stoffe -mkb-'s improved AI (was Question about behaviors...)

[Lorden Darkblade]

Never noticed that here either mav

Still, would be funny to see it :D

[Achilles]

Well the good news is that T3 seems to leave Kreia alone now. The bad news is that I have a couple of additional suggestion/request.

 

Could something be added so that Hanharr will activate wookie rage on his own? Similarly, can G0-T0 use his droid trick/droid scramble when confronting droids?

 

As always your consideration is greatly appreciated!

[stoffe]

Originally posted by Achilles

Could something be added so that Hanharr will activate wookie rage on his own? Similarly, can G0-T0 use his droid trick/droid scramble when confronting droids?

 

I have updated the archive with those changes now. I had added use of G0T0s droid scrambler earlier, but I discovered a bug that might have prevented it from being used. Hopefully it will work now.

 

Don't have any savegame anywhere near some place I can remember being populated with droids after having picked up G0T0 though, so I can't test it right now.

 

Likewise, since I always play as a lightsider I don't have any savegames with Hanharr available for testing, but theoretically he should use his Rage feats now.

[Achilles]

You're the best. I'll check it out and let you know. Thanks again.

[Renegade Angel]

Cool mod!

 

[stoffe]

Since all the more recent posts in this thread seems to have vanished I guess I should re-post the summary of what has been changed in this variant of the AI so far. I think this is the most recent version...

 

The archive can be downloaded here.

 

1) General changes:

----------------

* Characters will only use the best they have in a family of active combat feats. I.e. if they have Flurry and Improved Flurry, they will only use Improved Flurry, never Flurry, like the standard AI often would.

 

* Partymembers will only use the best force power in a tier of force powers. I.e. if the character knows Wound, Choke and Kill they will only use Kill, unlike the standard AI. There are a few exceptions to this, where lower tier powers still are useful. For example they will still use Whirlwind occasionally even if they know Force Wave. Non-partymembers will also be affected by this, but occasionally some of them will fall back to the old behavior briefly.

 

* Added some limited sanity checks to force power usage. For example if a target is already horrified the character will not continue to spam Force Insanity on them, and they won't use Stasis/Stasis Field on targets who are already held in stasis.

 

* If Hanharr is in your party, he will automatically enter Wookiee Rage every now and then during battle.

 

* If Bao-Dur is fighting unarmed, he will use his Shield Breaker combat feat if the enemy he is fighting has an energy shield activated.

 

* Modified the AI to be a bit more varied in its behavior when the creature becomes injured. Previously a force user with Drain Life would stop doing anything else but use Drain until they got back above 50% health again. They will still try to heal often, but no longer exclusively, when injured.

 

* Fixed bug where the AI would try to use the first tier Heal force power to cure poisons, which that power isn't capable of.

 

* Fixed bug/oddity with AI using buff/defense powers that affect the whole party. If, for example, Visas knows Master Energy Resistance and Kreia has Energy Resistance, and Visas has activated Master Energy Resist, the AI wouldn't check that the higher power than what she knows was already active, and Kreia would try to cast the best she had (Energy Resistance). Since the script of that power checks if a better power in the same tier is already active on the caster and if so does nothing, she would cast the power, but it wouldn't do anything. Next round the AI would see that the buff wasn't there and decide to try to use it again... and again... and again, until the Master Energy Resist wore off and the script would trigger. It now checks if an equal or better power in the same tier is already active before trying to use a force power.

 

* Fixed bug for non-party droid AI, they will no longer try to use poison weapons (like Toxin Emitters) against droid party members, as droids are immune to poison.

 

* Fixed the odd behavior were party members sometimes refused to attack enemies who were incapacitated.

 

* Re-wrote the target selection code quite a bit for the custom AI. It should now be less prone to rush away into yet unexplored rooms and try to attack enemies behind closed doors etc.

 

* Added optional rudimentary support for the AI to use some of the new force powers in the High Level Force Powers mod I released a while ago (whose thread has disappeared from the forum). This is turned off by default since you need to manually set which lines in your spells.2da is occupied by these new powers.

 

If you wish to use it, open the include file st_inc_ai.nss with a plaintext editor and change the values assigned to the globals at the top to match the line numbers in your 2DA file, and set the ST_GLOBAL_ENABLE_POWERS global to TRUE. Note: the labels for the following powers does not quite match the name of the corresponding global:

ST_FORCE_POWER_IMMORTALITY --> ST_FORCE_POWER_REGEN

ST_FORCE_POWER_INCINERATE --> ST_FORCE_POWER_INFERNO

ST_FORCE_POWER_SLEEP --> ST_FORCE_POWER_SAPWILL

 

Then recompile all the scripts listed in the compileall.bat file.

 

 

1) Changed to the Jedi Support Style (partymembers only):

---------------------------------

* AI controlled characters will stay within 10 meters of the party leader and only attack targets they can reach from there with its currently equipped weapons or selected force powers.

 

 

 

 

2) Changes to the Grenadier Style (partymembers only):

------------------------------

* Droids will occasionally use their equipped special droid weapons during combat. T3M4 will use its Shock Arm more often since it has unlimited charges.

 

* If T3M4 is equipped with its Renewable Shield, it will automatically activate the shield when entering combat, and re-activate it whenever it drops during the battle.

 

* If G0T0 is in the party and you are fighting droids, it will use its Droid Scrambler ability occasionally.

 

* Droids will use their combat feats (Rapid Shot, Power Blast...) more often than before.

 

* AI controlled characters will stay within 10 meters of the party leader and only attack targets they can reach from there with its currently equipped weapons.

 

* If a party member is equipped with a wrist rocket launcher (only Mira normally), she will use it to lob grenades and launch rockets every now and then in battle. Other party members will not use grenades in battle when set to this style any more.

 

 

 

 

3) Changes to the Ranged Style (partymembers only):

---------------------------

* If a party member is equipped with a wrist rocket launcher (only Mira normally), she will use it to lob grenades and launch rockets occasionally when in battle.

 

 

 

 

4) Changes to the Aggressive Style (partymembers only):

-------------------------------

* Force users set to this will use their buffing/defense powers on occasion, though a lot more rarely than those set to Jedi Support.

[SoNico717]

I already test this mod and i really enjoy it, my droids are more useful now and my padawans that use Jedi Support are no more stupid.

 

I play this mod combine with hardcore mod and as you said before there is no problem at all.

 

Are you going to improve this further on or this is the final realease?, if you ask me i don't know what else you should add because for me is pefect like it is.

 

You should make a public release of this mod, this mod + usm + hardcore mod really improve the game play.

 

Great job!

[stoffe]

Originally posted by SoNico717

Are you going to improve this further on or this is the final realease?, if you ask me i don't know what else you should add because for me is pefect like it is.

 

I improve on it every now and then when I feel like it, either when I think of something that annoys me with the AI, or when someone makes a suggestion.

 

Currently I'm working on trying to make the use of force powers by the party AI somewhat context sensitive (so they won't start out with using Force Barrier when fighting a roomful of blaster wielders for example). Remains to see if it works like planned.

 

 

Originally posted by SoNico717

You should make a public release of this mod, this mod + usm + hardcore mod really improve the game play.

 

Don't know if it's a good idea to make a "public" release of this since there are a few problems with it I've been unable to correct so far. The "all attack when pressing the Attack GUI button no matter what" is the most annoying of those problems. Doesn't give a very polished impression.

 

That, and I'd think this would have a rather limited audience since it modifies the behavior of existing AI styles rather than add new ones (which AFAIK can't be done).

 

I've also heard it's incompatible with Xcoms Mind Probe Mod, which is one of the most downloaded on pcgamemods, so releasing this would probably cause more trouble than it's worth for non-modders trying to use it.

[yohan]

~

Hey I downloaded the .rar file but I don't know how to use it!

 

I'm not sure if I'm suppose to just throw all the files into the Override folder or something...

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

~

[thestemmer]

As a non-modder, I'm also a bit confused about how to install this. To be honest, I don't really know how to do anything other than dumping files in the Override folder. I know nothing about compiling files, for instance, or even what that's supposed to mean. Would anyone be kind enough to make some step-by-step instructions for how to get this mod up and running? I'd be grateful for any assistance.

[Jeff]

For a .rar. file, use WinRar, "a powerful tool to process rar and zip files." What is does is extract the compressed files out of the rar file. You just open the rar in winrar, then extract to them to your override.

 

Hope this helps!

[thestemmer]

Is that it? I want to be able to use these scripts with the Hardcore Mod, but I'm not sure what all of this talk about compiling/recompiling means. It looks like the rar came installed with "compileall.bat" and a folder called "compiled (override)," but I have no idea what to do with them.

 

Also, stoffe's instructions say to add a line of code to k_ai_mater.nss at line 155, but when I locate that line using the "goto" command in notepad, it seems to be in the middle of a block of text, and I'm afraid to touch it. Again, I apologize for being so clueless. Anybody have any tips?

[stoffe]

If you just want to use the altered scripts as they are, open the archive with WinRAR or some other application capable of extracting RAR files. Then drag all the files from the compiled(override) folder inside the archive into your game's override folder.

 

If you don't have an override folder, create a new folder named override in the folder containing the swkotor2.exe file.

 

 

If you want to alter the scripts to combine them with beancounter's hardcore mod, you'll have to add two lines in the k_ai_master.nss script as described. This script, and the necessary include files it uses, is found in the source (for humans) folder within the archive of this tweak.

 

Put a copy of nwnnsscomp.exe and nwscript.nss in this folder and use that to recompile, to make sure the correct includes are used. Most of the AI changes are in those include files, so if you use the wrong includes most of the changes will be negated.

 

Go to line 141, which should be just above a line looking like...

if(GN_GetSpawnInCondition(SW_FLAG_EVENT_ON_PERCEPTION) && GetLastPerceptionSeen())

Put the cursor at line 141 and press return to make a new line, and on this new blank line, paste in

if (!GetPlayerRestrictMode() && !GetFeatAcquired(FEAT_IMPLANT_LEVEL_1)) {
   Hardcore_Mod(); 
}

Then scroll up to the top of the file and go to line 16, which should looke like...

#include "st_inc_ai"

Put the cursor at the end of line 16 and hit return to add a new line below it. On this new line, paste in

#include "Hardcore_Mod"

 

Then you need to recompile the k_ai_master.nss script you just modified to get an NCS file that the game can use.

 

To do this you need the nwnnsscomp.exe utility. Check the tutorial section at the top of the forum, I think there's a description there about how to compile scripts. Make sure you place any source (NSS) scripts that came with the hardcore mod in the same folder as the scripts from this mod before you try to recompile.

 

Since I don't use the hardcore mod myself I haven't personally tested if this works, but from what I've heard from others it appears to work fine.

[thestemmer]

That is just what I needed, stoffe. Thanks so much for your help. I wish all forum communities were this friendly.

[Dyliak]

Hi Stoffe,

I've another question that it's more for the pc AI than the party AI, and I'll try to explain it... if I'm able (english isn't my first language)...

 

I don't know if happen also to you that, when you find some enemy, the first target your pc choose is those more far, so if you choose your tactics, could happen that your pc is stuck against the first row of enemy that, happily, chop you...

... my question is: there isn't a script that allow to target before the closest enemy than one random?

 

...if isn't clear what I mean ask freely and thank you as always

[stoffe]

Originally posted by Dyliak

I don't know if happen also to you that, when you find some enemy, the first target your pc choose is those more far, so if you choose your tactics, could happen that your pc is stuck against the first row of enemy that, happily, chop you...

... my question is: there isn't a script that allow to target before the closest enemy than one random?

 

If you mean the player controlled character, that is not determined by the AI scripts. The AI is usually blocked out for the active character.

 

The game engine itself determines which enemy the targeting reticle is snapped to when hostiles are encountered. I think it picks the first hostile opponent that enters your perception, regardless of the distance.

 

Since this isn't scripted I don't think its possible to do anything about it, unfortunately. The scripting language has no functionality to control which character is targeted in the user interface.

 

I suppose it's possible to alter the AI-scripts to make the active character automatically attack the nearest hostile creature as soon as they spot a hostile. But this would probably be more irritating than helpful since if you need to pick targets manually, or wanted to start combat with something else than an attack, you'd find your targeting overridden by the AI scripts.

[Dyliak]

Originally posted by stoffe -mkb-

If you mean the player controlled character, that is not determined by the AI scripts. The AI is usually blocked out for the active character.

 

The game engine itself determines which enemy the targeting reticle is snapped to when hostiles are encountered. I think it picks the first hostile opponent that enters your perception, regardless of the distance.

 

Since this isn't scripted I don't think its possible to do anything about it, unfortunately. The scripting language has no functionality to control which character is targeted in the user interface.

 

I suppose it's possible to alter the AI-scripts to make the active character automatically attack the nearest hostile creature as soon as they spot a hostile. But this would probably be more irritating than helpful since if you need to pick targets manually, or wanted to start combat with something else than an attack, you'd find your targeting overridden by the AI scripts.

 

Argh... ok ok that's fine as is it then!

 

Anyway I'm checking your last version and all work fine just now, only sometimes happen that some party character feign a meele attack and then they came back after few steps, but nothing of annoying

[StarRaven]

Well, this is certainly different. I've just started a new game with these scripts in, and it really changes things. I don't think I've ever been killed on Peragus before this.

 

I've noticed that grenades are suddenly very prevalent; was this intentional?

 

Originally posted by stoffe -mkb-

* Fixed bug for non-party droid AI, they will no longer try to use poison weapons (like Toxin Emitters) against droid party members, as droids are immune to poison.

Also, you might want to check this out; the mining droids on Peragus have been hitting T3 with poison grenades.

[stoffe]

Originally posted by StarRaven

Well, this is certainly different. I've just started a new game with these scripts in, and it really changes things. I don't think I've ever been killed on Peragus before this.

 

I've noticed that grenades are suddenly very prevalent; was this intentional?

 

Do you mean partymembers using grenades, or the enemy using grenades more? As far as I remember I haven't modified how often enemies use grenades, so that would not be intentional.

 

The modified AI scripts were mostly geared to make party members a little bit smarter (if you can use that term), though some things like selection of combat feats and force powers should affect opponents too to some degree.

 

 

Originally posted by StarRaven

Also, you might want to check this out; the mining droids on Peragus have been hitting T3 with poison grenades.

 

Hmm... while the point you quoted mostly referred to droid utility weapons, you are correct that they shouldn't use poison grenades against non-living targets either. I'll see if I can do something about that.

[beancounter]

Wow, Stoffe - What a great Mod! Very impressive! Have you ever thought about altering the enemy AI with your mod? I am sure you could make a far better AI then the stock one.

 

I am starting up a new game of TSL and I will be sure to include your mod.

[StarRaven]

Originally posted by stoffe -mkb-

Do you mean partymembers using grenades, or the enemy using grenades more? As far as I remember I haven't modified how often enemies use grenades, so that would not be intentional.

Sorry. I meant enemies. I didn't have party members at the time, so I didn't think to specify.

 

And now that I think of it; though I had the harcore mod before I had this, I didn't go to Peragus before I installed these scripts. So the difference may be from the harcore mod. I'll have to start a new game to test it, I suppose.

[stoffe]

Originally posted by beancounter

Wow, Stoffe - What a great Mod! Very impressive! Have you ever thought about altering the enemy AI with your mod? I am sure you could make a far better AI then the stock one.

 

I'm working on a variant that should reduce the dumbness of AI opponents a little as well, since I'll need it for a mod that I'm working on.

 

I could release that version as a stand-alone archive as well, though it probably won't work on all opponents since some use modified, module-specific AI scripts, which would be troublesome to find and recompile. Should work for all AI opponents that use the standard set of AI scripts though.

 

Don't know yet how long it will take to get it done though, or what changes it will end up with.

 

 

@StarRaven: I'd guess your difficulties are due to the hardcore mod. These changed AI scripts can mostly make opponents that use force powers or active combat feats a bit tougher.

[SoNico717]

I'm working on a variant that should reduce the dumbness of AI opponents a little as well, since I'll need it for a mod that I'm working on.

 

I could release that version as a stand-alone archive as well, though it probably won't work on all opponents since some use modified, module-specific AI scripts, which would be troublesome to find and recompile. Should work for all AI opponents that use the standard set of AI scripts though.

 

Don't know yet how long it will take to get it done though, or what changes it will end up with.

 

 

@StarRaven: I'd guess your difficulties are due to the hardcore mod. These changed AI scripts can mostly make opponents that use force powers or active combat feats a bit tougher.

 

Great news, i can't wait for that.

[stoffe]

I have uploaded a new variant of the tweaked AI that I primarily made for an Arena mod I created, but I have adapted it for more generic use. This version focuses more on improving the opponent AI a bit, even though party members also are affected.

 

You can get it here if you want to try it.

 

This is new in this version:

 

* Improved Force Powers filtering to reduce needless spam of powers, and lessen improper use of powers.

 

* Non-party NPCs set to use the BOSS AI should now use Force Crush on occasion if they know it.

 

* Added support for making the big boss-type opponents in the game use some High Level force powers if you have that mod installed. This is disabled by default, to enable it, change the ST_GLOBAL_ENABLE_BOSS_POWERS global in the st_inc_powers.nss file to TRUE and recompile. Be warned that this may make those fights a lot harder.

 

* Numerous small tweaks and fixes too numerous and too small to list here.

 

* Completely changed how the AI picks an opponent to fight, in order to make them a bit more focused on who they are attacking, and hopefully a tiny bit more intelligent. The AI will now check all nearby opponents and rank them according to a series of criteria before deciding who to attack.

 

Warning: As I haven't had the time to make a full playthough of the game with this in place yet it's possible it does things I haven't anticipated. Please let me know if you spot any odd behavior resulting from this change.

 

 

 

This remains since earlier versions, with some further changes here and there:

 

 

1) General changes:

----------------

* Characters will only use the best they have in a family of active combat feats. I.e. if they have Flurry and Improved Flurry, they will only use Improved Flurry, never Flurry, like the standard AI often would.

 

* NPCs will only use the best force power in a tier of force powers. I.e. if the character knows Wound, Choke and Kill they will only use Kill, unlike the standard AI. There are a few exceptions to this, where lower tier powers still are useful. For example they will still use Whirlwind occasionally even if they know Force Wave. While Non-partymembers also are affected by this, occasionally some of them may fall back to the old behavior briefly if they have any custom AI scripts assigned to them in the game.

 

* Added some limited sanity checks to force power usage. For example if a target is already horrified the character will not continue to spam Force Insanity on them, and they won't use Stasis/Stasis Field on targets who are already held in stasis.

 

* A creature with Wookiee Rage (Hanharr) will enter Rage every now and then during battle.

 

* If Bao-Dur is fighting unarmed, he will use his Shield Breaker combat feat if the enemy he is fighting has an energy shield activated.

 

* Modified the AI to be a bit more varied in its behavior when the creature becomes injured. Previously a force user with Drain Life would stop doing anything else but use Drain until they got back above 50% health again. They will still try to heal often, but no longer exclusively, when injured.

 

* Fixed bug where the AI would try to use the first tier Heal force power to cure poisons, which that power isn't capable of.

 

* Fixed bug/oddity with AI using buff/defense powers that affect the whole party. If, for example, Visas knows Master Energy Resistance and Kreia has Energy Resistance, and Visas has activated Master Energy Resist, the AI wouldn't check that the higher power than what she knows was already active, and Kreia would try to cast the best she had (Energy Resistance). Since the script of that power checks if a better power in the same tier is already active on the caster and if so does nothing, she would cast the power, but it wouldn't do anything. Next round the AI would see that the buff wasn't there and decide to try to use it again... and again... and again, until the Master Energy Resist wore off and the script would trigger. It now checks if an equal or better power in the same tier is already active before trying to use a force power.

 

* Fixed bug for non-party droid AI, they will no longer try to use poisoning droid weapons (like Toxin Emitters) against droid party members, as droids are immune to poison.

 

* Fixed some odd behavior were party members sometimes refused to attack enemies who were incapacitated.

 

* Re-wrote the target selection code quite a bit for AI controlled party members. It should now be less prone to rush away into yet unexplored rooms and try to attack enemies behind closed doors etc.

 

* Added optional rudimentary support for the AI to use some of the new force powers in the High Level Force Powers mod I released a while ago. This is turned off by default since you need to manually set which lines in your spells.2da is occupeid by these new powers.

 

If you wish to use it, open the include file st_inc_powers.nss and change the values assigned to the globals at the top to match the line numbers in your 2DA file, and set the ST_GLOBAL_ENABLE_POWERS global to TRUE. Make very certain you set the correct numbers, or odd behavior may occur.

 

Then recompile all the scripts listed in the compileall.bat file.

 

 

1) Changed to the Jedi Support Style (partymembers only):

---------------------------------

* AI controlled characters will stay within 10 meters of the party leader and only attack targets they can reach from there with its currently equipped weapons or selected force powers.

 

 

 

 

 

2) Changes to the Grenadier Style (partymembers only):

------------------------------

* Droids will occasionally use their equipped special droid weapons during combat. T3M4 will use its Shock Arm more often since it has unlimited charges.

 

* If T3M4 is equipped with its Renewable Shield, it will automatically activate the shield when entering combat, and re-activate it whenever it drops during the battle.

 

* If G0T0 is in the party and you are fighting droids, it will use its Droid Scrambler ability occasionally.

 

* Droids will use their combat feats (Rapid Shot, Power Blast...) more often than before.

 

* AI controlled characters will stay within 10 meters of the party leader and only attack targets they can reach from there with its currently equipped weapons.

 

* If a party member is equipped with a wrist rocket launcher (only Mira normally), she will use it to lob grenades and launch rockets every now and then in battle. Other party members will not use grenades in battle when set to this style any more.

 

 

 

 

3) Changes to the Ranged Style (partymembers only):

---------------------------

* If a party member is equipped with a wrist rocket launcher (only Mira normally), she will use it to lob grenades and launch rockets occasionally when in battle.

 

 

 

 

4) Changes to the Aggressive Style (partymembers only):

-------------------------------

* Force users set to this will use their buffing/defense powers on occasion, though a lot more rarely than those set to Jedi Support.

[maaneeack]

Do we still have to add the line(s) to enable the hardcore mod?