Hi Brand New Member here,

I've been playing some old RTS lately and it reminded me how much I enjoyed, SC/BW; but I've always been awful at them I probably have an APM of about 30. Anyhow so my first UMS project is a Melee training map. Something where hopefully I can crank up the AIs aggression overtime.

Unfortunately you can't really look into the code given the editor and determine which AI is in fact being used at a given moment. So I am going to have to determine that indirectly. So rather than start off with a bunch of Dumb Questions, I was wondering if anyone could recommend a UMS map or two that I might deconstruct and get some ideas for how I might accomplish that escalating AI idea, as there are literally hundreds of UMS maps available I would very much appreciate some guidance as to a map or three I might look into as possible models.

TYVM in advance for your time and interest. "BB"

(My Given name is Tom, but only my mom calls me that.)

Of course if you don't have a map in mind; a little guidance AI wise would be appreciated. I have been reading the forum Archive, so I know say you can only Run one custom AI per player per map. And I know that a campaign AI will overwrite another campaign AI at a given location.

What I have not been able to Figure out is, can I start a scenario with the custom (melee) AI and then after a certain number of say hatcheries been reached switch to say the Difficult Campaign AI?

or the Reverse, as the custom AI expects to start with nothing, I expect that would be harder; but could you start with say the Difficult Campaign AI; but Switch to the Custom AI when you want the computer to start trying to expand aggressively. Thanks again. BB

You'd need to give it to another player and run the aiscript at that point. I wouldn't do it this way though, since none of the stock AI are useful for anyone who wants to play ladder. If you're just seeking to improve as a player and don't care about playing ladder, I'd get into aiscript modding, which is pretty simple and allows you to precisely control build orders of the AI. Some useful resources for that: AI Primer, modding starter guide (includes tool list)

"You'd need to give it to another player and run the aiscript at that point."

Not exactly sure I'm understanding you. So Lets say ZrgHome belongs to Player 2 (Blue) and I'm Running Campaign Difficult there, to change to Zerg Custom, I would need to give ZrgHome to Player 3(Red)? Like via a rescue trigger? As far as the AI modding, thats the Ultimate goal, but baby steps; my first goal is just to up my handspeed a little and get competitive with the AI. So I'm just trying to build a bit of a sparring partner; I expect I will be improving it for quite sometime.

TY very much for your input Prongo. It is much appreciated.

Scripts keep running if the town they belong to still owns structures (or workers/overlords). Scripts create towns at the center of the location they're run at. Main towns take over all structures. Area town scripts only take over structures at locations they're run at (and are run one frame before main towns, or else you'll run into issues). All towns are assigned to a resource area (resarea for short) regardless of distance to one (you can preview them with 'Show AI Towns' checked in SCMDraft).

Giving all structures (and workers/overlords) of a player to another player effectively kills the script since the scripts no longer own anything. You are then free to run a new aiscript for the new player, or to retain upgrades and researches, you can give the units back to the original owner and then run the new aiscript.

Hopefully that clears it up. I'm not sure about the delay required for the town to be killed, it could be something as large as 30 seconds, so you'll have to do some testing on that unless someone with more knowledge on the subject can correct me. It's not really well-documented because it's not something that most people bother with. Everyone I'm familiar with who works with AI does so through modding, some on remastered but most on 1.16.1.

Prongo,
Actually thats Very Help, so TYVM. I had quite a time recovering my account, so I have been lurking and reading for a few weeks; I do have 1.16.1 already; but definitely will visit the links you shared above, not sure I have them book marked yet or not; but please feel free to share any resources that come to mind; I've seen a good few of your posts in these forums, I do respect your experience, and am sure you know infinitely more about this subject than I do just now.

I will look into your advise and perhaps taking the modding route first off. I have done some, very little, coding over the years; but only at a very simple level. Still I was just geeking out a couple weeks ago when I found a BW AI site, not sure if its one you mentioned; but RTS and Coding in one ball well thats just ++Good. Still I do know with this kind of thing my best approach is one small step at a time, its just a matter of charting the right course for those steps.

TY again, with any luck I'll spend a good bit of this break testing some ideas based on your guidance. : ) BB.

Finally got to do some testing tonight, Everything seems to be working except the actual change of script the AI is still producing units it should not under the test AI; but I just need to get the timing down, as I do prefer, after a short pause to return all the units to player 2.

I've worked about 120Hrs each of my last two pay cycles, so its taken sometime to get to my testing but I do very much appreciate your input and help. Hopefully I'm just a few changes shy of making this work.

06Jul19 1930ET Worked! I now have a working Baseline; TYVM Pr0nogo, could not have done it without your Guidance. BB

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 6 2019, 11:35 pm by Blackbirdx661.