Thirdlaw AI 1 file

Creator = giskard
Website = Respawn.co.uk

Permission is given to host this anywhere providing a link to my site is including somewhere in the download description. Sorry but i usually share and recently sharing has meant my own site gets no traffic. So add respawns url to the description please and i'll be happy with that

Special thanks to the GPG guys and mod makers such as Sorian and several others for the friendly compition they offer and the help thats been given and recieved. It makes it all worth while being part of such a cool modding community.
Introduction.

The name does indeed come from Asimovs third law, which i believe is a robot must protect its own existance. Seems appropriate to me and yes so does the nickname Giskard, or rather R Giskard.

I get questions about that so its good to get that out in the open early.

Thirdlaw AIs are designed primarily for turtle players but since I believe any good turtle player should easily be able to cope with a simple rush, I have made sure on some maps this AI will try a simple rush and keep up the attacks all the way through the game.

The AI is designed to use normal units as much as possible but still surprise you with lvl4 experiemental units, nukes or artillery occasionally. So you cannot count on that fact they will never appear or even that they will appear later rather than sooner. They can still appear at any time in any numbers. Its just a lower priority for the AI.

The frequency of the lvl4 units appearance is still being monitored and may change again in future versions. Feedback on this is welcome.

Also Building 1 lvl4 unit is the equivelent of 300 normal units to the AI, so when the AI goes quiet, thats when you need to worry. By quiet i mean its attacks seem to lighten up, not stop.

This release includes the Thirdlaw Land AI V1 but not the Air Sea or River AIs. They will come in future releases. This release is being made public slightly earlier than I planned because users wanted to have a none alpha version to enjoy and the land AI was ready to use.

Alpha versions seen else where are not recommended for all users, only those who feel confident that they can fix any problems that may arrise whilst testing them should download them. So avoid those if your not confident about your computer skills.

Installation.

Just copy the 01ThirdlawAI.scd scd found in this zip in to your Supreme Commander\gamedata folder. To remove this mod, just delete the 01ThirdlawAI.scd file in gamedata.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE that when the /mods folder finally works and allows mods like these to be dropped in there and enabled in the game. I will be changing over to that system and these install instructions will change drastically.

Check out the extras menu and the mods option in skirmish if you want to see the system i plan to use in the future. Its Cool stuff, you will like it.

Also only 1 AI mod can be active in the gamedata folder at a time. The good news is GPG is working on a new mod system that may make that problem obselete. Watch this space for news on that.

Land AI Features.

This AI has the following features and is based on the Horde AI.

It scouts better than the Horde AI.

Grabs resources faster than any other default AI.

Its build queue has been optimized to increase its early build speed. making it far faster than GPGs fastest building AI early on.

It builds additional defenses to help keep the player away from its base, especially level 2 artillery.

In all other respects, this is the horde AI.
I could not match the horde AI for a consistance early/mid/late game performance and support a basic rush so I applied some of my tried and tested changes directly to the Horde AI. Other AIs will not use this system, the design goals for them will be completely different and more turtle based.

This AI can reach lvl2 within 15 minutes and lvl3 within 30 minutes, by 55 minutes it can have a lvl4 unit at your base. Other AIs ive made can reach lvl2 in 8 minutes and lvl3 in 22 minutes. You may see those in future releases but not this one.

Advanced changes I have experiemented with are not part of this AI because I am expecting some changes from GPG that may have an effect on those advanced changes. So for know, im keeping the actual release versions nice and straight forward.

Also, the AI commanders often love to fight so its best not to use the assination gametype when playing AI skirmish games. The AI commanders know when the pull back but apparently do not know when they should stop and repair them selves. So becareful you set up your game to allow for the odd commander rush. This applies to all AIs btw.

Further developement.

Testers will know I have a Sea, Air and River AI in testing too. I will be rebuilding those from scratch. They will not be rusher AIs and should work well on any island or river maps. The land AI it self is not exactly cripped by island maps so do not be afraid to use it on water maps in the mean time.

People who want to help test the AI and get some of their ideas in to it should sign up on the Respawn and check out the thirdlaw AI dev thread. You will find the alpha versions in there that contain all AIs and not just the Land one.

AIs and Multiplayer.

First of all, make sure all players have this mod if you play online or remove the mod entirely before you join a multiplayer game. It should not make any difference if the AI is not being used but its wise to avoid any potential problems just in case I am wrong. I have seen people without the AI crash out in games the AI was not being used in, I do not know if its the presence of the AI on my system causing that or something else. So becareful.

Also, as long as the AI builds and gets its units killed in normal games, the AI will function fine and current unit limits on online constantly change. But if you use a map that is not suitable for the AI and the AI does not attack you, it will build units but not send them out to fight, evetualy it will max out its unit cap. Sooner or later the game will slow down to crawl and crash out due to the number of units sat around doing nothing. I have never known the game not to crash when it slowed down to a rate of 1 in game second for every 5 real time seconds or slower. So watch out for that online, even if the AI is not present.

So to recap, if the AI does not attack you on certain maps, drop out the game and choose a new map. This is caused by bugs on the maps paths for land units and usually does not effect aircraft or ships but does appear to increase the chances of an in game crash. I do not know why, I just know its happened several times in my test games.

Heres some of my notes about maps i tested on. It is not complete because I often forget to add maps to this list.

Emerald Crater = Good map for the AI
Open Palms = ok but AI has navigation problems, not many ground based assaults.
Drakes Ravine = BAD map for the AI
Frostmill Ruins = Seems to lack ground rally points for ground attackers, ok for AIR AIs.

One final tip for coop fans

Recent online testing with me and a mate verse 3 Thirdlaw Land AIs resulted in an embarrishing loss for me and my mate. Not once but twice. 3 AIs just swamped us one at a time. So if you play coop and your mates getting attacked a lot, help him defend his base or be the AIs next victim your self.

The AI is more than capable of keeping you or your friend busy replacing your loses and not developing your base until its ready to crush you so do not think for a second that the AI is not doing any harm, it is preventing your friend from building stuff he would normally have built and that will eventually cost you the game.

Enjoy

PS anybody whos confortable with the idea of mods destroying their computers are welcome to sign up on respawn and help test the alpha versions of sea, air and river AIs im still working on.