MandoTech Industries, Inc.

[mandoman]

I'm going to put my neck on the chopping block and ask someone to take a look at an AI I put together for one of my ships. I based it heavily on the pirateAI.plist, as it does basically the same things, except on the legal side. In other words, it's a bounty hunter, and though it hunts other ships, they are always Offender/Pirate ships. It also should collect the loot released at the aftershock of an Offender ship exploding. The AI is as complete as I know how to make it, but that's not saying much. If someone would be willing to take a look at it, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

[Rese249er]

I'll playtest!

[mandoman]

I'll playtest!

Thanks, Rese249er, but I don't need it play tested. I need someone to tell me if the AI I wrote for the ship will work. I can't see why it wouldn't, but I'm not very good with AIs, or scripting.

[commanderxairon]

ok i have walked all the way here seeing all the ships i could and... i have a short review to make



i understand you have not much time modelling and my first attempts to do so where simillar, this advices will for sure improve your modelling skills


1.- take a look of real life existing technology, that will give you a coherent aproach of how a ship should be constituded

the main ship parts and facilities are

-Cockpit
-Hull
-Engine(s)
-Exhaust

aditionally you need

-crew space/living areas
-cargo doors, fuel scoops and if possible tractor beam site
-laser hardpoints, missile outlets(if inside mounted if outside you need more)

2.- here's my point, with the amount of faces you got in spheres, nossles and undetailed and almost fractalic surfaces you could get some detail in the ship actually

3.- think really good and visualize in your head what you wan't to do don't sit in front of the viewport before you don't know what to do, it helps to search inspiration from deviantart artist's who make some hallofa good starships... search on Hhello's profile favorites and see...


with that said the model i liked the most was the station, very realist and vast i hope you will put in a BIG dock for me to get my battleship there.... (as it is almost as big as a behemoth)

[mandoman]

Thanks for your concern, but I didn't ask for your advice. I was asking about an AI, which I guess I'll just have to work through myself. If you don't like my ships, don't use them.

[commanderxairon]

don't worry, i will not

[Smivs]

Mandoman, if you want your AI looked at, why not post it up on box or whatever and post the link here?

[mandoman]

don't worry, i will not

Worry? I couldn't care less.

Mandoman, if you want your AI looked at, why not post it up on box or whatever and post the link here?

Thanks Smivs, here it is. If it isn't good, just tell me, and I'll dump it. It was just me trying to think outside my box, and we both know how that turns out. Besides, my ships aren't technically convincing anyway.

[Smivs]

er, the link?

[mandoman]

er, the link?

Oops, Sorry.

https://www.box.com/s/ba3e7d763f29595264cd

[Smivs]

Well, it looks like an AI but I'm not sure it will work. The thing I did notice was that after it starts it goes to the 'TRAVEL_TO_START_POSITION' state, but this doesn't seem to do anything other than tell the ship to move a bit. I'd expect it to have some sort of scanning condition where it's looking for targets incorporated into it.
Maybe somebody with a better understanding of AIs could take a look and help.

[mandoman]

Well, it looks like an AI but I'm not sure it will work. The thing I did notice was that after it starts it goes to the 'TRAVEL_TO_START_POSITION' state, but this doesn't seem to do anything other than tell the ship to move a bit. I'd expect it to have some sort of scanning condition where it's looking for targets incorporated into it.
Maybe somebody with a better understanding of AIs could take a look and help.

So the statements in the "Enter" section at the beginning don't serve that function?

[Smivs]

Possibly not. As I understand it these things work quite fast, so my guess is it will scan for a second, say, then switch to the TRAVEL_TO_START_POSITION state, where I suspect it might get stuck. It might be better with

Code: Select all

 "DESIRED_RANGE_ACHIEVED" = (scanForOffenders, "scanForShipWithPrimaryRole: PIRATE"
 "TARGET_FOUND" = (setTargetToFoundTarget, "setStateTo: ATTACK_SHIP");); 

added to the TRAVEL_TO_START_POSITION state.
I'm no expert though, so let's hope someone who is has a look for you.

[mandoman]

I'll give that a whirl, though. I appreciate it, Smivs. Thanks.

[cim]

I'd recommend in general if you want a modified bounty hunter AI using route1patrolAI or route2patrolAI as your basis, rather than pirateAI. The pirate AI has a lot of complication that a bounty hunter probably doesn't need. The patrol AIs will collect loot, too: the major differences between patrol and pirate AI (beyond what they shoot at and how they work in groups) are:
- pirates will stop looting and look for a station when their hold gets full, while patrols will just treat the full hold as a bonus and keep looking for things to shoot. If you'd rather they quit when they had enough loot, the easiest way is to make "HOLD_FULL" trigger an AI switch to route1traderAI.plist
- patrols will move up and down the witchpoint-planet (route1patrol) or sun-planet (route2patrol) lane to search for hostiles. Pirates wait for their targets to come to them.

Code: Select all

scanForOffenders, "scanForShipWithPrimaryRole: PIRATE"

This bit will probably not do what you hope (even if as Smivs suggests you move it to DESIRED_RANGE_ACHIEVED)

It will first scan for offenders using the traditional bounty hunter algorithm. This will send a non-urgent message of either "TARGET_FOUND" or "NOTHING_FOUND" to the AI, which it will pick up on its next update. If it sends "TARGET_FOUND" then it will place the details of that target into the "found target".

It will then scan for ships with role "PIRATE" (the roles are case-sensitive, so this should be "pirate" unless you're using a custom "PIRATE" role elsewhere). If it finds any, it will do the same with sending "TARGET_FOUND" or "NOTHING_FOUND".

There are then four possibilities:
- both return TARGET_FOUND. In this case, it will go after the "pirate", not the offender, as that will be in the "found target" slot.
- both return NOTHING_FOUND. In this case, whatever that event does will happen. (You don't have anything set for this, yet, so what will happen is the ship will float in space doing nothing until someone finally shoots at it. Possibly you want it to wait ten seconds, or whatever, and then try the scan again.
- offender returns NOTHING_FOUND, "pirate" returns TARGET_FOUND. I'm not completely sure what will happen in this case. It might go after the pirate, or it might decide to do "NOTHING_FOUND" instead. Exactly what happens probably depends on what you put as the "NOTHING_FOUND" action.
- offender returns TARGET_FOUND, "pirate" returns NOTHING_FOUND. The ship will go to attack state, but the failed search for a pirate will have cleared the "found target" slot. It will go into "ATTACK_SHIP" state, but then very soon after receive a "TARGET_LOST" message, and see if there's any loot to be had.

If you do want to scan for both offenders and pirates generally, then you'll need to scan for one, wait for the response, and then if the response is NOTHING_FOUND, scan for the other. You will generally need two AI separate states to do this, and it will rapidly get very complicated.

(On the other hand, all ships added with role "pirate" have a bounty, so you can probably get away with just having the scan for offenders)