An amazing tutorial of EAW's AI, by Drieick.

Drieick has recently posted an impressive tutorial explaining how to play with the AI XML files that triggers .lua scripts from Empire at War. The tutorials explains the variables, categories, expressions, functions, and much more... and it features some examples in the very end. Here's a snippet:

Variables and how they're interpreted
Here are the variables, which obivously start with the word "Variable_":

Variable_Target
Variable_Enemy
Variable_Self

What they mean depends on how and where they're used; for example, if it's Galactic mode, Target could mean a planet and Variable_Self could mean the player attributes. However, in tactical mode, Variable_Target could mean a unit or a location on the map. Currently, on Target appears in the Lua source (defined in PGBaseDefitions.lua)
I'm not sure how exactly it determines locations, because there's no obvious grid, so I'mjust going to assume it's square pixel by square pixel, which is inefficient (Grid would be faster... or a bigger squareXsquare scaled grid).

And this is just the beggining. You can read the whole tutorial HERE and discuss it. Thanks a lot, Drieick. If anyone is interested on providing tutorials, post it on our modding forums or wait the new site goes live (which we recommend, since it will include a nice articles/tutorials system).

Edited by Duke, 27 February 2008 - 07:10 PM.

I apologize for being politically correct (correct term?) and all, but that thread is mainly concentrated on the XML source and not the Lua source - the Lua just carries out the orders, the XML determines what orders to give. Just thought I'd tell you that, sir Banshee. (The XML source can be found at Data/XML/AI)

Sorry for a late response - been busy with story line.

Edited by Drieick, 25 February 2008 - 07:09 AM.

Thanks . I've patched the news.

Variable_Target locations are selected in ground maps from the AI zones defining collections of contiguous of map cells (either procedurally calculated or hand painted by the editor). In space maps its a simple coarse grid.

-SCC

If this SCC is the one I'm thinking of, Scc is Steve Copeland, a Petroglyph developer

Variable_Target locations are selected in ground maps from the AI zones defining collections of contiguous of map cells (either procedurally calculated or hand painted by the editor). In space maps its a simple coarse grid.

-SCC

Fix'd. Thank you very much, sir.