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Suggestion for AI.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 1:12 am
by FlorianRL
For a while I've felt like a few features and tactics are missing from the AI in OpenRA. More specifically, selling structures and managing credits better.
I've been a long time player of the original Red Alert and its PS1 port, Red Alert Retalliation. In them, when the AI has no abillity to produce units due to lack of production buildings, the AI sold all of their structures after some time and did a rush attack, usually to no success.

I feel like that part is missing, and I think it's an interesting part of the original AI algorithm.
The other part to my suggestion is how AI manage their credits. Not sure how possible this is, but I figured I'd take a shot anyways.
To elaborate, I feel that the AI can get themselves stuck with no Ore Trucks and no credits, while they are trying to produce units, build a building and repair existing structures. It kind of makes some late game scenarios boring and too easy, and I feel the AI should have a more in-depth prioritization of how to best spend credits based on what is currently existing and what just happened.

Say for example, the AI is building a Heavy Tank, a Flame Tower, a Tech Center, repairing 3 Power Plants and has no Ore Trucks with an exhausted wallet.
The AI will just get stuck until they lose a building that is currently producing an asset.
I think the AI should in that scenario, cancel building repairs, cancel unit production to a certain degree, cancel their structure builds and focus on a new Ore Truck, and, if neccessary, sell a structure or two to make up for the cost of the new critical units/structures.
I feel this would help the AI keep up when the game starts to slow down, and help prevent the AI from getting stuck in a "nothing can be done" state.

Would like to hear some feedback on this suggestion, and if it's possible or not.

Thanks for hearing me out.

Re: Suggestion for AI.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 10:45 am
by netnazgul
The problem is not that developers don't know what AI does or does not that will make it better otherwise.
The problem is noone is really working on AI at all, apart from some core stuff and minor refurbishments.

So the realistic way of something to be done about it is someone (i.e. you) taking over and trying to play with AI configuration and code to make it more formidable.

Re: Suggestion for AI.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 11:14 am
by lawANDorder
netnazgul wrote:
Mon Feb 04, 2019 10:45 am
The problem is not that developers don't know what AI does or does not that will make it better otherwise.
The problem is noone is really working on AI at all, apart from some core stuff and minor refurbishments.

So the realistic way of something to be done about it is someone (i.e. you) taking over and trying to play with AI configuration and code to make it more formidable.
This is not correct. Reaperrr has done some extensive work to replace HackyAI with modular traits. This lays the foundation for more AI improvemts and there are several more improvements planned (I don't have tge time right now to look up the tickets). The AI already has improved in the latest playtest, visit https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/C ... t-20190106 for more details.

It is true that the manpower behind AI developments is limited but that is the case for everything the devs are working on. However, it is just wrong to say that nobody would be working on it - reaperrr is and has been doing a lot here.

Re: Suggestion for AI.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 12:43 pm
by netnazgul
Yes, that's what I mostly meant by "core stuff". There are a lot of possibilities to program the AI, and more become available with each release, but there is no active "frontend" developer to actually use it and improve AI in official mods; if current devs also try to cover this, they would be too dispersed around different aspects of the engine and games, especially that most of the time AIs need to be tailored to a specific mod. Thus it's better to have someone dedicated at tweaking AI explicitly, but noone is working on that currently.

Re: Suggestion for AI.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 7:16 pm
by eskimo
Red Alert Unplugged has brutal AI that the majority of people will struggle with, and 2x AI will beat even more. I think 3x was the most anyone could beat on *normal* maps. The mod is quite different to ORA's RA, but i like it more due to it's game additions.