AI Improvements for Helmets, Hygiene, Duties, and Dooties!
Hey Folks!
Update v0.14.3.1 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Across the System" update, with significant upgrades to the AI's handling of helmets, airlocks, hygiene, defecation, and work prioritization.
Saves from v0.14.0.0 and later should work. Note that if you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.
Today's update includes a pretty significant reworking of how AI handles airlocks, helmets, work, and their personal needs.
Players have long reported issues with the AI seemingly putting their helmets on for no reason, forgetting to take them off, dropping them on the floor, and worst of all, spacing themselves unexpectedly while performing other tasks.
Part of this stems from the way our pathfinding code worked. The pathfinding code was trying to be smart, and making decisions about airlocks and helmets, and this was often at odds with the thing the AI or player was trying to do. So we pulled all of that decision-making code out of pathfinder and put it up near where the AI was deciding what to do instead.
Now, the pathfinder code merely tells the requesting AI if it can do the path and how, or else why it couldn't. And the AI decides from there what to do about it.
We also tightened-up the graphics on lev- just kidding! We tightened-up the airlock permissions matrix to be more rigorous about what is allowed vs. not. And in most cases now, AI will only use airlocks if they have both permission and a suit plus helmet.
Emergencies (like suffocation) will override permissions temporarily, and there's one case where the AI will go through an airlock without a helmet if the player directly orders them to go to a spot outside. (Also intended for emergencies.)
Adding on to that, the AI behavior for finding a helmet and suit got an upgrade, and you should begin seeing AIs grab their suits first, and then helmet, before heading outside.
We've noticed many new players could also use a bit of help with helmet discipline, so we've added a new tutorial that appears the first time your helmet's air becomes fouled. It will instruct the user to find a safe room to refresh their helmet, since this is not necessarily intuitive to anyone who might be used to suits with O2 systems.
While we were in the code for work tasks vs. airlocks, we finally had a chance to circle back to the long-ignored Duties UI. Some players may not have even known it was there!
This UI lets the player prioritize certain types of tasks. It previously included some categories that made no sense or were unavailable, while missing some others that would help with granularity.
When the player adds new tasks via the PDA, and an AI is in AUTOTASK mode (at the bottom of the HUD, next to the crew portraits), AI will look at this chart when deciding what to do next. They'll look at the row with their name, and first do all 1s, then 2s, 3s, and finally 4s. And they'll read them left to right.
So in the above image, Madelyn will prioritize repairs over all else, then proceed with Operating (toggling switches, opening doors, etc.), Patching, Constructing, Restoring, Demolishing (and Scrapping, Dismantling), and finally Hauling.
Meanwhile, Naomi will prioritize Construction tasks. And Ashley will be a Hauler above all else.
You can get to this UI via the Roster UI, by clicking the bumper on the right, like so:
Note that the RESTORE PARTS toggle on this Roster UI also uses the same Duties priorities.
Separate from all of the above, the AI behaviors around hygiene and defecation should now be more under control, too. We curbed some of their excessive use of those actions, and made it easier to do for the player in some other cases.
One pair of subtle, but troublesome bugs also contributed to weird AI behavior in the past.
The first issue was that any character that was renamed during character creation lost all of their basic AI behaviors as soon as a save/load happened. This was due to the behaviors being assigned by name when the character was spawned, but not having that name updated later.
The second issue was that crew shifts were not being reassigned when the game was loaded from a save, until the next hour had passed. So for the first hour after loading a save, AI would frequently behave as if on free time.
We also had a chance to fix a few more general bugs. Cycling to crew on other ships was causing ships to vanish. Emptying cargo pods would cause them to spontaneously spawn new contents. Super fast-forward would report impossible activities. All of the above should be working normally again.
And we're not done yet! We also have some work planned to improve the starting tutorials, AI food/water usage, performance optimization, etc. All of this will be coming in future patches.
As always, there's plenty more for us to fix, change, and add! And we'll be continuing in roughly that order. In the meantime, let us know if this patch helps you out, as well as if it reveals new problems!
Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC
Update v0.14.3.1 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Across the System" update, with significant upgrades to the AI's handling of helmets, airlocks, hygiene, defecation, and work prioritization.
Saves from v0.14.0.0 and later should work. Note that if you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.
- AI can now only open airlocks when they have permissions and are wearing helmets, except emergencies.
- Captains can additionally walk outside without a helmet if they have permission, and the player ordered them manually to walk outside.
- AI should now only put a helmet and suit on immediately before they go outside, instead of randomly when pondering tasks.
- AI should now wear both a suit and helmet before going outside, instead of just a helmet.
- AI should now be smarter about refreshing their helmets safely, and will not drop them on the floor anymore.
- AIs should now remember their survival skills after a save/load when their name was changed during character creation.
- AI work priorities can now be fully set on the Roster and Duties UIs.
- AI AUTOTASK repairing, patching, and restoring now honors priority settings on the Duties UI.
- AI should no longer try to use the toilet when they cannot go.
- AIs can now successfully use the toilet while wearing a suit.
- AI will now only choose to freshen up if they are dirty.
- Only human intervention will allow AIs to freshen up with water now.
- AI shouldn't claim they cannot do a task immediately before doing it anymore.
- AI shouldn't cut through corners anymore when rounding them, causing them to suffocate inside the wall.
- There is a new tutorial for when the player's helmet air becomes fouled the first time.
- Cycling between crew on different ships will no longer cause ships to vanish.
- Ship crew no longer lose their assigned shifts in the first hour after loading a save.
- Emptying cargo pods no longer spawns infinite loot inside.
- Super Fast-Forward no longer allows studying or exercise training while unconscious.
- Freshen Up action is now usable on water containers, as well as the water itself.
- PDA and inventory UIs now slide in at realtime speeds, instead of fast-forward/slow speeds.
- Severe burns received during character creation is now correctly set to chronic burn scar.
- Several typo and other wording fixes.
Today's update includes a pretty significant reworking of how AI handles airlocks, helmets, work, and their personal needs.
Players have long reported issues with the AI seemingly putting their helmets on for no reason, forgetting to take them off, dropping them on the floor, and worst of all, spacing themselves unexpectedly while performing other tasks.
Part of this stems from the way our pathfinding code worked. The pathfinding code was trying to be smart, and making decisions about airlocks and helmets, and this was often at odds with the thing the AI or player was trying to do. So we pulled all of that decision-making code out of pathfinder and put it up near where the AI was deciding what to do instead.
Now, the pathfinder code merely tells the requesting AI if it can do the path and how, or else why it couldn't. And the AI decides from there what to do about it.
We also tightened-up the graphics on lev- just kidding! We tightened-up the airlock permissions matrix to be more rigorous about what is allowed vs. not. And in most cases now, AI will only use airlocks if they have both permission and a suit plus helmet.
Emergencies (like suffocation) will override permissions temporarily, and there's one case where the AI will go through an airlock without a helmet if the player directly orders them to go to a spot outside. (Also intended for emergencies.)
Adding on to that, the AI behavior for finding a helmet and suit got an upgrade, and you should begin seeing AIs grab their suits first, and then helmet, before heading outside.
We've noticed many new players could also use a bit of help with helmet discipline, so we've added a new tutorial that appears the first time your helmet's air becomes fouled. It will instruct the user to find a safe room to refresh their helmet, since this is not necessarily intuitive to anyone who might be used to suits with O2 systems.
While we were in the code for work tasks vs. airlocks, we finally had a chance to circle back to the long-ignored Duties UI. Some players may not have even known it was there!
This UI lets the player prioritize certain types of tasks. It previously included some categories that made no sense or were unavailable, while missing some others that would help with granularity.
When the player adds new tasks via the PDA, and an AI is in AUTOTASK mode (at the bottom of the HUD, next to the crew portraits), AI will look at this chart when deciding what to do next. They'll look at the row with their name, and first do all 1s, then 2s, 3s, and finally 4s. And they'll read them left to right.
So in the above image, Madelyn will prioritize repairs over all else, then proceed with Operating (toggling switches, opening doors, etc.), Patching, Constructing, Restoring, Demolishing (and Scrapping, Dismantling), and finally Hauling.
Meanwhile, Naomi will prioritize Construction tasks. And Ashley will be a Hauler above all else.
You can get to this UI via the Roster UI, by clicking the bumper on the right, like so:
Note that the RESTORE PARTS toggle on this Roster UI also uses the same Duties priorities.
Separate from all of the above, the AI behaviors around hygiene and defecation should now be more under control, too. We curbed some of their excessive use of those actions, and made it easier to do for the player in some other cases.
One pair of subtle, but troublesome bugs also contributed to weird AI behavior in the past.
The first issue was that any character that was renamed during character creation lost all of their basic AI behaviors as soon as a save/load happened. This was due to the behaviors being assigned by name when the character was spawned, but not having that name updated later.
The second issue was that crew shifts were not being reassigned when the game was loaded from a save, until the next hour had passed. So for the first hour after loading a save, AI would frequently behave as if on free time.
We also had a chance to fix a few more general bugs. Cycling to crew on other ships was causing ships to vanish. Emptying cargo pods would cause them to spontaneously spawn new contents. Super fast-forward would report impossible activities. All of the above should be working normally again.
And we're not done yet! We also have some work planned to improve the starting tutorials, AI food/water usage, performance optimization, etc. All of this will be coming in future patches.
As always, there's plenty more for us to fix, change, and add! And we'll be continuing in roughly that order. In the meantime, let us know if this patch helps you out, as well as if it reveals new problems!
Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC