Working with AI
Learning paths through this topic
My AI changed twelve files for a small fix and I do not know what to check
A tiny wish can turn into a pile of edits, and the length of a change says little about how much it can hurt. This helper sorts the files your AI touched so the ones that run the whole game come before menus and pictures.
The score on screen does not match what I earned and I cannot see why
When combos and bonuses are involved a wrong score is hard to trace by hand. This helper replays the list of earned points, compares it with what the screen showed at certain moments, and says where they first split and what kind of slip it looks like.
My testers wrote twenty comments and I do not know what to tell my AI
Tester notes come in English and German, mix several complaints in one sentence and rarely name the part of the game that is meant. This helper sorts the notes by the part of the game they talk about, so you can give your AI one clear topic at a time.
In big fights my game turns into loud crackling noise
Dozens of the same sound started at once add up to something louder and harsher than any one of them. This helper decides which sound requests are played and which are dropped, with a rule about spacing and a rule about how many may overlap.
My friend's game runs faster on his gaming screen and I need to prove why
Anything counted per picture instead of per second makes a game run differently on a faster screen. This tester runs one piece of your game at several picture rates and compares the results, so you know before anyone complains whether it depends on the rate.
The bug happens in a blink and I cannot see what the game does
A boss attack or a collision that lasts a fraction of a second is too quick to watch, and a plain pause skips over it. This helper gives your AI a clock for the game that can pause, advance one picture at a time and run in slow motion.
My game stutters and I cannot tell my AI whether it is slow or hitching
A game that is slow all the time and one that is smooth with a few sharp stalls need different fixes, yet both are described as "laggy". This helper reads a list of frame times and tells your AI which of the two it is, and how bad the worst stall was.
I want to test level 6 but I do not want to play five levels to get there
Jumping to a late level with a made-up save gives wrong tests: the hero has things he never could have, or lacks things the level needs. This helper builds a believable save for any level from what the earlier levels give, and nothing more.
The next wave never starts because one enemy is stuck somewhere
A wave that waits for the last enemy hangs the whole game if that enemy walked out of the map or is stuck against a wall. This helper looks at where each living enemy has been and names the ones that are outside or have not moved for a long time.
My AI wrecked the project and the only saved copy was ten minutes old
Keeping every copy fills the disk, and keeping only the latest ones means the last good copy is soon gone after a run of bad edits. This helper decides which saved copies to keep and which to delete, and never loses the last one that worked.
The error report names a dozen files and I do not know which is mine
Most lines in a crash report point into the tools your game uses, not into your own code, and the real culprit is a few lines down. This helper picks out the lines that point into your own files, in order, so you hand your AI the right place.