Computer Player to use prison

[mefistotelis]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 311

Rival Keepers never turn imprisonment on, and therefore never manage to benefit from
heroes they defeat.

They should provide a better challenge if they were to capture heroes or rival creatures.

After which the behavior may be as follows:
* Throw creatures who can cast heal into torture chamber after a certain time period
* Else throw creatures without a human-skeleton into the torture chamber straight away
* Keep the rest so they become skeletons

Reported by Loobinex on 2014-06-03 23:23:56

[mefistotelis]

There's a KeeperFX script command which makes a creature imprison defeated enemies

SET_CREATURE_TENDENCIES(PLAYER2,IMPRISON,1)

only works if the player has a prison, obviously. It generates skeletons for the appropriate
creatures, but others either die or live on in the jail forever.

Reported by dayokay65 on 2014-06-04 17:34:31

[mefistotelis]

I've tried using it, without effect.

I've included this piece of script to test the effect:

IF(PLAYER0,PRISON > 0)
    SET_CREATURE_TENDENCIES(PLAYER0,IMPRISON,1)
ENDIF

Then build a prison, and saw imprisonment remain disabled. Had the same script for
computer players as well, and it seemed ineffective as well.

Reported by Loobinex on 2014-06-19 22:47:04

[mefistotelis]

1. Make sure you have LEVEL_VERSION command, and the log file doesn't inform of script
errors.
2. Now as you mentioned it, it's possible that using this for human player will enable
the imprison option, but leave the GUI button in its previous state. That needs to
be tested - in case this happens, I must somehow fix it.

Reported by mefistotelis on 2014-06-19 22:53:56

[mefistotelis]

I can confirm a few things:

* My mistake was indeed not using the LEVEL_VERSION command
* With the level version command, imprisonment is turned on
* Using it on human player does not toggle the GUI button, but does turn imprisonment
on

That being said, there are some very strange side effects:
* Creatures started coming through the portal that should not be there. When I just
claimed a portal the first creature I got was a hellhound, not much later I received
a vampire.
* The imps would not pickup the defeated creature.

Attached log, saves, and the modified level 15. I was trying to see what kind of boost
the keepers needed for the level to be played out as intended.

Reported by Loobinex on 2014-06-20 23:29:38

---

• Attachment: Imprisonment.7z

[mefistotelis]

Too many issues at once,... split it up and reported them seperately.

I think the not-picking-up-prisoners needs to be tested again seperately as well, not
possible in current build.

Reported by Loobinex on 2014-06-21 00:52:21

[mefistotelis]

In the files I delivered for Issue #190 I included the below script were prudent:

IF(PLAYER1,PRISON >= 9)
    SET_CREATURE_TENDENCIES,PLAYER1,IMPRISON,1
ENDIF

Reported by Loobinex on 2014-09-07 16:15:25

[mefistotelis]

For now I didn't commited your changes regarding IMPRISON for computers. I'm not sure
if it's a good idea. We should test how it affects gameplay - it may lead to computer
player losing all imps very easily.

Maybe when computer player loses part of his army, the imprison should disable?

Reported by mefistotelis on 2014-09-08 20:11:58

[mefistotelis]

ok.

I've already did a full campaign run with imprisonment on (and even updated levels
with prisons) and did not find an issue with too many imps charging into battle,..
they flee from fights anyway and don't draw agro.

But in fact, the effect isn't that big at all, it mostly is useful for them if they
hit the occasional hero pocket. He might end up with a few skeletons.
When a keeper fights the red keeper, he is usually dead anyway,...

I think disabling imprisonment when losing his army could be problematic, because if
the fight would end up in the keepers favor the stunned heroes would not get dragged
to prison.

If in fact we notice the AI can't handle imprisonment anyway, it would be the best
approach to tweak the AI. I feel it does add a lot for the player to see his creatures
in an enemy prison, or some heroes. Especially in level 5.

Reported by Loobinex on 2014-09-08 20:41:11

[mefistotelis]

You've convinced me. I will commit these changes.

Reported by mefistotelis on 2014-09-08 21:06:21

• Status changed: Accepted

[mefistotelis]

Reported by mefistotelis on 2014-09-09 21:56:08

• Status changed: Done