BF42 Adding AI - Part 1

BF42 Adding AI - Part 1

Based on Tutorials by Arc D'Wraith

reface: Since Arc D'Wraith wrote his AI tutorials, there have been tools developed to help the setup of BF42 and BFV with a basic level of AI support. Understanding how it all works together will help you to troubleshoot your map AI and improve it.

Welcome to Part One of the Ai .con Editing tutorial.

I will be your host today and I aim to show you how to create a addon that adds Co-op & Single Player support to a custom map.

This part of the tutorial will be brief and short on details, you first task is to get the AI successfully running first, then we will proceed to customise & further investigate the Ai in the Second Part of the Tutorial.

There are many things that will not be covered in this Tutorial.

Firstly, this tutorial will only cover Land based maps that only use Cars, Infantry, Tanks & Aircraft

Also, on occasions you may be required to do tasks that requires other software, such as RFA Tools, Image Editors and Map Editors, it is not within the scope of this tutorial to teach you other software. If you are doing this tutorial, you should already know how to do these tasks.

With this mind, lets go botty ; )

Tutorial Part 1 - Adding Ai to a custom Map

Ok, here we go. Today's victim is Aberdeen, hopefully you have completed the Pathmap Tutorial and have your freshly made pathmaps handy, if not i HIGHLY recommend you do the Pathmap Tutorial first.

The quickest way to get an Ai in to your map, is to borrow another one. For this we can use another map, grab the required files and add them to ours.

I have chosen Kursk to be our donor as it is a simple map, and has a fairly simple set of strategies.

Also, both Aberdeen and Kursk are what i am going to call a "Mirrored" map, as it has the same layout of Bases & Control Points regardless of which Side you are playing. Battleaxe and Midway are two other examples of Mirrored maps.

Picking the best Map to pinch your Ai from comes with experience, and knowing what you want to achieve,

But ... by the end of the Tutorial Series, it is my hope that you will be able to write your own Ai

1.1 - Create Addon Folder: First, make a folder to create your Co-op Addon in.

Rather than dump all the Ai files in with a complete map, we shall keep them separate for the moment. This allows you to create an Addon for a map, rather than having to compile it into the main archive.

If it's your own map, it is still a good idea to keep it separate as compiling the addon will be much quicker than compiling your full map, textures & all, every time you tweak the Ai

For this first step, using the desktop is quite handy.

1.2 - Extract Source Maps: We need access to files within the Maps we will be working with.

Extract the following .RFA files to a handy location, these are the original maps and their revision files.

Aberdeen.rfa

Aberdeen_003.rfa

Kursk.rfa

Kursk_000.rfa

Kursk_003.rfa

1.3 - Copying Files: Open the folder that you extracted Kursk into.

Select the following files (Fig 1a), and COPY them to the Folder you created in 1.1

Fig 1a

1.4 - First Round Editing: Lets go through the files you just copied.

Open your Addon's folder, and we'll have a tour and a bit of an edit ...

1.4.1 - AI.CON

The first thing i would like you to do, is add a header to the top of this file.

Something like this ...

rem *** ABERDEEN ***

rem *** Co-op Addon Tutorial ***

rem *** yourname ***

You can include any details you like, the main point of this is to label the file with the map's name.

Trust me, this will save much confusion, when you have a dozen .CON files open.

Highlight the block of text you just typed in, and COPY it to the clipboard

Next, we need to check the worldsize setting, look for ...

aiSettings.setWorldMapSize 1024 1024

This sets the size of the Pathmaps, which in Kursk are 1024 x 1024 pixels.

Lucky for us, Aberdeen is the same size as Kursk, so we don't need to change this, but keep in mind for other maps, this size could be different.

!!! TIP !!!

You can check your world size in INIT / TERRAIN.CON GeometryTemplate.worldSize 1024

Scroll down a little further, look for

game.showAIstats 0

and Change the value to 1

next, add this line

ai.showBotStats 0

Thats all the changes we are making for now, but before we Save & Close the file, scroll down to the bottom and have a look at ...

ai.addSAIStrategy 1 breakOut

ai.addSAIStrategy 1 holdAndCamp

ai.addSAIStrategy 1 single

ai.addSAIStrategy 1 double

ai.addSAIStrategy 2 breakOut

ai.addSAIStrategy 2 holdAndCamp

ai.addSAIStrategy 2 single

ai.addSAIStrategy 2 double

This is the list of Strategies that are available for each side to use.

Notice that both Side 1 & Side 2 have the same Strategies ... this is part of what i refer to as being "Mirrored"

Save your file, close it, and lets move on

1.4.2 - AIpathFinding.con

Again, the first thing i want you to do is add your header.

If the text you copied in the previous step is still in the clipboard, PASTE it down, or type it in ... again

We don't need to make any other changes to this file, so Save & Close the file.

1.4.3 - Ai \ Strategies.con

Moving into the Ai folder now, lets have a look at Strategies.con, yet again, the first thing i want you to do is add your header.

Now look at the four blocks of text in this file, notice they are the Four Strategies that we're listed in AI.CON

in Ai.con

ai.addSAIStrategy 1 breakOut

references to ... in Strategies.con

aiStrategy.createStrategy breakOut

Before we go, have a look at the code in a strategy ... keep this line in your mind.

aiStrategy.setPrerequisite breakOutPrereq

No other changes to this file, so Save & Close.

1.4.4 - Ai \ prerequisites.con

Still yet again, the first thing i want you to do is add your header.

Again in this file we have four blocks of text, if you look at this line ...

aiStrategy.createPrerequisite breakOutPrereq

Notice that is a reference to the Strategy we just looked at ...

Something to look at before we move on ...

aiStrategy.addCondition noFriendlyCPCond 10.0

Save & Close the file.

1.4.5 - Ai \ conditions.con

You guessed it, add your header first.

This file isn't broken up nicely for us, but have a look around & you'll find this line ...

aiStrategy.createConstantCondition noFriendlyCPCond Crisp Equal Friendly ControlPoint 0

Once again, the reference between Conditions & a Prerestiquite is there

Save & close the file

1.4.6 - Ai \ StrategicAreas.con

Paste your header in, Save & Close the file, we're not even touching this for the moment ; )

1.4.7 - "Gametype" .cons

Open Coop.con, and add your header.

All we need to with this file, is make the settings the same to Aberdeen in Conquest.

Open Aberdeen's Conquest.con, and look at the following settings ...

Game.setNumberOfTickets 1 100

Game.setNumberOfTickets 2 100

Game.setTicketLostPerMin 1 7

Game.setTicketLostPerMin 2 7

The settings for Kursk are different, so change them to match or to your own preference.

You also need to open Singleplayerallies.con & Singleplayeraxis.con and make similar changes.

Next ... browse into the Gametypes folder, and delete all the files.

Go back and select Coop.con, COPY it and PASTE into the Gametypes folder

NOTE: POSSIBLE PROBLEM:

But if there is an Ai, Conquest mode will crash on loading, with an "Ai Allocation Error"

This is the line in question ..

run ai v_arg1 or run ai

Please Delete or rem the line the out ... problem solved

rem run ai v_arg1 or rem run ai

If you have read this and looked at file, you're probably asking what am i on ?

No, this line is not in Aberdeen's conquest.con and we don't have to worry about it ... this time

Go have a look at Battle of Britain's Conquest.con though ...

This problem may also exist in the CTF.con & TDM.con files. If you need to change any files because of this, you will need to save the changed files in your Ai addon's folder, so it will update the map with the changes without altering the main archive.

These files also need to be duplicated in the Gametypes folder, if they are changed.

1.4.8 - Pathfinding Folder

Copy the Pathmaps you created in the Pathmap Tutorial to this Folder

1.4.8 - Singleplayer Folder

Browse to the extracted Aberdeen Singleplayer folder, COPY the contents and PASTE them into your Addon's Singleplayer folder. This will overwrite the old Kursk files.

1.4.9 - RFA Creation

When you create your .RFA we want to take advantage of the update system the game supports.

Aberdeen already has one update file, Aberdeen_003.rfa, we want to make sure our file supersedes all previous updates, and allows room for more updates, so use the filename Aberdeen_010.rfa

Create the .RFA and we are now ready for our first test run.

1.4.10 - First Test

Start Battlefield, Create a Multiplayer game, select CO-OP and add Operation Aberdeen to the list

These are the settings I use for testing:

Players: Time Limit: NR Rounds: Tickets: Axis: Allies: Ai Skill: Ai CPU:

37 100 100 200% 9 10 85% 25%

These settings will provide 18 bots on each side, and allows you to be in the game on the Allied Side, without throwing the team balance out. Once the game has started you can swap sides and there will be still 18 bots on each side.

Long rounds are useful, if you do have short rounds, just as something important is about to happen ... the round will end

Start the game.

Fig 1b

If you see your desktop, you have missed something ...

Rather than waste a bucket load of time trying to find the error, Delete it, and start again. Its good practice anyway ; )

TIP:

Have a look around the level

Drop the console by pressing the tilde key [ ~ ] and type ....

game.enablefreecamera 1

I highly recommend you set up an "Alias" for this command as it will be your friend

Have a look around the level

Drop the console by pressing the tilde key [ ~ ] and type ....

game.enablefreecamera 1

I highly recommend you set up an "Alias" for this command as it will be your friend