[Zacam]

Just some quick test builds, based on some code under going review on Internal.

They have been tested, but I rather like larger test scenarios. We can't all think of everything, but we can try and more testers = more testing done.

Builds are Inferno, SSE. Release has TTS/Voice enabled. Based on Trunk 7108.

Sushi's Alternate AI Pathing
Sushi-Alt_AI_Pathing.7z
MD5: F695F4B4C2867C5BDF2912A5563929E7

Enable behaviour in ai_profiles.tbl:
(goes under '$allow primary link delay:' or as the last line in the tbl)
$ai path mode: "string"

"string" can be 'normal' or 'alt1' (no quotes)

This allows the use of $ai path mode: in ai_profiles.tbl to use an alternate method when having ship follow paths (such as for docking and arriving/departing via bay). The default/retail AI is pretty crappy at it, especially if you have high-damp ships in the mix.

1. No path shortcutting. Normal pathing AI will skip forward along a path to the furthest point it can reach. This is sometimes desirable, but makes it a lot harder to predict how the AI is going to behave at various points along a path. Turning this off also allows us to force the AI to straighten out, by giving it several waypoints in a more-or-less straight line. This is useful for such things as lining up a landing.

2. No sliding when following paths. Docking still works, but there is some code that causes the AI to go full retard if it just misses a point: it turns towards the point in big, looping circles. This is apparently caused by passing a slide_vec value into ai_turn_towards_vector, which doesn't even seem to do what you'd expect it to do. Passing a null value instead turns off the stupid.

3. Momentum taken into account when following paths. Path points will trigger sooner, proportional to the ship's speed and momentum. This prevents the AI from massively overshooting a waypoint, especially with high-damp ships.

4. AI tries to follow the line between waypoints. Instead of just pointing at the next waypoint, the AI will fly a bit towards the line. This helps keep the AI actually on the path it claims to be following. See picture:

Blue is what happens with regular pathing. Red is the modified pathing: as you can see, it actively moves back towards the line.

Wanderer's Death and Particle Control Options
Wanderer-Particle_Control.7z
MD5: 7FB07CBA43E5D17418C6C60DA01D929F

Uses the following entries:
(After '$Expl Visual Rad:' but before '$Vaporize Percent Chance:'

$Base Death-Roll Time: INT (Default: 3000)
$Death-Roll Explosion Radius Mult: FLOAT (Default: 1.0f)
$Death-Roll Explosion Intensity Mult: FLOAT (Default: 1.0f)
$Death FX Explosion Radius Mult: FLOAT (Default: 1.0f)
$Death FX Explosion Count: INT (Default: 6)

$Ship Splitting Particles:
   +Max Particles: INT (Default: 80)
   +Min Particles: INT (Default: 40)
   +Max Radius: FLOAT (Default: 1.5f)
   +Min Radius: FLOAT (Default: 0.5f)
   +Max Lifetime: FLOAT (Default: 6.0f)
   +Min Lifetime: FLOAT (Default: 0.5f)
   +Normal Variance: FLOAT (Default: 2.0f)

$Ship Death Particles:
//SHORT range particles released on ship death
   +Max Particles: INT (Default: 50)
   +Min Particles: INT (Default: 20)
   +Max Radius: FLOAT (Default: 1.3f)
   +Min Radius: FLOAT (Default: 0.7f)
   +Max Lifetime: FLOAT (Default: 1.5f)
   +Min Lifetime: FLOAT (Default: 0.7f)
   +Max Velocity: FLOAT (Default: 12.0f)
   +Min Velocity: FLOAT (Default: 3.0f)
   +Normal Variance: FLOAT (Default: 0.2f)

$Alternate Death Particles:
//Knossos, popcorn on Shivan Comm Node style
   +Max Particles: INT (Default: 30)
   +Min Particles: INT (Default: 15)
   +Max Radius: FLOAT (Default: 100.0f)
   +Min Radius: FLOAT (Default: 30.0f)
   +Max Lifetime: FLOAT (Default: 12.0f)
   +Min Lifetime: FLOAT (Default: 2.0f)
   +Max Velocity: FLOAT (Default: 350.0f)
   +Min Velocity: FLOAT (Default: 50.0f)
   +Normal Variance: FLOAT (Default: 2.0f)

[Zacam]

As newer builds are made for testing, older data from the first post will be migrated to this post.

[Zacam]

Just in case, reserving this one too.

[Dragon]

Looks great, but it doesn't allow defining custom bitmap names for explosion particles.
It would be great if that was possible to implement.
Also, some info on how default values are calculated would be helpfull.

[Reprobator]

AI path is still buggy for me, but there might be some reason :
-I didn't setup the line in ai_profile.tbl correctly (where inside this table should i insert the line? )
-maybe the problem is not the "mother ship" but the fighter path.
-Still too much dampening for AI taste.

I'll try to workaround the First 2 points.

[Zacam]

Dragon: Default values for entries now in the quote. And while being able to specify different bitmaps would be cool, one thing at a time. We want to make sure the feature for specifying the behaviour works first.

Reprobator: Updated first post, but the new value goes in at the bottom of the tbl, sorry I didn't document that properly to begin with.

[Dragon]

OK, I'll test the behaviour controls for now. Now that default values have been listed, I'm going to play around with tweaking them.

[Reprobator]

I made further test for the docking ai :
Take off: what ever i set in the two ship's path , the ai behave exactly the same : hit walls at the same place (just 1/2m before the exit)
Landing : This time ai won't hit wall, that's really better : Only concern is that they do not bother alligning their roll axis and sometime land on their back but that's better than default behavior.


Untill now, the only way i have to make them take off correctly is to make them appear "magicly" at the exit of the landing zone
or set a very very far waypoint straight forward to them and tell them to follow this path (one time by mission is ok but it's really not possible to do that on a whole mission.

[Dragon]

You may try adding checks for roll and using "ship-manouver" or something like that to set the correct orientation, but it may turn out to be more trouble than it's worth.

[Reprobator]

Well , if the 'mother" ship has move and rotate around itself, it won't be good i think.

[Dragon]

Depending on how you'll plan out the waypoint patch it's following.