AI update

I have made a lot of progress with the AI.

I have pretty much figured out how the AI code works, and what can and can not be done.

I have completly finished two new AI routines. I have tested them a lot and they seem to work very, very well.

No longer will the AI cast beneficial spells on enemy and damage spells on allies... also the AI will cast different spells if threatened. So they will protect themselves at all cost.

For my first cleric AI... (level 6 cleric)

Casts Silence if s/he can do it without hitting any allies
Casts Prayer and Shield of Faith
Casts Bestow Curse and Inflict Moderate Wounds if threatened
Casts Cure Moderate Wounds and Cure Light Wounds on injured allies
Casts Seering Light
Casts Spiritual Weapon


For my first wizard AI... (level 5 wizard)

Takes 5 foot steps if possible (makes him a bit harder)
Casts Fireball if s/he can do it without hitting any allies
Casts Shield and Mirror Image
Casts Hold Person if threatened
Casts Magic Missile (I fixed this so it shoots correct # of missiles, though there is only 1 missle animation, I am trying to get the animation fixed as well, but so far I have failed on every attempt)
Casts Melf's Acid Arrow
Casts Daze if threatened (this is a last ditch effort)

I will spend the next two days making new AI routines for all spell casters.

I believe that when I am done spell casters will now be VERY deadly. If you don't take them out immediately they will cause severe problems for your party.

I should have all the AI changes done by the end of the week.

I will post something soon.

- Livonya

 

It seems so weird that Troika would use different animations for enemy spells versus PC spells. But, again, I'm not a programmer so I can only assume there was a reason for doing it that way.

The routines sound good, though.

 

They don't use different animations, but the problem is that many spells require choices from the radial menu or target choices.

When an enemy uses these spells they can't make these choices. So you have to manually script them.

So for instance if I want Magic Missile to fire 3 missles I have to go into the script for Magic Missile and change the script so that if the caster of the spell is an enemy mage the spell will fire 3 missles... however, I can't figure out how to make it fire 3 missles, so instead when the 1 missle hits I have it do damage 3 times. That is a crude work around.

Another example. I want my cleric to cast Bestow Curse. There are tons of choices with this spell. They are made from the radial menu when you cast it. So when the NPC casts it I have to edit the script so that those choices will be there.

Livonya

PS: I now have great new AI scripts for 4th level Clerics, 5th level Clerics, 5th level Ogre Shaman, 3rd level Ogre Shaman, 5th level Wizards, and 6th level Clerics...

It is going really quickly now. I am especially proud of the Ogre Shaman AI. The Ogre Shaman will be harsh to deal with.

Every Cleric AI script had a broken control word in the script. So every Cleric AI was basically broken. Fixing that makes a HUGE difference. Such a little thing makes a big difference.

 

Just another quick update... I am too excited to sleep!

Things are going VERY well.

I have figured out how to make enemy NPCs cast defensive spells BEFORE the combats begin. So for instance an enemy mage will always have Magic Armor running...

Any spell that lasts for hours x level, or 10 minutes x level is fair game in my opinion. There are a number of these spells and the enemy NPCs will now use them.

So these long lasting spells will be up and running. The casters won't waste their time on defensive spells since they will already have them in place... thus more time for offensive spells.

This is much more realistic. I know my characters travel with some spells active, and now so will the enemy NPC casters.

Also, I ended up writing a new AI spell for each different cleric in the game. I am 90% done, just one last AI to go.

I have come up with some great combos... using feats and spells to make the most deadly encounters. It is really easy now that I know how all the scripting words work.

My main goal is to have them play by the rules, so I am not buffing them but giving them good spells, replacing useless feats with useful feats, etc, etc...

I now have casters using a lot of different spells, and I think you will find that each caster is somewhat unique now.

I also re-worked the Flanker AI script. So the Flanker will first attack a threatening enemy before trying to flank. Sometimes they will attack and then take a partial move to flank. It is a lot better. No more running back and forth across the screen causing a dozen AOO. If a Flanker doesn't have a threatening enemy then they will try to flank.... they want to flank but not at the cost of a dozen AOO.

I also found several enemy Clerics that didn't have any spells or didn't have an AI assigned to them. So now these enemy Clerics will cast spells. Actually, I identified about 20 enemy NPCs with spell casting abilities that could not actually cast spells since they didn't have AI or spells assigned.

And I am writing a few new melee AI routines. Just to add more variety.

I should have working beta version done by weeks end. Then you folks can try it out and let me know what needs tweaking.

The game may be too hard now, I am not sure. I think it will be a lot better.

I am going to sleep now.

- Livonya

 

Very, very cool.

Can't wait to try this out!

 

It does sound like it will make the game much harder, and more fun . I am really looking forward to using this mod, I'll finally have a reason to use ready: counterspell.

 

Update

I am at work right now, so I figured I should post an update on where I am at with my AI tweak.

I have had a lot of great progress.

I have completed 20+ new AI scripts.

I now have NPCs using more feats and skills. For instance Power Attack, Combat Expertice, Flank, Charge, Coup De Grace, Rage are all things that NPCs will try to do if possible. Of course low level intelligence creatures are using more simple AI scripts.

I have fixed several spells so that when an enemy NPC chooses an invalid target a new valid target will be selected. So for instance the AI routine tells the Enemy Cleric to cast Hold Person on a Druid's attack dog.... when this happens the spell will pick a new valid target (if possible). It was way to easy to trick the AI into doing dumb things, so this changes that in many ways. The AI can still do dumb things, but in most cases the spells will re-target so you won't actually realize that the AI has done something silly like casting Hold Person on an animal. (of course this will not affect stupid things that the players do... if you tell your PC to cast spells on invalid targets then that is exactly what they will do).

I have fixed it so enemy Clerics/Mages have defensive spells running. This is up and working. It is awesome. Now high level Clerics/Mages will be fully buffed. It looks cool too. You will see a lot more spell effects as you go about the world. And you will ocasionally see NPCs cast spells as you pass by...

I also fixed many enemy monsters/NPCs that had improper feats assigned to them... there were a lot of monsters/NPCs that simply were not coded correctly. Clerics/Mages with no spells, Barbarians that wouldn't rage, Fighters with no feats or with spell caster feats, etc, etc...

All in all I have made a lot of changes.

Soon I will start to repair monsters that have special abilites that don't seem to happen.

For instance the Fire Salamanders have the ability to cast Fireballs but I have rarely if ever seen this happen. So I am fixing that so they will use it whenever possible.

If you can think of creatures that are not using their abilities to their fullest then please post them so that I can look into it.

I am pretty close to being "done." I need to fix about 10 more AI routines, and do some other small fixes. But I am getting close to reaching my current goals. At that point I will post all the changes.

- Livonya

 

I did some testing, and you are correct the spiders no longer use web. I don't know why.

As far as I can tell the spiders never had a special AI script. They would simply use their spell ability automatically. That is no longer happening. In fact the only creatures that are using their special abilities are the giant frogs.

This is either being caused by the 2nd patch, or something to do with moebius2778's temple fix.

Does anyone have an older version installed where the spider's cast web?

- Livonya

 

Well, I am still not sure what broke these creatures.

But I have repaired the following monsters:

Giant Spider
Ice Lizard
Eye of The Deep
Groaning Spirit
Salamander

These monsters all use their innate special abilites now.

I also fixed several monsters so they use their innate special abilities more effectively...

Getting closer to completion...

- Livonya

 

I have Patch 2 and CO8 3.04, no temple.dll fix... and my spiders are capable of casting web. So it would seem that it is a problem with the temple fix

 

I have Atari 2, Co8 3.04 and the temple.dll and the spiders in my game still use web. They just don't use it all the time like they used to.