Just wondering

[Stagfish]

Why does the original stock Ai seem "smarter" than bots from other Ai packs.
 
I've seen Roly Poly and Ronin reverse and turn to try and outflank its opponent.
And Sabretooth and Little Metal Freind move around so that their weapons hit the opposing robot instead of missing them.
 
Has this never occured to some people?

[Serge]

Because the binds are done poorly. In the stock AI, creators precise which components are actually weapons, what to do when they all fail at what angle are these weapons effective, etc, etc. Most of the fan-made AI packs simply tell the engine: here's a robot, here's how to drive it, have fun.

[JoeBlo]

if I am not mistaken I think many AI packs use a copy and paste method (what I did for CC1)

[G.K.]

RR AI appears to.

[Clickbeetle]

The 'flanking' strategy you describe is probably part of the Shove tactic.  Shove tells bots to try to position themselves so they can push their opponent into hazards.  It gets applied to most bots when they lose all their weapons.  I always specify weapon ID's for the bots I AI so that they change tactics when the weapons break, but a lot of people don't do this (even though apanx's exporter makes it easy).


Little Metal Friend and Saber Tooth simply use Whipper.py with the back and forth option.   Any bot can do it, but few actually do, mostly because it's usually better to just push your opponent.

[Somebody]

Is there a guide anywhere on how to do the weapon IDs? I cannot rmember if it was in the AI Chart...

[Pwnator]

Use apanx's stuff:

https://gametechmods.com/Robot_Arena2/Tools/apanx_bot_exporter.zip

[Naryar]

Open the bot file and count all the number between each weapon.

But does that Shoving tactic really works ?

[JoeBlo]

Open the bot file and count all the number between each weapon.

or Apanx' bot export tells you the numbers for all components? :P

[J]

I was testing some random bot of mine agenst EMERGENCY, and after I had completely broken his entire frontal area(it was even caved in), EMERGENCY actually started going in reverse to try and pin me with his not-as-broken back end.

Interesting topic is indeed interesting.

[Naryar]

Yeah, Pusher.py (Charge) and Rammer.py (Ram) sometimes do that.

[123savethewhales]

I never put in the weapon when I AI.

Actually, I avoid any AI that involves backing up, or any kind of "smart" maneuver.  Backing up = lose to SnS or anything that has a better drive.  Even for rams I use Omni.py so they don't try anything funny.