Profile of Zycat

Sorry I'm not checking this forum very often.

AFAIK the combat_eval values govern how the AI chooses attack objectives as well. I even tried increasing the combat_eval_min_class_rating value and the AI starts behaving weirdly when it's over 10. I tried as low as 1 min_class_rating and the AI will chase retreating squads sometimes. My general observation is the lower the number, the more aggressive it is. Also I have my required_win_ratios backwards, i.e the at_max_class_rating is higher than at_min_class_rating, since my logic is that early engagements must be fought at about equal squad values (like Conscripts vs Grenadiers) while late engagements requires more units. Not sure if it works properly though.

Oh right, I also set attack_objectives_replan_time (and all other processing delays) to 1. I don't recommend doing this unless you free up CPU usage by optimizing the tactics.ai

I dunno about combat_eval affecting build orders. I'm even surprised that it does.

For instance, when I put a Pak 43 and a Machinegun Bunker at a chokepoint, even an Expert Bot will assault that only once or twice with a probing attack, and then avoid it for pretty much the rest of the match - even though enough artillery or some concentrated attack would surely bring the emplacement down.

Pak43s, Bofors, 3inch Mortars and the likes are (most likely) not categorized as "entity" but as a "squad" with a "team weapon" for the purposes of AI. I know because if you set an ai_ability to only use the entity_filter it won't ever target those, but it will target bunkers.

Oh right, also for some reason some team weapons give cover to the soldiers and thus the combat value is multiplied by the value in cover_table. Try reducing that number.

At the opposite end of things, the AI regularly launches suicidal attacks into your territory, ignoring everything in their way, just to get rid of a Walking Stuka or Panzerwerfer.

Try turning off pathing_detect_min_firing_range. Since artillery pieces and mortars often have min range the AI will think the closer they get the safer they are.

BTW your suggestion for coaxing the AI to use mines with MG42 works, although if you do that somehow the mines doesn't explode at all even if I change the weapon. I solved by spawning another mine that explodes and not deleting the original MG42-laden mine so the AI doesn't try to constantly build mines.

This is the way to create a custom "personality" SCAR .ai script and add it in your tuning pack :

First, we need the .ai files from Data.sga. At the bare minimum you will need the default_skirmish.ai, but if you want to overwrite all the standard .ai files you will need the skirmish.ai and tactics.ai as well. I would recommend just extracting the entire .ai folder


the default_skirmish.ai only contains :

import("skirmish.ai")



function InitializeAIPersonality()

	

end



InitializeSkirmishAI()

InitializeAIPersonality()

and it's quite bare. You can add your own settings and economy overrides just fine, but beware if you looked at the other .ai personality files for inspiration because they contains mistypes. In particular, the basic_personality_template.ai uses Game_GetLocalPlayer() which is incorrect since it refers to the human player. It should be AI_GetPlayer().

If you notice it imports skirmish.ai. Now, if you want to modify skirmish.ai and tactics.ai you can only copy and paste the whole skirmish.ai to your personality file replacing the respective import line (NOT the whole skirmish.ai file). And if you notice the skirmish.ai itself it imports tactics.ai as well as util/debug.ai and ai-view.ai. We're only interested in the tactics.ai so replace the import line in skirmish.ai with the whole tactics.ai. Leave the debug and ai-view functions alone as they only contain debugging stuff.

So now you have one big .ai file, put it somewhere in your mod folder and create a folder and burn file like these (example from my A.I mod) :



Note that the folder structure has to be exactly like this. No you can't put your own skirmish.ai to the \data\ai folder, it will not be recognized by CoH2 although it can be built. We only have access to the \data\ai\personality folder for a tuning pack, hence the whole copy and paste thing.

And finally, don't forget to change the ai_personality attributes :


Congrats, now you can use SCAR scripting (albeit very limited in scope) in a tuning pack. And change or add all the TacticFilter stuff.

I personally tested a lot of SCAR functions and those that modify anything (resources, experience, CP, etc.) always results in either Fatal AI Error in game or sync-errors in the replay (not sure about multiplayer) with certain exceptions like AI_EnableEconomicOverride. Some ai_settings can be modified on the fly just by assigning a variable to those like for example :

aisettings_combat_eval_required_win_ratio_at_min_class_rating = 0.5

Other functions that just retrieve the state/data usually works fine like World_GetGameTime() or Player_GetMaxPopulation(AI_GetPlayer(), CT_Personnel).

Thanks for the reply. I've done some tests and whilst they do look promising the AI doesn't seem to want to use the ability if its not within the range of the ability itself regardless of what tactic_max_override I set. I'm probably doing something wrong though.

Hmm, the default satchel charge for penal battalions only has a range of 10, but if you see the ai_ability for that ability it searches the targets as far as 30 range and it definitely works that way and the A.I Penal squad will close and go towards the target.

The ai_economy\overrides are only working for specific singleplayer missions. You have to use "ai_economy\complete\default". I tried once to edit the ai_personality to link them to different economies, but that wouldn't work.

It actually works if you have a custom personality .ai built into the mod, and therefore you can run custom A.I scripts since .ai files are basically SCAR scripts but limited in scope.

And yeah that means you can have custom TacticFilters for abilities, build order overrides based on number of players/resources available/time, changing values in ai_settings over time, etc. in a tuning pack mod.

Ah, I was working under a false impression I got from another thread that seemed to imply that I had to create an economy override to get the AI to use the modded stuff. Now that I've set the economy to use the complete setting instead of override... the AI still doesn't get the initial upgrade, but if they own a pre-upgraded squad they will automatically get the secondary upgrade. I guess I'll just have to experiment with this some more, but I think I'm on the right track now. Thanks!

My guess is that the "value" of the upgrade is too low for the A.I i.e it brings nothing to the table. Try setting these settings to 0 and see if it upgrades just fine :

(A.I economy bag - acquire_time_scale_weight and combat_utility_scale_weight)



If it does then we know the A.I assigns a very low value in their internal calculations for the upgrade.

Thanks, I will do that. CoH2 Central seems good.