Ideas for getting the AI Devourer to use the Conversion ability?

[Madin 11]

I am having another attempt at getting the Skirmish AI to use the Scrin Devourer's conversion ability.

 

Previously I had tried to use the (rubbish) 'AISpecialPowerUpdate' module, I used the 'SPECIAL_POWER_SPECIFIC_UNIT' and had the 'UnitKindOf' has 'TIBERIUM'.

The AI would attempt move to tiberium, but once it started to use the ability, the game crashed!

 

Has far has I can work out, the 'AutoAbilityBehavior' module does not work any more, so I am looking to see if there are any ideas has to how I can accomplish this.

[Lauren 78]

AutoAbilityBehavior probably still works but is inaccessible because of missing right click functionality of the special power buttons.

I don't think even with it the game would understand what to do.

[Ravendark 46]

i think in its current form the conversion beam might not work with the limited AI functions.

 

With that said....and this might be less of a epiphany and more a brain fart but....

 

Rework the conversion beam idea?

Might be able to make it a 2 part ability:

1st part...a simple targetable specialpower that allows the tank to target tiberium, or maybe a dummy (doing the white snake here i go again with dummy drones) that spawns from tiberium....killing that dummy might be more feasable, read less buggy then targeting actuall tiberium...have that dummy kill the tib patch right underneath it on its death.

 

2nd part...when the first specialpower kills the dummy/triggers itself....have it give the TIBERIUM_AMMO status to the tank...from there you might get the tiberium buff to dmg thing going.

Find a way to remove the buff after set amount of shots/time. Might be able to use the atacking+user_2 conditionstate to trigger some lua.

 

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a second idea might be to change the devourtank into a semi harvester....

I mean:

Give it a working AI ability, wich basicly replaces it into a harvester like unit....when it moves to fill up if it reaches the MONEY_STORED_AMOUNT_4 condition have that condition trigger a replace specialpower into a "upgraded" devourertank. Something along those lines.

 

You probably could get something working that would mimic a conversionbeam/tiberiumthief effect....the question might rather be...how much effort and time do you think its worth?

 

But in its current form i dont see the AI using the Tiberium thief ability. It is like the avatar ability....if it doesnt involve a direct targeted attack or move/teleport...the ai specialpower seems frustratingly lacking.

[Lauren 78]

You do not want to spawn an additional dummy for each crystal, it would break the game speed super fast, trust me in that.

Replacing a unit should also be used with care. It kills grouping and makes waypoints unusable (like waypointing it to a crystal to soak it up, then moving to another position).

[Ravendark 46]

Told you it was a brain fart

 

the problem is that the ai seems to only work reliable with verry few specialpowers...maybe if you could link(chainedbutton) the conversionbeam with a teleport move command (that seems to work reliable) you might be able to get it to move

to a tiberium crystal and use the conversion beam...bit like a jumpjet+c4, chain a move specialpower to be followed by the tiberium thief ability, have the move set to a object target instead of a area target.