Diplobot bug report

K

Kazman420

Active Member
Akku said:
With the last release anyone else have problems when the bot tries to move to another npc? He locks up my vg completly for 1-20sec, then move for 1sec and locks up again.
Click to expand...
Yeah I have the exact same issue with the latest release (2007.4.10.1 Final). As a workaround I've been finding NPCs close enough to each other to parley without moving. Takes alittle longer to find a good spot, but I've never had an issue where I couldn't find a place to set it up.

I myself am having another issue. I believe there may be a small memory leak of sorts with Diplobot? I notice a small yet steady decrease in FPS the longer I use it. If I start out at say 25fps, after 100 parley's I'm down to 15fps, and after 200 I'm below 10fps. The lowest I've seen it drop is down to 2 fps, but that was after a good 500 parley's. The bot still runs solid tho, even at 2fps. Its just laggy as hell, but it's never crashed or anything, so I have no complaints. Camping to character select will fix my FPS after this happens (which is weird that I dont have to completly exit the game) so again its not really an issue for me, I just figured I would let you know in case you ever decide to come back to Vanguard and continue work on Diplobot. (And of course to see if I'm the only person experiencing this issue).

Anyway, Thanks for the awsome work you've done Karye, and for releasing your latest version before taking time off from Vanguard. The AI is great and it kicks NPC ass without fail!
 
T

TheCompany

Active Member
Kazman420 said:
I myself am having another issue. I believe there may be a small memory leak of sorts with Diplobot? I notice a small yet steady decrease in FPS the longer I use it. If I start out at say 25fps, after 100 parley's I'm down to 15fps, and after 200 I'm below 10fps. The lowest I've seen it drop is down to 2 fps, but that was after a good 500 parley's. The bot still runs solid tho, even at 2fps. Its just laggy as hell, but it's never crashed or anything, so I have no complaints. Camping to character select will fix my FPS after this happens (which is weird that I dont have to completly exit the game) so again its not really an issue for me, I just figured I would let you know in case you ever decide to come back to Vanguard and continue work on Diplobot. (And of course to see if I'm the only person experiencing this issue).
Click to expand...

You have described my problem exactly
 
K

Karye

Active Member
The isssue with the slow decline in FPS is a combination of running a .net app under innerspace (garbage collection doesnt work quite right) and the large ammount of debug code in the current version that was/is to be used for future versions of its learning AI.

The current movement diplobot does was a quick hack to appease a few users while a more elegant solution was being developed that included navigation and is a known problem that is exaserbated by the above issue.

If/when there will be future releases to diplobot depends on how well vanguard recovers from its current state and my desire to continue playing and developing for it.
 
D

don'tdoit

Active Member
Karye, 2 Qs:

  1. how are you determining if a parley is available without hailing the mob to open the dialog window? I can't seem to find the method.
  2. Any chance to get the source for this?

thanks,
ddi
 
E

erik467

Active Member
I get a list of all the available NPCs when hitting refresh, but when trying to move a NPC to the "converse with" field, nothing happens. Any idea what might be wrong?

I might add that I run Vista if that might be a problem?
 
K

Karye

Active Member
Any chance to get the source for this?
Click to expand...
no

I get a list of all the available NPCs when hitting refresh, but when trying to move a NPC to the "converse with" field, nothing happens. Any idea what might be wrong?
Click to expand...
Is the NPC in line of sight? Did you press "Start Diplomacy"? Did you use the ">" Button to move the NPC to the converse with field? Is your presence high enough for this NPC? Does the NPC have any diplomacy conversations?
 
E

erik467

Active Member
Yes to all the questions. I have tried with several different NPC. But I can parley with them manually of course.

The problem is that I cant move the name to the ":Converse With" field with the ">" button. I push it but nothing happens. And of course nothing will happen when I press the Start Diplomacy button
 
O

OIA

Active Member
I'm sorry but I must be missing something. I just can't seem to get the diplobot working and I've read every thread here about it hoping I could pick something up I may have missed.

I've downloaded the file and extracted it into the .net folder. When I'm in game with isxvg running I type in the console dotnet diplobot diplobot but does nothing. I run vgcraftbot and krambot just fine so I'm just missing something here.
 
O

OIA

Active Member
Figured it out. Was missing a file, guessed I missed it when I extracted it :p /blush
 
Last edited:
W

Weizen

Active Member
Diplobot is not working for me after the GU#2 it loads fine but never gets past the first turn.

Weiz
 
G

gizmoke

Active Member
Same problem here after GU 2. It turns towards parley NPC opens chat window, then when it should bring up Parley window, game crashes.
 
K

Kazman420

Active Member
sfincter said:
This is the worst possible time for this to happen. PLEASE Fix ASAP!!
Click to expand...
Hopefully some of the new Diplomacy content introduced with Game Update #2 will get Karye interested in VG again, and we will see a fix in the future...
 
S

shockme

Well-Known Member
Lost

Wow I have used Diplobot off and on in the past but never did I think I would be lost without it. If there is anything that can be done to help this get back up and running please let me know!
 
G

gavkra

Active Member
I don't think this is a diplobot issue. It is simply using the diplomacy API calls. In an effort to quickly get going again, I started writing a simple script to diplo one NPC. Well guess what....the card selection doesn't seem to work. This has the same effect of the diplobot.

The following script demonstrates the issue. It should be run with an active parlay session going.

function main()
{
ParlayCard[1]:Select
}
 
K

Karye

Active Member
I found an issue with isxvg last night and will be doing more debugging today there will be a diplobot release but the majority of the issues will be fixed by isxvg patches. Stay tuned for updates.

I think this user summed up the issue the best:

This is the worst possible time for this to happen. PLEASE Fix ASAP!!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the laugh.
 
K

Karye

Active Member
I started writing a simple script to diplo one NPC. Well guess what....the card selection doesn't seem to work.
Click to expand...
While this may be indeed true Strategy[#]:Select is what your looking for. It also happens to be broken. Strategy is the collection of cards that you have pre selected to use Vs. an npc. ParlayCard is a collection of all cards available to your character. The Select methods have entirely different functions when viewed in this context and diplobot never uses the ParlayCard:Select method.

Keep pounding away on the parlay, strategy, parlaycard objects. Its better to find the bugs sooner than later.
 
G

gavkra

Active Member
Karye said:
While this may be indeed true Strategy[#]:Select is what your looking for. It also happens to be broken. Strategy is the collection of cards that you have pre selected to use Vs. an npc. ParlayCard is a collection of all cards available to your character. The Select methods have entirely different functions when viewed in this context and diplobot never uses the ParlayCard:Select method.

Keep pounding away on the parlay, strategy, parlaycard objects. Its better to find the bugs sooner than later.
Click to expand...
Many thanks. My hope was to get a simple script going to just parlay over and over the same NPC in a "hard-coded" manner. In the end, I will just need to wait...
 
G

gavkra

Active Member
Minor bug report (if it is one at all).

At level 25 I can do level 30 Civic, but the bot seems to say they are two high, then move to the next guy.

Not a biggie and I can certainly live with it though.
 
K

Karye

Active Member
I assumed it stayed the same and coded it as such. It used to be 49 skill higher was ok, 50 was to high. What is the new level cap?
 
G

gavkra

Active Member
Ok, my observation is the difference is "5". I.E. as soon as you hit 25 you can parley a 30 NPC.

It is also my observation that diplobot will not allow a 25 to parley a 30, nor will it allow a 26 to parley a 30.

Since everything was divided by 10, I would expect that you can be 4.9 below and then parley. However, I think they would not worry about the 0.1 difference (no need to look at exp progress bar to determine who you can parley with) and I think they just flattened it to 5.0 and said you can parley anything that is 5.0 higher than you, or less.

I forgot. They took the NPCs that were 225 and 275 (for example) and made them 22 and 27. Now I think they flattened those too so that you need to be 17 and 22 to parley the 22 and 27 NPC, respectively (not 17.5 and 22.5). Can anyone confirm these? I can in a few more hours when I gain another level.

In short, I think they divided all skill levels by 10 and rounded down. They must have figured that rounding up would make people complain it is now harder.
 
Last edited:
G

gavkra

Active Member
Karye,

Some more information. Perhaps it works better than I expect, but there is another issue. Right now I am not seeing Diplomacy level messages in-game, nor in the diplobot. So, I think diplobot may use the starting level to decide things? If so, then closing it and starting it again will fix the issue. I will confirm when I level at 30.

Thanks
 
G

gavkra

Active Member
Ok, I was wrong. I closed the diplobot and restarted it after hitting 28. I still cannot parley a level 30. I should be able to parley a 32 at this level.
 
B

BillyBob

Active Member
I am wondering if any else is having problems with Diplobot saying the NPC is to high. If I click on the NPC and open talks diplobot will one again start working. I am currently lv11 and had no problems like this on lv5 and 7 NPCs. Now that I have moved on to lv 10 NPCs I get this message everytime. I have downloaded and installed the newest version of Diplobot.
 
Last edited:
G

gavkra

Active Member
BillyBob,

Read my last three posts just above yours....

Yes, I am having this problem. I can't seem to parley a level 30. Hopefully I can once I hit level 30, but based on what you are seeing, I think I won't ever be able to.

Can you try a level 12 NPC?

(It's wierd. At 25, I could do 27's. At 28 I can't do 30's (nor 32's))
 
Last edited:
G

gavkra

Active Member
BTW, The previous version lets you parley the NPCs you wish to. I recommend sticking with that for now. It may have an issue with Bartenders though (or if you pick NPCs you shouldn't).
 
B

BillyBob

Active Member
I hit 12 this morning and going to be 13 very soon. I am currently going up against lv 12 NPCs. I do have to parley myself, once that is done the bot takes over. The program just will not start the parley says NPC is too high for me to parely. I also tried to go back to the lv10 and run the program. They say same thing the NPC is to high for me to parley. Very odd.
 
E

Etain

Active Member
Having problems doing NPCs higher than me

Also if you get attacked diplobot hangs most of the time and require you to restart VG completely.

Same if you stop at a weird place and change guys it locks up.

Some sort of conflict with VGAlarm too screen freezes when the alarm goes off.
 
G

gavkra

Active Member
Etain said:
Having problems doing NPCs higher than me

Also if you get attacked diplobot hangs most of the time and require you to restart VG completely.

Same if you stop at a weird place and change guys it locks up.

Some sort of conflict with VGAlarm too screen freezes when the alarm goes off.
Click to expand...
Several people are having the same issue as your first one. The previous version of Diplobot doesn't have this issue. I think it's because it uses the old skill levels to determine who you can talk to and thus is thinking you can parley anyone now (falsely). Still, select your NPCs properly and it works well.

For the latter, those I have not seen. The only thing I see like that are the following issues:

- Diplobot hangs for 1-2 seconds when it tries to move. The whole game freezes at this poing. However, if your NPCs are close enough, it only does this once or twice while in motion to the NPC.
- VGAlarm freezes for a few seconds if it tries to send mail. I have isxpoco loaded and the mail working, but it does hang for a bit. I added AIM support to VGAlarm and it also freezes. I think the network functions (isxpoco,isxaim) hang the game when they do any network activity.

The first issue I post above (hanging while moving) is new to GU2. I suspect it will be fixed in ISXVG since most scripts are just using core functions to perform their tasks and shouldn't really need much changing for updates unless the ISXVG API changes (such as levels now reported as 1-50 vs. 1-500).

I wonder if Amadeus left the level reporting as times-10 to limit script problems???
 
E

Etain

Active Member
It would be nice to see the level problem fixed in a new build soon...

That studdering when moving to a new NPC is a pain too...
 
T

TheCompany

Active Member
I just made a Diplo (goblin) and im finding that the Card Maze of Logic gets ignored almost always. My guy will just listen instead of playing that card. Pretty much a game breaker.
 
K

Kazman420

Active Member
Bug Report: Diplobot Version 2007.8.25.1

With the bugfix related to changing NPCs while convserations still exist, I believe a new one has arisen. Selecting anything less then all availible conversation types will prevent the bot from switching targets..

Example: Find 2 NPCs next to eachother. Each offer 4 conversations. If you choose to parlay just Incite, Interview, and Convince, and leave out Entertain (which Im sure most people do), the bot will never switch from the first NPC.. It simply waits untill one of the other 3 conversation types is availible again..

Just a heads up..

As always, thanks for your time and effort with Diplobot. Glad to see you've continued to work on it =)
 
K

Karye

Active Member
With the bugfix related to changing NPCs while convserations still exist, I believe a new one has arisen. Selecting anything less then all availible conversation types will prevent the bot from switching targets..
Click to expand...
fixed in 2007.8.26.1
 
D

dsc2007

Active Member
freeze???

The bot itself works well while parley'ing but when it try's to move from each npc it Freezes really bad for about 5 secs, moves 3 or 4 steps, freezes 5 more.. etc etc.. till it gets to the npc.. then its fine. Rinse repeat..

What am I doing wrong???
this is my first time using the bot, ive used all others with no problems.. any help? plz

~bear
 
K

Karye

Active Member
5 secs?

would you mind posting your system specs? specifically cpu.

I suspect your running this on a single core machine. I havnt tested it on a single core but I suspect it would run like crap.

The movement code is as is for now. I suggest only parlaying npcs close by each other.
 
G

gavkra

Active Member
dsc2007 said:
Aye, athalon 3700+ :(
Click to expand...
FYI, the 5 second freezing is the same problem I was having. It never occurred before GU2, but always occurred after GU2. It happened on both of my machines. One is AMD4600+ 8800GTS, 2 GB memory, RAID drive machine. The other was a high-end notebook (running on lowest graphic settings). I would have suspected the system too, but it ran flawlessly before GU2 and the game is very playable on either machine.

BTW, as long I found NPCs that were close together, diplobot was still quite usable.

Check out my post previously:

gavkra said:
- Diplobot hangs for 1-2 seconds when it tries to move. The whole game freezes at this point. However, if your NPCs are close enough, it only does this once or twice while in motion to the NPC.
Click to expand...
 
S

sohocuba25

Active Member
This is happening to me too with diplobot

Ill be at 14 FPS in a city or 26 outside and when i turn on diplobot it drops to .50-4 fps
 
B

Braxius

Active Member
There may be something going on with the .NET interface. I too noticed that a .NET program that I have been working on started freezing up the game while it is running. The frame rate drops from a steady 25fps to 6-7fps just by running a simple loop that checks on the groups status with the frame locked.

Last night was the first time I've noticed it, and will have to do some more testing when I get a chance.
 
B

bigxiz

Active Member
probably a known issue... but the first time I tried it out... When I try to make it run it opens up the diplobot program and minimizes vanguard. once it does that I can not get back into VG and it will freeze up my PC and I will need to either restart my PC or end the game process..

This could also be the fact that I have 1 gig of memory in my PC.
 
K

Karye

Active Member
probably a known issue... but the first time I tried it out... When I try to make it run it opens up the diplobot program and minimizes vanguard. once it does that I can not get back into VG and it will freeze up my PC and I will need to either restart my PC or end the game process..

This could also be the fact that I have 1 gig of memory in my PC.
Click to expand...
make sure your running vanguard in windowed mode not full screen.
 
D

don'tdoit

Active Member
probably a known issue... but the first time I tried it out... When I try to make it run it opens up the diplobot program and minimizes vanguard. once it does that I can not get back into VG and it will freeze up my PC and I will need to either restart my PC or end the game process..
Click to expand...
see the 2nd sticky in the VG General forums regarding Full Screen and Alt-tabbing in VG for more in depth instruction. will help you out with more than just diplobot...
 
D

djvj

Active Member
Wow, just tried diplobot for the first time in awhile and it's unusable to me now. Used to work flawless. Drops me to 1fps indoors, lowest graphics, no sound... Oh well. Get it using meleebot too. It's only with .net scripts....
 
K

Karye

Active Member
There's been some changes to innerspace in respect to .NET API locking for the worse. This is causing the slow downs mentioned above. The issue has been escalated to Lax. If this issue effects you I recommend using the lavishscript diplomacy bot.
 
L

Lax

LavishSoft/InnerSpace Guru
There's been some changes to innerspace in respect to .NET API locking for the worse. This is causing the slow downs mentioned above. The issue has been escalated to Lax. If this issue effects you I recommend using the lavishscript diplomacy bot.
Click to expand...
Let me explain. There have been literally no changes to that for over 6 months now. What Karye2 is referring to in the quote is that sometime between January and March (note the time frame) I had to change the LavishScript API to prevent multiple threads from entering the API concurrently (e.g. individual API calls are locked such that the call must complete before another thread makes an API call). This has been the same and pretty much everything else is the same as it was several months ago.

I did, however, manage to get the bot code to see what the real issue is, and I believe I have found it. I believe the issue is actually related to diplobot assuming that the game's main thread will execute during Thread.Sleep(0). Whether the game continues or not, diplobot locks the frame (so the game couldn't continue if it wanted to) and executes its loop again. Changing a Thread.Sleep followed by Frame.Lock to a single Frame.Wait(true) (which waits for the frame to advance and then locks) will solve that problem -- now that loop will only execute once per frame, instead of blocking the game for a nondeterministic amount of time (potentially seconds, as some posters have found out).
 
K

Karye

Active Member
I goign to make the suggested changes but I no longer have an active vanguard subscription. I need someone willing to test some new code to get a hold of me on #isxvg.
 
L

Lax

LavishSoft/InnerSpace Guru
Just cross-posting from the ISXEQ2 thread regarding this issue:

Ok, I did a decent round of testing regarding "the .NET API is slow on Vista" and posted my data and conclusions. Page 2 on this thread (linked below) is relevant -- the test was based on user-submitted code at the top of page 2, and the gigantic post with red coloring in the first code block of the post is the one with the actual test data and conclusions (you can feel free to ignore the other posts in the thread)

http://www.lavishsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3515&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
(note: you must be logged into the Lavish forums to view the thread, if you're not logged in it will tell you the post doesn't exist)

Hopefully that clears things up for some of you
 
S

Snow

Active Member

it was quicker just snapshotting it than to type it all out

This is what happens when I try to run diplobot
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom