AMAI 2.2

I think it would create more strategy involved since heroes can always compensate for what's lacking in a group of units. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the hero aspect, however with heroes absent, the other units of each race become more individualised. If that makes sense ^_^
I like the backpack idea, since if heroes were removed, then creeping can still be a variable option for expansion purposes and money from the items. Creeps must still be included to create obstacles when exploring. However, by keeping in creeps is there anyway of changing what they drop. I.e. if heroes are removed, then all the tomes become redundant.
Thanks for confirming that altars are definitely needed for tier 3. Should heroes be removed, should there be a prerequisite buildings for expanding to tier 3 or not? Any ideas?

*Psst!*
maybe today

wooooohoooooooooo!

Removing heroes from AMAI will currently require a bit more work as several advanced features of AMAI rely on heroes so it definitely requires code changes to remove them. The tech tree is the least problem there.

However, I have planned a huge reengineering of major parts of AMAI. It will introduce a plan system (a plan here means a job with resources like gold and units locked to it) that allows for plugins that do not that easily interfere with each other as it is now. I will change the entire attack system to be plans then and if it works out, then the army movement will be taken over from the hard coded AI. I am thinking about terrain analysis algorithms to allow good army movement.
If that all works out then it should make AMAI a lot better. During that rewriting I will also remove the hero dependencies of some part of the code. But do not expect that to be finished in the near future. It will definitely take quite some time.

Well thats gonna keep you busy. Good luck with that. I guess thats what you are planning for a version 3 / 4.

Well i will look forward to it, in the much distant future.
So you are going to take command of movement from hard coded ai. Interesting.

Don't forget amai editor support as well.

damn, still more errors in the language files I got to fix, (One more day at least) :(
So busy now a days don't have much time for AMAI. ;(

I forgot I even Downloaded that... Well I have been trying to make good training maps. so this should help.
___________________

By the way I like the lil'

how did you do the flash?

@nitram: Two possibilities:

. Retain the Altar as pre-requisite for Tier-3 Upgrade. However, Altar has no additional purpose.
. Use the Starcraft Zerg design: Queen's Nest is a prerequisite for a Lair to be upgradable into a Hive. I suggest the ff.:

. Humans: Need Arcane Sanctum to enable tier-3
. Orc: Need Spirit Lodge to enable tier-3
. Undead: Need Temple of the Damned to enable tier-3
. Night Elf: Need Ancient of Lore to enable tier-3
(not Ancient of Wind, which is already a prerequisite of Chimaera Roost)


I have suggested solutions about tomes, if in case the item drop control is not feasible:

. Make the tomes non-consumable again just like in the first version of Warcraft III,
so that units can carry-around tomes once more.
. Getting tomes will instantly grant lumber (not gold)

Personally I like units be able to carry around items, because I think, battles will be much more fun, because item pillage becomes a strategy.

@nitram again:

I have an idea for the Altar. Aside from making it a pre-requisite for the Tier-3 upgrade, Give it the ability to create Race transports. Available at the same time Transports are available at the Goblin Shops.

. Humans, Orc, and Night Elves: Goblin Transport
. Undead: The creepy air Transport used in a Night Elf campaign (rescure Tyrande)

If there are hidden race-specific transports in the MPQ's, those will be better.

Transports will still require no food.
Transports behave exactly like the one from the Goblin shops. Same stats, different skins.

With this, island maps are very viable.

You should tweak AMAI to maximize that new feature.

HI, I just downloaded AMAI 2.31, im not sure about the version, i just got it from AMAI website, and i've been playin wc since the first release of wc3 with its own ai, i've noticed that AMAI is tryin to be more human like but sometimes they were using strategy which is not right to face the ai enemy or human player, as we know wc3 ai always using the same strategy but their combo is quite effective in insane mode (i always play in insane mode) , i found out that wc3 ai is in favour of in the race human, but in AMAI human is not quite hard to beat even it mostly got beaten up , its because they were using wrong strategy or combo, and got worse they were mostly picking neutral heroes, for me its not human when there's no paladin and mountin king. But in AMAI games when i play as human i can mostly win. AMAI is pretty good on using goblin zeppelin better than wc3 ai, but there are few odds things like in friends map, there are gold mines surronds by trees so its inaccesible in walk thru, but AMAI player dont seem to use goblin to send their worker to expand there, but when I use goblin zepplin and start harvesting that gold mine, enemy amai player sometimes using goblin zepplin and their air force to attack me there. And sometimes AMAI player did using goblin zepplin to send their peon but then that peon just drop there and do nothing. By the way AMAI is really great its really enhancing the game experience. I know that AMAI has been developing and getting better and better everyday, I really appriciate that such great work. I just hope that the goblin zepplin thing should be fixed :) so there's no odd things again if it isnt too much to do..hehe
Thanks for andy for answering my first email , I really appreciated
good job and good luck for all AMAI team.

@AIAndy: Thanks for the feedback regarding the removal of heroes. Please there's no hurry. I'm more than happy to wait for ages for that option to be implemented.

@thenonhacker: I like your ideas with how to work with tomes, should item dropping not be feasible. I think that the only way to implement it is to give a lumber bonus when picked up. Adding transports to each team does add a whole new dimension to the game (lurker drop anyone?). I would only like to keep in the Altars should they prove to have some functionality, besides being a prerequisite for tier 3. Your suggestions are valid for other prerequisites for tier 3. I think it's only natural to need spell casting buildings to achieve tier 3.

But all this talk is premature at the moment since it still will take a while before AMAI can have the hero removed. But thanks for the support and ideas!

Well we tried making them expand on island expansions(unreachable by foot) when improving the zepplin usage of the AI but we never succeded in making them expand.

The human AI got some imbalance trubble, the base strategy was used to often building mostly footmen, there was both to much footmen built and that strategy was also used to much, got complains before that human didn't perform well but I think they play better now.

When the plan system and army movement system is implemented, then a properly implemented zeppelin expansion should be possible too.

Hi guys, I just played a game with the AMAI2.20 so it might have been fixed alrdy; After Cybernetic sent this message; g2g need some stuff to do, it didnt destroy everything of his base. :( Here is the replay.

First of all thanks for answering my question.
I found another funny things when I was playing with AMAI, I made a custom map, its an epic size map, i put some gold mines near every player base, the funny thing is that AMAI opponent was trying to harvest the gold mine near my base, isn't there anyway that AMAI player knows that there are gold mines near their base, why in hell would they look for gold mines far from their base while there some near them.
It happens also in standard map, they sometimes seem still having trouble finding resource close enough to them.
That's all for know, but i'll keep posting if i found anything else, cus from now i keep playing with amai, since i dont play in battle net. hehe Im just another game addict!