Bright Spark

[Bandit1990]

Hello

Now it works fine and has not lost performance or anything, I just noticed a couple of small bugs that sometimes happen in nomad:

1º He forgets to create an army and is dedicated to make economy until the imperial age. Eventually, at some point it does. It is a very rare bug, but it has happened to me in some games.

2º Some other games he accumulates a huge army near his base, but as if it were a path bug, he gets stuck against trees slowly patrolling the area instead of going to attack the enemy. It is a bug that I see quite often and eventually fixes itself.

I also think this is caused by the type of map and the proximity of the enemy base.

Hi Venomus!

Thanks for the feedback, appreciate the effort you go through to write these points up!

The first bug I think is related to the game sometimes thinking a nomad start is a pocket start so it might be pulling from the arena strats. I’m shortly uploading a “competitive” version of Bright Spark that simply picks the best strats for the setup as the current version has some builds which are more for variety when I play with friends. I can set this version up for Land Nomad no problem, but if there are any custom maps you regularly use then please do list me the exact names and I can add a couple of extra rules to apply settings for those maps as the game doesn’t recognise tags on custom maps right now.

The second sounds more like it’s just not ready to attack, the army has a gather point behind the main TC so not to get in the way of farms but this can look like they’re stuck if that point is on a tree or edge of the map. When this is an issue is this when Bright Spark has a numbers advantage or when it has less numbers but a counter or tech advantage? I’m about to look into attack and retreat rules for army as they need updating from when I first wrote them (way back before I added DUC) so any info on this from an outside eye is helpful.

Thanks and glad the nomad start now works for you!

[Bandit1990]

Edit: Reuploaded with bug fix as tower avoidance was sometimes directing units to co-ordinates 0,0

This is an update still actively being worked on but uploaded at Leif's request so it can be used in FFA tournament.

Working a lot on the opening as Bright Spark is falling short here compared to other AIs and human players. Changes so far include:

Dark Age
- Flush strat now clicks Feudal at 24 vills instead of 21. Bright Spark now comes up with some farms and a better eco which favours a more sustained initial attack as opposed to a quick but small attack.
- Changed vill distribution to have more on wood early to reduce mass walking time after clicking feudal.
- Edited scouting - still goes in a square but now when the scout cannot reach a point the destination just moves one tile closer to it rather than the scout skipping the point entirely, should lead to missing boar and sheep less.
- Outward square scouting pattern extended by 2 tiles so more likely to catch deer first time.
- Scout abandons laming strategy earlier to push deer in time to avoid a mass exodus to berries.
- If an issue occurs and villagers end up on berries anyway then deer pushing adapts to push deer to the mill rather than TC to reduce villager walking time.
- As there are now more villagers on food after clicking feudal, lumberjacks will no longer switch to deer hunting if nearby.

Feudal Age
- Removed forward tower as this actively hinders Bright Spark against human players.
- Villagers no longer attack enemy defensive towers.
- Second lumber camp delayed to save wood for a more all-in strat.
- Blacksmith delayed to save wood and mass more numbers before upgrading.
- Raid mode triggers with an 8 unit minimum rather than 4.
- Fixed bug where Bright Spark stopped production to save for blacksmith upgrades while not having a blacksmith. This massively helps feudal production as units were being capped at 5 of each type while waiting for upgrades
- With the above update, 4 building unit production in feudal is a very real possibility.
- Bright Spark will no longer stop production to save for castle when opponent reaches castle. It will still save up for castle but ensures it has units to defend with or upgrade after hitting castle age.
- Edited tower defence so units now only avoid garrisoned towers targeting them (archers the exception who are more likely to avoid towers).
- Bright Spark should always go flush in a 1v1 on an open map except for when Sicilians are picked, as I'm working on something special for them
- Unit choice weights altered so skirmishers are more favoured to counter skirmishers.
- Melee units now start their search from range 0 which results in less target switching once they engage - this was a big issue with scout cav targeting a block of ranged units.

Castle Age and Beyond
- Fixed bug where army would not defend Armoured and Siege Elephants like they do with other siege.
- Bright Spark now uses gold to buy food and wood sooner if it has picked its flush or fast castle military strats.

I'm still actively working on improving Bright Spark's early game build so it can make the most of the new micro. If there are any comments about the dark age and feudal age eco then these are specifically useful right now - though as always all comments are appreciated and I take them all onboard.

[Bandit1990]

Just a few fixes for the FFA tournament:

- Less likely to be trapped in feudal forever (stops attacking after a certain time and builds defensive army before aging up).
- Attempted to fix TC and tower avoidance, it's not perfect but it's a lot better than it was!
- Edited mining camp placement script so more likely to place mining camps on different golds.
- Fixed market issue so will now buy wood in castle age when needed but stop purchasing wood and food when trying to go imp (unless excess gold).

[venomus]

Pleased that the ever-feudal bug is almost fixed

[Bandit1990]

Lots of bitty updates here as the games for FFA are still ongoing so want the best version to be used!

- Fixed issue where units were prioritising watch towers over units when they shouldn't (or when they should be ignoring watch towers altogether).
- Archers fully avoid watch towers as they don't survive enough to retreat after tower is garrisoned.
- Added delay to heavy plow so it does not take priority over military upgrades when castle-age is hit.

[venomus]

I have noticed that BS likes to trade but for some reason he never investigates caravan.

[Bandit1990]

This version contains a quick fix around TC avoidance for games with more than one opponent. Uploading this as a separate change just for the FFA tournament but a bigger update is still in the works which will be the result of feedback from here and on the discord.

[venomus]

Hello Bandit.

BS now has a serious bug that is quite prevalent. Again in nomad when building the TC if he has any villain stuck for some reason, it stops all activity and only spawns villagers. Resume activity if attacked.