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I don't give a bleep whether AI is impossible, just FIX IT!

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 13:51
by BobXP
Blue line is where the train is going, green is where it should go. I have triple-checked my signals. Surely this is completely stupid.

It's getting to the point now where I don't really care if I'll have to use OpenTTD to get better train AI, but whatever it takes I WANT THIS FIXED.

Re: I don't give a bleep whether AI is impossible, just FIX

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 13:54
by Rob
BobXP wrote:.......but whatever it takes I WANT THIS FIXED.
Well start working on it then. :wink:

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 13:56
by BobXP
lol.

Last time I tried to use OpenTTD it wouldn't even compile. :roll:

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 16:19
by SHADOW-XIII
BobXP, you can try working on TTDPatch to

anywa .... one word: W A Y P O I N T S

Re: I don't give a bleep whether AI is impossible, just FIX

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 16:45
by Patchman
BobXP wrote:It's getting to the point now where I don't really care if I'll have to use OpenTTD to get better train AI, but whatever it takes I WANT THIS FIXED.
I'd fix it for, say, £100 per hour of my time. Deal?

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 17:35
by krtaylor
Yes! BobXP, please take his offer and save us all from the stupid AI....
:bow: :bow: :bow:

Re: I don't give a bleep whether AI is impossible, just FIX

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 17:52
by BobXP
Patchman wrote:
BobXP wrote:It's getting to the point now where I don't really care if I'll have to use OpenTTD to get better train AI, but whatever it takes I WANT THIS FIXED.
I'd fix it for, say, £100 per hour of my time. Deal?
I'd do that, but I'm not that rich. lol.

Anyway I found a "sort of" fix for it using presignals, but that doesn't mean that the AI doesn't need improving. :wink:

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 17:59
by Arathorn
Improving the AI is very hard. Josef tried it once already and that attempt failed.

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 18:08
by krtaylor
Acrtually, it is THOUGHT that it would be possible to completely replace the AI, by writing a completely new logic program in whatever language was convenient, and connecting it to TTD via the multiplayer system. So from TTD's point of view, there would be one normal local player (the human player), and one remote player (the newly-written, separate, standalone AI gameplaying program). This avoids any problems of having to deal with the original TTD AI data structures, and possible you could use open-source AI algorithms. But it would still be a lot of work.

Re: I don't give a bleep whether AI is impossible, just FIX

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 20:58
by Raichase
BobXP wrote:It's getting to the point now where I don't really care if I'll have to use OpenTTD to get better train AI, but whatever it takes I WANT THIS FIXED.
You are in no position to demand anything. Do it yourself, or submit a polite suggestion like everyone else. Some things annoy me in TT (be they a result of my patch settings being wrong) or be they part of original TT (for example, the trains that decide to get lost, as yours did), but I just find a way to deal with it, without venting it all out in public to people who are more cilivised in their way of dealing with problems.

Josef? Double your price if he keeps it up :P

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 22:21
by BobXP
bobxp wrote:I found a "sort of" fix for it using presignals
... and recently found out that it didn't work.

Anyway, here's an even more trivial example:

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 22:42
by krtaylor
Well, I don't think anyone here really finds it breaking news, that the AI or the pathfinding system is pretty stupid. And we've already explained the only potential ways to improve those items:

1. Pay Josef to rewrite it, big $$$
2. Write a separate module, and tie it in via the multiplayer system.

If Josef were willing to rewrite both aspects, I wouldn't want him to, not because I don't want them fixed (I do, very much) but because there are known workarounds, and there are other things I want the Patch to do that there aren't any workarounds for, and I'd rather he spent his time on that.

Posted: 20 Jul 2004 22:44
by BobXP
You know I think I will get off my lazy ass tomorrow and see how well documented the ottd source code is. :wink:

Re: I don't give a bleep whether AI is impossible, just FIX

Posted: 21 Jul 2004 04:32
by DaleStan
BobXP almost wrote:It's getting to the point now where I don't really care if I'll have to use OpenTTD to get better AI, but whatever it takes I WANT THIS FIXED.
1) That's "pathfinding", not "AI".
2) The best way to get something done around here is to do it yourself.
3) How about a savegame so we can figure out why that's happening. There is a reason, and I expect I could find it if I had a savegame.

Oh, and I'll fix it for US$100/hour (Yes, I know I'm undercutting Patchman), but that'll include the time it takes me to learn ASM. Better yet, (1) I won't be keeping Patchman off the other projects and (2) when all is said and done, you'll have another member of the patchteam.

Posted: 21 Jul 2004 14:22
by BobXP
Hmm. I think that the pathfinding mechanism was broken in a recent alpha. I used to be able to leave this particular game running for hours without the trains jamming up, but now I leave it half a minute and this happens:

Posted: 21 Jul 2004 16:26
by spaceman-spiff
What horrible games you play :x

Posted: 21 Jul 2004 16:29
by BobXP
Why are my games horrible? :?

BTW I fixed it by improving the junction.

Posted: 21 Jul 2004 17:01
by SHADOW-XIII
spaceman-spiff wrote:What horrible games you play :x
indeed ... it looks awful for me

Posted: 21 Jul 2004 17:07
by krtaylor
I hate the original TTD maglevs anyway, and your road-surface thing makes it even worse. Ugly. Also it makes it impossible to diagnose intersection problems, because you cannot see what directions are allowed at the intersections.

Posted: 21 Jul 2004 17:19
by BobXP
krtaylor wrote:Also it makes it impossible to diagnose intersection problems, because you cannot see what directions are allowed at the intersections.
Quite the contrary, it is very easy to see the individual tracks on my MagRoads set, and is not easy to see them on the original maglevs. :wink: