22 July Progress Update

[StellarRat]

Yup, that is also something we'll be telling the AI to do in future.

That ought to ramp up the excitement level. LOL.

[thothkins]

yes. "excitement" is just the word I'd have gone for too

Cries from the troops of "oh excrement!" have merely been misheard.

[StellarRat]

yes. "excitement" is just the word I'd have gone for too

Cries from the troops of "oh excrement!" have merely been misheard.

It will probably put a damper on your all grenade squads too!

[thothkins]

I just hope some of the rest of the rather broken economy is fixed before it happens. If I have to invest in the weapons, there won't be enough for the aircraft. If there's not enough for the aircraft then there's no chance of maintaining funding levels.

[GizmoGomez]

Another question about the AI, Chris (or whomever): Will the AI be avoiding hazardous tiles in the future? (Not walking through fire, gas, etc).

Personally, to do this I'd give the game two pathing systems: the current one, and a new one that forces the game to see fire and gas-filled tiles as impassable. Then I'd have each movement "decide" through a random dice roll to see which pathing system to use for any given movement. There'd be a chance for each AI unit to pick which one to use, in essence.

For example, for civilians, I'd make it 100% (chance to choose the hazard avoidance system). For all other aliens, each rank/species would have their own percentage, based on their armor, species behavior, etc. For example, an Andron would have a 0% chance to choose the hazard avoidance system, simply because it doesn't care. If the alien's armor wouldn't allow it to take damage from fire or gas, then they'd not care about walking through the tile, then, since it's not a hazard.

When the AI unit is panicked, they'd always get the non-avoidance system, because they aren't thinking clearly.

Also, if possible, making the % chance for the AI unit variable, increasing or decreasing based on certain factors, that'd be more realistic. For example, if the AI unit has low HP, it'd be more likely to avoid the hazardous tiles. If it had high HP, then it wouldn't care as much. Also, I can't remember if alien armor can take damage (and thus reduce in effectiveness), but if it can then how damaged the armor is could also be a factor.

Now, if we can get the AI's path to avoid tiles, couldn't we have a toggle to make the player's path avoid such hazardous tiles too?

A few ways I could see this happening (feel free to pick and choose which would be best); put a toggle "Avoid Hazardous Tiles" in the options menu; give the player a toggle in the GC UI (tooltip "Enable Hazardous Tile Avoidance"); make a hotkey (shift click, maybe?) to use the other option (so if hazardous tile avoidance is activated, normal clicking would use that method, and shift clicking would use the other).

Anyway, I posted the idea ages ago (inspired by Solarius Scorch), but nothing seemed to come of it. Here it as again, on a thread that actually seems to be read by the developers (really, there are some nice ideas in the suggestions board, yet there is remarkably little developer input on that forum).

[StellarRat]

I like some of the suggestions, but maybe we should create an AI thread in the Beta forum. I think the "avoid" bad tiles directive is already on the AI "list" for Goldhawk, but Gomez has made some good suggestions as have others.

Edited July 24, 2013 by StellarRat

[GizmoGomez]

Thank you.

Yeah, an AI Discussion thread (stickied!) would be most helpful in collecting all of the ideas and suggestions out there.

[Aaron]

Ground Combat AI discussion should probably just go in the Ground Combat balance thread, given how intricately it is linked to the rest of the GC missions. Also yes, avoiding hazardous tiles is on the list of AI things to implement.

[lemm]

I checked out the new build today. I just wanted to say that the new map looks great, and the Geoscape balance and the game progression is much better than it was in v 18.