View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0002240AI War 1 / ClassicBug - OtherJan 16, 2011 12:27 am
ReporterZeyurn Assigned ToChris_McElligottPark  
Status resolvedResolutionfixed 
Product Version4.059 
Fixed in Version4.068 
Summary0002240: Units will not attack Special Forces Rally Guardian without explicit orders
DescriptionAs stated in the summary, I found in my last game I often have a special forces rally guardian basically sitting right outside one of my forcefields on a planet with none of my turrets or units deigning to attack it. I have to explicitly order the attack before they will.

Since nothing bad happens when you kill one, in fact I'm pretty sure only good results, player ships should automatically attack these targets without explicit ordering.
TagsNo tags attached.
Internal Weight

Relationships

duplicate of 0002128 resolvedChris_McElligottPark Special Forces Rally Guardians not auto-targetted 

Activities

Toll

Jan 3, 2011 2:48 pm

reporter   ~0007370

Last edited: Jan 3, 2011 2:51 pm

I'm guessing the reason they're not auto-attacking is because of a) their high armour (I think they have about 100k or so?) in combination with b) their high health. If your units auto-attacked it while there was a battle in the system, Bad Things(tm) might ensue.

Edit: Misremembered slightly; they have 40k*mk armor and 8m*mk health. Still, it's a fair chunk to eat for most ships, even en masse.

Zeyurn

Jan 3, 2011 3:56 pm

reporter   ~0007371

The unit AI is pretty good about prioritizing stuff they can hurt over stuff they can't, I think? There's no real reason a ship that by design is supposed to draw stuff to your homeworld shouldn't be at least something the units will auto-fire on at some point.

TechSY730

Jan 3, 2011 6:21 pm

reporter   ~0007379

Last edited: Jan 3, 2011 6:41 pm

Yes, the unit AI is pretty good with choosing targets. Sadly, the unit AI is pretty stupid with CHANGING targets. Once a ship gets an attack order, they will keep attacking it even if a "better" target enters the system. This is why many really tough but not offensivly threatening targets are not auto-targetable. Sadly, this is auto-retargeting of auto-attack orders is something the devs are not keen on adding.

Zeyurn

Jan 3, 2011 8:12 pm

reporter   ~0007395

Last edited: Jan 3, 2011 8:15 pm

I don't want them to change what they're firing at to something else, I just want them to fire at the thing in the first place.

EDIT: An alternate option I suppose would be some kind of note that there's one on planet X that you have.

TechSY730

Jan 3, 2011 8:18 pm

reporter   ~0007398

Last edited: Jan 3, 2011 8:18 pm

But the thing is, unless you have a bunch of Mk. III stuff, it will take a LONG time to kill it. If something else threatening comes in (a hybrid hive, a wave, or something), and your ships tried to attack a Special Forces Rally Guardian before that threat came, your ships would not attack the incoming threat. This is a problem because they will be firing at the Special Forces Rally Guardian for a long time before it is dead, at which point the new actually damaging threat has its way with the system.

Toll

Jan 3, 2011 9:12 pm

reporter   ~0007407

One "solution" (both to this and to other things) would be for ships to attack a low-priority target if there are no high-priority targets on the planet. Whenever a high-priority target enters the planet, the normal behavior of targetting and flying to it would apply. This could also be extended to astro-trains and wormhole guardposts etc. I'm not sure how CPU-intensive it would be though...

TechSY730

Jan 3, 2011 9:18 pm

reporter   ~0007410

@Toll

I already suggested that (see 0002130). It was rejected. I'm guessing even very very specific and minor checks would be too expensive at this point.

Toll

Jan 4, 2011 6:17 am

reporter   ~0007432

The difference is that in my version, the target wouldn't actually be targetted. Just a simple "if (target==null && hostile_in_range) {fire on hostile}". But yeah, might still be too CPU-intensive.

KDR_11k

Jan 4, 2011 7:27 am

reporter   ~0007433

On the Spring RTS engine we have a value called BadTargetCategory, a unit will only attack bad targets if no good ones are available and will keep looking for a good target as if it didn't have a target already.

TechSY730

Jan 4, 2011 9:00 pm

reporter   ~0007486

Last edited: Jan 4, 2011 9:11 pm

@KDR_11K

I know that most mods on the Spring RTS engine (and also the original Total Annilation) can easily have hundreds of units in a single attack force, but does this logic scale to thousands of units vs. thousands of units?

Chris_McElligottPark

Jan 16, 2011 12:27 am

administrator   ~0008622

Okay, time for a complete redesign here:

* AI Special Forces Rally Post Guardians now have zero extra armor and zero extra health compared to the basic guardian template. Their attack is now 10k * shiplevel rather than just a token shiplevel value. They no longer have cloaking, they no longer have self-attrition, they no longer hunt the human homeworlds, and they are no longer direct-only targeted.
** However, they now have a new ability: not only do they draw the AI special forces ships to them in the way they always have, but the AI also gets special forces reinforcements added at this guardian during each reinforcement event at the guardian's planet (they don't count as a guard post in any other fashion, though - not for ship counts or anything like that).

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Jan 3, 2011 2:05 pm Zeyurn New Issue
Jan 3, 2011 2:48 pm Toll Note Added: 0007370
Jan 3, 2011 2:51 pm Toll Note Edited: 0007370
Jan 3, 2011 3:56 pm Zeyurn Note Added: 0007371
Jan 3, 2011 6:21 pm TechSY730 Note Added: 0007379
Jan 3, 2011 6:22 pm TechSY730 Relationship added duplicate of 0002128
Jan 3, 2011 6:41 pm TechSY730 Note Edited: 0007379
Jan 3, 2011 8:12 pm Zeyurn Note Added: 0007395
Jan 3, 2011 8:15 pm Zeyurn Note Edited: 0007395
Jan 3, 2011 8:18 pm TechSY730 Note Added: 0007398
Jan 3, 2011 8:18 pm TechSY730 Note Edited: 0007398
Jan 3, 2011 9:12 pm Toll Note Added: 0007407
Jan 3, 2011 9:18 pm TechSY730 Note Added: 0007410
Jan 4, 2011 6:17 am Toll Note Added: 0007432
Jan 4, 2011 7:27 am KDR_11k Note Added: 0007433
Jan 4, 2011 9:00 pm TechSY730 Note Added: 0007486
Jan 4, 2011 9:11 pm TechSY730 Note Edited: 0007486
Jan 9, 2011 1:47 am Chris_McElligottPark Status new => closed
Jan 9, 2011 1:47 am Chris_McElligottPark Assigned To => Chris_McElligottPark
Jan 9, 2011 1:47 am Chris_McElligottPark Resolution open => duplicate
Jan 16, 2011 12:27 am Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0008622
Jan 16, 2011 12:27 am Chris_McElligottPark Status closed => resolved
Jan 16, 2011 12:27 am Chris_McElligottPark Resolution duplicate => fixed
Jan 16, 2011 12:27 am Chris_McElligottPark Fixed in Version => 4.068