SMACX Thinker Mod

[Rocky]

Rocky, do a clean install first when you face unresolvable problems. Download the game from GOG and apply mod on top of it.

I made a backup of a clean install beforehand. I'm going to try it from there.

[Rocky]

I've re-installed Alpha Centauri from GOG five times.

Extracted Thinker 2.3 binary files in AC directory. Game works. Version 2.3 in-game.

Extracted contents of thinker-master source.zip into AC directory. Game works.

Replaced thinker.ini with thinker.ini from "docs" map from thinker-master zip. Error message. Game still works.

[Induktio]

I suppose could create a new release soon enough because people just keep downloading the older stuff. Develop builds are located in this folder.

One may ask why have this dual versioning system. Develop versions are so called "nightly" builds that in some projects could be updated each day for whatever new changes are implemented. It's faster to do testing that way and then only update the docs when bundling the changes in a new release.

[Rocky]

Thanks for the link. I just downloaded the latest build and copied it into the directory.

The error message is gone. My apologies for the trouble.

[Induktio]

Version 2.4 is now available. See the changelog here. There's some important bug fixes since last release.

Might have to still tweak the movement AI code, but it remains to be seen how notable these changes in the latest release are for players. There's one small undocumented feature also: if Intense Rivalry is selected, AI tries to prioritize attacking player factions. It works independent of the vanilla AI changes related to that option, but this implementation could maybe later be redefined to make it a more comprehensive extra difficulty option.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Great work on combat AI. I would like to merge it to my mod but don't want to do it while you are still in the middle of the work.
How close is this to completion?

[Induktio]

When is OpenRCT considered ready? When is OpenRA done? It's a silly question. Things don't work like that in open source game projects.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Looking at your colony movement code

in colony_move

Code: [Select]

            debug("colony_move %d %d -> %d %d | %d %d | %d\n", veh->x, veh->y, tx, ty, faction, id, tscore);
            adjust_value(pm_former, tx, ty, 1, 1);


I understand pm_former is used to reduce formers converging on a single spot. Why do you want to discourage them working around the potential base placement site?

later on
in can_build_base

Code: [Select]

    if (!sq || y < 3 || y >= *map_axis_y-3 || (~sq->landmarks & LM_JUNGLE && [b]pm_former[x][y] > 0[/b]))
        return false;

The +1 that you previously set around target base placement site prevents colony to build base there when it reaches it in the same turn when its path was set in colony_move function. I have tested it and confirm that at least sea colony that moves fast exhibits this behavior. It reaches first desired spot and don't build colony there. Instead it continues on next journey.

[Induktio]

Yeah that is a fair point. One of the problems arises from pm_former being used for multiple purposes. Actually I was testing some tweaks there because that functionality will get partially rewritten. There's been some problems in ensuring that all the AI units will follow some particular orders and not lose them in the middle of the path.

And for some reason this site is loading awfully sloooowly...

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Suggested change.

Code: [Select]

int mineral_cost(int faction, int prod) {
    if (prod >= 0) {
        return Units[prod].cost * cost_factor(faction, 1, -1);
    } else {
        return Facility[-prod].cost * cost_factor(faction, 1, -1);
    }

to more precise

Code: [Select]

/*
Calculates mineral cost for given faction, production item, and possibly base.
If base is not negative then its cost modifying facilities are taken into account: Skunkworks and Brood Pits.
*/
int mineral_cost(int baseId, int itemId)
{
BASE *base = &(tx_bases[baseId]);

return (itemId >= 0 ? tx_veh_cost(itemId, baseId, 0) : tx_facility[-itemId].cost) * tx_cost_factor(base->faction_id, 1, -1);

}


[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Do I understand correctly that this parameter restricts computer from building more satellites?
max_satellites=10

Does it make it too powerful otherwise? Is it possible to disable this limit?

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

expansion_factor=100

Does it limit number of computer player bases? If so, 25 seems like a small number for normal map.
Overall it seems like a special artificial restriction to limit computer players expansion. Why is this needed? Are they going to become too powerful otherwise?

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Sorry. You copied this description from me and I put it wrong.

Code: [Select]

; Remove AQUATIC faction bonus minerals from sea mining platforms.

This actually disables AQUATIC +1 minerals bonus to each tile regardless of improvements.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Checking your 2.4 ignore_reactor_power setting.

It correctly conducts combat. All units fight as if they have fission reactor. When a unit incurs 10 damage it is destroyed. So the 10 last unit HP are actually counts.

It doesn't work in other areas. Examples below

The display does not reflect this. Unit health bar is still computed with actual reactor.
Create singular scout and set its damage to 10. You'll see its health bar reduced by 1/4. If you fight any other unit it will be destroyed immediately as having max damage already.

The healing does not take this into account as well. Singular unit heals 4 point at a time as in vanilla while fission one heals 1. So from your modified combat perspective singular unit heals 4 times faster. At the same time unit outside of the base can heal only up to 80% which means 32 for singular. So in your combat version it actually gets 2 HP only.


I would suggest to revert to my type of fix which doesn't introduce any brand new logic but hijack the existing psi combat logic instead. In psi combat reactor is ignored by increasing firepower of attacker proportionally to defender reactor power. I.e. unit with high reactor looses their HP proportionally faster. This was heavily tested and seems to work perfectly fine.

[dino]

> max_satellites

I guess Inductio didn't wrote any logic determining how many satellites AI should build and set an adjustable hard limit instead.
I'd propose a dynamic limit as an average of 10 ( or 5 ) biggest bases size.

> ignore_reactor_power

Great catch, the implementation should be definitely changed to the one multiplying firepower by defender reactor.

> expansion_factor

It's a result of some people ( mostly bvanevery ) complaining about infinite base spam and also a way to prevent large map games from running into bases and units limits.
I play only standard size maps and just set it very high.