Sneak Peeks, Coming Attractions, Works-In-Progress

[Jason Petho]

The last country is being worked on for Vietnam. Thailand, as per our standards, will be available between 1948-1985.

[berto]

Additional recent (private) Dev Team Forum posts:

ORIGINAL: berto

Here are the latest Scripted AI functions available in the CSEE:

---

at (trackid, hexcoor)
within (trackid, hexcoor, distance)
units_within_count (hexcoor, distance, side)
set_ai (trackids, hexcoor, order)
defend_weak (trackids, hexcoor)
defend_strong (trackids, hexcoor)
move_norush (trackids, hexcoor)
move_rush (trackids, hexcoor)
attack_weak (trackids, hexcoor)
attack_strong (trackids, hexcoor)
attack_banzai (trackids, hexcoor)
load (trackids, hexcoor)
unload (trackids, hexcoor)
take_off (trackids, hexcoor)
land (trackids, hexcoor)
ascend_ground (trackids, hexcoor)
ascend_noe (trackids, hexcoor)
ascend_low (trackids, hexcoor)
ascend_high (trackids, hexcoor)
descend_low (trackids, hexcoor)
descend_noe (trackids, hexcoor)
descend_ground (trackids, hexcoor)
descend_underground (trackids, hexcoor)
ascend_move (trackids, hexcoor)
move_descend (trackids, hexcoor)
exit (trackids, hexcoor)
dig_in (trackids, hexcoor)
reconnoiter (trackids, hexcoor)
build_bridge (trackids, hexcoor)
lay_bridge (trackids, hexcoor)
lay_mine (trackids, hexcoor)
lay_ied (trackids, hexcoor)
build_barrier (trackids, hexcoor)
damage (trackids, hexcoor)
clear_lz (trackids, hexcoor)

---

There will be more to follow.

More to follow. For instance...

ORIGINAL: berto

ORIGINAL: berto

Here are the latest Scripted AI functions available in the CSEE:

---

at (trackid, hexcoor)
within (trackid, hexcoor, distance)
units_within_count (hexcoor, distance, side)
...

---

There will be more to follow.

The above three CSEE functions are useful additions to the scripted AI toolkit. Akin to within() giving rise to units_within_count(), basing off these existing functions

---

map_above (row, side)
map_below (row, side)
map_left_of (col, side)
map_right_of (col, side)

---

(all of which return 'true' or 'false'; see LUA_FUNCTIONS_REFERENCE.txt), I will be adding these four spin-off functions

---

map_above_count (row, side)
map_below_count (row, side)
map_left_of_count (col, side)
map_right_of_count (col, side)

---

to give the unit counts of one side or the other in those given map areas. We could then do interesting things, such as

---

local enemy_above = map_above_count(30, RUSSIAN_SIDE)
local enemy_below = map_below_count(30, RUSSIAN_SIDE)
if enemy_above > enemy_below then
...
end

---

In other words, if one half or more of the Russian units are determined to be above row 30, then [do something].

There are all sorts of interesting, useful functions we can add like these. We should be on the lookout for them.

[berto]

Here is an MP4 video showcasing some of the new Scripted AI capabilities.

To set the stage, the depicted scenario's (LA_690915_SAR_A.scn) description:

[Moung Soui][Play Side A][HISB][CSL][NO:HLZ] During Operation ABOUT FACE, the Hmong forces, with much air power support, retook the Plain of Jars. A Pathet Lao battalion was isolated at Moung Soui, surrounded by RLA ADC units, trying to close in. A Hmong T-28 was shot down, but the pilot ejected, and was on the ground, Pathet Lao were nearby. A RAVEN FAC was on the scene to direct airstrikes on the Pathet Lao. 30 minutes later, two HH-53 Jolly Greens were dispatched from Long Tieng. Can they arrive in time, and withstand enemy ground fire long enough to pick up the pilot?

In this scenario, the Hmongs' aim is to shield the downed pilot long enough for a couple of CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters ("Jolly Green [Giants]") to swoop in from the south and carry the precious pilot away to safety. Conversely, the Pathet Lao's aim is to kill the Hmong pilot if they can.

Here is a screenshot mid way through the video to make things clearer:



The Hmong pilot is circled in magenta. He is fleeing to the designated rendezvous point (green circle), where the Jolly Greens are waiting. The Pathet Lao (turquoise circles) have broken through the shielding Hmong defenders and are closing in on the fleeing pilot. Will the pilot survive, be rescued? Click the link above to find out!

...

Or read the following spoilers. In the video playback of an automated AI vs. AI test game:

[*]The Hmong ADC Company rushes towards the Hmong pilot.
[*]The Laotian Birddog (RAVEN) spotter plane moves to circle over the downed pilot. Pathet Lao forces fire at the advancing Birddog.
[*]The Hmong pilot begins to flee to the northeast.
[*]The Pathet Lao give chase. Ground fighting ensues.
[*]The Jolly Greens show up as reinforcements near the south map edge.
[*]More fighting between the Pathet Lao attackers and the defending Hmong.
[*]The Hmong pilot continues fleeing to the northeast.
[*]The Jolly Greens head towards the pilot. As they do so, Pathet Lao AA near Muong Soui Airfield fire twice at the passing HH-53s but miss. The Jolly Greens eventually reach the rendezvous point, where they settle down to land.
[*]More ground fighting, more pilot fleeing.
[*]The near Pathet Lao platoon gets in a single shot at the Hmong pilot, but misses.
[*]Try as they might, the Hmong defenders are unable to block the attacking Pathet Lao. The PL break through.
[*]The Hmong pilot reaches the rendezvous, and a while later boards one of the waiting rescue helos.
[*]More ground fighting.
[*]Being short of fuel, the Birddog leaves the scene, flies off the south map edge seeking resupply.
[*]The Pathet Lao draw uncomfortably near the rendezvous point. Can the Jolly Greens, with pilot onboard, take off in time?
[*]They can! But as they do, the Pathet Lao fire at the climbing helo and ... miss!
[*]The Jolly Green flies off to the south, and eventual exit off-map. By rescuing the pilot, the Hmongs have just won the scenario! (Are awarded 200 Event Points.)
[*]But all is not quite well with the Hmongs. The Pathet Lao fire at and destroy the other Jolly Green as it attempts to take off.
[*]More ground fighting, but to little purpose. With the pilot now rescued, the scenario is effectively over.

Near the end of the of the video clip, after the game has exited, you will see a small terminal display showing this:

---

2018-08-22 10:34:25 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) in on_unit_kill(), trackid 513
2018-08-22 10:34:31 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) in on_unit_remove(), trackid 514
2018-08-22 10:34:31 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) in on_unit_remove(), trackid 512
2018-08-22 10:34:32 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) in on_unit_remove(), trackid 515

---

512 is the Hmong Pilot, 514 is the one surviving Jolly Green, and 515 is the Birddog. 513 is the unlucky, destroyed other Jolly Green.

This video shows an automated AI vs. AI test game. In automated test game mode, all pop-up dialogs, are suppressed, including the Victory Dialog. If this were a normal game, the human player(s) would see direct, in-game confirmation of the successful rescue, and the victory (or loss). But in this example, we need to show the log entries above to demonstrate the map exits (also the kill).

So what's the big deal? It is this:

[*]In this demonstration, both AI sides are scripted. If you the human were playing Side A, you would play vs. the scripted Side B AI. Or if you the human were playing Side B, you would play vs. the scripted Side A AI.
[*]The AI scripting is done in broad outline. The scripting nudges and directs the AI, but the usual legacy game AI still manages the hex-to-hex movement, the firing, etc. There is no micromanaging the AI here, but there could be! (The more micromanagement, the harder the scripting.)
[*]The video depicts one Hmong overall battle plan, and one Pathet Lao overall battle plan. We could script alternative battle plans, to be selected randomly, else more intelligently in reaction to actual game play conditions.
[*]The scripting is dynamic, constantly adapting to changing game conditions. For example, as the pilot moves away, the Hmong and Pathet Lao, fighting aside, move to shield/pursue the fleeing pilot. (With an alternative battle plan specifying a different rendezvous point, the forces would automatically adapt to flee toward and fight around the different location(s).)
[*]You are seeing here the first demonstration of the game's new helo-specific AI. By way of scripting, the AI can now direct helos to take off, to move, to climb or descend, to onboard or offload passengers, even to fire as necessary. The AI can also be fuel aware, retiring low-on-fuel helos as needed.
[*]Heretofore, the legacy CS AI has been entirely guided by pre-designated objectives. You will note that in this scenario, there are no formal hex objectives. The AI directs the forces to follow a specific unit, the pilot, not aim for a specific hex objective (or set of objectives). This is entirely new.
[*]Since we have freed the AI from aiming for specific, pre-designated objective hexes, we can direct the AI to move towards, to fight for, any location we choose (even if not a designated objective).

... And so much more. But we will save the "much more" for future sneak peeks.

As Crossroads says:

ORIGINAL: Crossroads

Not your father’s AI, anymore [:)]

[berto]

A snippet from the LA_690915_SAR_A.lua file:

[berto]

ORIGINAL: berto

[*]Heretofore, the legacy CS AI has been entirely guided by pre-designated objectives. You will note that in this scenario, there are no formal hex objectives. The AI directs the forces to follow a specific unit, the pilot, not aim for a specific hex objective (or set of objectives). This is entirely new.

Entirely new, and for Vietnam especially, entirely needed. In the Vietnam War(s), the point of fighting was usually not to capture and occupy real estate, rather to find and engage a mobile and elusive enemy. There will be a good number of take-and-possess scenarios in CS Vietnam, certainly. But there will be "search and destroy" enemy units scenarios (without any formal geographical objectives) as well.

[David Galster]

Berto - Regarding Scripted AI capabilities

The scripted AI for the scenario: Search and Rescue at Moung Soui
is really good. The sequence of events and outcome is very exciting.
Almost reads like an action comic book - LOL. But I really like it!

Was the MP4 replay AI vs AI or human vs AI?
Were you able to eliminate the objective hex? I didn't see it.
If it was eliminated from the scenario, what element did you add in
the programming to motivate the NVA to go after the downed pilot?

Were there airstrikes to support the Laotians in this rescue?

Artificial Intelligence Kudos,

David Galster

[berto]

ORIGINAL: David Galster

Berto - Regarding Scripted AI capabilities

The scripted AI for the scenario: Search and Rescue at Moung Soui
is really good. The sequence of events and outcome is very exciting.
Almost reads like an action comic book - LOL. But I really like it!

Was the MP4 replay AI vs AI or human vs AI?

The former. AI vs. AI throughout, entirely hands off. Needless to say, the scenario plays out quite differently (and unintelligibly) without the AI scripting (and without direct, in-game human input, as you would see if a human plays one side or the other).

Were you able to eliminate the objective hex? I didn't see it.

Yes, no more objective hex. Otherwise, with the objective hex, and with the unscripted legacy AI, both sides keep charging towards it. To get both sides to focus on the pilot, not any particular geographical location, I had to remove any objective hexes.

If it was eliminated from the scenario, what element did you add in
the programming to motivate the NVA to go after the downed pilot?

Here is the relevant code, the PAVN battle plan in full:



That's it. Pretty simple, no?

The PILOT_LOCATION is dynamically refreshed each phase in the on_next_phase() trigger (see highlighted portion):



As the pilot moves, the ground forces, both Pathet Lao and Hmong, are programmed to follow him (pursue and attempt to kill, else follow and attempt to shield).

Were there airstrikes to support the Laotians in this rescue?

No, I don't recall seeing any.

With all of the many game play elements -- most especially the helo ops and the loading, exiting off map etc. -- this scenario was a bit challenging to script. (Not all of it revealed here publicly, but you have seen most of it.) It took me about a half a day to rough draft it. Then another two days or so to debug. [:D] Some of the pitfalls were found in the CSEE game engine code, since resolved. (Everything is still work-in-progress, after all.) And I made a couple of bone-headed mistakes in the scripting. But when it all came together, it was delightful to see the results. It's all rather fun -- without the bugs, when it works!

[Crossroads]

New CS Vietnam BETA, with Thailand added as a bonus nation to the set. Why not? [:)]

Here's a snippet of them in action, at "Assault on FSB Lion", from Laos' secret war, by David Galster, which now has the Thai Irregular units previously represented by Laotian forces.3D Unit Bases are graphics art by Gary (XLVIII PanzerKorp).

(All graphics still at BETA stage, 3D especially)

[Big Ivan]

Nice Crossroads, thank you for the peak!!

[Jason Petho]

Campaign Series Middle East: You can expect a new UPDATE next year for Middle East. The primary focus with this new 2.02 UPDATE will be on the scenarios. They are now being rewritten to utilize the new LUA scripting features. You'll also notice that logistics will play a bigger role in many of the scenarios. We are hoping that with the scripting, all of the official scenarios will be playable vs a human opponent, or you vs Side A or you vs Side B.

[dox44]

good news!

Thanks

[Jason Petho]

You're most welcome!

[Rosseau]

Thanks for your continued commitment to CSME. Most devs would have blown it off and moved right on the their next project. CSME is one of the few games I am saving for a "rainy day." But need to be careful, as there's no guarantee I'll get up tomorrow morning. Anyway, I will probably wait for the big patch and then start playing it relentlessly. Thanks.

[Jason Petho]

You're most welcome, Rosseau!

[Andrea G]

Great News!!!!

[Crossroads]

Preparing a new CS Vietnam BETA build today from the components everyone's been putting together. What's new, among other things, is a completely revamped ARVN (South Vietnam), with lots of added detail. One of the things we're doing is providing more visual hints as who's what.

See the new ARVN units in their new unit bases (thanks Gary!) here for instance. There's the ARVN regulars as well as the Special Forces there. Also, US Special Forces as well as US regulars. Spot the Aussie advisor in the other hex, too? [:)]

[Crossroads]

And while at it, Mike's just added his 500th (!!!) NATO symbol to the game. Go Mike!

[Crossroads]

^^ Very handy in a Platoon scale game! Is that BMP-1 equipped with ATGMs, or not? Check its unit counter? #471 it is (and stay back!), #472 it isn't (go for the kill!) [8D]

[Veloz]

just one question; if permitted is the AI strong; have levels.

[Big Ivan]

Warhorse and Crossroads, you guys are just finely tuned machines!![&o][&o][&o]

Looking good!!![;)]

May the force be with you!