Dumb diggers

[Bored Peon]

I noticed in the last couple games I played my diggers were dying due to their own stupidity.

They would dig an enterance into a goblin or orc area (that wasnt block by an object.) Then because there is a nearby bed or food table they go use it instead of running away. I watched one of the diggers run over and climb into a bed beside a goblin, the goblin commenced to beating his ass for stealing the covers. Then the dwarf started running, then stopped and sat in a chair, then died.

Sure technically I could have placed a bed and food table nearby so it would use that instead. However that does not always work. I have seen dwarves travel really long distances passing up multiple tables and beds to use particular ones.

It is kidna funny to watch, but kinda annoying too. Especially when you lose a high level digger. Sure I could grab a dwarfling running aorund that is higher level than the digger, but somehow that just feels like cheating.

 

[Illanair]

Yeah dorfs are pretty stupid around enemies - they tend to always make a sprint for a chair/bench in enemy rooms and get attacked for it. Gotta keep an eye on the buggers.

 

[Xerkis]

Perhaps the real reason there is teleportation in the game.


Yeah, there should maybe an instant retreat for non-Military Dwarves that are within so many blocks of an enemy.

 

[unmerged(497946)]

I don't think that there is such a thing as a constant scan for nearby enemies... for civilian dorfs anyway.

Would probably be another resource drain... but it doesn't have to be. It could be an "event" fired by a monsters intention to attack a dwarf.
Dwarf "sees" monster heading towards him, dwarf takes off running. No constant scans required. =P

It would be pretty difficult for dwarves to get hurt, though, making monsters more annoying than dangerous.
Since this isn't primarily a combat game, it could well be that the devs wanted to make the player pay more attention to the few fights that do happen.

 

[Xerkis]

Good points Gazz.
Perhaps not run-away then. But at least a don’t sleep or sit if enemy is within so many squares. Let the run-away work as is. That it only happens if actually attacked.

 

[unmerged(497946)]

I've written some combat AI for X3 (realtime 3D, too) and while "watching for nearby enemies" seems simple to us humans, it's not quite so easy to just plug into the existing AI and pathing of a game like this. =)

"Cheats" like tying a dwarves decision to run away to the monster's intention to attack eliminate the potential resource drain because you can shortcut directly to the (already existing) run-away code.
It's no clean solution, of course, but it's a workaround that will make the AI look smarter with very little effort.
User perception is everything.
That's another thing I used in my scripts. As long as you make a big show of it, the user will believe that the AI is much smarter than it really is. =P

 

[Bored Peon]

Well when it comes to teleports half the time I have to use it to get the military dwarves there, even though there is a guard flag there. For some reason the table on level 9 has better food than the tables on 12, 16, 19, and 21. That is of course if there is not a teleport blocker nearby.

 

[Xerkis]

As long as you make a big show of it, the user will believe that the AI is much smarter than it really is. =P

Works for me