AITileList_IndustryAccepting gives too much tiles

[Gastje33]

First, it is cool to see NoAI is included into 0.7.0. When I saw it, I decided to play around with it again. Now I have a fairly working AI building lorry routes between industries. So far I have had one problem with the API. Sometimes a station doesn't accept the cargo even if the industry is within its radius. Which you can see in the following screenshot:

Station not accepting.png (286.15 KiB) Viewed 3319 times

If one uses AITileList_IndustryAccepting to get the tiles where one can build a station, it also returns the beforementioned wrong tiles. The bay in the screenshot is built by my AI with the following code (parts are cut out, it checks if it can build there, but stays within the accTiles list):

Code: Select all

local accTiles = AITileList_IndustryAccepting(pair.AcceptingIndustry, AIStation.GetCoverageRadius(AIStation.STATION_TRUCK_STOP));
local accTile = accTiles.Begin();
AIRoad.BuildRoadStation(accTile, accTile + 1, AIRoad.ROADVEHTYPE_TRUCK, AIStation.STATION_NEW)

I've did some searching, but couldn't find anything on the forum and the bugtracker about this. So my question is: am I doing something wrong, or OpenTTD?

Of course I use the latest nightly (r16189). My operating system is Windows 7 (build 7000), but that is rather irrelavant, I think...

[GeekToo]

The api is correct, but the industry won't accept until you actually provide it with transportation, just like for a normal player

[planetmaker]

The simple answer is: industries are generally such (even in original TTD afaik) that not every tile of them accepts cargo. Only some of them accept cargo and you need to have those within your station coverage. It's the same for human players.

[TrueBrain]

What are you two babbling about?

The api is correct, but the industry won't accept until you actually provide it with transportation, just like for a normal player

False; Acceptance is a calculation which has nothing to do with true delivery. Mind you that his shot clearly shows what happens when a human tries to build a station, and where it shows what cargo is accepted. Of course the NoAI API should match that result. Clearly it doesn't. What you refer to is production.

The simple answer is: industries are generally such (even in original TTD afaik) that not every tile of them accepts cargo. Only some of them accept cargo and you need to have those within your station coverage. It's the same for human players.

Although this is very true, the API should either return this value, or should not add the tile until the cargo is completely accepted. To give a bit more detail: each tile can accept a value of a cargo. If this value is above 8, the cargo is accepted. Below that value, it is not. As far as I was aware, but I have to add my knowledge is very old on this subject, this function should only return those tiles which really accept the cargo. I wouldn't know if they don't do that any more (by recent changes), never did, or there is some other catch to this .. either way, I am sure someone with a bit more in-depth up-to-date knowledge will help you out soon

[GeekToo]

What are you two babbling about?
False; Acceptance is a calculation which has nothing to do with true delivery. Mind you that his shot clearly shows what happens when a human tries to build a station, and where it shows what cargo is accepted. Of course the NoAI API should match that result. Clearly it doesn't. What you refer to is production.

Sorry for the confusion; as usual, TrueBrain is completely right, I was referring to production, my bad.

[frosch]

This is going to be a bit delayed. As we need yexo for that

AITileList_IndustryAccepting is a bit unclear about whether it shall return the tiles which accept at least one cargo, or which accept all cargos of the industry. Maybe some list of tiles that accept a certain cargo is also useful.

For now it looks like that class is only used by Admiral and by NoCAB.
Admiral seems to filter the list afterwards for tiles that accept a certain cargo, using

Code: Select all

list.Valuate(AITile.GetCargoAcceptance, ...)
list.KeepAboveValue(7);

What NoCAB does, I do not understand

Edit: Btw. maybe the filting is already powerful enough, so the function might also stay as it is, and just the documentation needs fixing.

[Gastje33]

[...]
Although this is very true, the API should either return this value, or should not add the tile until the cargo is completely accepted. To give a bit more detail: each tile can accept a value of a cargo. If this value is above 8, the cargo is accepted. Below that value, it is not. As far as I was aware, but I have to add my knowledge is very old on this subject, this function should only return those tiles which really accept the cargo. I wouldn't know if they don't do that any more (by recent changes), never did, or there is some other catch to this .. either way, I am sure someone with a bit more in-depth up-to-date knowledge will help you out soon

The docs say this about the list:

Detailed Description
Creates a list of tiles that will accept cargo for the given industry.

So at least one of the two is wrong (the docs or the code). It seems that the API only checks if the industry tiles are within its radius. Only two tiles of the power station actually accept the coal, the other tiles don't accept anything.

Edit:

[...]
For now it looks like that class is only used by Admiral and by NoCAB.
Admiral seems to filter the list afterwards for tiles that accept a certain cargo, using

Code: Select all

list.Valuate(AITile.GetCargoAcceptance, ...)
list.KeepAboveValue(7);

[...]

Thank you! I haven't yet thought of that. I used a smaller radius, but that is a very dirty fix.

[Yexo]

This is going to be a bit delayed. As we need yexo for that

AITileList_IndustryAccepting is a bit unclear about whether it shall return the tiles which accept at least one cargo, or which accept all cargos of the industry. Maybe some list of tiles that accept a certain cargo is also useful.

For now it looks like that class is only used by Admiral and by NoCAB.
Admiral seems to filter the list afterwards for tiles that accept a certain cargo, using

Code: Select all

list.Valuate(AITile.GetCargoAcceptance, ...)
list.KeepAboveValue(7);

What NoCAB does, I do not understand

Edit: Btw. maybe the filting is already powerful enough, so the function might also stay as it is, and just the documentation needs fixing.

That filtering can be build in the api, but then it's possible the an industry accepts a certain cargo, but that there is no tile that accepts that cargo (think an industry that accepts 1/8 passengers on only one tile). My suggestion is to just fix the documentation. If anyone can come up with a nice description for the current behavior please post it.

[TrueBrain]

That filtering can be build in the api, but then it's possible the an industry accepts a certain cargo, but that there is no tile that accepts that cargo (think an industry that accepts 1/8 passengers on only one tile). My suggestion is to just fix the documentation. If anyone can come up with a nice description for the current behavior please post it.

Well, if there is only one tile with 1/8th of passengers, the tile is not of any interest to you anyway .. so I would suggest to fix the code to match what the documentation says. Or maybe remove it and add a new list where you can do the same, only per cargo (so instead of any cargo, just one cargo). Either way, I don't think this function is any useful in its current state (and I thought we already fixed it long ago that it only returns cargo which are truly accepted .. but okay ).

[Bilbo]

That tile could be of interest if you got remaining 7/8 of passengers from nearby town...

By the way, if the AI have planned station from several components (some rail + perhaps few bus stops/airport), you can easily compute the covered area and therefore the coverage rectangle. So, is there a way that when given a coverage rectangle to tell you what cargoes will end up bewing produced and accepted? (before actually building the station)

Humans can do that by picking rail station building and then dragging it over target area, seeing what would be accepted and produced.

[fanioz]

Just want to share
First time I used this function ( AITileList_IndustryAccepting and AITileList_IndustryProducing ) I only guess what it does. I think this function usage is to return an area of tiles around of industry counted from outer side, since not every industry have a same dimension (X/Y). Therefore it use radius, that is number of tiles from each side of industry. About a production/acceptance there are function AITile.GetProduction and AITile.GetAcceptance to actually check. And some time value below 8 is still acceptable.

And agree with Bilbo, human can easily use the station icon (before actually build it) to check every cargo would produce and accept around catchment area.