Mapfact's Dynamic AI Creator: Preview

[raedor 8]

Silola, the guy who made the XCam-console, is about finishing a great tool again: the Dynamic AI Creator.

you just have to copy a folder in your mission's folder, put a trigger on the map and activate a script: now you have this trigger full with random AIs which randomly patrol their randomly generated waypoints.

you can put many such areas on the map, you can define their average skill, you can define their types (armored, infantry, ...) and the script is clever enough to for example not place a waypoint in the water or to place a tank's waypoint in the wood. also you can use addon units, you can wait with the creation of the AIs to save some performance,... sounds great, right? before i tell you all here, get the PDF!

read more here. there's a PDF describing some basic principles and functionality of the DAC.

[rekster 0]

This sounds great.

Will it be MP friendly?

[raedor 8]

right, i forgot to mention that it is 100% mp compatible.

Silola showed his project on our workshop in duisburg in june and MCPXXL's first step was testing it in a small LAN. it worked. the first script i saw that worked in MP without extra hours of work btw

[rekster 0]

I got a chance to read through the PDF.

This looks like it will really improve a mp coop mission, or any mission needing Ai.

FCM league added to many of its missions and alert system, so that when Ai saw a Player it would raise and alarm and alert other units. This alarm could be varied (Diff. Levels of alarm) and do anything from just putting other units into Combat mode, to actually have them know were the player unit / group was and hunt them down. Will the Ai-Addon be able to do something similiar?

I also read in the PDF, that units will be spawned, and you can set the units spawn to be via a trigger. So we do not have to have all the units on the map a the same time. Nice.

Are elements that made the Group Link II script so great being considered for future versions? Such as have the element of surpressive fire, Smoke, and call in air or arty support for Ai?

Being that units can be spawned via trigger, will one have the option to set how many times a Ai unit / squad will be respawned? My thought is if you have an area that you want heavily defended, and the player should be trying to avoid patrol's, vs kill all of them. In that situation you would want patrols that take losses to be reinforced via spawning or if a squad is wiped out, an new one would be spawned to replace it.

Also a nice feature FCM adds to its missions is that it likes to have Ai use HD mags, but set it so when they Ai die the mags are changed out to normal mags. That way the weapons can be picked up and used by the Player / group.

So far, DAC has definately got my interest up. Looks like Mapfact has done it again. Thanks Mapfact.

[raedor 8]

lots of questions... i can't answer all.

how many and which AI features Silola adds is TBD i think his priority is finishing the DAC, he can add AI features later.

yes, you can define the amount of units + the amount of randomly generated waypoints. afaik there's no respawn, but as they call reinforcements, it doesn't matter if you call it respawn or if you just put some more units there which are called later.

[sanctuary 19]

Very interesting, .

After reading the PDF, i really think it is the next "big thing" that will hit the OFP community , as it would allow potentially endless hours of battles in every OFP islands with very very little work from the mission creator.

And it will be the solution to the "all those great addons and no mission for them"

Superb work and pure genious Silola

This is definitively something that every OFP users must not miss.

/me is drooling while reading the PDF again

[raedor 8]

yep, it's kind of a mission generator. you jsut have to copy the folder, put some triggers on the map, write briefing, make some intro/outro scenes and you've got a perfect demo mission.

[Snake Man 401]

And the Dynamic part is... where?

[klavan 0]

I don't usualy ask for it, but in this case i made an exception: aprox release date?

This is the dream of every OFP mission designer.....

Klavan.

[raedor 8]

And the Dynamic part is... where?

that you can't say where, how many and which units you will meet there...

@klavan: impossible to say, as always. and if we would say it, it's a 90% chance that we have to delay it after the announced date. it is working overall... but you never know what comes.

[Mr_Tea 0]

This will allow us to make very big missions that dont lag to death. I hope I can move this to work with ECP or the incoming EECP mod.

[raedor 8]

This will allow us to make very big missions that dont lag to death. I hope I can move this to work with ECP or the incoming EECP mod.

should be possible, yes.

[Mr_Tea 0]

It is mutch more than seems to be at first look.

It will be big fun to use that AI Creator.

[honchoblack 2]

very interesting project you got in the works there

its the kind of quality and innovation that I got used to by the mapfact team

This project is something I was longing for some time, I used a similar detection zone in Dynamic Afghanistan, but the way you are implementing the zones, with active monitoring of size, is much better and very well thought off. I only had predifiened zones working, without the sea/forest/object detection.

This project is something every mission designer should look forward too, since it will be the next OFP revolution since the the latest ECP release

and to use the words of my partner in the Dynamic Mission Alliance:

Quote[/b] ]/me is drooling while reading the PDF again

[mattxr 9]

wow this looks very promising.. i cant wait to get my hands on it

[KeyCat 131]

Are elements that made the Group Link II script so great being considered for future versions? Such as have the element of surpressive fire, Smoke, and call in air or arty support for Ai?

Silola and I have been in contact and if everything works out DAC and Group Link II will work togheter

My main problem is to find enough free time to do it but I hope I will have some more time soon when the summer is about to end.

Really looking forward to DAC and Silola's XCam-console is one of the best tools around when testing/debugging missions/scripts. Wished I had that when I started with GL II since it would saved me many hours

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[mattxr 9]

Are elements that made the Group Link II script so great being considered for future versions? Such as have the element of surpressive fire, Smoke, and call in air or arty support for Ai?

Silola and I have been in contact and if everything works out DAC and Group Link II will work togheter

Now that would be cool making it work with GL

[TheBladeRoden 0]

Will aircraft and boats get water (or over water, as it were) waypoints?

[raedor 8]

Will aircraft and boats get water (or over water, as it were) waypoints?

boat zones are not planned (as it does not really matter where a boat cruises...).

helo zones are already implemented: the helo will land on its waypoint, the group disembarks, patrols a bit, gets back in and the helo flys to the next wp.

[Snake Man 401]

that you can't say where, how many and which units you will meet there...

Oh you mean random, ok Mapfact's Random AI Creator. Got it, thanks.

[raedor 8]

that you can't say where, how many and which units you will meet there...

Oh you mean random, ok Mapfact's Random AI Creator. Got it, thanks.

ok, it is "random", but through this "randomness" the missions are dynamic as the AI never is/thinks/behaves the same.

[silola 1086]

hi,

thanks for your interest :-)

yes we (keycat and me) will try to integrate glII in dac. keycat will get a beta version in the next few days

to test and convert it. i think we can make it :-) @keycat: the xcam will help u ;-)

that means, there are 3 rates adjustable (may be later ... more than 3 ;-) :

DAC_KI_AddOn = 0 >>> none ai-addon is loaded (only 1 control-script and 1 dynamic move-script (for all groups))

DAC_KI_AddOn = 1 >>> dac-ai-addon is loaded

DAC_KI_AddOn = 2 >>> glII-ai-addon is loaded

i think, the best choice for ecp is "DAC_KI_AddOn = 0", otherwise it costs to much performance...particularly with many groups.

But it is in principle possible.

in addition I will try to complete the infantry-respawn for the first beta-version of dac (vehicle-respwan later).

created helos will not get really generated waypoints. the waypoints for this vehicle-type will be created during the flight,

somewhere in the zone (also above water). after the helo has reached all his waypoints, he fly back to his generated (starting)landing-point.

bye

silola

@raedor: thanks for your support :-)

[crassus 0]

About these random waypoints: Just glancing at the screenshots, I'm still left wondering if the AI will follow/stay on the roads. I'm guessing they will if their combat mode is safe, etc.

[honchoblack 2]

good thought, it would be interesting for vehicle convoys/patrols to have an option for "only waypoints on roads" (of course in "safe" mode for the vehicles to follow the road to the next WP)

[raedor 8]

good idea, it's gonna be hard to detect streets. well, i'm sure it's possible for Silola