So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

After much thought and consideration, I have decided to no longer continue my work on DotA AI maps. Between my increased work responsibilities, advancing on to the next stage of life, my waning interest in DotA, and the frustration from both dealing with the community's demands and the community having to deal with my absences, I believe it is best for me to let this project go and move on.

It was a fun two years, with updates on almost every version since 6.49 (we're up to 6.66b now, crazy!), but as lazyfiend/RGB said when he left, I find that working on this map is no longer enjoyable to me, and is in fact quite a burden.

I've contacted GoD-Tony (killerbee) about taking over, and if he decides to, I'll try to help him get up to speed as much as possible. If not, I hope whomever takes my place will have as much fun as I did these past two years learning the ins and outs of JASS and the WC3 engine.

My passion has always been with the Fun Taverns, and though I will not continue AI development I may occasionally release some maps on my blog with old heroes and/or original creations, so feel free to visit and leave comments for me here.

Thanks for the fun times guys!

No map until June at the earliest

Absolutely swamped, likely won't have time until June to even look at the maps and script. I've been getting the changes from IceFrog and will update to whatever version is recent when I have time, but don't expect anything for at least two months.

Update...sorta

Been pretty busy with work and stuff recently, haven't really done much on script development. Played a bit with some fun heroes though, we'll see if any of them make it in for the next version. =P

Don't see work letting up anytime soon for the next month and a half. Even if a new DotA version comes out before then I wouldn't expect a new AI version for a while. =/

DotA Allstars 6.66b AI 0.2141

http://www.mediafire.com/?kwzr0tnwunn
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E3ONG5LR
http://rapidshare.com/files/345279915/DotA_Allstars_v6.66b_AI_0.2141.w3x

Changelog:
-Rewrote Overpower and Summon Familiars to prevent AI crashes
-Undid the fix added for Pounce in 6.66b that was causing the game to crash
-Added a workaround for when AI attempt to attack a dropped Divine Rapier (item will be removed)
-Fixed AI from destroying the Aegis after having them attack Roshan

Crashes

Looking over the code, looks like Slark's Pounce, Ursa's Overpower and Visage's Summon Familiars will need to be rewritten, as they will cause conflicts with the AI script and result in WC3 crashing.

If you find a crash unrelated to any of these three heroes, let me know. I'm working on a fix for the aforementioned abilities.

-dm is still known to be unstable on the AI map. Until I figure out why it will continue to be so.

DotA Allstars v6.66b AI 0.214

http://www.mediafire.com/?ytm2mn1zow4
http://rapidshare.com/files/343331037/DotA_Allstars_v6.66b_AI_0.214.w3x
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CX5LEHW5

Changelog:
----------
6.66b (v0.214)
==============
-First update to 6.66b
-Rewrote Jinada, Wind Walk, Chilling Touch, and Essence Shift to prevent AI-specific crashes
-Minor AI changes to use some rewritten abilities (Scorched Earth, Overpower, etc.)
-Added some extra checks to prevent AI from automatically picking heroes with incomplete AI scripts (they can still random them in -ar or -tr)
-Disabled new -unlock command, as -switch is still disabled in AI map

Let me know if you find any issues.

Okay, I lied, I'm changing the next version to 0.214

No major AI script changes, but I did have to change some stuff to make some of the rewritten abilities work, so I will update the version number.

Just finished the 6.66b changes, will do a test run tomorrow and if I don't find any bugs, will release on Saturday or Sunday. Changelog looks like this:

6.66b (v0.214)
==============
-First update to 6.66b
-Rewrote Jinada, Wind Walk, Chilling Touch, and Essence Shift to prevent AI-specific crashes
-Minor AI changes to use some rewritten abilities (Scorched Earth, Overpower, etc.)
-Added some extra checks to prevent AI from automatically picking heroes with incomplete AI scripts (they can still random them in -ar or -tr)
-Disabled new -unlock command, as -switch is still disabled in AI map

Stay tuned, it's coming soon. =)

Next version will STILL still be 0.213

Got the script changes for 6.66 from IceFrog, working double-time on the map to get this done ASAP. Don't expect the bots to use a lot of the new abilities just yet, I'll do more work on this after I release, just want to get a version out where people can start playing with the new heroes/abilities/items.

Still aiming to release by the end of the month. Sit tight!

Next version will still be 0.213

I had some experimental AI scripts for Admiral and Clockwerk in the pipeline, but I haven't been able to focus too much on this recently and in the interest of releasing 6.65 AI as soon as possible, I'll probably hold off on this stuff for now.

IceFrog has sent me the script changes and I've been slowly integrating them. I'm aiming to release by the end of this month.

Thanks for your patience.

Back to normal, only slower

Thanks all for the words of encouragement. The bulk of the crisis is over for now, but I most likely will not be working full speed on this for a while.

I'll do my best to update to 6.65 quickly when it comes out, but expect progress in general to be slower than before (at least for a while).

Thanks again for your patience and support.

Temporarily halting development

Urgent family issues. Please understand.

Obfuscation and the like

Obfuscation: what is it? Simply put, it's a method used to make code difficult to read and work with. The basic idea is simple; the script parser doesn't care if a variable has a meaningful name (integer iHeroID) or a nonsensical one (integer ZYF), since semantically the code will execute the same regardless of nomenclature. It does, however, make it significantly more difficult for someone else to make changes to it (especially without accidentally breaking something!)

This is, unfortunately, the reason why AI development has been slow. I've been spending quite a bit of time slowly deobfuscating the script, but there are still many things that I still cannot quite account for. My current project is working out some of the "magic numbers" that appear in the script; numbers which just appear in the script but have no apparent rhyme or reason.

Fortunately, I only have to work out the obfuscated portions in the AI script; IceFrog has been provided me with script changes from version to version (i.e. what was added/changed/deleted in 6.64 from 6.63b) in unobfuscated form, so I can keep the map updated with those features rather easily and effectively. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a full deobfuscated map script (which would make starting a brand-new AI much easier) or a deobfuscated AI script (which would make things easier for the obvious reasons). Ah well. C'est la vie, as a good friend of mine would often say. =P

I'm thinking of posting some of these random numbers for you guys to possibly decipher. I know a lot of them refer to unit geographical locations (x,y coordinates of buildings and such) that have been changed since 6.48b and no longer cause things to work, but trying to figure out what used to be what is a bit tedious. =/

In short, obfuscation = the bane of my existence. At least, in terms of map development. =P

"-formless"

Try it. Works for 0.213 whenever "-random" is valid. Should go without saying that you type that in without the quotation marks, but I'll mention it anyway just in case.

And I know that everytime I do something fun like this a lot of people will say "HOW DARE YOU WORK ON SOMETHING YOU FIND FUN AND ENJOYABLE INSTEAD OF SPENDING YOUR LIMITED FREE TIME DOING SOMETHING I SELFISHLY DEMAND YOU TO DO", but eh, I work at my own pace and on my own schedule, so deal with it. =P

DotA Allstars 6.64 AI 0.213

http://www.mediafire.com/?1wmmwmmyyj2
http://rapidshare.com/files/297656613/DotA_Allstars_v6.64_AI_0.213.w3x
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V9VX2TOY

Changelog:
-First update to 6.64
-Changed the default AI behaviour of creeps and towers to be the same as in the official map
-Fixed the fade on Circles of Protection belonging to other players
-Fixed some numerical errors on Bristleback's abilities
-Added some additional AI ability functionality (Black Hole, Fissure, Epicenter)

List of abilities that AI don't use correctly/at all

With a host of new abilities and rewrites, many abilities that previously worked with the script either aren't used properly or aren't used at all. Some abilities (like Epicenter after Burrowstrike) worked in previous versions due to hacks that I put in that I've since removed during refactoring.

If you see something that's not working and isn't on this list, let me know, I'll try to keep this updated and address these when I have time (I probably missed several). Please keep in mind that I have a real life and a real job and both take priority over this, so progress might not be as fast as you'd like, but I'll have to ask for your patience.

Thanks.

Sven
-Warcry (new ability)

Doombringer
-Devour (rewritten a while ago)

N'aix
-Infest (I don't even know how to properly use this, haha)

Storm
-Electric Vortex (I think there's a problem with this ability when used by AI)
-Ball Lightning

Dirge
-Decay (spams this and sometimes gets lucky)
-Soul Rip (not working anymore? I haven't changed this and the ability should be the same but I never see him using it)
-Tombstone

Windrunner
-Powershot
-Windrunner (ironically)
-Focus Fire

Batrider
-Sticky Napalm (spams this and sometimes gets lucky)
-Flamebreak
-Flaming Lasso (uses this randomly)

Clockwerk
-Battery Assault
-Power Cog
-Hookshot

Admiral
-X Marks the Spot
-Ghost Ship

Razor
-All active abilities

Tauren Chieftain
-All active abilities

Invoker
-All abilities, invoked or otherwise

6.64 AI on the way

Got the script changes from IceFrog today, starting work on this soon.

Just thought you all should know, since I haven't updated in a while. =P

Formless 2.0

After spending some time today refactoring the AI script, I decided to take a break and rethink the Formless hero that I implemented a while back. Long story short, several hours later I've finished a (mostly) working and improved version of Formless.

I ended up reorganising the code by a significant amount, and the resulting code is more efficient and easier to use. The biggest change is the ability to now choose which individual skill to reset, if so desired. You can right-click on the reset button to change the reset button to only reset a single skill (cycling through the four base abilities, then back to the option to reset all).

On top of that, the error messages are much more informative now; if you try to copy an ability that currently isn't supported, the message will notify you of which ability you tried to copy. If you try to copy an ability with an order already used (while -override is off) it will let you know which ability is conflicting.

And I decided to throw all semblence of balance out the window for this because, let's face it, the ability to combine skills of multiple heroes on the fly will never be balanced, ever. So, in order to maximise fun and flexibility, I removed the cooldown on all Reset functions (individual or all).

Haven't quite finished getting it up to compatibility levels of previous versions (so some abilities aren't working yet like Impetus and Last Word) but I expect I'll finish most of these by the time I release the next version. =)

DotA Allstars v6.63b AI 0.212

http://www.mediafire.com/?kntzc2zdmln
http://rapidshare.com/files/284125128/DotA_Allstars_v6.63b_AI_0.212.w3x
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BFNO0D5W

Changelog:

6.63b (v0.212)
==============
-First update to 6.63b
-Fixed an issue that was causing AI bots to learn their abilities out of order
-Fixed another issue that was still causing the game to crash when a player leaves the game early
-Added some additional AI ability functionality (Crystal Nova, Storm Bolt, Mana Burn)

DotA Allstars 6.62b AI 0.211

http://www.mediafire.com/?mozmmjn0dgm
http://rapidshare.com/files/281536559/DotA_Allstars_v6.62b_AI_0.211.w3x
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=09VJKGMM

Mostly just addressing bugs, will try to address some AI issues for next release.

Changelog:

6.62b (v0.211)
==============
-Temporarily removed managed group system to remove critical error bugs until I get a chance to clean up group usage in the AI script
-Rewrote Liquid Fire to prevent conflict with the AI script
-Fixed a bug with Weave
-Fixed a bug with Spirit Bear losing items when the ability is levelled
-Fixed a bug with the game crashing when a human player leaves the game early
-Fixed a bug with Cold Snap not working after the first hit
-Fixed a bug with -ma

DotA Allstars 6.62 AI 0.21

http://www.mediafire.com/?nmgw3jtjndt
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1FANS0TA
http://rapidshare.com/files/275012234/DotA_Allstars_v6.62_AI_0.21.w3x

First release, updated to 6.62 and 1.24 compliant. Note that this is v0.21, and there will be bugs.

Some abilities are not working for bots yet (they learn them but don't use them), and this is expected and will be addressed in future versions.

The following game modes have been disabled for now:
-vr, -rv, -rd, -cd, -cm, -lm, -xl

The following game commands have been disabled for now:
-afk, -kickafk, -ah, -switch, -fun

Please report bugs to me.

Things that are bugs:
-Crashes with reproducible reasons
-Abilities/items not working as expected (for players or bots)

Things that are not bugs:
-Bots not using certain abilities
-Bots being too strong/weak/cheating. They do that.

Thanks to Overflow_GR for his help on this version.

Enjoy!