Ai

[hellmonja27]

actually i don't have much idea on how to make an AI for a map. i just need an overview of sorts on how people can make an AI, preferable one for an AoS map.

tips and advice are welcome too.

 

[Darius34]

Search! There are many AI tutorials out there. Especially for AoSes.

 

[Doomhammer]

I can help with that.
Apart from that I found it myself quite hard to come up with any good information about AI. There is barely enough out there.

Thing is that I need to know which type of map you have (TD, AoS, DoTa, Hero Arena, other arena, Shooter, else)
This is important to decide whether to go for AI scripts or hard-coded AI (triggered with GUI or better: JASS)
So the more information about your map specifications and about the AIs capabilities you come up with, the more I could help you with your AI.

 

[uberfoop]

Go to tutorial repository and look for conan's tutorial on AI for how to make aos ai.

 

[hellmonja27]

I can help with that.
Apart from that I found it myself quite hard to come up with any good information about AI. There is barely enough out there.

exactly my point. it's for an AoS. and no, yelling "search" on me isn't any help either...

 

[Doomhammer]

OK, it's a Dota replica; you could have simply written that.

First things first: this can be triggered with even moderate GUI knowledge.
Conan's AI tutorial is a tutorial on an AI, yes, but not really appropriate here. (kind of I show you a BMW when you actually need a pick-up truck to transport cumbersome stuff: yes they're both cars;-)

So let's just go through the single tasks your "ai" should do:
1) selecting a hero - have the hero chosen randomly, or define some hero for hero1, hero2,...
2) move the hero around and attack enemies - that can be made a bit like in conan's trigger
3) select the right hero skills when gaining experience - that's a lot of work because you have many heroes and even more skills, yet you can trigger that easily
4) healing the hero when damaged - create a simple loop on the event that a hero has less than X healthpoints with the action to have the hero run to the shop to buy healing potions or run to a fountain of health
5) is there more to dota?

so yes, you surely can do that yourself. Maybe there are even some dota "ai" triggers around for you to modify. Good luck!

 

[hellmonja27]

yes it's a DotA replica, though i'd prefer not to call it that. but please don't let it fool you though. i just needed a platform and i really worked hard on my heroes.

thank you for the list. so i was right: it is a lot of work and you have to trigger every damn thing the AI should do. i was thinking some AI programmers used some voodoo programs or something but, well, knowing it can be GUI is kinda comforting. thnx again...

 

[Chocobo]

[B][U]voodoo programs[/U][/B]

Voodoo Programs?

HAHAHAZ XD


All you must do is manual orders for AI via triggering, and they'll obey. But you must create every action they can do, else they do nothing.

 

[Doomhammer]

there are no voodoo programs, but you're right about the rest.
Basically you your "AI" (note that a proper AI by definition has the ability to learn, which so far does not exist in games thelike) can be done in 2 ways:

1) using AI scripts
2) hardcoded, i.e. through triggers/functions running either constantly, e.g. every 5 game seconds, or through events, like hero1 health is equal to or less than 200

Option 1) is not quite appropriate here, since you have no need for melee ai functions such as harvesting, building structures, unit production, going for expansion towns,..., so you definitely have to do it the more "hardcoded" way.
So best thing is think about how you as player would act in general, as well as in certain game situations, to then break it down to how these strategies can be "translated" into triggers. Once you have written your set of triggers, you will find out that further improvements can be made, so you go over it again to tune certain parameters of your triggers, e.g. have the hero seak a fountain of health when under 300 healthpoints instead of 200. You will also find out that additional functions will have to be added, e.g. avoiding heroes getting stuck in the forest, or, in case it still happens, getting them on the right path again. In many cases you can't do a 1-1 conversion; best example is items: you can't order a hero to buy an item, so you'll have to cheat it in some way, like checking if the hero has the cash, to then just add the item to his inventory. So after this tuning process you will finally come out with an acceptable result; yet, never expect a bunch of scripts act in a more intelligent way than a human player - a machine can decide a LOT faster, that's for sure, but the quality of its decisions made will never be as good as that of a good human mind.