Sempf AI
The Sempf AI is an AI that tries to adapt to the map according to size. The goal of this ai is that it will beat atleast every other ai i can get my hands on. At this moment it can beat (sorian) rush on small maps, as long as it doesnt run into the commander idle problems i seem to get. At This moment i use sorians files for the ai except builders, but not all of them are being used, and im going to edit some if not all of them later on. Please comment, post experience, and report bugs. I especially need help on the commander idling after finishing the start build Order, as this makes the ai a hell lot weaker.

Thanks to:

Sorian for his ai
Duncane for his ais
Sonsalt for pointing out where my ai lacks on large maps.

Im dislectic and i apollogize for any spelling mistakes in my posts.

Thanks for giving it a go!

If your AI can beat my AI on certain maps/conditions then good on ya

duncane can you help me with letting the ai use their commander attack, since every time i try to get them to work, i get an error.(you can see the error by uncommenting the SempfACUAttack in sempfcommander.lua and SempfMain.lua. i have not yet tried your lately since every time i use it, your ai seems to affect my ai negatively. it often stops working and sometimes attack with the commander, but that results in suicide.

when i get home ill start working on my version again to make it even more agressive. im working right now on making the ai chose their start build order depend on mass distance, if mass is close by the commander will make mexes, if it is to far away, it will just skip that mex, and go on with the rest.

im now doing the latest improvements on the ai for 10x10 maps, then ill release it. I still havent finished the commander attacking, but that will come hopefully soon. with this version i can beat any ai on 5x5 land maps, and i think i can beat all ais on 5x5 water maps. 10x10 maps it depends more on the map, and 20x20 and up i cant test. next release i am going to work on strategies, and improve the ai on bigger maps. (note for the ai modders, to speed the game up, i split the basetemplates for the main base up into different ones, so now it works as a adaptive ai).

These are some great news,

I can do the testing on 20X20 for you if you like, got a 980XE,5790ATI and an SSD Sata3 so it should not be a problem.

But basically on big maps tech goes better than mass production, because once enemy has sent his land units to your base you are already pretty well defended most of the time. So You either go for a massive Bomber assault or a transportation assault with a minimum of 5 transports.

Beating the Enemy AI on larger maps is done by

1. Taking and holding most of the mass extractors while at the same time destroying the enemies extractors frequently.

2. Teching up faster then the enemy, while holding his forces on distance, either by multi layer defences or units.

3. Preparing finish move strategy.
a) The quick nuke
Try to build a nuke before the enemy has any anti nuke or at least not a missile yet.

b) The quick T4 Air unit
Self-explanatory

c) The T3 land artillery bombardment
T3 land Artillery backed by AA and AG units

d) The naval bombardment (on naval)
at least 2 T3 battleships with AA support

...

another nice idea would be to make the AIs really committed to their style, like AIR AI really only going for AIR units, with only 1 land factory, but only airforce, or naval going on naval 80% and Air 20%

Also you should really make a tech AI that pushes all on tech until it hits T3 and then kicks your ***, in contrast to the rush AI that pushes units much faster.

All special AIs should be available as a rush and a tech version, for small and big maps.

I am really looking forward for your work, since I believe that the AI is the backbone if this game

version 0.0.2WIP is out, changed much of the ai, it has now a much higher sim speed, it changes itself even more to the maps. changed the teching of 10x10 maps to be quicker, but i think i overdone it. 20x20 maps and higher are left mostly unchanged since version 0.0.1wip. on 5x5 maps the ai is really agressive with its units, and really blocks any attempt to expand. please point out some improvement points, and help me develop this ai.

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Thanks, going to run tests tomorrow.

Btw, I just had another idea about the AI supporting its factories etc.
You could greatly enhance the build and upgrade speed at least for cybran and UEF if the AI would build more and faster T2 support buildings. The automatic drones really help a lot.

For the other factions the AI should assign engineers to buildings more frequently, especially on naval and Air factories.

Results Test games Sempf AIX vs. Sorian AIX (latest version)

Resource Multiplier 1.3
Build Multiplier 1.0
Both UEF or AEON...

Maps: Desert Duel (10x10); Desert Planet II (10x10); Dry Canyon(10x10)

Report: Game 1
Both AIs start with a pre-build base. Sempf AI is building massive land units and keeps the Sorian AI well occupied. Sempf is also relying heavily on T1 Fighters, it holds total air supremacy and it's fighters are circling over the Sorian base. Sorian AI is repelling the first attack and builds defences and more units.
The Sempf AI fighters are now getting all shot down by land AA units. It does not build any bombers.
20Min into the game. Sorian is now pushing with massive T1 units. First wave gets repelled close to the Sempf AI base. Second Wave is pushing through and is destroying many factories. 26 Min Sempf AI is beaten by a massive T1 force from Sorian AIX.

Report Game 2
Both Pre-build bases again. Sempf is pusshing hard with first rush and conquers the middle of Dry Canyon. Sempf also instantly has air supremeca but no bombers. Sempf looses many Fighters now in Sorians Base. 20Min Sempf is now pushing with first T2 wave . Sorian is in defensive. Sempf has the majority of the mass extractors. 25min Sorian is regaining Air superiority. Sempf AI is moving T1 engineers around all over the map. Sempf has now started to build a forward base in the center with cover ov land units. It starts to build T1 land factories, no defences. 30Min Sorian AI managed to take out the forward base of Sempf again with T1 units and T2 bombers. Sempf is pushing with more T1 units and some T2 units. Both Ais are now about equal. Sorian builds many T1 fighters and Sempf has nearly no T1 fighters any more. 32Min Sorian AI now has Air supremacy. 35Min both Ais are now T3. Sorian is building defense to protect its base. Sempf AI is relying on T1 units
40Min Sempf is pushing with one wave after the other T1 and T2 mix and breaches the Sorian defences. 48min the first T3 units are on the way. Sempf is still using T1 Fighters and bombers to attack but without any chance against T3 defences. 50Min the Sempf Ai has stopped its waves and now attacks with a fatboy. It stops in fighting range and is pounding Sorians Base. T2 Gunships are guarding the Fatboy (nice) 60Min Sorian's base is destroyed

Game 3 and 4:
Also Win Sempf due to good use of T1/T2 land waves. The massive use of units is crushing the Sorians AIs weak defences.

However against a human player this could proof to be less successful as the human player builds better and more effective defences.

Pro Sempf:
- Early rush
- good economy
- very aggressive
- good formations with many units for each wave
- early Air supremacy
- First rush
- 50min until T4 (good time)

Con Sempf:
- Builds too few bombers too late
- Wastes its Fighters over the enemies base
- Commander is moving too far out of the base
- Uses T1 Fighters and Bombers too long into the game
- Building template for forward bases is faulty. It should start with defences instead of factories.

Some Ideas:

Sempf AI should make better use of its air supremacy by building more bombers and and trying to save its Fighters. This consumes a lot of mass.

On T2 Sempf should try to build more defences, especially when trying to build an forward base.

The Use of T2 Gunships comes at T3 and is a bit late.

I would recommend to use more T2 Bombers and Gunships at early T2 stage flanked by T1 fighters.

The rest is pretty good.

20x20 Maps will be tested today and tomorrow.

thanks for the reports sonsalt, ill try to limit the ai into building fighters, and let it spam bombers. in t2 ill get it to spam t2 fighter bombers and a few gunships, will try to find out what works best.

The strength of the AI at 10x10 seems to be its greatest weakness at 20x20 and more.

After some games on bigger maps it shows that the Sorian is more effective on conquering and securing mass extractors. Also it combines its troops more effectively and is relying more on air superiority than on an early land rush.

After a short while Sorian is dominating in terms of Mass and energy and thus is able to produce more and better units. This simply breaks the Sempf Ai's back.

although Both AIs are wasting a lot of mass still in Mid game. Can you assign more Engineers or build more T2 support buildings so that less resources are wasted ?

Solution:
On bigger maps Sempf must not rely on an early land rush, but rather trying to conquer and hold as many Mass points as possible.
The second strategy must then be to effectively cripple the enemies Economy with Bombers.
A decisive, well planed and executed Bomber strike on the enemies Energy production or its only T2 Factory will change the game.

Land units should only be send in larger groups with a good mixture of Artillery, AA and Tanks.

On a side note I discovered that Sempf is building a lot of land AA units sometimes even only AA units. The mixture should be 20%aa, 30% Arty and the rest tanks etc.

Another good idea would be massive Transport strikes and leaving land strikes in total, but raid Mass extractors with air force only.

One more thing, I noticed that no AI is using the Aeon T2 Air missile. This is a nice weapon to strike on selective targets. Maybe you should enable this Unit for your AI and assign the AI to use the Missile in order to destroy single plants or mass extractors.


Cheers

Sonsalt

ill try to look into this too, but last time i tested a 20x20 map it mostly used air and only build ground units when it was high in mass income(85% or so) till t2/t3.
About the t2 aeon t2 air missile, i will try to get it to work but i doubt the ai engine will be able to use it well at this moment. this goes also for the cybran t2 bomb, there is no way for the ai at this moment to find a difference between these units and some others. maybe sorian knows a fix, but at this moment i can only think of editting the unit categories to contain a specific line, which would be out of the scope for an ai mod.

If you are talking about seeing if a particular unit is a Mercy:



will work.

alright, ill try to make my ai to use mercy's to snipe enemy commanders/experimentals, when it is in range. Another question, is there a way to stop the commanders moving when they build their first building? this saves a lot of time, and can really give it an advantage.

version 0.0.3WIP released. this version has an improved version of the ai for large maps.
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