Wow, this seems very useful. It seems we are working on the militia from different angles ;)
How long do militia 'remember' these orders? In your second video, one militia stays on a roof without having any contact later on, while never being directly at the edge of the roof. Would ordering her to climb down work at that point, or is it only useful at the edge?
Would it work to order a militia to hide in one of the rooms, like the southern corner, so you can surprise the enemy later on? I'd think not, given the AIs tendency to run to fire...
Seeing as this makes Radio Operators more powerful due to their ability do directly talk to any militia regardless of sight lines, perhaps we need more mercs with that trait. Any ideas as to whom we could give it? Currently Bob, Ears and Weasel have it.
I know now that it could never work between us, as much as we wanted to, it could never be! Not because you're a rabbit, but because you're black.
If you want, you can donate to me. This will not affect how and what I code, and I will not code specific features in return. I will be thankful though.
How long do militia 'remember' these orders? In your second video, one militia stays on a roof without having any contact later on, while never being directly at the edge of the roof. Would ordering her to climb down work at that point, or is it only useful at the edge?
Would it work to order a militia to hide in one of the rooms, like the southern corner, so you can surprise the enemy later on? I'd think not, given the AIs tendency to run to fire...
There is a new data in soldiertype (so the saves are not compatible with a stock 1.13 currently)
There are three types of orders:
1. Order that changes militia settings (regular AI orders, attitude) to control it's roaming range and aggressiveness.
2. Orders that are executed immediately (currently only 'climb'), if there are enough APs. Also movement orders are executed immediately in realtime if the destination is 'legal'.
3. Orders that activate one of the scripts:
Each script has it's own 'stop condition', so for the movement orders the script will be stopped if militia is closer than 5 tiles to it's destination, for target/suppress scripts they are stopped if the target is dead.
So, if you set a movement order, it will be 'on' infinitely until you give new order or the 'stop condition' is met.
Also, it's possible to set 'new AI order at destination' and 'new AI attitude at destination'.
Movement orders work between levels, at least they should. You can see at the end of second video that I ordered sniper militia to move from the roof to the new point on the ground and it worked.
Unfortunately there are some problems with 'between levels' movement, so it doesn't work always and not with all roofs, so I had to make a 'climb' command as a workaround.
Some notes:
- I tried to make militia more defensive in general so they don't run stupidly to the enemy, but it's still doesn't work as it should, also sometimes 'take cover' AI order results in militia running to the enemy instead of taking cover, so probably there could be some issues with internal AI routines that I think nobody debugged for a long time.
- militia with defensive orders will prefer crouch or prone shooting more often
- you cannot order militia to move directly to the enemy with the exception of 'assault' order which makes them much more aggressive, but more vulnerable, too.
- militia keeps it's usual AI when it's not moving somewhere, also regular AI is unaffected.
- automatic militia changing orders to 'seek enemy' is disabled (so they can keep their positions at the start of the battle), so you need to order "all attack" manually if you want vanilla behaviour.
Known issues:
- Moving orders between different levels does not work always
- Redistributing militia between sectors, promoting militia and reloadng sector results in militia recreation, so they are placed at standart map-defined positions and lose their orders.
Flugente
Seeing as this makes Radio Operators more powerful due to their ability do directly talk to any militia regardless of sight lines, perhaps we need more mercs with that trait. Any ideas as to whom we could give it? Currently Bob, Ears and Weasel have it.
Limiting militia control to radio operators is a problem, because the player will want to use this feature with more mercs and sectors than available operators. I usually leave sector defense for some low level mercs.
So currently for testing purposes all mercs with extended ear are able to control militia.
Features:
1.13 7609 from official svn
TypeP (Ja2 Reloaded) mod
SDO mod
AFS mod
Executables:
ja2.exe - r7609 from svn + additional fixes + better suppression balance + restrictive tactical AI roaming
ja2+.exe - r7609 from svn + additional fixes + additional tactical improvements from Experimental Project
Data-User contents:
-Additional balance settings for suppression and NCTH
-Tigerstripe interface
-Music mod
-Weapon Sounds mod
Note: you can delete all Data-User contents, in this case default 1.13/mod settings will be used
Changes to TypeP mod:
Removed MercStartingGear.xml from mod because it conflicts with additional item mods.
How to install:
Unpack SCI over clean Jagged Alliance 2
How to play:
-select mod configuration from ja2.ini using INI Editor or notepad: vfs_config.TypeP_7609.ini, vfs_config.TypeP_SDO.ini or vfs_config.TypeP_AFS.ini
-start ja2.exe or ja2+.exe
I'm astounded, that militia control can become something super useful. What I would suggest is a even little more elaborate order. Due to the way line of sight works in JA2, you could just shift 1 tile away or lower your stance by 1 level and you'd be out of cover, lose your weapon resting, or lose sight of your enemy. I would actually like the option to order the militia to get to the exact spot, rather than anywhere within 5 tiles. Because camping is the name of the game, the facing direction and the stance are also crucial, preferably I would like the option to order militia to cover a specific direction with a scoped weapon readied. I don't know if there is a way to squeeze those extra things in, but if I could define the precise position, stance and facing direction at the start of a militia turn with the option to order him to ready the weapon(so all AI have to decide is whom to shoot), I think the gameplay with militia in tactical combat can be enhanced greatly.
If possible, I'd also like to have a more elaborate description of the effect of each order.
That was the original idea of this feature :-)
One merc with radio with the help of militia squad can defend against serious invasion, especially if you equip militia with better guns and place them to good locations before battle.
And it's much more interesting to feel yourself a tactical commander instead of just watching another stupid militia-AI movie ;-)
Quote:
would actually like the option to order the militia to get to the exact spot, rather than anywhere within 5 tiles
It depends on the order, as far as I remember - in some orders the militiaman will try to reach exact spot (defense point), in others he will stop when near the target point.
It is possible to add additional orders like "watch in that direction" or "do not move" or "camp here". it's possible to order militiaman to be always in a prone position, so there are lots of possibilities here.
One thing I should mention though is that I'm against giving any kind of direct control over militia. They should not become an endless pool of nameless "mercs" contolled by player - it's boring, unbalancing and unrealistic. Instead I think they should behave like more or less real people, they will not 100% always obey your orders, they will not execute suicidal commands etc, and they will start shooting or try to take cover immediately when they see enemy if it's too dangerous to them.
Quote:
I'd also like to have a more elaborate description of the effect of each order.
Attack
Aggressive/Far patrol - will try to engage enemy, shoot with autofire if possible, try to suppress etc.
Defense
Defensive/Far Patrol will try to shoot from distance, take cover.
Guard
Defensive/Stationary - will not move farther than 5 tiles from the point
Sniper
Defensive/Sniper - will not move farther than 5 tiles from the point, will call for spotters to shoot at invisible targets, will raise weapon and look through optics for the encreased sight range
Seek Enemy
Cunning solo/Seek Enemy - search the enemy
Move
Move to the point. Does not change roaming range/orders/attitude.
Climb
Climb on/off roof at current point.
Target
Set preferred target. The militia will also shoot at other targets if they are more dangerous (closer) or much more easy to hit.
Suppress
Set preferred target, use autofire.
Attack route
Set attack route (10 points, shift+click to set point, click to set last point). Aggressive attitude.
Assault
Aggressive assault - shoot with autofire, throw grenades, rush to the enemy.
Defense point
Move to the exact point and set Defensive/Stationary orders.
Follow
Follow the specified soldier (militiaman, merc, civilian, enemy etc)
Retreat
Retreat to the safe (green cover) zone. Useful to take out wounded militiaman from the fight to heal him, or to give a more useful flank orders, for example (militiaman will not execute move orders when under fire, he will try to take cover or fire back).
Take cover
Find better place in his current roaming range.
All: Attack
All: Aggressive/Far patrol
All: Defense
All: Defensive/Far patrol
All: Retreat
All: retreat
All: Come to me
All mercs will move to the merc, unlike the stock 1.13 "come to me" order, they will not forget it after the first step.
Comments:
Move orders work between levels (ground/roof), but sometimes it doesn't work for some reason, so it's not 100% reliable.
Most of the move orders (except retreat order) will not be executed when the soldier is under fire. Try to cover him with other soldiers and give him retreat command.
Target, Suppress orders set priority target, which can be selected from visible targets with non zero CTH.
Unlike the stock 1.13, militia will not receive seek enemy orders automatically at the battle start, so you can set orders and positions before battle.
New militia orders/positions are not kept between sector reloads or when militia receives promotions.
Militia will more frequently shoot prone/crouched if no enemy nearby.
Stationary/sniper militia will not climb off roofs without orders (unlike the stock 1.13)
Squadleader/Deputy mercs can give more orders/turn (less AP cost for radio talk)
Thanks for the description. So the option to make militia aiming down sight is already there, which is great. But is it still quite possible that the militia look the totally opposite direction? Is there a way to circumvent that by, say compounding 2 orders like target a specific target and the snipe order, so the militia would look at the right direction. Or say just use target order at the empty field so the militia would pay more attention to that direction? And BTW, is it still possible to force militia to go prone(and take effect instantly even in turn mode) like in vanilla militia command? It was actually useful for avoiding friendly fire since they always run into the line of fire. Plus there is the sniper behavior now.
It seems to me that AI only recognize solid obstruction, for example walls as cover. They rarely duck or go prone behind something like a rock or a window, or pop in and out of cover by adjusting stance, which costs less AP in most cases.
It seems to me that AI only recognize solid obstruction, for example walls as cover.
As far as I can tell from the code, Ai only recognizes level 2 obstacles such as trees, rocks and walls, because it tests torso aiming for cover check.
Also, multi tile obstacles are considered more important because ai tries to predict that his enemy (merc) can move one tile to the side to achieve better cth.
Quote:
They rarely duck or go prone behind something like a rock or a window
The ai rarely goes prone because of the way ConsiderProne function is implemented - they will not go prone when ai morale >=2, and it means 90% of the time if soldier is not heavily wounded, not breathless and not outnumbered by player 4 times. And when it happens, it's too late to go prone :-)
Quote:
pop in and out of cover by adjusting stance
AI in a red state (when it does not see enemy) is another sad story :-)
Hello. I found you and this thread because the videos you have on youtube caught my eye, I've been looking for a way to cover those black UI holes you get from having a higher resolution with anything and then I found your videos. Is that part of your SCI or are you using a separate mod ? If it's the first, where are the download links ? It seems you have removed all of them.
Okay, it's more complicated than what I could comprehend. What I meant is that by issuing take cover command, they seem to try to move to a position that blocks the line of sight to the enemy, instead of considering going prone behind the window. So they don't really check the line of sight for different stances?
And what happens when they don't see enemy, I can tell they have no ability to predict the enemy's location base on the last known position. They need to be given a audio or visual cue to look the right direction, like a gun shot of seeing enemy directly. That's why I'm asking for an option to influence their facing.
Experimental SCI was made for players to test the improvements I made to the game. It's based on the stable 7609 release and is fully compatible with any mod that uses stable 7435/7609 exe.
Extended widescreen interface feature provides a way to fill the black space to the left and right side of team panel in tactics screen.
Depending on the settings, it can show a background picture or some useful information:
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; Extended widescreen interface
; 0 - disabled
; 1 - only background
; 2 - mini - show only item pictures and names
; 3 - full info
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EXTENDED_WIDESCREEN_INTERFACE = 3
Note: item picture and other information can be shown only for several resolutions which leave enough space (240 pixels for each size), currently 1280x720 works and some HD resolutions.
In other widescreen resolutions you can only use background picture (if you provide it, put pictures named for example widebar_left_240.png and widebar_right_240.png to the Interface folder, where 240 is the width of the left/right free space - (1280 - 'width of 8 mercs panel')/2 = 240).
So it is possible to fill empty space in tactical interface panel with the experimental sci, though it was not main goal of creating it :-)
Experimental SCI link was removed because it needs to be updated (add new bugfixes, integrate my new features like reworked suppression, improved NCTH aperture and others that were made for ja2_7609+.exe project).
Also I am currently working on improving stupid enemy AI, so simply don't have much time to update main project.
Thanks for the reply, I guess it is better to wait for the complete product rather than running into more bugs, 1.13 itself has too many already.
I'm happy to hear about people working on the AI more but I hope with all my heart you're trying to improve it the smart way, not the brute force way. As in, I haven't played 1.13 in two years and recently I get one of the latest builds and lo and behold when everything was going nicely, Cambria gets counter-attacked by something like 70 soldiers, half of them elite and a bunch of tanks. And I'm on an ironman game, mind you. It sure took me by surprise, like the 60+ Drassen counter attack wasn't enough...
And now I have to deal with the same shit in Alma.
Either way, hope I'm not going off-topic but you get the point. I like it when the AI plays smart instead of zerg rushing. If you manage to get that experience then I'm sold
What I found while digging the 1.13 AI code is that flanking doesn't work correctly with all recent additions like bigmaps and 100AP system and also probably has some bugs.
- It doesn't fully support turnbased mode for some reason, as it doesn't check current AP and if the soldier can move this turn or how much AP he has.
- The distance restrictions to start flanking were originally made for small maps and default base sight range.
If you play with increased base sight range there will be very small chance that AI will start flanking in RED mode, and if you play Aimnas-Bigmaps, the default day vision range is greater than the distance where AI can start RED flanking, and there is no flanking in BLACK mode.
- Max numbers of flanks for RED and YELLOW modes are very small, so even when AI starts flanking, it quickly stops because the counter reaches max value.
I don't see any reason why they should be that small
- Maximum distance to find a flank spot is limited to several tiles, that means if AI is close to a large object it cannot run around it and stops.
Also, FindFlankSpot function uses strange AP limit and probably doesn't support 100AP system.
Also, flanking may be the source of the rare 'freeze' problem on the enemy turn when I suppose AI tries to flank over the fence or sandbag and fails and goes to a loop so it takes several seconds to break the decision.
Also, AI tries to always go behind its target (reach opposite direction), while it could be better if part of the soldiers would only side flank (reach +-2 direction) and only few of them go for full flanking (+-4 direction)
- There's no check for flanking into deep water which is definitely bad decision.
- AI very often runs into a building and gets stuck and stops flanking. It's better to skip InARoom tiles if the soldier is not in a room already.
- There's a bug with direction calculation in FindFlankSpot function which can prevent flanking in some situations.
- Also, default movement mode for flanking is walking/swatting, which means it will take too much time to flank, especially on bigmaps.
AI improvements:
-better flanking
-better taking cover (sight cover, anti-crowd modifier)
-use suppression fire more effectively
-enemy soldiers will go prone more often
-improved decision between shooting and advancing
-other small improvements
AI improvements:
-better flanking
-better taking cover (sight cover, anti-crowd modifier)
-use suppression fire more effectively
-enemy soldiers will go prone more often
-improved decision between shooting and advancing
-other small improvements
Now this video was exciting to watch! Nice job. I assume that this improved behaviour also applies to militia? In the past they used to pile up a lot and get blown to hell with a grenade. Also flanking was almost non-existent.
How does that improved code play in a town? Do you plan to provide a patch for the general 1.13 dev trunk?
Now this video was exciting to watch! Nice job. I assume that this improved behaviour also applies to militia? In the past they used to pile up a lot and get blown to hell with a grenade. Also flanking was almost non-existent.
How does that improved code play in a town? Do you plan to provide a patch for the general 1.13 dev trunk?
The problem with stock 1.13 flanking is that it was made for 25 AP system, so it limits search range to 12AP, also default flanking movement mode is swatting which means that in turnbased it will require too many turns to finish.
There are also other problems, possible bugs with direction calculation and other things.
I plan to make a patch with improved flanking for main dev trunk, as this improvement is simple and well tested.
Other changed still need some more thinking and testing.
As for militia, it uses the same AI as enemy team, so it should work in the same way.
The anticrowd patch is very simple, it calculates friends in radius 5 tiles and adds penalty 10% to tile's weight value for each friend in that radius, no more than 50% penalty.
When fighting in towns, it's important for enemy to use rooms for cover and roofs for sniping and suppression, it's not implemented yet :-)
Improved AI RED/YELLOW flanking:
- better direction calculation (use direction arrays)
- increased search range 4->8
- removed incorrectly calculated AP limit (use CalcActionPoints instead)
- additional direction for flank spot searching
- prefer desired direction
- penalize tiles with no cover from noise location
- penalize tiles too far from noise location
- don't go into deep water for flanking
- skip water tiles (can flank over water tiles only if can cross them in one turn)
- min/max flanking range depends on time of day and base sight range
- skip buildings when searching for flank spot if not in building already, because soldiers often run into buildings and stop flanking
- use RUNNING movement mode for flanking instead of default SWATTING
- only CUNNINGSOLO and CUNNINGAID soldiers flank
- don't start flanking when no friends between soldier and noise gridno (in 3 directions)
- stop flanking when no friends between soldier and noise gridno (in 3 directions)
- stop flanking and reset flank counter in BLACK state
- avoid map edges when flanking
- disable flanking for soldiers with limited roaming range (STATIONARY/ONGUARD/CLOSEPATROL/SNIPER)
In general, AI flanking is much more effective now (it never fully worked previously, especially in turnbased).
Is this patch applicable to r7609b7435 also? If so, would I be able to add this to my Arulco Vacations mod?
I don't think you will be able to apply patch to stable source, but it should be easy to add it manually if you know cpp as the changes are very simple.
I haven't worked with any code in years so I'd need instructions. Otherwise, I am confident I can still tinker with code.
You will need Visual Studio 2008+ and TortoiseSVN.
Download stable 7609 source.
Do 'manual merge' of the patch to the source. You can try "apply patch" first but it will probably fail.
Check the changes with TortoiseMerge ('commit' option or 'check for modifications', and then doubleclick on changed files).
Select 'release version' for compiling.
Compile.
Maybe also silversurfer or Buggler will give more hints.
Playing Ja2 1.13 stable 7609 against stock enemy AI at night
As you can see from the video, stock enemy AI cannot fight effectively at night against player:
1. Use breaklights to create wall of light that AI cannot pass.
2. Interrupt and snipe enemies that step into light before they move out.
3. Wait for AI to make a compact group near the light edge
4. Use grenades to kill them all
Playing ja2 1.13 stable 7609 + improved enemy night AI
AI improvements:
- advanced AI night flanking
- additional flanking conditions
- dynamic AI morale calculation
- dynamic stop/attack decision (avoid light at night, avoid fresh corpses)
- AI swatting movement mode for night seeking
- avoid moving into light at night in RED state (seek/help/hide)
Messages:55
Registered:October 2013 Location: serbia
Looks like a big improvement for AI, this is amazing work! How can we get "improved enemy night AI" EXE file for stable 7609 version! Thanks in advance!
Looks like a big improvement for AI, this is amazing work! How can we get "improved enemy night AI" EXE file for stable 7609 version! Thanks in advance!
You can try this ja2_7609+AI.exe
It's based on Stable 7609 + various fixes + AI improvements.
This exe is fully compatible with official 1.13 stable 7609 (may show "different version" message when loading saves, but no data was changed, so stable 7609 saves are compatible).
Warning: There can be bugs! Use at your own risk for testing or play official stable release. This version is not well tested and probably will never be well tested.
Note: these AI improvements are not planned to be added to the main trunk for various reasons. Small simple and well tested parts can be integrated though.
Randok
Is your other innovations will be implemented in the game?
Not sure what you mean by "other innovations".
Currently I'm working on AI improvements for stable 7609 (with some additional small fixes and other changes). Nothing more is added at the moment, old experimental project is old and not developing anymore.
Maybe I will also add Improved Suppression, Improved NCTH, Improved OCTH and other small tweaks to the AI project later if I have time.
Messages:1533
Registered:January 2015 Location: Home Free
@sevenfm
I will be very happy to extensively test your modifications for the stable 7609. My mod, Arulco Vacations, is based on 7609, and I would love to add any improvements made to the AI to my mod. As soon as I get v1.05 of AV out the door (this weekend, hopefully) I will begin testing your improvements in that exe you provided the link for.
And what about the Advanced tactical militia command?
This feature is one of my favorites! :-)
It adds completely new way of playing - indirect control, as you can set preferred targets and desired movement spots and also set AI scripts, but the result will also depend on the current soldier's status, attitude, weapon and tactical situation.
And code implementation is very simple, with maybe exception of some tedious interface work.
The only problem, as always, is time for all that.
Also there was nearly no interest in this feature when it was first implemented, I remember only one player at Russian ja2.su forum actually tested it and gave some feedback.
Description: instead of instant day vision range bonus, need to spend several turns looking in one direction without spending APs (for binocs), when using scopes, shooting is allowed.
When soldier starts aiming or takes binocs into his main hand, counter starts.
Every turn, 40% of vision range bonus is added, to the maximum of what scope/binoc can give.
Spending APs resets the counter (except when shooting with scope).
This works in turnbased/realtime.
This feature uses Flugente's "soldier counters" feature.
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