PROJECT: Playtest (Thread No. 6)

[Maquiladora]

Heres some notes I made while testing PBEM:

If you make the end turn button flash as player one then end turn, the start of player 2's turn the end turn button is already flashing, even if player 2 has actions left to do.

I could open the scenario editor from the options menu, I assume this is left in just for testing? Same for the chat window commands?

I like the "we have been attacked... [show me button]" message for the victim player, maybe this was in before but I hadn't noticed. Is there also a message for being bombarded? I assume all the stealth attacks messages from single player are adequate for reporting those attacks to the victim human in PBEM?

The choose next research window doesn't pop-up the next turn after you discover an advance.

Finally a small bug with the "player # started this wonder" message. When player 1 has just build something and the next item in that queue is a wonder, when Player 1 ends turn the pop-up will appear "player 1 has started this wonder" along with the close/exit pop-up. I've attached the PBEM save where it happens just to be clear.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
The change in rev845 to stop non-settlers settling in cities seems to be stopping even settlers settling in cities now.

Well, I fixed that part, but it still hurts the AI, since the AI settles still in cities even if it is not supposed to settle there. Until I have fixed this problem, I'll keep it so that you can't settle on top of cities.

Probably it is a part of bigger problem.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann

Well, I fixed that part, but it still hurts the AI, since the AI settles still in cities even if it is not supposed to settle there.

Ah, I didn't know that. Is that why the AI stops building settlers later in the game, or is that another problem? I noticed most AI's just build units at some point, usually after Fascism, or is it related to being at war?

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Ah, I didn't know that. Is that why the AI stops building settlers later in the game, or is that another problem? I noticed most AI's just build units at some point, usually after Fascism, or is it related to being at war?

It is more difficult. In the early game you should fill the room so that other players have less room and each city adds to your income and production of units for instance and it also increases the science output.

So it makes a difference if you have two cities more or less. That is probably the amount of settlers the AI loses.

That the AI does not build settlers in the later game depends on the threat level and the defense strategy the AI uses. In the early game the AI uses neither STRATEGY_DEFENSE_VERY_HIGH nor STRATEGY_DEFENSE_HIGH. The highest defense strategy it uses is STRATEGY_DEFENSE_MEDIUM. In the later game it can use at least in principle all the defense strategies.

Which of the defense strategies the AI uses depends on the threat level. The threat level is based on the number of units and the attack attributes of the units. Now we have to select the according strategy based on threat level but how can we say that a this is a threat level were we have to use STRATEGY_DEFENSE_MEDIUM and not STRATEGY_DEFENSE_HIGH?

The answer in the code is simple: There are defined thresholds for each strategy. Of course hard encoded absolute thresholds. Those thresholds maybe reasonable on a small map with few civilizations. But increase the number of cities on the world and give each just one unit and you boost the threat level above the threshold for STRATEGY_DEFENSE_VERY_HIGH very easily.

That is what happens in the game, so that the AI is always in the STRATEGY_DEFENSE_VERY_HIGH, except for the beginning, where we only set it to STRATEGY_DEFENSE_MEDIUM even if the threshold for STRATEGY_DEFENSE_VERY_HIGH is reached. When it is time to leave the early game, the AI switches suddenly from STRATEGY_DEFENSE_MEDIUM to STRATEGY_DEFENSE_VERY_HIGH and the first thing it has to do is to reinforce its garrisons. To do this the AI has to build new units.

Those new units cannot be settlers, since they are civilians a cannot defend a city. So new settlers have to wait until the garrisons are reinforced and that takes a while, even if the cities have garrison troops and you could here and there build a settler.

- Martin

[MisterEd]

Tried the latest playtest, and every game, on 1st attack of one of my cities by Barbarians, I get the following error, which dumps the game:

---------------------------
Slic Event Source Error Error
---------------------------
Parameter #0 of type GEA_Army of event RunCombat is invalid.
The event was added during the event RunCombat.
It was called from the executable and is a serious problem that needs to be fixed if it was not caused by slic interference.
Possible reason for the problem: The data became invalid between event call and event execution.

Continue?
---------------------------
Yes No
---------------------------

[Maquiladora]

You can disable "debug slic events" in options > advanced menu if you don't want to see these reports anymore.

[MisterEd]

Thanks, thought about that, but assumed y'all might still want the feedback.

[Maquiladora]

I'm sure it would all be useful, but play becomes very annoying after a while with all those drops to desktop.

In fact maybe it would be better to be disabled by default, because right now it's really off-putting for a new player trying the AE.

[MisterEd]

No doubt.

Gotta another question, anyone tried using CTP AE with AOM IV, and if you have & got it all to work, what did you do?

[Tellius]

Hi MisterEd,

The last time I tried AOM on AE, it works fine the first turns, but after turn 50 the processing time gets unbearably long, I really mean 5 to 10 minutes or so, which is painfully long if you're looking at the screen.

Others have suggested that AOM will only work correctly on AE if a lot of AOM slic stuff is kicked out since it 'competes' with new sourcecode stuff in AE. Sometimes some new sourcecode stuff from AE will try to do the same thing AOM slic stuff is doing, at least that's how I understood it.

This is my number one wish for AE: that it will one day work with AOM.

Tellius

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Tellius

This is my number one wish for AE: that it will one day work with AOM.

Why don't you work on it then?

The last time I tried AOM on AE, it works fine the first turns, but after turn 50 the processing time gets unbearably long, I really mean 5 to 10 minutes or so, which is painfully long if you're looking at the screen.

Is this related to the AI using transports? I don't know if the new transport improvements Martin made recently have helped with that...? You could always remove transports from the game entirely as a test

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
I'm sure it would all be useful, but play becomes very annoying after a while with all those drops to desktop.

Really? I have just tested it with revision 849. Again I turned the visible player into a robot and in the first 200 turns I just had one of them. In fact I reduced these errors, greatly.

Originally posted by Maquiladora
In fact maybe it would be better to be disabled by default, because right now it's really off-putting for a new player trying the AE.

Not a good idea, since I would miss the error reported by
MisterEd. Maybe it is related to the combat screen, which I have disabled for testing purposes.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann

Really? I have just tested it with revision 849. Again I turned the visible player into a robot and in the first 200 turns I just had one of them. In fact I reduced these errors, greatly.

Yes, they seem to have been reduced a lot I did however just get 6 in a row. The picture below I got the bottom 2 errors 3 times each in a row. The first one just once. This was in 100 turns of watching the AI, so unfortunately I can't give you much more information.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Yes, they seem to have been reduced a lot I did however just get 6 in a row. The picture below I got the bottom 2 errors 3 times each in a row. The first one just once. This was in 100 turns of watching the AI, so unfortunately I can't give you much more information.

I think there is also a grouping related one and than that should be all I am aware of.

Well you should get one if you try to unload a transporter on the same turn you have loaded it.

- Martin

[MisterEd]

Originally posted by Tellius
The last time I tried AOM on AE, it works fine the first turns, but after turn 50 the processing time gets unbearably long, I really mean 5 to 10 minutes or so, which is painfully long if you're looking at the screen.
Tellius

I couldn't get it to work at all. I unzipped the latest AE playtest into my AOM folder, but the game crashes on the 1st turn. I also don't see the "Royal Family", "Aggression", etc. tabs inside the "Big Wheel".

Originally posted by Tellius Others have suggested that AOM will only work correctly on AE if a lot of AOM slic stuff is kicked out since it 'competes' with new sourcecode stuff in AE. Sometimes some new sourcecode stuff from AE will try to do the same thing AOM slic stuff is doing, at least that's how I understood it.
Tellius

Sounds like a plausible explanation. I love how fast AE runs.