TK3600

Crap, I will hotfix it.

New major update: 1. AI is more cautious, taking distance more seriously when choosing target. 2. Fixed a mistake which mind control units are not as high threat due to special threat rating being override by conventional one. They should be focused down now. 3. Kirov should have terror drone support now. They are made subsequently instead of grouped together, because it would prevent Kirov from going across water. Idea from FReQuEnZy 4. Black Eagle now has a script to strike on construction yard. All 8 of them are able to destroy it in one run. Can be very dangerous! 5. Increase harrier strike frequency. 6. AI respond to base threats faster. 7. Fixed large units stuck at regroup command. 8. Fixed air strike on neutral oil derick. 9. Made Dreadnaught and carrier defend itself. Please test if it is buggy. I want to finalize RulesMD.ini changes so I can start export it to CNCnet client. 10. Allied AI build extra grizzly early on, and defends 2nd factory. This is to make AI harder to rush early on, as reported by FreQuEnZy that AI build up are too slow early on. 11. Adjusted AI Trigger success delta to account for 2 track record. 12. Added an experimental script to make AI repair nearest bridge. 13. Added an experimental script for Allied AI transport 4 prism tank across the water. Please report if it is functional. 14. Added a permanent factory guard for Allied factory, instead of patrol. Indeed. When I run into problem I can ask CNCZ and ProjectPerfect mod.

Unless your buddy also change brutal AI file. Just show them this thread.

Actually it is controled by a device on the head.

1. Tanks have no machine gun. 2. Tanks do pathetic damage to infantry. Infantry is in cover is not an excuse. HE shell can blow them up regardless. If that wont work small arm should deal low damage too. 3. GGI's rocket sucks against buildings, but somehow normal rifles can shoot buildings into rubble. 4. Planes have no anti air machine guns, and gets easily shot down by a guy with jetpack. 5. How does engineer convince an entire construction yard staff to switch side? 6. Where does engineer go after capture buildings? 7. Why are miners tougher than apocalypse tank? 8. How is sea scorpion able to attack dolphin undersea via flak? 9. How come SEAL's MP4 suck against tanks but conscript's PPSH SMG do alright?

Thank you for your detailed feedback, I really appreciate it! 1. That is an unavoidable headache. AI simply refuse to build a 2nd factory despite there is a setting for it. I think ARES fixed it, but I do not know how to make use of ARES. What I did is duplicate war factory so AI will make a clone of it. Those are not yet coded into AI's patrol pattern. Because of this I tend to make soviet AI make units in multiples of 3 so there is no left over. 2. The solution is to make way points, and that I think is map specific changes. The way it works is AI choose an enemy to focus down to not make AI go back and forth between bases. That unfortunately means they will keep going after you and not change mind for your allies. So be nice and avoid AI exploits if you want a challenge. 3. Boy, if you think that is garbage Vanilla AI sucks more. In fact, they don't even build the 5 AA tanks I scripted, they rely purely on AA defense structure, which becomes useless the moment power go down, and is not helpful because by the time kirov is in range it is too late. I did try larger task forces, but it tend to clot the base and make tanks stuck. I will see if I can enlarge it a bit more, and try make base more spacious. 4. I blame this on me. Like I said, this started as my personal mod, and I always play with super off. All my AI tests are without super either. I will fix it ASAP. 5. Like I said, the extra factory are duplicated and I forgot to include them in the script. Yes, their building number is different and require extra codes. 6. I am aware of this. I already set capture oil to the highest priority. I also set oil as a priority air strike target. Sometimes it means blowing up neutral one too. It is not perfect, but I think it is alright. What ever is far away is hard to guard, and AI is rarely low on money (hacks), may as well blow them up to frustrate the cash hungry players. Also it blows up unreachable dericks on island so players cant have it. 7. Yes, it is on my big priority list. I think I figured out how to do it, should be in the upcoming update. Though AI is limit to 1 transport, so dont expect land sized invasion. It will be a harassment at most. I will however compensate by modify naval strike code to make island maps more interesting. 8. This seems to be map specific changes. There are tutorials about it. Maybe, just maybe I can figure something out as a general change. No promise. 9. They are bugged for some reason. I want them to deploy as base guard, they just wont. They for now serves as a frustration for attacks without AA. 10. That is not true, AI always have BF for defense. I cannot make it attack because it will only attack alone. To pair up with other tanks infantry fail to go in. The CNC client version is under work. What I will do is submit a basic version first, if it works I will use the full version. It is because there are 100+ changes and I do want to commit unless I know I can make it work. I am pretty new to modding actually, so I have no idea how to submit context specific changes.

Great idea! I will put it in!

Thanks for the feedback! While I will not make the gold digger constant as it upsets meta, but I will make a seperate you a mod with it. I will PM you a link.

What do you think my AI need more to deal with your strats? Before I add more code, there are other things you can do. There was numerous updates in between. It will be slightly harder, especially easy and medium enemies. As for you rushing down AI before it builds anything, there is nothing I can do. AI is too easily baited, and cannot micro manage unlike humans. What you can do is fighting multiple AI or choose to have no starting units. I assure you having no starting units are way harder. I could kill 2 brutal AI by engineer rush and starting rhino rush too. With no starting tanks it is hard to pull off.

Like I said, it started as my personal mod. I am willing to make a seperate AI only mod, but it takes time to edit out stuff one by one. What I will do is submit only AI related change to CNCnet staff. By the time it is added to client as an option you will have it.

This mod started as my personal mod. You are somewhat right, perhaps I should not include the changes as a package when submit to CNC staff. But I think I was really careful, all I did was changing uselsss units into mediocre units. Meta strats like Rhino rush is still meta. Tesla troopers still sucks. OP vanilla units like Prism tanks is still OP. I avoided any controversial changes like nerfing Prism tanks. If anything some of my changes benefited players, like making apocalypse tank acquire target on the move. AI can already do it by cheating, and they fire on the move with prism tanks too. I am open to criticisms though. If you think any change is unjustified, let me know.

How did it go?

New Update: 1. Tank auto crush is even more aggressive. Instead of crushing when enemy is point blank, AI tanks will crush the moment infantry fire on them. (range=4) 2. Adjusted trigger priority to make AI select tank rush more frequently over infantry attacks. 3. Tesla trooper ranged buffed to regular infantry's range (4). 4. Nerfed ridiculous damage of garrisoned Yuri Initiates. This is the first and hopefully last nerf I will give. Yuri initiate's damage goes from 25 to 63 when garrisoned, more than doubled. In comparison both GI and conscript gain 5 more attack in buildings, like 25 to 30 and 20 to 25. It looks seriously buggy to have this much gain, enough to melt apocalypse tank before it can fire. I nerfed damage to 40 and 50 (elite) from 63 and 73. Still noticeably stronger than GI and conscripts. 5. Easy enemy can now build miners, yay! It is actually a serious buff for them. Before that medium enemy is waaaay stronger than easy. 6. New script for spy to attack refineries. 7. In general easy and medium enemy got buff with larger team size. 8. Easy Soviet AI actually garrison battle bunker now. 9. Separate task force for allied chronosphere attack. It uses more resilient tanks than regular tank rush to survive in middle of base longer. 10. Easy Soviet AI now build 1 apocalypse tank. 11. Increased chance of AI naval bombardment.

You know, when Kirov ship fire the tank nearby tilt from the earthquake. With enough ship firing, the tank can actually flip upside down then die. Lighter tanks like flak track flip easily, rhino is harder. Apocalypse tank is very hard to flip, you have to get just close enough to flip it but not kill it from explosion. Before I did this I was convinced RA2 is a 2D game with sprites. Turns out those are 3D models with texture on the bottom! This little experiment revealed how detailed this game is, even weight is accounted in tank flipping, and the degree of flipping is precisely calculated, not using an simple animation.

I ran into some problem. For example, I modified "ThreatPosed" on different units, and there are multiple copies of it whose location determines which unit gets changed. Do I need to include the unit name so context is included?

The thing is I pretty much memorized what does what and I barely look at guides now. Besides, map AI editor is map specific, I want sweeping general changes.

No, the map editor is same as txt file, with a few extra map specifc functions, like remove certain triggers on some maps. Other than that the mechanism is the same. I actually included a guide in my files called AI.htm. I found it online. I learned everything from scratch. Other than that there is a mod wiki for RA2 out there, and I consulted community when I ran into trouble. I copied a few script from other mods, namely repair IFV and naval bombardment, and I improved them further.

No, rulesMD.ini and AI.ini are hidden in mix file. I extracted them and I am able to make general, not map specific changes. As for apocalypse tank, I simply added "OpportunityFire=yes" to its stats.

Can you show me one? I never used one. I am no programmer, I am learning everything from scratch because I love this game. Edit: And I have no original RulesMD.ini backed up. AI.ini however is not disabled by CNCnet, so if I don't need to work on that it would be doable. I basically rewrote the thing.

Critical fix update: Soviet AI builds Apocalypse tank before tech requirement is met due to a bad trigger. I fixed that. Sorry to those got destroyed by apocalypse tank early on out of nowhere.

I am not sure if that is possible without some kind of injection. How about CNCnet client keep both original and modded files, but only use my files when the check is marked? Would the injection work if it requires replacement instead of extra bits? It will be great if you can give me an example, like the current "brutal AI" option. Edit: I get what you mean. I don't think if I include only the difference the file will work, so obviously you guys know how to inject them. It will be one hell of a pain though, because there is probably 100+ changes made, and change log is lost in an overwrite accident. I would need to compare the difference between two files with an online text difference finder.

What do you mean exactly? Only file need to change is RulesMD and AI.ini. I used to do it with TibEdit, but it was buggy so I gave up. If you are saying to include only the AI changes and none of the balance change, I can try. But it will still be blocked as it modifies RulesMD.ini.

If only there is a way to enable mods online, but clearly label the room in the lobby as modded. Or at very least let mods run on offline play.

Update: If you already see those changes in game before I posted, it is because I like to upload every change I made immediately. I save up the log until it is large enough to not spam the forum with every little change. Here is the change log for every change start from the beginning of original post: 1. Sentry gun and pill box are now placed further from other building to prevent blocking tanks. 2. Increased base defense building cap to accomodate larger base caused by extra factory. 3. V3 rocket max speed buffed to dreadnought level. Acceleration might be different (slower). 4. Soviet refinery is now placed 1 extra space away to prevent miner being blocked. 5. Adjusted anti rating of base defense for more appropriate counter vs enemy composition. Sentry gun and pill box are used less against tank heavy enemy, but battle bunker used more. 6. Fixed a mistake of Hard AI use Medium AI's prism tank rush and vice versa. 7. AI conserve 350 credit more over original (900) for emergency repair. 8. Slightly larger Yuri attack force. 9. Allied and Soviet force now can capture machine shop and hospital. Huge!!! 10. Tesla tank buffed to same range as Grizzly tank. 11. Demo truck is now available in crates. 12. Fixed the bug of Korean Black Eagle failing to land. 13. Russian Tesla attack is now supported by AA. 14. Soviet and Allied use 6 miners now. Their economy is pretty scary now. 15. Soviet Union use Apocalypse tank to patrol base now. 16. Adjusted air strike script to target machine shop and oil derick. 17. Soviet fill their battle bunker sooner, and distract you with conscript rush. 18. Apocalypse tank now auto acquire target on the move. It could not do it before, which is why it felt really clunky. It is also one of the reason why pros use rhino tanks instead of it. 19. Change AI patrol pattern to protect factory better. 20. Tank Destroyer also auto crash infantry now. 21. Kirov will auto fire if moving pass enemy. Helps dumb AI focus. 22. Adjusted tank formation of AI so they do not put AA tanks in front of battle tanks.

Awesome. Send us a link when ever you are done. I will be super impressed if you manage it without cheap tactics like blowing up bridge.