Bright Spark
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wattle
- Swami
- Posts: 205
- Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2014 1:06 pm
- Location: Germany
Re: Bright Spark
Sounds really great. Thanks for the interesting change-log. And good luck with the next DC7 matches.
MangudAI-all-in (wip, to be continued, when I retire from work 
)
Btw, thank you s64 for your effort. Was a pleasure to cross your way. Have a good time.
)Btw, thank you s64 for your effort. Was a pleasure to cross your way. Have a good time.
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Bandit1990
- Forumer
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Tue May 03, 2022 2:38 am
Re: Bright Spark
New version (39) for the next stage of Davis Cup 7.
This update is another chunky one with a lot of improvements - I will write up the full change log after I've had some sleep
This update is another chunky one with a lot of improvements - I will write up the full change log after I've had some sleep
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Bandit1990
- Forumer
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Tue May 03, 2022 2:38 am
Re: Bright Spark
Changes included in latest update:
- Boar laming now uses *actual* precise distances so should be far more consistent
- Deer pushing now uses *actual* precise distances so should come in much quicker (thanks Rorrik and Fireball!)
- When forward tower is partially built and Bright Spark has a military lead, it will wall that tower.
- When forward donjon is partially built and Bright Spark has a military lead, it will wall that donjon but leave the 2 tiles towards the back (front being towards the enemy) so that produced units can join the fray or meet any villager/soldier foolish enough to try and take the donjon down.
- Changed to manually allocated builders for towers, donjons and walls so forward villager builders should be capped at 4.
- Initial military buildings are now built towards the back of the TC (should be near first lumber camp) this reduces walking distance significantly and keeps villagers closer to TC and each other in case of drush.
- Bright Spark now knows how much food it has amongst stockpiled resources and what is held by current villagers - it uses this to know exactly when to force drop food to age up to feudal.
- Bright Spark force drops from hunting resources in feudal to reduce delay in initial troops.
- Bright Spark now produces militia when clicked up to feudal and spearmen while waiting for chosen buildings to be made - this results in an attack happening sooner and can often counter a scout rush (Bright Spark's current feudal age weakness).
- Adjusted scouting parameters so more likely to find starting sheep.
- Bright Spark now uses an object ID loop so it can see boars that can be seen by the player on the map, but is on the edge of for of war.
- Improved non combat TC avoidance so starting scout should go around the enemy base and not through it when called back home
- Improved enemy location estimation so should be much more likely to spot enemies when starting scout has died, this is really useful vs Huns and when a pocket rusher is looking for another pocket
- Fixed a number of instances where the scout just stops at the home base
- Fixed a number of instances where the scout just stops in the enemy base... I don't think I have all of them
- Scout enters enemy base sooner to look for boar and weak vils
- Pocket rushers now target by finding third closest enemy rather than comparing with allies. This means when a flank changes target to the pocket due to crippling the enemy flank, the allied pocket stays attacking the pocket as well rather than changing to the flank to avoid matching the ally's target.
- Adjusted food drop amount for Italians
- Town size growth is limited so defence code does not jump in when Bright Spark is winning (which can cancel assault like in the 4v4 vs Demon)
- Farms are halted for market placement when saving for castle, results in a slightly faster click up to castle as gold is usually in excess.
- Defensive villagers now attack enemy builders when they're close.
- Added custom taunts for Immortal and Phyrexx UP (sorry DE, I don't have time for that many names )
- Boar laming now uses *actual* precise distances so should be far more consistent
- Deer pushing now uses *actual* precise distances so should come in much quicker (thanks Rorrik and Fireball!)
- When forward tower is partially built and Bright Spark has a military lead, it will wall that tower.
- When forward donjon is partially built and Bright Spark has a military lead, it will wall that donjon but leave the 2 tiles towards the back (front being towards the enemy) so that produced units can join the fray or meet any villager/soldier foolish enough to try and take the donjon down.
- Changed to manually allocated builders for towers, donjons and walls so forward villager builders should be capped at 4.
- Initial military buildings are now built towards the back of the TC (should be near first lumber camp) this reduces walking distance significantly and keeps villagers closer to TC and each other in case of drush.
- Bright Spark now knows how much food it has amongst stockpiled resources and what is held by current villagers - it uses this to know exactly when to force drop food to age up to feudal.
- Bright Spark force drops from hunting resources in feudal to reduce delay in initial troops.
- Bright Spark now produces militia when clicked up to feudal and spearmen while waiting for chosen buildings to be made - this results in an attack happening sooner and can often counter a scout rush (Bright Spark's current feudal age weakness).
- Adjusted scouting parameters so more likely to find starting sheep.
- Bright Spark now uses an object ID loop so it can see boars that can be seen by the player on the map, but is on the edge of for of war.
- Improved non combat TC avoidance so starting scout should go around the enemy base and not through it when called back home
- Improved enemy location estimation so should be much more likely to spot enemies when starting scout has died, this is really useful vs Huns and when a pocket rusher is looking for another pocket
- Fixed a number of instances where the scout just stops at the home base
- Fixed a number of instances where the scout just stops in the enemy base... I don't think I have all of them
- Scout enters enemy base sooner to look for boar and weak vils
- Pocket rushers now target by finding third closest enemy rather than comparing with allies. This means when a flank changes target to the pocket due to crippling the enemy flank, the allied pocket stays attacking the pocket as well rather than changing to the flank to avoid matching the ally's target.
- Adjusted food drop amount for Italians
- Town size growth is limited so defence code does not jump in when Bright Spark is winning (which can cancel assault like in the 4v4 vs Demon)
- Farms are halted for market placement when saving for castle, results in a slightly faster click up to castle as gold is usually in excess.
- Defensive villagers now attack enemy builders when they're close.
- Added custom taunts for Immortal and Phyrexx UP (sorry DE, I don't have time for that many names
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Bandit1990
- Forumer
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Tue May 03, 2022 2:38 am
Re: Bright Spark
I did a bad job of the last update juggling too many things at once. Version 39b is a re-release of version 39 as this is what version 39 should have been. A bug fix around deer pushing has brought Bright Spark back to the fast feudal and quick first attack on flank that users will be used to, this also has a big impact on pockets improving castle-age times and providing more food for slingers to send.
Have also added Armenians and Georgians. I'm just using standard mule cart behaviour for now but it works pretty well
Edited Persians and other civs to reflect balance changes introduced in the latest patch.
Have also added Armenians and Georgians. I'm just using standard mule cart behaviour for now but it works pretty well
Edited Persians and other civs to reflect balance changes introduced in the latest patch.
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Bandit1990
- Forumer
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Tue May 03, 2022 2:38 am
Re: Bright Spark
Added minor fix to Bright Spark so it plays on the latest patch. Also added Devotion tech.
Some big life changes happening at once meant I've not updated Bright Spark in a while. For anyone who wants to see Bright Spark develop then fear not - I'm back to working on it again and have been focussed on some updates over the last month - watch this space!
Some big life changes happening at once meant I've not updated Bright Spark in a while. For anyone who wants to see Bright Spark develop then fear not - I'm back to working on it again and have been focussed on some updates over the last month - watch this space!
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Bandit1990
- Forumer
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Tue May 03, 2022 2:38 am
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Bandit1990
- Forumer
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Tue May 03, 2022 2:38 am
Re: Bright Spark
Major Bright Spark update.
Will write up change log notes in the next day or so. This has been in the works for the last couple of months so there's a lot to add and explain. In the meantime I hope people can have fun with it!
Will write up change log notes in the next day or so. This has been in the works for the last couple of months so there's a lot to add and explain. In the meantime I hope people can have fun with it!
- Attachments
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- Bright Spark 40 DE.zip
- Please use this for PoArena
- (178.1 KiB) Downloaded 45 times
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Bandit1990
- Forumer
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Tue May 03, 2022 2:38 am
Re: Bright Spark
Notes from the most recent update:
This is a massive update as I’ve been working on this for the past few months!
New Micro
I’ve been working on an overhaul of Bright Spark’s micro. I want to keep the signature style it has with every unit being handled individually but elevate it to the level of the likes of Rehoboam and Immortal and I think I’ve found a way to do that.
For now this only activates during the “Assault” state (when units would protect siege). This is because I haven’t added in TC and Castle avoidance yet so adding it early will make it worse – but this is next on the list so defending and raiding units can make use of it.
When active this micro affects the behaviour of all cav and infantry, normal archer-line and skirm-lines (no unique ranged units yet), hand cannoneers, cav archers, genitours and conquistadors. It also impacts bombard cannon micro.
Melee Units – more effective melee attacks by balancing the closest units with how much HP they have left. All other affected units do this to some degree.
Range Units – now spread out and dodge after shooting which minimises mangonel damage and dodges a significant amount of projectiles (in a 40 v 40 HC fight with CD AI – Bright Spark will often have 32 HCs still standing). They also have battering rams as a lower target priority so enemy rams don’t soak up ranged unit fire (should mean repairers are prioritised over rams too).
Cav Archers – Same as above but they also track nearby melee units (cav and infantry) that are slower than them. If they can outrun them then they will build distance before firing so they are never caught (unless surrounded). If they think they can kill the unit, they will stop running and shoot them at point blank range just before they hit. The inspiration for this micro was I wanted cav archers to feel like the Khuzait in Mount and Blade 2 – Bannerlord, it’s not exactly the same but it’s getting there and it’s really effective.
Bombard Cannons – Will dodge after shooting and will prioritise castles, trebs, mangonels and other bombard cannons. They will target scorpions, organ guns and TCs as secondary targets.
I’ve got other plans to evolve this even more, but really happy with this as a next step.
Other Updates
- Bright Spark will now scan tiles to look for castle/fortification placement based on its objective so defensive castles will prioritise securing nearby resources whereas aggressive castles will lock down enemy resources or (if Bright Spark has an army to protect it) will be bold enough to attempt castle drops on enemy TCs.
- A similar building system is now used for TC placement but will take into consideration both enemy and allied fortifications.
- Both of the above combined should see things like castles being dropped towards the centre of golden pit and TCs built nearby as they are protected.
- Bright Spark now tracks a “front line” which is the most forward fortification and if it has enough will use military to protect those fortifications from trickling units like rams.
- Castles now prioritise certain targets
- Multiple villagers will now repair castles
- DUC builders for fortifications means when a fortification foundation gets moved, any nearby villagers returning to base will be reallocated to the build rather than a group from the base.
- Trebuchets now have enemy unpacked trebuchets as a high priority target
- Slightly better scouting of enemy base on Arena
- Scouts will now acquire any starting livestock in the first few seconds of the game – prevents some occasional awkward starts.
- Livestock gathering now uses precise distance so sheep are much more likely to move to the middle when expected (less sheep getting stuck in clumps and then being eaten by villagers who can’t reach them).
- Villagers less likely to shoot deer if there are several animals already being harvested.
- Changed DUC checks to make it more likely for monks to pick up relics.
- Gates are now locked and unlocked individually based on nearby enemies so melee units can now defend the walls by going out of a safe exit.
- Bright Spark has new strategies on Arena and its existing booming strategy has been smoothed out on all maps.
- Bright Spark now trades with allies later in a team game and makes better use of its resources early castle age.
- Fixed an issue where slinging allies get stuck in Feudal Age when in a team of 3.
- Fixed an issue where rushing strats are halted because they are trying to build 8-12 of its chosen military buildings.
- Fixed an issue where Bright Spark would not attack in team games.
- Monks and Missionaries should be less likely to reset their conversion timers when accompanying siege.
- Villagers no longer try to rush down bombard towers.
- Removed a load of testing flares and debug chat
- Added rules so Bright Spark will double down on its preferred unit if its secondary unit has a really low weight (for example will make pikes rather than pikes and skirms if an enemy starts producing knights).
- Monks can now be trained without a back-up unit.
- Amended farm and market rules to make eco more efficient for each mode Bright Spark goes to.
- Shotel warriors are no longer treated as eagle warriors in terms of counters.
- Bright Spark won’t start an assault when on its way to imperial age.
- Researches devotion.
- Adjusted gatherer distributions, age-up triggers and build orders for civilisations that have unusual age up conditions (Byzantines, Georgians, Khmer and Italians).
- Adjusted “catch up” timer for units guarding siege so it is less likely to interrupt attacks.
- Re-added a “panic mode” when overwhelmed to spend resources to train the best available units from every military building available to bolster defences. This can really help in the late game to stay in the game if upgrades are purchased but Bright Spark has stopped making units to switch out into something different.
This is a massive update as I’ve been working on this for the past few months!
New Micro
I’ve been working on an overhaul of Bright Spark’s micro. I want to keep the signature style it has with every unit being handled individually but elevate it to the level of the likes of Rehoboam and Immortal and I think I’ve found a way to do that.
For now this only activates during the “Assault” state (when units would protect siege). This is because I haven’t added in TC and Castle avoidance yet so adding it early will make it worse – but this is next on the list so defending and raiding units can make use of it.
When active this micro affects the behaviour of all cav and infantry, normal archer-line and skirm-lines (no unique ranged units yet), hand cannoneers, cav archers, genitours and conquistadors. It also impacts bombard cannon micro.
Melee Units – more effective melee attacks by balancing the closest units with how much HP they have left. All other affected units do this to some degree.
Range Units – now spread out and dodge after shooting which minimises mangonel damage and dodges a significant amount of projectiles (in a 40 v 40 HC fight with CD AI – Bright Spark will often have 32 HCs still standing). They also have battering rams as a lower target priority so enemy rams don’t soak up ranged unit fire (should mean repairers are prioritised over rams too).
Cav Archers – Same as above but they also track nearby melee units (cav and infantry) that are slower than them. If they can outrun them then they will build distance before firing so they are never caught (unless surrounded). If they think they can kill the unit, they will stop running and shoot them at point blank range just before they hit. The inspiration for this micro was I wanted cav archers to feel like the Khuzait in Mount and Blade 2 – Bannerlord, it’s not exactly the same but it’s getting there and it’s really effective.
Bombard Cannons – Will dodge after shooting and will prioritise castles, trebs, mangonels and other bombard cannons. They will target scorpions, organ guns and TCs as secondary targets.
I’ve got other plans to evolve this even more, but really happy with this as a next step.
Other Updates
- Bright Spark will now scan tiles to look for castle/fortification placement based on its objective so defensive castles will prioritise securing nearby resources whereas aggressive castles will lock down enemy resources or (if Bright Spark has an army to protect it) will be bold enough to attempt castle drops on enemy TCs.
- A similar building system is now used for TC placement but will take into consideration both enemy and allied fortifications.
- Both of the above combined should see things like castles being dropped towards the centre of golden pit and TCs built nearby as they are protected.
- Bright Spark now tracks a “front line” which is the most forward fortification and if it has enough will use military to protect those fortifications from trickling units like rams.
- Castles now prioritise certain targets
- Multiple villagers will now repair castles
- DUC builders for fortifications means when a fortification foundation gets moved, any nearby villagers returning to base will be reallocated to the build rather than a group from the base.
- Trebuchets now have enemy unpacked trebuchets as a high priority target
- Slightly better scouting of enemy base on Arena
- Scouts will now acquire any starting livestock in the first few seconds of the game – prevents some occasional awkward starts.
- Livestock gathering now uses precise distance so sheep are much more likely to move to the middle when expected (less sheep getting stuck in clumps and then being eaten by villagers who can’t reach them).
- Villagers less likely to shoot deer if there are several animals already being harvested.
- Changed DUC checks to make it more likely for monks to pick up relics.
- Gates are now locked and unlocked individually based on nearby enemies so melee units can now defend the walls by going out of a safe exit.
- Bright Spark has new strategies on Arena and its existing booming strategy has been smoothed out on all maps.
- Bright Spark now trades with allies later in a team game and makes better use of its resources early castle age.
- Fixed an issue where slinging allies get stuck in Feudal Age when in a team of 3.
- Fixed an issue where rushing strats are halted because they are trying to build 8-12 of its chosen military buildings.
- Fixed an issue where Bright Spark would not attack in team games.
- Monks and Missionaries should be less likely to reset their conversion timers when accompanying siege.
- Villagers no longer try to rush down bombard towers.
- Removed a load of testing flares and debug chat
- Added rules so Bright Spark will double down on its preferred unit if its secondary unit has a really low weight (for example will make pikes rather than pikes and skirms if an enemy starts producing knights).
- Monks can now be trained without a back-up unit.
- Amended farm and market rules to make eco more efficient for each mode Bright Spark goes to.
- Shotel warriors are no longer treated as eagle warriors in terms of counters.
- Bright Spark won’t start an assault when on its way to imperial age.
- Researches devotion.
- Adjusted gatherer distributions, age-up triggers and build orders for civilisations that have unusual age up conditions (Byzantines, Georgians, Khmer and Italians).
- Adjusted “catch up” timer for units guarding siege so it is less likely to interrupt attacks.
- Re-added a “panic mode” when overwhelmed to spend resources to train the best available units from every military building available to bolster defences. This can really help in the late game to stay in the game if upgrades are purchased but Bright Spark has stopped making units to switch out into something different.
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FireBall37
- Swami
- Posts: 177
- Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2020 10:49 pm
Re: Bright Spark
Looking forward to seeing more of Bright Spark’s micro in the tournament and beyond 