Computer-controlled units!

yaroslav · July 23, 2003, 16:29

Hi all!

As I was toying with hex-editor in order to discover where the agglomerate work of settlers is stored, I discover something very interesting. In MGE (I've not checked it in other versions) if you put the leftmost bit of the 6th byte of a unit to 1, you get that unit controlled by the AI! If you are in war against a civ, the AI would launch this unit again the nearest city; if not, the unit will roaming free or enter in a city and don't move. For trade units, the AI will try to create a trade route.

I wonder if having computer-controlled units in human's civ is interesting for scen-creators.

BTW, regrettabily enough, is very easy to get rid off of "AI-control": only by clicking in the unit you put the unit in manual mode

Mercator · July 23, 2003, 16:42

Yep...

I discovered that too a while ago. It's the bit that turns your settlers into automated settlers, and works for all units (although you need hexediting to achieve it for anything other than settlers)... So it works in FW as well.

No, I don't think I have any other things up my sleeve... Not written down anyway.

yaroslav · July 23, 2003, 17:05

Oppss, sorry Mercartor. I didn't want to take out your credit

I didn't know

I've though that if you put your starting army as "invisible" and AI-controlled, and allow it to move for some turns before starting a war in a scen, you could "randomize" the starting positions of the army. What do you think?

Mercator · July 23, 2003, 17:20

I didn't tell anybody, that's why you didin't know.

So take all the credit you want.

How would you go about making it invisible, and make sure the player really keeps his hands off it for those few turns?

I guess it could be used as some sort of a surprise or micromanagement reduction thing. I'm not sure if I can think of any concrete examples, though... But damnit, it must be good for SOMETHING!

yaroslav · July 23, 2003, 17:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Mercator
How would you go about making it invisible, and make sure the player really keeps his hands off it for those few turns?

You couldn't be sure, but if the units have non support and are invisible, you have to gess where they are in order to delete their orders

Elok · July 23, 2003, 20:03

What happens if you automate a diplomat or spy? I somehow doubt it, but could you have a little Gavril Princip unit running amok?

techumseh · July 24, 2003, 00:09

Interesting! Could you edit a specific type of unit so that if it were created by events, it would automatically operate independently?

Heresson · July 24, 2003, 05:25

You could simulate vassals or something...

techumseh · July 24, 2003, 10:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Heresson
You could simulate vassals or something...

Naval vassals?

DarthVeda · July 24, 2003, 10:41

So what does an enemy civ's units look like with this bit? Can you turn it off? Then you have enemy/allied units to control...

Exile · July 24, 2003, 11:04

Tech, that was AWFUL!!!

yaroslav · July 26, 2003, 16:41

tech: I'm not able to create AI-controlled units via events, sorry

DarthVeda: Good idea. I'm going to check it, but I don't believe that you can control enemy units

Elok: They probably will roam, but I'll check it

techumseh · July 26, 2003, 17:25

Too bad. Anyway, thanks for the new (and almost new

) research. Keep it up!

yaroslav · July 26, 2003, 18:00

Well, one of my projects is doing a super-extendend MACRO language for Civ2 MGE. With the macro-language I'm thinking in it, it'll be possible...

If I end quickly the third version of Civ2PBEM Diplomacy there will be a "window" of time for my to do that macro-language...

Mercator · July 26, 2003, 19:36

You'd better talk to Angelo "CSPL" Scotto.

yaroslav · July 28, 2003, 16:24

Darthveda: The computer controlled units have this bit disabled. Enabling this only put the unit under "auto mode", but stills the AI controls it. I've checked in order to see if the AI acts different when the unit is in "auto mode", but it appears to me that the AI doesn't do that.

Elok: They roam. However, a little more research on that topic is needed