Generic AI sets
 

I have a ton of races which need their AI updating to SE4 Gold compatability.

I need a generic set of AI files that can be amputated into existing races. For this, at least 10 different AI sets, from which different parts can be used.

e.g: Temporal generic AI, Agressive AI parts, Defensive AI parts, Organic generic AI, etc.

These AI sets would then be stuck together with instructions to create an 'AI Starter Pack' for new racestyles.. or in my case for upgrading existing AI.

Can anyone help supply one or more generic sets for this worthy cause?
Even better: anyone want to take control of this project?

I'll be hosting the AI set on my site: http://universalshipyards.tripod.com along with a long list of ALL the fleets that need their AI upgrading. I need the generic set of AIs first before I can do this though.

Thanks for any help people can give.
Contact me at: markis.brachel@ntlworld.com

- John Beech
http://universalshipyards.tripod.com

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Yes, there are plenty of great races at the USy that are simply not displayed because of lack of AI scripts. Good example would be the United Flora empire, my most favorite by graphics but sadly lacking any AI to play with.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Does anyone have a DOG shipset?

Re: Generic AI sets
 

hmmmm.....dog ships....maybe, if I get time I could try...

as for the AI....me no great AI wizard but I know the basics...general AI no biggy but racial trait ones could be a bit of work, especially reasearch and designcreation...

Re: Generic AI sets
 

I was looking for nice shipset to play with AI for Proportions. Could I use one ?
Yes, it would be completely incompetiable with standard SE, but it could be inclided in next Proportions mod.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

John,
If these races have pre Gold AIs, xhy not rather just patch them to Gold ? They will then keep their previous "behaviour".

The process is tedious if done by hand (copy/paste chunks of data) but quite fast anyway (I did 10 of them for B5 mod in say 20 minutes...), and a just graduated (or even ungraduate) programmer could automatize that - I'm just out of time and tools for this http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif but can make some manual tweaking.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Erm, no.

I have shipsets which were made before SE4 was released. Ones which have the AI state of an amoeba...

For the benifit of other people, I want a generic AI set! Lets see.. 24ish fleets on my site, half without se4 Gold ai.. and then I've got 100 zipfiles, of various Versions of fleets uploaded.. No, I won't be sorting them out anytime soon. They need completely scratch built AI sets..

I thought it'd be easier if there was a generic library of races AIs that could be made. Then I could leave the AI creation to site visitors, and credit them with making the AI for existing fleets. . . and everyone wins.

So whos can help?

I need 'An AI Set'. Simply text files which have been genericfied, and then labelled as 'Organic'.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Why don't you copy AI from original shipsets such as Xi'Chung for organic and Phong for crystalline.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Seems like what is needed is are two Groups of files. One group would be sets of research/design/construction and possibly settings files for different race types (organic/psychic/normal/etc.) The other group would handle political characteristics and be made up of the politics/anger and maybe the general file (minus descriptions). The second set would give you flexibility for friendly or hostile, aggressive or not so aggressive, etc.

I can try to put together some sets of the first group fairly easily (I think I have all of them but temporal pretty much set up already). The politics side is much more difficult for me. If someone is a politics master maybe they can volunteer to put some of those together.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Thats the spirit!

Yes, construction on one side, politics on the other..

If you could produce some examples of these, and pass them around, we could work on simple instructions on 'How to create an AI'.. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Generic AI sets
 

I'll start posting them as soon as I can. I probably won't be able to do too much before the weekend, but if I can get something together sooner, so much the better.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Swell. Whenever is good, no time scale, these fleets have been waiting for many months already (and no one seems to have complained). :-x :-)

- John.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Hmm, i might try to do the politics part, i am not too bad at it.

But what kinds of races should be?
I see that each kind of race should have at least two kinds of AI files - 'heavy' and 'light', using technologies accordingly.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

I am working on a utility to help make the *_AI_General.txt files. You will fill in various form fields and make characteristic and Advanced racial trait selections and it will format and generate an appropriate AI_General file. If I can get it working I will also have it verify that your selections for OPT1, OPT2, and OPT3 don't exceed the 2000, 3000, and 5000 racial point limits.

Should have something at least semi-usable by this weekend. It might go well with a library of various research, design, etc., files.

Geoschmo

[ May 22, 2002, 16:19: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Generic AI sets
 

geoschmo, that sounds really cool, could be a great help.

I guess that it would save and load data straight from current AI files?

That means that several generic races would still be needed as examples, which could then be modified slightly?

whatever, a utility program will be a great help.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

SEIV RACENAME_AI_General.txt file creator ver. 1.0

Download it here.

This utility will create a properly formated AI_General.txt file based on inputs that you give it.

Html and javascript. Runs in a browser window. I have verified it works with IE. If you have another browser and can't get it to work, let me know and I'll put something to that effect in the program notes.

Unzip it anywhere and double click on it. It should open in your default browser. You can follow the instructions on csreen from there.

Geoschmo

Re: Generic AI sets
 

That is a great tool, Geo.
I find doing the general files always a PITA.
Thanks a lot http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

Rollo

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Thanks. It won't really fly though until this weekend when I add in the point value checks so you can see with a click if you are over the racial point value limits.

Geoschmo

[ May 23, 2002, 21:18: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Hey, Geoschmo, mind if I edit your JS General_AI creator to be a bit more user friendly, and look better?

Also, can I post 'a Version' of this on my website at some point the future? If you made this open source it'd make life easy for all.

You forgot to put ur e-mail address on the form, how am I gonna send you new ideas? Damnit, I'll have to post here instead.

javascript can't write files. yes, you need a server side application, cgi or PHP. very simple to make.

//I would like to make it be able to handle
//multiple popups at once, or at least rewrite
//the open popup, rather than forcing the user
//to close it first.

It already rewrites the opened popup tho...
If you want to make it open new popups then make teh name variable. currently you've called it 'popup'. make a variable, and increment it each time you click generate.

e.g. n = 1;
and at the top of the function: n++;
and then make the name a variable i.e. 'popup'+n;

- Markavian

Re: Generic AI sets
 

More user friendly? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif What did I do wrong? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Sure, knock yourself out. Just send me your changes too, I'd like to see them. I may incorporate them in teh "official" Version.

I will have Version 2.0 in a day or two. It will verify the settings you are choosing are not over the Opt1, 2, and 3 limits.

I included a hyperlink to my email address at the bottom in the design notes area. But I should have written it out too. I will do that on the next one.

On my Versions of IE it tries to rewrite the popup, but it doesn't work and ends up with a 404 error.

Geoschmo

[ May 24, 2002, 18:18: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Generic AI sets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ok, Version 2 is available! And Early. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I am pretty much done with it now unless someone has some suggestions. I can see some program areas that could be condensed to decrease the file size, but nothing that would be visible to the user.

As far as what it looks like, I don't really care as long as it gets the job done. Even though it runs in a browser window, it's not intended to be a web page. It's a utility, it's supposed to be, utilitarian. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif But the source code is open if you want to make changes knock yourself out.

If someone has suggestions to make it more user friendly, let me know. I tried to make that a priority. I think the interface is pretty straightforward, but I am in no way saying it can't be improved.

Also if you see any bugs, anything that's not working as advertised, let me know. I'll do what I can.

Geoschmo

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Geoschmo,
I have no clue how hard this would be but could you link the utility to the Settings.txt, Cultures.txt, RacialTraits.txt, and other txt files in the data directory, then a you could make files for mods and not just for the base game.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Could I? No. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Could someone else? Probably.

I suppose it might be possible to write a javascript function that would parse the text files. But I suspect by then it would be easier to wirte something in Visual Basic or some other standalone programing language to do this. I don't know those Languages. I have been wanting something like this for a long time and none of the programmers on the forum seemed interested in it, so I did it the only way I knew how.

About the only thing I would know how to do is plug in the values for the mod that you want to support. This took me a couple days to write, but you could probably whip up something like that in a few hours since the structure is all there, you just need to change some numbers around.

Geoschmo

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Javascript, PHP, Visual Basic, C++... whats the difference? The maths and processes behind them is the same..
..the only big differences are things like how data is outputted, and limitations like JS not being able to write to files, and PHP unable to make live dynamic functions..

:-) Grrr JS.. I might just convert ur utility to PHP, http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Generic AI sets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well frankly the only differance that matters to me is I know some javascript, and I don't know any of those other you mentioned.

I speak Engilsh. Many of the root words and syntax are similer to other Languages such as Spanish and German. But that doesn't mean I can just start talking in those Languages too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I plan to learn some other programming Languages, But I can't do it in a week. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I too am not thrilled by the limitations of javascript, it's just what know right now.

If you can convert it to php, go right ahead. I do believe that will make it more widely useable as the current Version is pretty much limited to IE.

And by the way, you're welcome. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geoschmo

[ May 25, 2002, 13:17: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Geo,
Thanks for the reply. I know even less about java than you do about the other programs. I like the program, and will use it.

Haven

PS: If someone else improves on it i am intrested in that too.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

PHP will make it 'browser compatable'.. but means that it'll need to be hosted on a server somewhere to work, as apposed to your 'offline' way.

I need to sort out a News script, a Gallery for USy.. and then I need a section for dealing with all these poor homeless fleets lying around..

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Here are the first sets of generic AI files. Let me know if you think that there are needed files that I haven't included (or files I included that aren't needed.)

Crystaline_AI.zip Based on the Tylmai

Religious_AI.zip Based on the Vandron

Organic_AI.zip Based on the Vaxin

If these look good, I'll try to get some others put together.

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Thanks they look good. :-)
They'll be good for importing into several fleets already.

Hmm, can anyone program in PHP? 'Cause I can host PHP..

..and if I could create a parser, then maybe we could make these editors a bit more dynamic? hmm get my drift..

Maybe if any AI coders out there could help work out 'what consists of an AI'.. you don't need know how to program, but work out what needs to be edited, what options effect others, and what utilities can be created to help noobs.

Take a look at the JS AI_General.txt creator below for 'ideas' abotu what can be done. I'm sure (damn if I only I had time) I could create something much more dynamic. Its a great starting point tho. :-)

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Okay, so its real quiet in this post.
I started myself a new project, and I been distracted frmo USy for a while. Tonite, I wanna make an effort for the next stage of USy.. ocne I've finsihed, you won't notice a single itty bit of difference, oh well.

So many projects, never enough time. Anyone put anymore thought / effort into this Generic AI thing?

Re: Generic AI sets
 

Geo- Nifty, cool little JS progy- Thanks- I know it took some doing and it is appreciated.