Bright Spark

[Bandit1990]

Please find attached the version of Bright Spark for the Prince of Arabia tournament.

I haven't added it to the first page as some of the changes may have impacted team play and I made some slight tweaks which may cause scouting issues on non-Arabia maps. But you're welcome to try it anyway

[Bandit1990]

Update for Bright Spark!

- Pockets now choose between 3 strategies (4 more on the way).
- Will train villagers sooner in feudal age, doesn't seem to slow the attack too much.
- Now only some villagers attack towers when tower rushed so economy keeps going.
- Some DUC on Land Nomad to move villagers, this is still unfinished.
- Villager scout doesn't try to lame boar belonging to an opponent.
- Fixed issue where villagers would occasionally chase converted sheep to the opposite end of the map.
- Bright Spark priorities TCs and military over castle when reaching castle age (no more retreating from Odette's base to build defensive castles when it has the upper hand!)
- Updated team resource distribution (may bug out on mixed teams but aim to address this in another update before Sunday).

[jicam96670]

I tried your AI(will refer it by BS) With these game settings https://i.imgur.com/2I6gLqj.jpeg - These are some issues that it had:

It tries to tower rush in feudal age but the enemy had already built a tower in range. BS brings 4-5 villegers - gets attacked - cancles tower - retreates back - tries to build at same location - brings 4-5 completely new villagers - loop. It just ruins the economy because you have so many villagers just running back and forth across the map.

BS builds things far apart from each other, making the villegers walk quite far which wastes time and eco. https://i.imgur.com/BUwl3lQ.jpeg Minimap shows more buildings even further away. Farms, houses and eco buildings it does well enough. Should utilise more than 1 wood line for redundancy in case one gets attacked.

Makes Rams. (so far no AI utilises Rams well so it's mostly just wasted resources)
Makes scorpions.
Doesn't build trebuchet until very late into the game - 1 hour in.

For some reason after Castle age BS rallies the army behind it's base at the map border when idle if not attacking or defending.
BS really doesnt like TC, will just pace back and forth while taking enemy fire from unites, Even with overwhelming forces. BS doesn't attack that often and instead tries to kite, avoid or fall back even when in attack range and defending its own base.

So far i've only tried your AI in a single game so maybe it were just civ things or one offs from map gen. I hope you keep improving your AI and would love to see it in the Bot Tournament

[Bandit1990]

Hi Jicam, thanks for taking the time to give feedback

- The tower thing is next on my list. I'm adding a check around the area for other towers and will rotate it around the enemy base until either there is a clear spot, or BS will just decide not to build it and save the resources. The idea is to try to get it in range to disrupt enemy farms or at least just in reach once it gets archer upgrades at the blacksmith.

- Great point on the buildings! So the eco ones are built with precise placement whereas the other buildings are done so with the standard build command in the engine - that's why they are different. I'm adding precise building placement to my list but I think I can do some quick things in the short term to improve that.

- In your game do you remember how long it took to get to imp? Once BS has enough troops it should halt wood and gold spend to prioritise Trebs/Bombard Cannons, if it was very late to imperial then that delay to trebs would be more understandable.

- The gather point behind TC is an intentional thing - having too many directly on TC blocked farmers but I still wanted them gathered so they could defend as a mass. They should leave this area when enemies are attacking the town to engage them.

- The TC avoidance is bugged right now. You'll see units stagger back and forth, or later knights dancing in TC fire to attack villagers then running away. There's an overlap of two rules which causes this hesitation - This is a priority along with the tower placement.

Thanks for playing - It's currently going through pre-qualifiers for Davis Cup 7 (just won its first match up) and will be participating in the Wandering Bots tournament. The deadline for the latter is this Sunday so I'm hoping to at the very least address the tower placement issue and hesitant troops by then

[jicam96670]

I don't remember the imp time, though I don't believe it was an abnormal late Imp timing because I'd remember it like I remember it was in imp for a long time without making any trebs. I remember this because BS tried to attack the enemy in imp, but the enemy built a TC in front if their base and BS units kept pacing back and forth, and siege would have solved that.

[Bandit1990]

I don't remember the imp time, though I don't believe it was an abnormal late Imp timing because I'd remember it like I remember it was in imp for a long time without making any trebs. I remember this because BS tried to attack the enemy in imp, but the enemy built a TC in front if their base and BS units kept pacing back and forth, and siege would have solved that.

Thanks, that’s helped as I now have a rough idea of where the issue is. I’ll look into it

[Bandit1990]

Another update for Bright Spark ready for Land Nomad.

Version 32 had a critical bug which caused pockets to just stop attacking part way through the game. Please use this latest version for any future DC7 matches too

I haven't addressed all points provided in feedback yet, but I'm working through the list. If anyone uses Bright Spark and has any feedback - good or bad - I'm open to hear it as I'm still working on improvements Thanks for the feedback so far!

[Bandit1990]

New update for Bright Spark - this affects team games as allies now more actively protect each other and the strategy combinations across the team is now more cohesive so you will see it adjust its mode at the start depending on modes allies have picked.

Apologies for the delay with this one - due to a fair few life events happening at once the past month or so has been really tough, so it's been hard to find the time and energy to script and do it well. I will continue to chip away at the to do list when I can and am optimistic that I'll be able to make better improvements over the summer

As always any feedback is appreciated - it all goes towards my to do list!

[Zebba]

Thanks for the update! Looking forward to see Bright Spark in DC7

[Bandit1990]

Reuploaded as one of the files hadn't been renamed (thanks for pointing out Zebba!) and should also now work with 2v2s on Arena