[SERVER] Queller AI

Discussion in 'Released Mods' started by Quitch, November 5, 2014.

  1. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    "Your Queller AI is literally best teacher there is when it comes to pure learning how to play this game, especially in basics" - B13, Uber rank #2

    This mod is a total overhaul of the AI designed to smooth out the difficulty curve, providing more humanlike challenges that are both easier and harder than the vanilla AI. It features complete support for the Legion Expansion.

    Please ensure that if you use this work you credit Quitch's Queller AI.

    INSTALLATION

    You should download and install this mod via the Planetary Annihilation: TITANS in-game Community Mods.

    If you are using PAMM you will need to download the mod from GitHub.

    IN ACTION

    There is a playlist of various Queller games if you want to see it in action.



    DIFFICULTY

    Queller offers a range of difficulties designed to try and mimic the style of human players at particular levels of play. It does not modify the vanilla difficulties.

    Casual
    • Economy first opening
    • One army
    • Techs as soon as possible
    • Goes orbital as soon as possible
    • Turtles
    • Poor troop selection
    • Barely scouts
    • Doesn't adapt to what the enemy is doing
    • Loves fabbers
    • Loves static defence/offence
    • Poor use of fabbers
    • Poor economy handling
    • No micro
    • Terrible threat assessments
    Bronze
    • Factory first opening
    • One army
    • Techs as soon as possible
    • Will go orbital if it can
    • Expands slowly
    • Poor troop selection
    • Barely scouts
    • Doesn't adapt to what the enemy is doing
    • Loves fabbers
    • Loves static defence/offence
    • Poor use of fabbers
    • Average economy handling
    • No micro
    • Terrible threat assessments
    Silver
    • Factory first opening
    • Few armies
    • Will tech if it can
    • Will go orbital if it can
    • Expands slowly
    • Poor troop selection
    • Barely scouts
    • Doesn't adapt to what the enemy is doing
    • Likes fabbers
    • Likes static defence/offence
    • Average economy handling
    • Average micro
    • Poor threat assessments
    Gold
    • Smart factory first opening
    • Some armies
    • Will tech if it can
    • Will go orbital if it can
    • Expands OK
    • OK troop selection
    • OK scouting
    • Some adaption to its opponent's play
    • Dislikes fabbers
    • Appropriate use of static defence/offence
    • Average economy handling
    • Average micro
    • Good threat assessments
    Platinum
    • Smartest factory first opening
    • Numerous armies
    • Techs quickly
    • Goes orbital smartly
    • Expands quickly
    • Good troop selection
    • Smartly adapts to its opponent's play
    • Good fabber to troop balance
    • Appropriate use of static defence/offence
    • Good economy handling
    • Best micro
    • Great threat assessments
    Uber
    • Smartest factory first opening
    • Unlimited armies
    • Techs smartly
    • Goes orbital smartly
    • Expands quickly
    • Best troop selection
    • Smartly adapts to its opponent's play
    • Good fabber to troop balance
    • Appropriate use of static defence/offence
    • Best economy handling
    • Best micro
    • Best threat assessments
    • Will use eco bonuses better than other levels
    • Customise play through subpersonalities
    RECOMMENDED DIFFICULTY

    Below are recommendations for the difficulty you may wish to start on based on what you set the vanilla AI to or your ladder ranking.

    When you need to increase the challenge, but don't want to increase the difficulty, give the AI an eco-boost rather than adding more AIs. Not only will this be better for the sim, but will also stop the problem of there being fewer resources to go around for the AI which in turn makes it easier to beat. Alternatively, put the AI into shared armies.

    Comparison between vanilla difficulty and Queller difficulty:
    Code:
    | Vanilla    | Queller | Eco |
    | ---------- | ------- | --- |
    | Normal     | Casual  | 1.0 |
    | Hard       | Silver  | 1.0 |
    | Relentless | Gold    | 0.8 |
    | Absurd     | Gold    | 1.0 |
    
    Suggestions based on 1v1 ranked position or challenge sought:
    Code:
    | League   | Placement | Difficulty | Eco |
    | -------- | --------- | ---------- | --- |
    | Bronze   | Low       | Bronze     | 1.0 |
    | Bronze   | Mid       | Silver     | 1.0 |
    | Bronze   | High      | Gold       | 1.0 |
    | Silver   | Low       | Platinum   | 1.0 |
    | Silver   | Mid       | Uber       | 1.0 |
    | Silver   | High      | Uber       | 1.1 |
    | Gold     | Any       | Uber       | 1.2 |
    | Platinum | Any       | Uber       | 1.4 |
    | Uber     | Any       | Uber       | 1.6 |
    
    Alternatively, trying increasing the local sim speed.

    SUBPERSONALITIES

    By default, Queller at Uber level will adapt its play to try and suit the system and the opposition it faces. You can use subpersonalities to customise Queller's game to your liking or help it play better where it's making poor strategy choices.
    • 1v1
      • Optimised for 1v1 play
    • Air
      • Builds more air factories
    • Bot
      • Doesn't build vehicle factories
    • Free For All
      • More cautious about engaging in battle
      • Techs earlier
      • Orbital earlier
      • Avoids antagonistic scouting raids
      • Less armies
      • More units in armies
    • Land
      • Uses minimal air factories
    • Orbital
      • Grows its orbital presence faster
    • Platoon
      • Less armies
      • More units in armies
    • Rush
      • Techs late
      • Slower to enter orbital
      • Less likely to build defences
    • Tank
      • Doesn't build bot factories
    • Turtle
      • More likely to build defences at its expansions
      • More likely to build titans
    MAP NOTES

    The spawn the AI starts in and the profile used can make a big difference, even for symmetrical 1v1s. If you find the AI too easy on a map, try a different spawn point for it. And don't use Bedlam, the AI's forces can't pathfind on this map.

    Be sure to follow the recommended number of players for any map.

    KNOWN ISSUES

    CANTFIX
    • Will sometimes take much longer than necessary routes to attack
    • Doesn't defend its fabbers
    • Attempts to attack with amphibious units underwater even if they don't have an underwater weapon
    • Will queue buildings on the other side of obstacles despite closer locations (pathfinding wise) being available
    • Won't send interplanetary aircraft between planets
    • Will assign fabbers to assist on a project that they could start earlier than the fabber they're assisting
    • Won't use more than one teleporter at a time
    • Won't use teleporters to move around a single planet
    • Cannot reclaim
    • Combat Fabbers can only be used to build mines or repair troops, not both, even across entirely different AI personalities
    • Doesn't handle enemy walls well
    • Legion won't build a different tier of mass extractor on a metal spot that already has a mass extractor
    • Legion can't use orbital transports
    • Doesn't use Helios teleporter
    • Naval factories sometimes stop producing units
    • All AI Commanders on a team spawn and act together using shared army mode
    • Play From Here in Chronocam can cause strange AI behaviour or even break it
    • Different armies will sometimes build on the same metal spot
    • Naval factories occasionally built on land
    • Positions its Commander without consideration to threat
    WONTFIX
    • Mistakes respawning planets for asteroids and won't behave properly on them
    THANKS TO
    • Sorian of Uber Entertainment for:
      • making his AI moddable
      • answering my questions
      • taking on suggestions
      • fixing bugs as they come up
      • adding cool new features which make the AI increasingly smart
    • wondible for his creation of the AI Showdown tool
    • mikeyh for writing the JavaScript for loading Queller's personalities
    • alpha2546 for extensively playtesting Queller during Legion Expansion development
    • Everyone who has helped with translations:
      • K-Orthic | Gamax
      • gmase
      • PRoeleert
      • R.O.S.S
      • DeathByDenim
      • River
      • Felix Köhler
      • tunsel
      • omylist
      • IPWIW
      • Fred
      • CmdrEdem
      • something more than human
      • Linus Petersson
      • Spassky
      • Craeox
      • sevmek
      • fera
    • PA Inc for including Queller in its professional translation project
    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    Last edited: October 31, 2023
  2. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    :rolleyes:
    martianhunter and Quitch like this.
  3. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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  4. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    I've also created a new AI names file. In honour of the AI modding scene it contains the name of every AI mod developer that I know of in the RTS space. As I can't shadow the names file you'll have to drop it into your 'PA\media\server-script' directory yourself, overwriting the current version.
    killerkiwijuice likes this.
  5. Sorian

    Sorian Official PA

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    I love this idea. If you don't mind, can you send me a list of the added AI modder names so I can put them in the official release files?
  6. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    Sure thing @sorian, I just listed it below (minus your name). It covers:
    • Total Annihilation
    • Dawn of War
    • Dawn of War II
    • Kohan
    • Kohan 2
    • Company of Heroes
    • Demigod
    • Supreme Commander
    • Supreme Commander 2
    • Warcraft 3
    • Planetary Annihilation
    'Duncane',
    'Aralez',
    'Brent_w',
    'Giskard',
    'Machater',
    'Quitch',
    'Brother Alpha',
    'BSR',
    'IronWall',
    'Jeff Adkins',
    'MajorBigg',
    'Switeck',
    'Draconious',
    'Rex222',
    'WArLoRD_285_',
    'Sage_Z',
    'Madrat',
    'joshcomm1',
    'SHONNER',
    'SlowHandd',
    'Bardi',
    'Da Overseer!',
    'Datanut',
    'TheSycthe',
    'poosticks',
    'Draco',
    'Cyber Wolf',
    'Grumble',
    'Hex 80',
    'RpC_mklevoid',
    'LiquidMetal',
    'VanTheMan',
    'Forsaken',
    'GrandCommander13',
    'Okram2000',
    'WhiteHammer',
    'XCOMveteran',
    'DeLozier',
    'Maelith',
    'C_A_P',
    'fenwe',
    'Nelvarrad',
    'Seyal',
    'Strategy Master',
    'AiAndy',
    'Zalamander',
    'Thudo',
    'ArkhanTheBlack',
    'LarkinVB',
    'Zycat',
    'Adratus',
    'peppe',
    'pacov',
    'Azooma',
    'Nurbsico',
    'Ian Klimon',
    'Oleg Smirnov',
    'DrMrLordX',
    'camelotcrusade',
    'Grond',
    'brokensword',
    'Muneer bin Alan',
    'Lexus',
    'Eomer',
    'Out4Blood',
    'Jadahri',
    'wondible',
    Last edited: November 5, 2014
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  7. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    Wow, I'm the worst, I missed the Starcraft 1/2 AI modders. Bolded one you might not want in an official file.

    'ptanhkhoa',
    'Nexxy',
    'Naph',
    'dcramer',
    'Turdburgler',
    'Doix',
    'ccT',
    'Terrible_Damage',
    'Freedbot',
    'Nasmer',
    'Racine',
    'Bajadulce',
    'M_K',
    'BSW_Rama',
    'Mike Klabber',
    killerkiwijuice and mjshorty like this.
  8. wondible

    wondible Post Master General

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    Either that word is less original than I thought, or you omitted Planetary Annihilation from your game list ;^)
    Quitch likes this.
  9. Sorian

    Sorian Official PA

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    Names are submitted. They will appear in a future build, minus the highlighted one.
  10. devoh

    devoh Well-Known Member

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    I would LOVE to see a battle of the AI's. Basically different people making AI's to battle and be crowned for the
    best AI. It would make for an interesting cast.. Marshall and Zaphoid you listening? :D
    martianhunter and LavaSnake like this.
  11. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    I'd love to be able to do that if only to compare my AI against the default one. It would also be useful as a means of ensuring that changes introduced aren't making the AI worse. Unfortunately I don't believe it's possible with the tools available.
  12. devoh

    devoh Well-Known Member

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    If you host a game and create a spectator slot, and then join as a spectator.. you can fill the rest of the slots with AI's.
    It's a little sad to see what little some AI's do at the moment.. and screaming at them "Finish him!!!" doesn't seem to help :D

    I'm not knocking Sorian or anyone involved with the AI's. They rule in my book. I know good things are coming.
    I wish there was a tutorial on making Ai's, I'd like to play around with one as well. Just to see if I could make one last 5 minutes by "Runaway!! Runaway!!" lol
  13. spdr870

    spdr870 New Member

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    Nice to see an AI mod!

    I played a game against this AI (Absurd). My spawn point was pretty awful, not a single mex. Still, I managed to get started. The AI send large groups of units, also very large groups of air units. Its difficult to say if its better than the original, since my spawn was bad.

    The game took me 40 minutes to complete, which is a lot longer than most of my AI battles. Normally a game against 1 AI on a single planet takes me about 20 minutes...
  14. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    Yes, but they're all the same AI. You can make some personality tweaks, but the major logic behind them would be the same.
    killerkiwijuice likes this.
  15. devoh

    devoh Well-Known Member

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    But you can load mods right? So can't your mod AI be in there?
    Last edited: November 6, 2014
  16. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    I think the issue would be that his mod modifes "the AI" So there is no way to make a difference between the stock AI and the queller AI. You either have one of them, never both.
  17. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    It could be possible if you went through an elaborate process of creating a dummy unit, then when an AI builds dummy unit 1 it's vanilla and 2 it's Queller, then duplicate all the logic and add IF dummy unit 1 = 1 THEN to everything.
    killerkiwijuice likes this.
  18. devoh

    devoh Well-Known Member

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    Well then we need to request support for the battles of the AIs :)

    Sorian can you please consider it? Giving us the ability of adding our own AI's and being able to select that AI in matches? Just like you can in SC FA.
    Last edited: November 6, 2014
  19. Sorian

    Sorian Official PA

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    You couldn't do it in SC: FA either without a lot of work.
  20. devoh

    devoh Well-Known Member

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    but YOU did do it :D and it is flipping awesome. :D
    Last edited: November 7, 2014

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