JESTER V 2.0 & Forthwind V 2.1

[Esty]

Hey !
It took long to me (6 hours) but i managed to make Forthwind compatible with UP !
At least it looks to play pretty well (i probably failed in defining konnik-set correctly, i just replaced it with "konnik" because i was too lazy to search for the good constante. But rest looks to work perfectly !

Marathon, you eventually can test this pretty good AI on UP
And congratz ScreamingKoos for the good work. I wish you could make your next updates compatible with UP

[screamingkoos]

Just dropping in to say I love this AI and its resign excuses are hilarious.

Hey halcyon88,

Thank you for the feedback! This definitely made my day

I'm currently looking at changing out just a few of the resign chats with every update just so it has new saltiness to add to the game. Stay tuned for version 1.8 which will have more humour as well as an improved playstyle (currently in testing stages)! Thanks again!

Hey !
It took long to me (6 hours) but i managed to make Forthwind compatible with UP !

Hey Esty! WOW! This is awesome!

I'm blown away that you would take the time to do this! Absolutely amazing!

I gave up on UP recently because I don't have the "userpatch" and really am unsure of how to install it (I do own the HD edition on steam, only with AOC and AOK civilizations and I tried to install UP 1.5 but it wouldn't work). If you have any info on how to do this, I would really like to keep the changes you made, I just probably have to get UP so I have somewhere to test future updates!

Seriously thankful for you doing this, just crazy that you would take that much time just to make it compatible! Now more people can experience Forthwind

I'll read through the various files of this Forthwind UP to see what an UP version ai looks like! Thanks again Esty!

[Esty]

You're welcome

[Leif Ericson]

You can only install UP if you install the CD version of the game, usually meaning you've installed AoK and The Conquerors from the CD and then downloaded and installed the 1.0c patch. Then, you install UP.

Esty could go into more detail perhaps, but the biggest difference is that UP and the original game only allow 16 elements per rule, where HD and DE allow 32.

[halcyon88]

I can't stress again how much I love this AI. It's rather unique. Another thing I like about it is the stone walls. Not the best thing for AIs but makes it really unique on top of it otherwise being moderately strong and also hilarious and interesting.

In my testing, so far, I find it a similar strength to Bambi.

[halcyon88]

I really hope Screaming enters Forthwind into the King of Arabia 2.

[screamingkoos]

Posting here for the version 1.8 update! Thanks for all of the help from everyone, 1.8 is a pretty snazzy release UP will be updated for the next release!

You can only install UP if you install the CD version of the game, usually meaning you've installed AoK and The Conquerors from the CD and then downloaded and installed the 1.0c patch. Then, you install UP.

Hey Leif, sorry for the late reply! Thanks for this, so I cannot get UP then, my computer doesn't even have a disk drive lol. Although I believe I have all of the original Age of Empires discs from 1 to 3?

I can't stress again how much I love this AI. It's rather unique.

Hey halcyon!
Man I hugely appreciate your feedback! It takes a tremendous amount of effort to envision, create, and test ai's out to make sure everything is working as intended. Just letting you know, I released version 1.8 today, and it really improves on every point you mentioned here! (wall building, humour, and so on). Check it out while it's fresh off the grill! lol.

I'd also like to ask on here, if anyone has any input; I'm coming to a point in Forthwind's development where I need to take a more defined direction with this AI. Should I pursue a more competitive AI, that emphasizes skill and difficulty? Or continue down the trail I am now with humour and random strategies (like making this ai mock you throughout the game through chats and taunts, as well as pursue new strategies that aren't necessarily the best but fun (currently thinking of adding in monk rushes, siege-only pushes, and trash unit spams). and just generally make Forthwind a "different" ai that strives to mock you openly but remain somewhat competitive (not a complete pushover). Any ideas for this will definitely be considered.

Forthwind was originally made to be "different", not necessarily attempting to be "the best" as there are ai's that already aim for being as competitive as possible. I have found so much joy in making an ai that says really dumb stuff or even tries new unconventional strategies that might throw you off.

With this in mind, please feel free to comment any ideas!

I really hope Screaming enters Forthwind into the King of Arabia 2.

Man I've been dying to get Forthwind into a tournament! If this is a DE tournament I will definitely submit Forthwind! If you have anymore info on this please let me know

[Leif Ericson]

Regarding the direction for your AI, I'd ask yourself which direction most excites you. Are you more excited about exploring your AI's competitive potential and optimizing its strategies and behavior, or are you more excited about finding more unconventional strategies and adding to its unique personality. There's always the option of starting a new AI that has a more competitive spirit if you don't want to change the character of Forthwind.

[halcyon88]

Hooray! Exciting! I LOVE this AI. *DLs immediately*

[halcyon88]

I'd also like to ask on here, if anyone has any input; I'm coming to a point in Forthwind's development where I need to take a more defined direction with this AI. Should I pursue a more competitive AI, that emphasizes skill and difficulty? Or continue down the trail I am now with humour and random strategies (like making this ai mock you throughout the game through chats and taunts, as well as pursue new strategies that aren't necessarily the best but fun (currently thinking of adding in monk rushes, siege-only pushes, and trash unit spams). and just generally make Forthwind a "different" ai that strives to mock you openly but remain somewhat competitive (not a complete pushover). Any ideas for this will definitely be considered.

Forthwind was originally made to be "different", not necessarily attempting to be "the best" as there are ai's that already aim for being as competitive as possible. I have found so much joy in making an ai that says really dumb stuff or even tries new unconventional strategies that might throw you off.

With this in mind, please feel free to comment any ideas!

It's a lot of effort but my personal favorite option would be for you to branch off into two different versions: a casual funny/entertaining version and a competitive/serious version.

If that is too much effort then I would recommend going for as competitive as you can but keeping the wall building and funny death excuses. This is my second favorite option though because I wouldn't really want to lose competitive improvements OR more interesting strategies. Hence why my preference is branching off into two separate versions of Forthwind.

If you do go for the two separate versions then you could always call the competitive version something else. (and maybe just leave in the notes of its script that it was originally based on the Forthwind script). I really think the casual/funny/interesting style is what the personality of Forthwind is all about—his identity, if you will— so fits the name. Any competitive version should maybe be called something else but there's also no reason to start from scratch

Please let me know if this feedback was helpful. I've tried scripting in the past but it takes far too much effort for me (Sloth is my biggest vice, we all have our weaknesses) so I'm more of an admirer/critic/playtester unless someday I gain more motivation I'm very passionate about AI ... especially RTS AI and double-especially AoE 2 AI.

I really hope Screaming enters Forthwind into the King of Arabia 2.

Man I've been dying to get Forthwind into a tournament! If this is a DE tournament I will definitely submit Forthwind! If you have anymore info on this please let me know

It's called the King of Arabia 2 and there's a thread on it in the tournaments subforum of this website

It is a DE only tournament so please do enter it!

P.S. Feel free to contact me on DM here on this site and ask for my Steam username if you would like to do some testing of Forthwind together in team games, sometime. Forthwind is actually a similar level to my skill level (on extreme)—depending on if I'm having a good or bad day—so that may make me a helpful playtester if you're interested (Well, me and Forthwind on extreme were similar in skill BEFORE this update at least xD).

P.P.S. Also, I thought that the previous version (the one before this update) was the same level as Bambi but upon further testing it was a bit stronger than Bambi.