MINER AI 2

[ryujin]

So... one thing I've noticed that is absolutely awful.

You have miners mining a sector. An enemy flies in. They instantly stop mining and fly to the nearest base.

Again, I understand your logic, and appreciate your effort.

But it slows down the miners so much, as well as takes time away from the commander to keep them mining, AND, the commander has to be in base to order them to keep mining.

IF instead, they kept mining, the commander has the easy option of using f6, even while out of base, to send them to a base if he deems that necessary.

As it is, miners spook way too easy- it slows down the mining and really needs to be redone. You used to have to actually shoot the miners to spook them- please revert to that.

[ryujin]

EDIT:

A little testing done.

If miner says "enemy spotted" it keeps mining.
If miner says "enemy on my scopes", it runs to base.

What causes the difference?

[Radulfr]

To be fair, miners only run if the enemy is within 2000m, or if the enemy is flying towards it. And then only if there are not the same number friendlies in the sector.

I can't think of many situations where you wouldn't want the miner to run in that case. Also, if the situation changes, the miner will stop running go right back to mining.

I guess I can revert it though, if you guys really don't like it.

QUOTE (Ryujin @ Mar 18 2018, 11:45 AM) If miner says "enemy spotted" it keeps mining.
If miner says "enemy on my scopes", it runs to base.

As far as I remember there should be only one of those sort of messages when it starts running. Don't have to code here though, idk.
If you can tell me the exact text on the bottom 3 lines when it doesn't run, I can look it up.

[qqmwoarplox]

can you stop touching the miner AI please
I'm asking very nicely

[Radulfr]

QUOTE ( Saudade @ Mar 18 2018, 12:26 PM) can you stop touching the miner AI please
I'm asking very nicely

Appreciated
Ya, sure .. might not have been the best idea to mess with from the start. But it is the way towards allowing more people to command and possible also to having an auto-commander.

[qqmwoarplox]

You are making commanding harder to the current ones though =(

[zombywoof]

QUOTE (Radulfr @ Mar 18 2018, 09:34 AM) Ya, sure .. might not have been the best idea to mess with from the start. But it is the way towards allowing more people to command and possible also to having an auto-commander.

... is it though?

Honest question, Radulfr, and if it comes across as rude I sincerely apologize because that's not my intent: How many games of allegiance have you commanded?

I really don't think that miner AI was all that broken before. There were a couple of weird quirks that could be fixed, like, for example, the way my miners would sometimes offload forwards and sometimes offload backwards with neither rhyme nor reason. One of the things that you fixed that annoyed me was when my miners would get full and go, "oh cool, there's an outpost nearby for me to dock at" while conveniently ignoring the enemy outpost in the same sector. But the rest of your fixes seem to be causing more problems than they solve?

I get that people complained about miner AI and you were like, "aha! I can help!" and dove in. That kind of enthusiasm is admirable. But the barrier to commanding isn't miner AI (maybe the barrier to 'autocommand' is). The problem with NewbieComm isn't that the miner's AI is broken, the problem with NewbieComm is that we have a new pilot who doesn't really understand the game but somehow has to balance expanding with buying tech with proactively protecting their miners by moving them around with keeping track of the enemy's miners and expansion and tech... there's just a lot to do as a commander, so much so in fact that even great commanders can occasionally miss and/or forget things.

If the goal is to lower the barrier of entry to commanding, you should command more. I promise that so long as you listen to backseating and buy actual tech, it won't be as miserable a "the vets hate me" experience as it's built up to be. The best pilots will win regardless of their commander by $#@!ing up the enemy's miners, something that can be done with basic scouts. Your job as a commander is to facilitate those pilots.

[qqmwoarplox]

Just revert all the changes

[Radulfr]

QUOTE ( Saudade @ Mar 18 2018, 03:52 PM) Just revert all the changes

Go ask an other dev. I will not waste my time on making things worse, even if you may disagree with me.

I am however open to undoing the miners running without damage. As even though it was technically a bug fix, it is in effect still a new mechanic to active players.
I would however like to know in what cases the miners currently run when they shouldn't be.


QUOTE ( P1)Honest question, Radulfr, and if it comes across as rude I sincerely apologize because that's not my intent: How many games of allegiance have you commanded?[/quote]
Probably about 15, unless you count test games. I prefer smaller games, as I get overwhelmed in large ones.
But you knew the number wouldn't be high..

I agree, there is a ton to do as commander. I would have liked commanding to be more about choosing the tech and making other strategic decisions, instead of micro-managing units.

[zombywoof]

QUOTE (Radulfr @ Mar 18 2018, 01:48 PM) Probably about 15, unless you count test games. I prefer smaller games, as I get overwhelmed in large ones.
But you knew the number wouldn't be high..

The number is honestly higher than I expected. I figured you'd be very close to 0.

QUOTE I agree, there is a ton to do as commander. I would have liked commanding to be more about choosing the tech and making other strategic decisions, instead of micro-managing units.[/quote]
See, I think one of the marks of a great commander is the ability to micro units.

Similarly, I don't think Starcraft would be nearly as fun without the micro aspect. My evidence for that is that SC2 was, relatively, a flop compared to Brood War.

BTW in the bigger games, I'd be more than happy to sit on miner defense for you, moving your miners from place to place. We need more commanders and if what it takes is me managing your miners to get you to command, so be it. Keep in mind I'd be doing it with the expectation that some day you'll take over your own miners