Micro AIs Feedback and Development

Discussion of all aspects of the game engine, including development of new and existing features.

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mattsc
Inactive Developer
Posts: 1217
Joined: October 13th, 2010, 6:14 pm

Re: Micro AIs Feedback and Development

Post by mattsc »

As the Micro AIs are in a stable release for the first time in Wesnoth 1.12.0, they will now likely see much more usage both by content developers and by players. As a result, I expect that a number of bugs will we found that previously went undetected because they only occur rarely or under very specific circumstances. I will use this post as a reference for bugs found during the 1.12 series, together with information on when they were fixed and work-arounds.

Micro AI bugs in Wesnoth 1.12:
  • Big Animals:
    Symptom: AI units do not attack when [avoid_unit] is not used.
    Versions: 1.12.0. Fixed in 1.12.1.
    Workaround: Use [avoid_unit] with an id set to a unit that does not exist. For example

    Code: Select all

        [avoid_unit]
            id=no_unit_with_this_id
        [/avoid_unit]
  • Bottleneck:
    Symptom: Error message sometimes appears on screen (and MAI is abandoned) if allied units are present in the bottleneck area.
    Versions: 1.12.0-1.12.1. Fixed in 1.12.2.
    Workaround: No full workaround possible. If needed, have allied units avoid the bottleneck area.
  • Forest Animals:
    Symptom: Error message sometimes appears on screen (and MAI is abandoned) if wander terrain includes border hexes.
    Versions: 1.12.0-1.12.1. Fixed in 1.12.2.
    Workaround: Add x,y= to [filter_location] with on-map ranges only.
  • Herding:
    Symptom: Dogs sometimes wander off at end of turn.
    Versions: 1.12.0-1.12.1. Fixed in 1.12.2.
    Workaround: This is caused by the dogs having moves left under certain conditions and the default AI taking over. If the side has no other units than the herder/herded animals, this can be worked around by removing the CAs of the default AI.
  • Lurkers:
    Symptom: Error message shows up on screen when an AI unit is ambushed (only when playing in debug mode).
    Versions: 1.12.0. Fixed in 1.12.1.
    Workaround: None needed as this is a false alarm. Just ignore the message (or don't play in debug mode if it bothers you). It will not appear any more starting from 1.12.1 (even in debug mode).
  • Lurkers:
    Symptom: Lurkers try to attack petrified units (resulting in an onscreen error message)
    Versions: 1.12.0. Fixed in 1.12.1.
    Workaround: Add the fixed Lurkers MAI code to your scenario as described here.
  • Stationed Guardian:
    Symptom: Error message on screen (and MAI is abandoned) if station is set to an unreachable position.
    Versions: 1.12.0. Fixed in 1.12.1.
    Workaround: Don't use an unreachable hex for the station. In fact, if done that should be considered a bug in the scenario rather than in the Micro AI, but it was "fixed" anyway as the MAIs should never produce error messages (within reason).
BajMic
Posts: 42
Joined: January 24th, 2023, 1:22 am

Re: Micro AIs Feedback and Development

Post by BajMic »

I have encountered some issues with the Zone Guardian micro AI and I am not sure if that was how this Micro AI was supposed to work?

Guardians seem to take the straight line to their enemy instead of the quickest path, even if it means taking several extra turns to get to the target. They also seem to ignore the global [avoid] tag and end their turns on hexes that were supposed to be avoided.

My code is:

Code: Select all

				[micro_ai]
					side=2
					ai_type=zone_guardian
					ca_id=grab_se_villages
					action=change
					[filter]
						side=2
						role=se_screen
					[/filter]
					[filter_location]
						x=18-45
						y=26-32
					[/filter_location]
				[/micro_ai]
User avatar
Celtic_Minstrel
Developer
Posts: 2158
Joined: August 3rd, 2012, 11:26 pm
Location: Canada
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Re: Micro AIs Feedback and Development

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Ignoring the [avoid] tag is as documented – all MicroAIs do this unless explicitly stated. Taking a straight line instead of the quickest path does sound like it could be a bug, however.
Author of The Black Cross of Aleron campaign and Default++ era.
Former maintainer of Steelhive.
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