[MOD 0.14] AAI Programmable Vehicles

[Xs_]

Having an issue with this & angels Industries (previously logistics)

When you control the AI of the crawler (building platform) it clears the equipment grid's sub-contents, so when you have a burner generator it clears all the fuel contained within it.

This appears when cycling through the AI modes and moving the crawler with the remote, only when toggling modes while sat in the crawler (between AI with overide and AI off) does the fuel stay intact.

[Mernom]

Having an issue with this & angels Industries (previously logistics)

When you control the AI of the crawler (building platform) it clears the equipment grid's sub-contents, so when you have a burner generator it clears all the fuel contained within it.

This appears when cycling through the AI modes and moving the crawler with the remote, only when toggling modes while sat in the crawler (between AI with overide and AI off) does the fuel stay intact.

The problem seem to be coming from the fact that when the vehicles are moving, it's temperarily stops getting treated like an actual vehicle to simplify the movement process. I don't know if it can be fixed right now, but the devs did mention about unlocking pathfinding requests for moddign API, so that may allow the mod author to make a direct system without that workaround.

[Darkov]

When there are too many vehicles with the AI on, the game starts lagging like hell. I am talking about 80-100 of them.
Is it possible to either have a fix for this, or make a special AI state, where the AI is off unless an enemy is near? See, we are using them as turrets.
So a sentry AI mode, where the AI is off, unless biters are near.
Or some slow mode AI which makes the AI less responsive may also work.
edit: the lag is there even when the vehicles are idle, but the ai state is set to blue (on if no one is inside)

[RocketManChronicles]

When there are too many vehicles with the AI on, the game starts lagging like hell. I am talking about 80-100 of them.
Is it possible to either have a fix for this, or make a special AI state, where the AI is off unless an enemy is near? See, we are using them as turrets.
So a sentry AI mode, where the AI is off, unless biters are near.
Or some slow mode AI which makes the AI less responsive may also work.
edit: the lag is there even when the vehicles are idle, but the ai state is set to blue (on if no one is inside)

A lot of the lag you are seeing is due to the tick rate of the towers communicating with the vehicles. Slow the rates down to manage vehicles at a slower rate (i.e. every 60 ticks or 1 second as opposed to 60 times per second). Using them as turrets, you do not need to have them constantly updating, slow it down to a second or a couple seconds. I am assuming you are using the towers to keep them in location.

[Darkov]

I do not understand, I am not using any towers to keep the vehicles in one place.
They just sit there, because I placed them there.
When the biters attack, we take control of some of the vehicles and start moving them manually, using the controller(other vehicles are just sitting behind the walls, as they do more damage than regular turrets and are potentially mobile, so we used them instead of turrets).
The problem is that the game lags when the vehicles are not moving and are just ready to be moved.

The programmable structures are not used to control the vehicles.

If we turn off the AI, the lag is gone. But then the vehicles do not auto attack and will get wrecked by the time we notice the attack wave and turn them on.

[mrvn]

I do not understand, I am not using any towers to keep the vehicles in one place.
They just sit there, because I placed them there.
When the biters attack, we take control of some of the vehicles and start moving them manually, using the controller(other vehicles are just sitting behind the walls, as they do more damage than regular turrets and are potentially mobile, so we used them instead of turrets).
The problem is that the game lags when the vehicles are not moving and are just ready to be moved.

The programmable structures are not used to control the vehicles.

If we turn off the AI, the lag is gone. But then the vehicles do not auto attack and will get wrecked by the time we notice the attack wave and turn them on.

I believe it's because the AI has to constantly scan for aliens or it can't attack them.

Maybe instead the vehicle could be put into defense mode where it would attack when it takes damage and only when it takes damage. That way AII can listen to on_entity_damaged to activate units instead of scanning for aliens.

[Darkov]

Perhaps, I do not know how it is implemented. A few other methods:
If it does scan, maybe it can be made to scan less frequently, if there have been no biters in the last 5-10 seconds.
Or, they can work however the turrets work?
Or (if they cant work like turrets) an invisible turret can spawn at the vehicle location that does 0 damage and when it attacks, the vehicles start to scan for enemies(and the invis turret is removed while the scan is active).

[RocketManChronicles]

Well, in order for the mod to work, each vehicle has a "player avatar" associated with it. This is so that the biters will treat it as a threat rather than not. You might be simulating having 80+ players in your game with that many vehicles solely based on how the mechanics work to my understanding.

[BlueTemplar]

Why would players be performance-heavy though?
(I've been in MP games with that many players without performance becoming unplayable...)

[mrvn]

If the number of players is the problem maybe clusters of units could have just one. So if I send 10 units to the same place or have 10 units follow a leader then only one has a player. At least while no aliens are there if that is possible.

[Mernom]

Why would players be performance-heavy though?
(I've been in MP games with that many players without performance becoming unplayable...)

Because unlike a real multiplayer game, all of those virtual players are simulated on just one instance of the game.

[BlueTemplar]

In a real multiplayer game, all the players are simulated on ALL the instances of the game !

[Darkov]

Whatever the implementation is, it should not lag while the vehicles are idle, unless there is some API/technical limitation.
Just giving feedback and I hope it will get fixed one day, because they mod is very fun and useful, but can get frustrating when it lags all the time.

[RocketManChronicles]

Why would players be performance-heavy though?
(I've been in MP games with that many players without performance becoming unplayable...)

Yes, it would be a problem. I've been on multiplayer maps too, but this mod has coding that does a LOT of "testing" that links biters and the vehicles. What I mean is that the vehicles are constantly scanning outward for biters in range, and similarly the biters are being coded to scan for players, or in case of vehicles, player avatars. It is a double dump of resources to allow a more "natural" response of biters to the unmanned vehicles.

[BlueTemplar]

Ok for scanning vehicles - but I don't think that AAI changes biters in any way ?

[brokenshakles]

Is there any hope of getting this updated for 0.17? Bobs + Angels works at this point, and this is the third leg of my preferred modset.

[Earendel]

There will be a 0.17 update soon.

[brokenshakles]

Woooo! Also, I made a small mod-on-a-mod for "The Ruins" that adds some AAI stuff to spawn if anyone is interested.

[BlueTemplar]

ZAdventure-compatible ?

[brokenshakles]

I have no idea what ZAdventure is...