I’m a hater

from JoeUser Forums

You know the #1 suckiest thing about writing AI for me?

It’s that not only do I have to play in cloth map only mode (I run with massive debugging) but I have to run in ugly cloth map mode.

image

I’m not going to say I hate every single person on this planet. I’m sure there are people living in deserts and jungles who are just fine. I still hate them, mind you. It’s out of principle. So yea, I guess I do hate everything.

Until I am freed from having to play the game like this, I’m going to be one grumpy bastard. You gotta feel kind of bad for Stardock. A real company wouldn’t let one of its devs even post this kind of inanity. But of course, I’m the boss so I can post how annoying it is to play the game at 3fps in cloth map mode. 

There’s nothing that can be done. I did GalCiv that way too. People cried. Their tears were delicious and nourishing.  But it’s not enough. Not nearly enough.

116,557 views 34 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Hey Frogboy, if you're looking for sympathy you won't find it on this forum.

We want our Beta with AAA+ AI and we want it now!

And why aren't the Ponies Pink? (Got your back Lord Xia!)

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I read the title as "I'm a Healer."

Needless to say I thought this post was about Healing Specialization for heroes.  :(

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

"Haters gonna hate" meme is: ... applicable!

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

You kids and your fancy color graphics and 3 FPS.  In my day, we had to trick the screen into giving us green and red by only lighting up every other pixel.  Which we did with "peek" and "poke" statements.  The screen updated once a minute.  And we were happy, goddamit!

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

What's wrong with the cloth map? I play that way pretty much exclusively by choice. It's a simpler look and represents things more clearly.

 

3 FPS is a hassle, though. Don't you guys get to buy fancy machines with company money that should help offset the system resource costs of bugtesting?

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

The worst part of this is that when it's all done, bloody humans are going to mess it all up.

Can't you guys just be satisfied watching the AI fight each other? Why do people insist on interacting with it and doing crazy weird stuff?

edit: btw, while doing the AI I'm constantly pointing out cheese to Derek because the AI does it first.  For instance, outposts initially spread environment which made land tiles fertile. So the AI would build outposts and then cities next to them and cheese their way to domination.  Needless to say, that went away.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 6
The worst part of this is that when it's all done, bloody humans are going to mess it all up.

Can't you guys just be satisfied watching the AI fight each other? Why do people insist on interacting with it and doing crazy weird stuff?

edit: btw, while doing the AI I'm constantly pointing out cheese to Derek because the AI does it first.  For instance, outposts initially spread environment which made land tiles fertile. So the AI would build outposts and then cities next to them and cheese their way to domination.  Needless to say, that went away.
How did that go away? Did we lose the environment spread or is it just no longer allowed to put a city right by an outpost?

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

But of course, I’m the boss so I can post how annoying it is to play the game at 3fps in cloth map mode. 

Can't you selectively compile some modules you aren't debugging in release/with optimizations turned on? For example, compiling the renderer module in release but leaving the AI module in debug.

This is one reason why I choose to have modules compiled as self-contained dlls, then I don't have to deal with missing/multiply-defined symbols when linking in mixed release/debug CRT code in my exe.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Frogboy loved War of Magic before it was released.  It didn't fare so well.

Now he hates it.  This is a great sign. 

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Cloth map looks interesting to me! Will I be able to play FE on my Eee PC netbook (Intel Atom N450 - only 1 core, 1GB, 1024x600) in this mode?

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Don't hate!

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

Ganhialf, one thing you would need (apart from other system requirements) is a video card with access to Pixel Shader 3 or higher.

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Pretty much what 'bama said...

Reply #17 from Elemental Forums Top

i think thats point proven isnt it.. 

btw.. don't most game designers like watching the AI battle the AI? Just how many times have I loaded games like CiV and autoplayed civs against each other to quickly watch the AI build the world from scratch.. fun.

Reply #18 from Elemental Forums Top

That is a nice map mod. Where can I download that? 

Reply #19 from Elemental Forums Top

Oh... I thought that the cloth map would not require Pixel Shader 3. Thanks anyway.

Reply #20 from Elemental Forums Top

You can download the files... in my previous message. There's two links, one for the map and one for the water.

Reply #22 from Elemental Forums Top

can you please leave the cloth map mode that you are using for debugging in the game as a feature for us to play with :-) might also help slower end PC's

Reply #23 from Elemental Forums Top

Cloth map mode should be in the game already (at least it was in WoM).  

 

Will we be able to see AI vs AI contests (i.e. no human player at all).  I think that would be very interesting to see sometimes.   +1 vote for that to be available in the betas. :)

Reply #24 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks, I thought those were just pictures.   :omg:

Reply #25 from Elemental Forums Top

"Will we be able to see AI vs AI contests (i.e. no human player at all).  I think that would be very interesting to see sometimes.   +1 vote for that to be available in the betas"

 

+2