AI War Beta 6.032 "Tumbleweeds In The Stars" Released!

[orzelek]

That next release with some curious changes - will it come before weekend?
I'm not sure if I should start game now or wait a bit for new stuff.

[Toranth]

How did you make the .gif?

There's a program called UnFREEz that just assembles GIFs into an animated GIF.  And MS Paint can convert from PNG or JPG into GIF.


Keith, feature request for this expansion:  When the Lobby Scripts get updated to support dual AIs and such, can we get the ability to set Human play slot type and color?  What I'd like here is the ability to select a script and instantly get all 8 slots filled with Champions, each with a unique color.

[keith.lamothe]

That next release with some curious changes - will it come before weekend?

Probably not before Monday, sorry.  Working on all six bonus ship types currently.

@Toranth: the setup script stuff is very low priority to me, I dunno if it will even get support for dual-type AIs.  I just don't get the impression folks really use the scripts.

[RockyBst]

I don't know if it's because of the recent targeting changes, but the Hive Golem's wasps now seem really ... aimless. Unload the hive, they all go after just a few targets, typically quite far away from them. Wait a few seconds, go after another couple of targets. Wait a few seconds ...

They certainly aren't hitting stuff close to them anymore, are they not correctly prioritising the closet vessel?

[keith.lamothe]

I don't know if it's because of the recent targeting changes, but the Hive Golem's wasps now seem really ... aimless. Unload the hive, they all go after just a few targets, typically quite far away from them. Wait a few seconds, go after another couple of targets. Wait a few seconds ...

They certainly aren't hitting stuff close to them anymore, are they not correctly prioritising the closet vessel?

Ah, it's probably due to them settling for shorter target lists (most things don't need very long ones, and a lot of time was being wasted before sorting entries that would never be reached) and the aggregate targeting was probably giving all wasps in a spawn the same list via copying; I'll increase the minimum size from 5 to 50 and that should help significantly

[Toranth]

@Toranth: the setup script stuff is very low priority to me, I dunno if it will even get support for dual-type AIs.  I just don't get the impression folks really use the scripts.

Aww.  Ah, well.  It wasn't exactly a high priority for me, but since I've been starting a lot of games to play with settings, it was beginning to get annoying.


However.  I'm seeing periodic slow-down in my current game.  Everything will run fine for a few minutes, the there'll be a few minutes of: run for a few seconds, freeze for a few seconds, repeat.  I does this regardless of anything that may be going on (battles, or no battles).

I tried issuing the "cmd:log AI cpu time" command, but it just produces a file empty of content:

Code: [Select]

5/24/2013 4:26:27 PM (6.032)
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5/24/2013 4:26:27 PM (6.032)
-----------------------------------

5/24/2013 4:26:31 PM (6.032)
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5/24/2013 4:26:31 PM (6.032)
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I've Mantis'd the issue here: 0011666: Game periodically freezes for a few seconds and attached a save that can demonstrate the problem to that report.

[keith.lamothe]

I tried issuing the "cmd:log AI cpu time" command, but it just produces a file empty of content:

FYI, that command only logs the AI thread, not the main thread.  Normally you wouldn't notice a slowdown on the AI thread since it doesn't directly hold up the sim (the AI thread today is actually literally 100x faster than it was last month, and I imagine most players haven't really noticed.

Will investigate the freezes when I get a chance, there's a few likely culprits.

[relmz32]

I just rolled a game after months of not playing, and was going through the motions, getting stuff set up scouting, getting my fleet ready to start clearing out my mk 4 neighbor.  I sent in my full mk 1 fleet + 2 raid SS, checked to see how it was going a few seconds later, saw that there were no fighters. Huh. 1 at my homeworld... Did they ALL die?
Look back at the mk 4 neighbor and watch as the rest of my fleet was melted (including the raids) in a few more seocnds to the overlapping fire from 2 mk 4 guardposts. Wow. ...

"... Okay, buddy. *cranks knuckles* Let's do this."

It was pretty awesome. I think a lot of the recent changes are pretty great! Thanks Keith!

[Kahuna]

why do the CPA carriers spawn on random completely neutered ai planets with absolutely nothing behind my defenses? this has not happened before, doesn't make sense and is...... arrrr

EDIT: this makes EVEN MORE starting positions complete garbage. 99% of the starting planets can not be used because of this. in other words about 98% of the map seeds are unplayable. this would be ok if turret caps were doubled.
now if i want to have any chance i have to find a map seed where i have ~6 planet "tail" going out from the rest of the galaxy.. a 6 planet pocket which can be defended with 2 choke points. because there CANT BE ANY ai planet behind my defensive lines... because every time a CPA launches a minimum of 1000 will spawn there. now this doesnt happen every time... since ai now does this "stupid thing" i think i will just have to do MY stupid thing called "save scumming". that would be fair but tedious.
it would make sense if the warp jumper ai did this but ALL ais? hmmm...

EDIT2: YES I stopped the 6k ship CPA. Brb gonna stop the exo too.

[keith.lamothe]

The CPA carrier formation logic was changed initially to only let units form carriers on the planets they were on, no crossover, but that resulted in some small carriers and people objected.  Now it keeps rolling them until it finds enough for a 1/4 carrier, or until it hits the end of the planet list.

Will see what additional refinement can be done; it's a bit tricky when what people probably want involves partitioning the galaxy to account for disconnection of different AI chunks, etc.

[Kahuna]

....so the exo just spawned.. LMAO when was the last time Exos were buffed? This exo is absurd. AIP is 99. Oh and as I said long time ago.. the AI pays too much for Hunter/Killers and too little for Guardians and Starships.

EDIT: Added the save file
EDIT2: 2 screenshots
I'm going to try Mark II Gravitational Turrets AND save scumming.. if that doesn't work I'll win 10/10 (yes I will) without exos (and super weapons). So.. I still think 10/10 is winnable.. but these exos arent.. now I haven't got to actually test this yet but soon I will.. 1 more week and I'll have a ~2 month summer vacation.

[LordSloth]

I'm getting that "you must have missed that day in tactical school" taunt from building new command stations sometimes. I'll go and see if I can be more specific.

[Tridus]

I get it using the CMD build menu to replace a command station in a system. The rebuild delay is gone in that case, it's just the taunt going off needlessly.

[chemical_art]

Two of the new bonus ships really excite me. The other two don't look bad at all.

"A powerful starship designed by the Zenith during their ancient wars..."

Now for a few hours I'll wonder if this is really a starship or a fleetship (both excite me)

[keith.lamothe]

New one