Artificial Intelligence

This is a topic I've been glossing over a bit recently. Ever since I began making maps on StarCraft seven years ago, I've always been fascinated about the possibility of collaboration/battle with semi-intelligent NPC units. There really isn't a map out there that triggers intelligence into units. I'm not talking about melee AI scripts, but I am talking about triggered AI. For some samples of this, go down to the "Examples" section. For example, I'm tired of seeing the player being able to run into a building while being chased by enemies and not having the enemies follow them inside. It would be so easy to show some extra effort and allow the enemies to enter the building, possibly leaving it if they manage to kill the player inside.




"Shank Shank"
A simple sample map I made for this topic. There are enemies laid out throughout the entire map. Teal is a computer controlled Civilian that follows the player (who is also a Civilian) and can have two personalities set to it. These are "aggressive" and "guardian".

• Aggressive: Teal will attack/target any enemies nearby himself regardless of if the player is being attacked or not.
  
• Guardian: Teal will only target enemies near the player, choosing him/her as the first priority. It will attack enemies that are chasing it while it is running towards the player.
  

The player has three actions that they can do by making units at a Gateway.

Zealot: Uses a knife attack on nearby enemies. It takes three hits to kill one.
Dragoon: Sets teal's personality to "Aggressive" (default).
High Templar: Sets teal's personality to "Guardian".

Note that your hits and teal's hits will not combine. This is because I was lazy .

"Shooter"
A test map made by Kenoli showing a shooting system. I was more interested in the enemy you face, however. It roams around and when it spots you it will stop in its place, just like a player most likely would, and activates the shooting system. It's the sort of thing that you have to see in order to understand it.

"Hive System"
Custom artificial intelligence created by A_of-s_t that sends an Observer to roam around and gather zombies. When enough zombies are gathered, the Observer relentlessly follows you, making for interesting battles and emphasizing enemy teamwork as well as allied teamwork in order to take the threat down together. After the hoard is demolished, the cycle loops.





If you have the opportunity, I think you should show some extra effort and implement triggered AI into your map. I'm using my own brand of it in a map I'm currently working on and it's going great; seeing as it's single player you would need AI surrounding you in order to give the feel that you aren't alone.

Discuss. _{I may change this topic around later...}

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Nov 2 2009, 2:11 am by lil-Inferno.

Oyenno attempted some AI-like behavior for Gears in Astrogears. He had an interesting amount of success, but he ran into a lot of fundamental limits that prevented them from being truly competitive.

I guess if you were to monkey around with EUDs or something you might find ways to begin making effective trigger-based AIs.

A long time ago I made a mini-game where the player had a DT and had to kill a vulture that was constantly runnig away and shooting from a distance. It was absolutely impossible to win. Was this mentioned in payne's impossible scenario topic, by the way?

I think one of the main problems is managing AI for several units, which reminds me that I should post another AI demonstration that controls multiple units.

I have seen something like this before except the player had six Zealots. It was pretty easy once you managed to corner it which is when the AI pretty much broke and couldn't find a way out. It's really nothing new, but it's certainly interesting.

Though my map was designed only to deal with two obstacles (worst case scenatio: the DT is pressing him to the wall), it would pick one of the two safe directions. Assuming we work with only 8 directions, we can just have an array represent the presence of a threat in each direction. If you imagine the vulture being a point in the middle with 8 directional points around it, the system can be easily set up to order the vulture in the direction of the vector which is the negation of the resultant vector of all the present threats. In less fancy words, it goes where there are less threats.

Mystic Islands RPG will actually have AI for the computer player, to jump the number of "players" from 3 to 6.

It was really well made, IMO. It even got owned my ass the single time I tried it

I remember that map... took me a while to kill the vulture, but I finally got him! I also remember you told me there was an impossible version
And no, I do not have such of a concept planned for my impossible scenarios project.

Inferno, I remember something about 3 vultures vs 1 reaver AI too. Devourer made it I think. Look in the DLDB

And I also wanted (and still wants) to create a CPU player with its own AI for my ToG RPG. It would use its own potions, cast its spells when he wants and would come help you when you need some help. It would also manage its own equipment.

I've played something like that, except it was a zealot. I never hit the vulture once.

Also... this is the best translation my friend's dad (who has lived in Russia for 4 years) can give me of your signature.
It was above it and frankly examined it, and it looked at it from below upwards, grinning, and has then brought a glass to lips and has made some drinks.
- You want? - it has told, licking lips, and having waited exactly it is so much, that the ambiguity has reached it, it has stretched to a glass.

As far as I can see, there are 3 parts of a trigger based AI you want.

-Micro

-Macro

-Interaction.

Micro is just moving around, staying alive, etc. EUDs or vHP would be useful for this, so if the Ai unit has a certain amount of HP it will run away, etc. Perhaps another part of this would be pathfinding, like what Apollo was discussing in his Smart AI thread.

-Macro is the higher-level part. In an RPG, that might include working towards a goal, such as an amount of experience, gold, or a quest. With just micro, the AI would spend all day fighting but not achieving anything. It would probably include some decision-making, as in deciding how to get the required gold, or finish a quest. In a more linear game, this could be simple (You are in quest 3, so move to area 4 ASAP while remaining alive) but in a more open-ended map, this would be far more complicated.

-Player Interaction is a combination of macro and micro in many ways. Basically, it controls how the AI interacts with the player or other heroes. It would control diplomacy, talking to the player(taunts anyone?), helping or hindering the player, etc.

Just my $0.02

You guys fail to bring up one of the better AI makers... though largely unknown... the user Sasersaki (currently retired i believe) has created some pretty good AI systems. This one is about old style DBZ Fighter style maps, and how to make them better. The way he made it, he actually simulated OLD technology in mapping. Though this gets annoying...
IE: Backcasting: In old maps when you casted a spell and kept moving, the spell would activate where u were a few seconds ago.
The AI is pretty difficult and I dont think ive seen a single person beat it...
If I got into contact with him again im sure i could unearth some more of his maps.
Edit: forgot to mention a few things:
1. You can start it one player and it'll assign the corresponding unit for you to fight against.
2. It seems that he has implemented HP detection of SOME sort without mass euds, because when Aokou's cooresponding enemy (i just forgot his name) has around 800 HP left he casts Shield Regenerate.
3. I dont think this is the completed version.

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Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 1 2010, 5:35 am by TiKels.

I mentioned him in a past topic that was something like this one. I remember helping him test one of his AI's, he kept throwing it under the bus, but it definitely kicked my ass. He became a member here some time last year I think, and was actually bad mouth'd by some of newer members who had no clue who he was. Needless to say, I raged.

I remember working with Oyenno on this project. Oyenno did have a very sound structure for everything, when I went through and revamped a few of the triggers so the AI wouldn't be such on such a "Point A to Point B Schedule" 24/7, it worked magnificent. We had literally everything we needed. Except for one thing: Health. We could never detect how much health they had and since this was pretty damn important, the idea was scrapped. However, the AI was indeed fully functional and glitch free in our last draft.

His name was Solo, who concentrated on farming and getting as strong as possible, while protecting himself and warding off intruders. There was his sister Iris, who focused on stealing your minerals and attacking from a distance, avoiding conflict at all costs. And the side-project I had worked on after Oyenno dissapeared, Bear, who was going to be like a shepherd, managing NPCs across the board. All of them had unique roles and fulfilled them without a hitch. Again, being unable to detect HP was a huge problem and was a forceful reason to scrap the project.

There is this, a full trigger based AI: http://www.staredit.net/topic/8681/

I talked with sasersaki...
He's a bastard.
He claims he has found a way to detect (WITHOUT EUDS (in the hero battle trainer map)) when a unit hits 0 shields without having a unit do any AI scripts. I tried to figure it out with him there, but he refused to tell me and i couldn't figure it out. There was a lot more guesses i came up with, but he said they were all wrong. Hell, if one of you can think of it, be my guest.