
Crian's Guardian AI
(An unofficial non-cheating AI for the Guardians of Kadesh, TA:Excess)
Version 0.1
2/5/2009



INSTALLATION:
1.) Make sure your have TA:Excess 3.1 working and running. View details as to how to install
the mod in its readme.
2.) In your TA folder (default is C:\CAVEDOG\TOTALA), create a folder named "AI" if it does
not already exist.
3.) Copy the *.txt files in the AI folder and that's it!

CONTENTS (v0.1):
3 AI profiles for the Guardians of Kadesh - Default, SmallDefault and SeaBattle
(Take Note: AI profiles for the Arm and the Core are NOT included, these contain profiles
solely for the GoK)

NOTES:

1.) What can I expect from this?

This is a non-cheating AI and it operates under the same rules as most other non-cheating
AIs. It is also hampered by the same hardcoded problems found in the TA 3.1 AI. This
AI won't do miracles, and any decent player can beat it 1 on 1. What it WON'T do however,
is sit on its a*s while you lie back and build a pretty base. It will make you react to it
...it WILL attack with mixed units and if unstopped it will control the skies and hit you 
hard with the really heavy stuff. Basically, it will keep you awake :)

It usually attacks on the 8-minute mark (provided the AI doesn't do anything too stupid).
The best I've seen it do is 6 minutes. It reaches Tech 2 at a range of within 20-30 minutes,
sometimes as early as 15... sometimes. It will send in advanced units against you if you
don't stop it early and your skies will fill with Kadesh bombers, air superiority fighters
and gunshipd screaming for blood.

2.) Wow! Now wait a minute... that all sounds too good to be true...

Yes it does doesn't it? Unfortunately, what I mentioned above only happened in about 60%
of tests. In the other tests, either it got destroyed early or it took a long time to build
up to the high levels. The design of the Guardians of Kadesh points to efficiency and power
wherein less is more. The high resource cost of their units and defenses coupled by their
good armor and powerful weapons is a testament to this philosophy. This, however, makes
it harder for a non-cheating AI.

The room for error for the GoK AI is much smaller because of their design. In a 1000 Metal,
1000 Energy game, the first 2 minutes is absolutely critical. There is a HUGE difference in
later performance if the AI for example follows a build order of "extractor-extractor-solar-
solar-solar-terra" VS. "extractor-aero-extractor-extractor-extractor". The limits and weights
can only do so much. Sometimes... sometimes, the AI still does things that makes you go
WTF?!?! Like building a Forge right after its first extractor, or an Aero plant first when
the instructions clearly point to a Terra plant. And because of the high costs of everything
in general, the GoK AI is much much more prone to nanostalling early on, especially if it
follows even a slightly different build order.

Also, again connected to the costs, a GoK AI base is often very lightly defended, thus the
need for fast and aggressive expansion. If too much resources is devoted to building
defenses, then there won't be enough units to attack, and the GoK AI is a poor defender.
To keep up, it must constantly be on the attack rather hence the trade-off, especially in
the early game.

Last but not the least, this AI IS very vulnerable to rushers as it takes a while to
build up and again the aforementioned costs of defending. I hope to remedy this in future
versions.

To make sure you get a decent challenge, I suggest fighting at least 2 GoK allied together
in Hard difficulty, so that in case one AI's growth is delayed because of a poor decision,
hopefully the other AI made the correct decisions as pointed out by the profile.

3.) OK, so which profile do I use for a particular map?

As of this version (0.1), there are 3 AI profiles:
Default - This is for medium-large sized land maps with plenty of room and metal. This is
needed for the AI to expand and attain its full potential. Work in progress...
SmallDefault - This is for small land maps. This AI is supposed to be faster and more
aggressive. Its build choices are slimmed down since a quick game is expected. I haven't
done much testing on this yet but so far it's only about a minute faster than the default
AI, sometimes even slower! Work in progress...
SeaBattle - This is for water maps, of course. I've only done a couple of tests so far and
while the AI does eventually builds a decent navy, it still takes too long to do so. It 
doesn't attack well either. WIP...

To assign a profile to a map, type the name of the desired profile in the map's OTA file
in the "aiprofile" field. To view a map's OTA file, use HPI viewer to open up totala2.hpi
or ccmaps (these are where the original maps are located). 3rd party maps can usually be
edited easily.

4.) I have a suggestion...

Email me at criston_manasan@yahoo.com or post in the forums. I appreciate your feedback
so I can make the AI better and more fun for all of us!

VERSION HISTORY:
2/5/2009 - First release (0.1)

CREDITS:
Vohvelielain - For making TA:Excess
Switeck - For his outstanding documentation regarding TA AI behavior
Shonner - For his GroundMetal AI which my AI has battled countless times :)
Cavedog - Though you are long dead, your legacy remains
You - For downloading this, reading, and playing :)