[MOD 0.12.20+] Misanthrope 0.3.7 -- Better Biter Mechanics

[Hexicube]

Just realised why my mod actually works nicely with this one, there's typos in "lib/map.lua" on the two lines for rails. They should be "straight-rail" and "curved-rail", but use underscores instead of dashes.

If it's changed, could you either add direct support by detecting my mod or check that each entity is in fact flagged as player made before adding it to the list? You might also want to add entities by type, as opposed to name, and do a scan for entities of the type during the map initializer.

Ah. I caught some similar misspelled names, but not those two. I think the reason is that I started this mod back with Factorio 0.11 and 0.12 changed a bunch of names, and those were just missed. I am going to start checking that items are not neutral forces, so that should allow your mod to continue to work.

Awesome. Could you also add something to populate the targeting table by type? I've got a feeling mod-added entities aren't considered even if they should be (logistic rails come to mind, though you probably wouldn't make a full track out of them), and it'd be great if you added less specific code for that bit just to be more mod-friendly.

[Porter65]

Any news about fixing the over bloated save issue? thanks!

[Afforess]

Any news about fixing the over bloated save issue? thanks!

Erm, did you report any issues? I don't see anything in this thread from you about it. Or are you talking about this?

That user was running a really old copy of Misanthrope ( < 0.1.6) and if they disable the mod, save their game, then enable the latest version of the mod, they should be fine. Players starting out with 0.2.0 or higher should be fine.

[Porter65]

Oh sorry my mistake, I was not too sure if the size of my saved games were right, they are now at 26 megs uncompressed.

By the way, how difficult it is to add new enemies? Because there is this game, xenonauts, which is a XCOM in 2D with sprites files in png that would fit very well in Factorio, their nature (aliens) and how they are rendered (2D with orientations).

[Afforess]

Oh sorry my mistake, I was not too sure if the size of my saved games were right, they are now at 26 megs uncompressed.

By the way, how difficult it is to add new enemies? Because there is this game, xenonauts, which is a XCOM in 2D with sprites files in png that would fit very well in Factorio, their nature (aliens) and how they are rendered (2D with orientations).

If you have a save you have a question about, upload it, and I can analyze the mod data size for your mods....

Might be worth writing a general purpose tool for. I know some mods store lots of data (YARM).

[Porter65]

Thanks, I would appreciate!

Here is a wetransfer link, free, no malware or virus:
http://we.tl/SRZJGXnh5C

[BlakeMW]

Misantrophe doesn't seem to work properly with peaceful mode, in particular biters seem to show a hatred for peaceful infrastructure like power poles, they still pretty much ignore polluting stuff.

I know peaceful is not really the intended use case for Misanthrope, just nice to switch between save games with and without peaceful without needing to change mods.

[Afforess]

Misantrophe doesn't seem to work properly with peaceful mode, in particular biters seem to show a hatred for peaceful infrastructure like power poles, they still pretty much ignore polluting stuff.

I know peaceful is not really the intended use case for Misanthrope, just nice to switch between save games with and without peaceful without needing to change mods.

Won't Fix: Not a bug.

[CitizenJoe]

Will this work with other mods that add enemies like Bob's mods, or only with the vanilla Biters?

[Afforess]

Will this work with other mods that add enemies like Bob's mods

Yes.

[Rhamphoryncus]

I created a sandbox map with biters set to None (I wanted to test something out), placed and removed a pole, and got this crash:

Code: Select all

Error while running the event handler: __Misanthrope__/control.lua:64: attempt to index field 'character' (a nil value)

[Afforess]

I created a sandbox map with biters set to None (I wanted to test something out), placed and removed a pole, and got this crash:

Code: Select all

Error while running the event handler: __Misanthrope__/control.lua:64: attempt to index field 'character' (a nil value)

Thanks. I'll be releasing an update this weekend and I'll make sure I get this fixed.

[Afforess]

Misanthrope 0.3.0 released!

No major new content, but major changes to the biter AI under the hood. Hopefully you notice the difficulty rise a few more notches!

[Rhamphoryncus]

Just updated to 0.3.0 and I'm getting large pauses every 5 or 10 seconds.

[Afforess]

Just updated to 0.3.0 and I'm getting large pauses every 5 or 10 seconds.

Fixed in Misanthrope 0.3.1

[Afforess]

Any active Factorio players spend much time on Misanthrope 0.3+ ? I'm wondering what the experiences are with the rewritten AI. I've noticed in my current game, a previous area where I had strong defenses around a far flung oil field, I can no longer justify defending anymore. It's not that it's impossible to defend, but the resources (electricity + repair packs) to keep these defenses up in perpetuity for a now mostly drained oil field in biter territory are not worth it. I've essentially reinforced a bottleneck farther away and am letting my infrastructure in this territory go. I can't afford to defend it. I could go into more detail, but I think this picture explains all:



For a full perspective, here's my entire map:

Any interesting stories?

[nightingale]

Hey Afforess! I'm actually doing an LP featuring Misanthrope right now:
Nightingale Plays Factorio: Mercantilism and Misanthropy

The playthrough features Misanthrope, RSO, Bob's mods and max biter base richness, so it's pretty heavy on the biters. It's currently only on episode 4, and I won't update to Misanthrope 0.3.1 until about episode 12 or so. However, I definitely did notice an uptake in biter aggressiveness/effectiveness when I did. Since I'm not completely familiar with the AI changes, I wasn't sure if it was the update or just hitting a certain threshold in the evolution factor that did it (or a combination).

I did end up having to abandon my fortified rail idea (walled rail with Bob's sniper turrets all down the middle) because it was eating up the ammo (even with the rather OP sniper turrets). Instead I've been using turret creep to create beachheads and push the biters back. Here's what it looks like right now:



I have to say that I am definitely loving the mod, so kudos to you and the great work you've done!

[Darloth]

Eesh, they were pushing me hard enough in 0.2.4!

I guess I'll upgrade today and see if I get completely wiped out

(I'm combining expensive science via ScienceTweaker with Gloom and all resources on small and sparse... and I started in a desert, with no water and not much iron. Lots of coal though.)

[Gammro]

After I upgrade to 0.3.1, the FPS/UPS goes down a bit(3 to 15 UPS/FPS lower) for a while every 5-10 seconds. It seems the scriptupdate for Misanthrope uses a lot of time every time this happens. Not sure if this will stabilize because it needs to update all biters first or that the script for 0.3.1 needs more CPUtime in general.

Ill be downgrading to 0.2.x for now.

Edit: I just realized it might be the (now also custom?) attack location determination and path finding suddenly being called a lot more compared to 0.2.x

[Afforess]

After I upgrade to 0.3.1, the FPS/UPS goes down a bit(3 to 15 UPS/FPS lower) for a while every 5-10 seconds. It seems the scriptupdate for Misanthrope uses a lot of time every time this happens. Not sure if this will stabilize because it needs to update all biters first or that the script for 0.3.1 needs more CPUtime in general.

Ill be downgrading to 0.2.x for now.

Edit: I just realized it might be the (now also custom?) attack location determination and path finding suddenly being called a lot more compared to 0.2.x

Provide a copy of your save & mods.zip and I will take a look. In my current game, the F5 menu shows Misanthrope pretty steady at around 0.1-0.2 script update time, but that's just one particular game. I'd be happy to see if I could debug / improve it for yours.