1.

one ai saved and bought currency (as you designed) - worked perfectly.

other sidenote-  wish there was a way to get the AI da to use swap intelligently.

AI tp'd in once to try to save its portal (good).  And attempted to retake the portal somewhat aggressively (good).

I noticed the ai had priests at 6 while we had them at ws 8.  I'm wondering if you have things coded that the 2nd any team hits level 8, then the ai should prioritize buying creeps (instead of going on a team by team basis).

Overall - it was a pretty good experience this time around. 

I knew the AI probably wouldn't use this skill well when i put it in.   Hope to get around to skill and item usage once we have a good core. 

I can edit the conditions to use abilities.   I haven't looked at DA's yet, but pretty much all skill actions could use some attention.  Most of the default conditions are: is the skill available Yes/No -> Do we have the mana for it Yes/No -> Is there a target Yes/No -> Use skill.  

For swap I was thinking of making it check for nearby ally demigods.  If there is one maybe move to it and then use swap? 

I've edited a couple way back in the .22 and earlier releases, so some AI's stop firing skills to save them for a situation.  I think i set oak to save enough mana to shoot one penitence if a specific setup occurs.  UB will save his grasp for a low health target or target trying to use a TP/pot if i recall correctly.

From what i saw today.  defaults, AI vs AI, 3 on 3 cataract.   Normal AI's can stalemate eachother for a long time.  I left the game running and went to the store and came back to find them still fighting with roughly equal map control an hour + later.   We may need a warrank 8+ portal capture action that ignores everything along the way and just runs for an enemy portal to try to get a portal advantage.

Took a look at the retreat pathfinding.  Couldn't find anything too useful or moddable.  The move functions don't seem to be in LUA?  Its idea of a safe path isn't always great.

I didn't mention it but i relaxed the conditions on the teleport to tower with an enemy demigod near it.   This could be considered a gank action, but the AI's need to be carrying TP's and not be occupied for it to come up.  Occasionally 2 or all 3 will get it at the same time and if there is only one enemy by the tower I have seen them get a nice kill.

I discovered a bug I am fairly sure is in the base game.  Going to make a mod to test it shortly.  The AI shop validation function is broken for all idols.  When the AI buys an idol of the category it already has it just replaces the IDOL.  So the AI loses out on money from selling back old idols.   On my local copy I fixed the check, so the AI can't do that, but it doesn't have any logic to sell existing idol and replace with the new one.  It also doesn't check the idol its looking to buy's priority against the idol it already has.   So I am going to have to do all that.  

AI skirmish (mod version) .26c/uberfix 1.03 (last version published by miriyaka)

Settings:  Levi/High Towers - all other settings on default
AI settings:  normal
4v4

rook (human)/ub/da/sedna v rook/ub/da/sedna

Observed results:

intial builds solid again.  saw sedna micro a monk to a random dg.

fs1 was bought in a timely manner AND message appeared this time.

Cur1 was bought in a timely manner.

Another thought - maybe have the AI say exactly who bought the upgrade (UB - Currency 1 bought). 

Or perhaps a message that says - UB - Saving for currency.

annoying thing I noticed - me and another dg killed 1 on the other team.  That dg drops a health pot.  The dg on my team WITH FULL HP took the health pot while i was at 50% hp.  Maybe a function could be built so that if a nearby ally has less hp, then the ai won't pick up the pot?  I don't want the ai to just leave the pot alone if no one is there and he doesn't need it, though.

big flaw observed on levi - though - the ai didn't care enough about its valor flag and didn't care enough about defending its citadel.