How To Make A AI Map in Warcraft 3

How to make an AI for your map
NOTE
This tutorial assumes that you have an adept knowledge in the GUI part of the Wo
rld Editor.
You do not have to know JASS or any other code to read through this tutorial.
Everything here will be triggers, with very little script structure.
This tutorial will NOT be addressing common concepts and mechanics,
such as triggering loops, removing leaks or explaining in minor detail
where you can find the conditions and actions of the triggers.
This tutorial assumes you have this knowledge. If you do not, then this
tutorial may seem confusing to you. I suggest you obtain some knowledge
before reading, either via other tutorials or practice. Thank you
My Thoughts On AI
AI or Artificial Intelligence is something that in my opinion (IMO) should be pr
esent in every map.
However each map is unique to itself and no AI would work the same for all maps.

I can understand that map devs usually just want to get their project alive,
get done with triggers or code and have a working map.
Unfortunately, to many devs the idea of an AI is great,
but many think of AI making as maybe a waste of effort, time and resources.
I think people believe AI is hard to make and requires complex coding or lots of
huge triggers.
While some AI really has complex code structures behind it,
a basic functional AI is nothing complex and adds BIG BONUS to your map.
For one it will ensure that no matter what, your map can be played solo.
The experience will definately not be the same like you are playing with a real
player.
I for one, am not a battle.net or a garena player and any map
that allows me to play alone with bots and doesn't take away from the
fun because its not a real player, is a lot of points in my book.
The best AI I have ever seen is the one in DOTA. No wonder I still play
dota with bots. They make the experience so fulfilling. But there are
many other maps like that. Castle Fight, Pudge Wars... all have a great
and exceptionally well made AI. And you can have that kind of AI, it will
take some resources and effort but it is really easy once your read
through this tutorial and understand how fun and easy can it be
for you to design your own AI for your maps.
AI Structure and Game States
This is the MEAT of the tutorial. It will
teach you the basic method and the template
that you use to shape the triggers.
Game States is a method of making your triggers.
With game states the AI making is simplified and you can easily adopt old and ne
w
concepts into a slick and easy triggers or JASS code. What game states is about:
- Creating a 'state' for every action you want your AI to do
- Managing all 'states' via a control state, called the MAIN STATE
- Planning to avoid leaks and conflicts in your main state
- Realization of your main state conditions
All this means that when creating an AI for your map, you want to start your
template of the AI by first defining what your AI is supposed to be doing.
You can brainstorm this process with the actions you want your AI to do.
Basic actions can involve:
- Move, Attack, Patrol, Jungle, Gank, Buy Items, Cast Spells, Level Up, Assist A
llies etc...
When you have your basic actions defined, you want to scour and see what you don
't
want your AI to do. This is the opposite of the first brainstorming, and it can
give you
a basic preparation for the problems your AI might face. It involves actions lik
e:
- Not Waste Mana, Not Jungle, Not Buy Random Items, Not Initiate Fights First et
c...
This adds to your process of creation. The basic actions give you a primary blue
print
to work with. The actions you don't want your AI to be doing add to the details
of
your blueprint. It causes you to focus on great details that usually leads to a
great AI.
Don't skip your don't actions process.
Now when you have your do's and dont's about your AI, its time to figure out you
r
control state or MAIN STATE. This is a state which will constantly monitor your
AI and
give him commands regarding all decisions the AI is supposed to be doing. This w
ill
be your bread and butter, because without it, your AI is as good as not working.
Usually this will be your main trigger or triggers which will compare all inputs
for the
AI and cause them to react and decide in a great manner.
Your MAIN STATE should be composed of:
- Constant monitoring and comparrison (Every X Seconds)
- An array of conditions and actions (Multiple IF/ELSE)
The actions you brainstormed will be filling every nook and cranny of the IF/ELS
E
conditions. This will lead the AI to have a valid response to most situations yo
u
can think of. It will be able to do most things players do with great accuracy.
The MAIN STATE conditions have to be planned out carefully. Because if you
add many confusing conditions, the MAIN STATE will have no option but to
enforce the AI to make dumb decisions. So the more UNIQUE the condition is
the better your AI will be. If you make similar conditions between multiple
IF/ELSE's your AI will be confused and will often be stuck in infinite loops,
attempting to do both actions at the same time.
You will spend most of your time testing your MAIN STATE conditions.
As I said, this is your bread and butter and a key to an amazing AI.
Its up to you how much tweaking you will do and how UNIQUE and
clear your conditions will be.
The rest of this tutorial will be focused on examples and triggers.
I will attempt to do AI for different maps over time, so check
back on this tutorial to see if I have made it or leave questions.
I am more than happy to help you with ideas about your AI.
Example #1: Single Lane AoS (AI)
The map will be a short lane in which the AI will have to
go through lines of defences, level his skills, use them,
buy items when enough gold is acquired and will have
the option to go back to a base to heal when wounded.
This is how the map looks like:
full-map.jpg
The AI will take control over the Mountain King hero
which has the default spells: Storm Bolt, Thunder Clap,
Bash and Avatar.
muradin1.jpg
The AI will have to retreat to this base when on low
health in order to replenish health, mana and possibly
buy items if it has enough gold.
heal-base.jpg
The AI will move the Hero along the map and have a
progression scale, allowing the Hero to get level 6
before engaging into the final battle:
map-progression-scale.jpg
The AI will move up to this point at which the final
battle it will use all of its skills, use an item and win
the game by killing all neutral hostile units.
attack-region.jpg
The AI Itself
This is the model the AI will be based upon:
- MAIN STATE (Controls the other states and the survival of the AI)
- Move Attack (When the AI is at full health, it will move and attack)
- Back to Heal (When the AI is wounded, it will return to base)
- Use Spells Items (When the AI engages in combat, use spells and items)
- Level Up (When the AI levels up, decide which skills it will level)
- Buy Items (When the AI retreats to base, buy items)
With this in mind, we now have our model for triggering.
First is the main state, the heart of the AI operations.
MAIN STATE
Events
Time - Every 1.00 seconds of game time
Conditions
Actions
Set AI_Group = (Units owned by Player 1 (Red) matching ((((Matching unit) is al
ive) Equal to True) and ((Unit-type of (Matching unit)) Equal to Mountain King))
)
Unit Group - Pick every unit in AI_Group and do (Actions)
Loop - Actions
-------- If Hero has less than 25% Health and is not Healing --------
If (All Conditions are True) then do (Then Actions) else do (Else Actions)
If - Conditions
(Percentage life of (Picked unit)) Less than or equal to 25.00
Healing Not equal to True
Then - Actions
Trigger - Run Back to Heal <gen> (ignoring conditions)
Else - Actions
-------- If Hero has 100% Health and is Healing --------
If - Conditions
(Percentage life of (Picked unit)) Equal to 100.00
Healing Equal to True
Then - Actions
Trigger - Run Move Attack <gen> (ignoring conditions)
Else - Actions
-------- If Hero has more than 25% health and isn't healing --------
If - Conditions
(Percentage life of (Picked unit)) Greater than 25.00
Then - Actions
Else - Actions
Custom script: call DestroyGroup ( udg_AI_Group )
We will now look at this bit by bit. At first it looks like a chunk
of triggers, but this is what our control state looks like.
Time - Every 1.00 seconds of game time
Every second it will check and manage the AI.
Set AI_Group = (Units owned by Player 1 (Red) matching ((((Matching unit) is al
ive) Equal to True) and ((Unit-type of (Matching unit)) Equal to Mountain King))
)
Our main unit group that picks the Hero used by the AI.
Unit Group - Pick every unit in AI_Group and do (Actions)
Loop - Actions
If - Conditions
(Percentage life of (Picked unit)) Less than or equal to 25.00
Then - Actions
Trigger - Run Back to Heal <gen> (ignoring conditions)
Else - Actions
Our first IF/ELSE. We declare a boolean var Healing which will
depict a condition that the AI is healing in base. We then make our
IF/ELSE by saying that if the Hero isn't healing, which means he is
not in base AND his total health is less than 25%, initiate state
BACK TO HEAL.
Back to Heal
Events
Conditions
Actions
Set Healing = True
Set AI_Loc = (Position of Fountain of Health 0000 <gen>)
Unit - Order (Picked unit) to Move To AI_Loc
Custom script: call RemoveLocation ( udg_AI_Loc )
This is our BACK TO HEAL state in which we set the Healing
var to true, set the location of the fountain, move the Hero
back to base and remove the location to avoid leaks. As you
can see, there are no events and conditions, so this state can
only be called from the main state. It will not run on its own
If - Conditions
(Percentage life of (Picked unit)) Equal to 100.00
Healing Equal to True
Then - Actions
Else - Actions
Now we go back to our MAIN STATE, and look at the second IF/ELSE.
If the Hero's total health is at 100% and the Healing var is true,
then we run the MOVE ATTACK state.
Move Attack
Events
Conditions
Actions
Set Healing = False
Set AI_Loc = (Center of Attack Region <gen>)
Unit - Order (Picked unit) to Attack-Move To AI_Loc
Our MOVE ATTACK state sets the Healing var to false,
sets the location of the region where our Hero needs to go,
issues a move-attack order and removes the location.
If - Conditions
(Percentage life of (Picked unit)) Greater than 25.00
Then - Actions
Else - Actions
We look at the final IF/ELSE of the MAIN STATE. It is issued
when the health of the Hero is more than 25% and the
Healing var is set to false. If both are true, then we call our
MOVE ATTACK state again.
Custom script: call DestroyGroup ( udg_AI_Group )
Last but not least, we clean our group variable to avoid leaks.
Now let's explain all we have read so far. The MAIN STATE
has 3 IF/ELSE conditions. One checks if the Hero is at
25% or less health and isn't healing. If yes, it sends it back
to base to heal. The second IF/ELSE checks if the Hero is
at base healing and if its health is 100% and sends it back
fighting if true.
The third IF/ELSE is ment if the AI has finished
killing a wave of defences but it still has more than 25% health.
In which case the AI will be stuck there, doing nothing until it can
regenerate back to full health and the second IF/ELSE can be run
again. The third IF/ELSE pushes the AI to fight until it has 25%
or less health, in which case it sends it back to base to heal.
Level Up
Events
Unit - A unit Gains a level
Conditions
(Unit-type of (Leveling Hero)) Equal to Mountain King
Actions
If - Conditions
Or - Any (Conditions) are true
Conditions
(Level of (Leveling Hero)) Equal to 3
Then - Actions
Hero - Learn skill for (Leveling Hero): Storm Bolt (Hero)
Else - Actions
If - Conditions
Conditions
Then - Actions
Hero - Learn skill for (Leveling Hero): Thunder Clap
Else - Actions
If - Conditions
Conditions
Then - Actions
Hero - Learn skill for (Leveling Hero): Bash
Else - Actions
If - Conditions
Then - Actions
Hero - Learn skill for (Leveling Hero): Avatar
Else - Actions
Our LEVEL UP state, which manages the skills the AI takes.
Because we have the freedom and we know what skills
the Hero has, we can therefor set at which level does the AI
take a specific skill.
Use Spells Items
Events
Unit - A unit Is attacked
Conditions
(Unit-type of (Attacking unit)) Equal to Mountain King
(Percentage life of (Attacking unit)) Greater than 25.00
Actions
Set Hero_Loc = (Position of (Attacking unit))
Set Enemies_Around = (Units within 250.00 of Hero_Loc matching ((((Matching uni
t) belongs to an enemy of (Owner of (Attacking unit))) Equal to True) and (((Mat
ching unit) is alive) Equal to True)))
-------- If Hero has Scroll, use it at the start of the fight --------
If - Conditions
((Attacking unit) has an item of type Scroll of Protection) Equal to True
Then - Actions
Hero - Order (Attacking unit) to use (Item carried by (Attacking unit) of type
Scroll of Protection)
Else - Actions
-------- We use Storm Bolt as a finisher, when the enemy has 100 * Level health
remaining --------
If - Conditions
(Level of Storm Bolt (Hero) for (Attacking unit)) Greater than 0
(Mana of (Attacking unit)) Greater than or equal to 75.00
(Life of (Attacked unit)) Less than or equal to (Real(((Level of Storm Bolt (He
ro) for (Attacking unit)) x 100)))
Then - Actions
Unit - Order (Attacking unit) to Human Mountain King - Storm Bolt (Attacked uni
t)
Else - Actions
-------- We use Thunder Clap only when there are more than 1 enemy at 250 range
around the Hero --------
If - Conditions
(Level of Thunder Clap for (Attacking unit)) Greater than 0
(Percentage mana of (Attacking unit)) Greater than or equal to 50.00
(Number of units in Enemies_Around) Greater than 1
Then - Actions
Unit - Order (Attacking unit) to Human Mountain King - Thunder Clap
Else - Actions
-------- We use Avatar when the hero's health is less than 50% --------
If - Conditions
(Level of Avatar for (Attacking unit)) Greater than 0
(Percentage life of (Attacking unit)) Less than or equal to 50.00
Then - Actions
Unit - Order (Attacking unit) to Human Mountain King - Activate Avatar
Else - Actions
Custom script: call DestroyGroup ( udg_Enemies_Around )
Custom script: call RemoveLocation ( udg_Hero_Loc )
Our CAST SPELLS ITEMS state. This is where the AI will shine
and use spells with very specific conditions. We will look at this
bit by bit. Let's start with the basics:
Use Spells Items
Events
Unit - A unit Is attacked
Conditions
(Unit-type of (Attacking unit)) Equal to Mountain King
(Percentage life of (Attacking unit)) Greater than 25.00
We use the CAST SPELLS ITEMS state when the Hero is attacked.
Since the Hero will encounter enemies that will attack it, this
is when it will decide on the use of spells. Also since this state
isn't controlled via the MAIN STATE, it will run on its own so we
have to define that if the Hero's health is lower than 25%, the
entire state is skipped even if the Hero is attacked.
Use Spells Items
Actions
Set Hero_Loc = (Position of (Attacking unit))
Set Enemies_Around = (Units within 250.00 of Hero_Loc matching ((((Matching uni
t) belongs to an enemy of (Owner of (Attacking unit))) Equal to True) and (((Mat
ching unit) is alive) Equal to True)))
We set a Hero_Loc variable to hold the position of the Hero.
And a Enemies_Around unit group that will see if there are
units at 250 range around the position of the Hero. This is necessary
for our Thunder Clap spell and will be explained shortly.
Use Spells Items
If - Conditions
((Attacking unit) has an item of type Scroll of Protection) Equal to True
Then - Actions
Hero - Order (Attacking unit) to use (Item carried by (Attacking unit) of type
Scroll of Protection)
Our first IF/ELSE is whether the hero has an item
Scroll of Protection. If it does, it uses it.
use-scroll.jpg
Use Spells Items
If - Conditions
(Level of Storm Bolt (Hero) for (Attacking unit)) Greater than 0
(Life of (Attacked unit)) Less than or equal to (Real(((Level of Storm Bolt (He
ro) for (Attacking unit)) x 100)))
Then - Actions
Unit - Order (Attacking unit) to Human Mountain King - Storm Bolt (Attacked uni
t)
Else - Actions
The Hero's Storm Bolt spell costs 75 mana and deals 100/200/300
damage. Let's say that we want the AI to preserve mana and use
the Storm Bolt as a finisher, to kill off the wounded enemy. This means
it has to know when to cast it.
The IF/ELSE checks if the Hero's mana is 75 or greater, sees if the level
of Storm Bolt is at least one and checks if the unit attacking
our Hero has health less or equal to 100 * Level of Storm Bolt. If yes, a Storm
Bolt is cast
fight-storm-bolt.jpg
Use Spells Items
If - Conditions
(Level of Thunder Clap for (Attacking unit)) Greater than 0
(Percentage mana of (Attacking unit)) Greater than or equal to 50.00
(Number of units in Enemies_Around) Greater than 1
Then - Actions
Unit - Order (Attacking unit) to Human Mountain King - Thunder Clap
Else - Actions
Remember our top two variables, Hero_Loc and Enemies_Around?
Let's say we want our AI to only cast Thunder Clap when it has
at least 2 enemies at 250 range around it. This will ensure our
spell gets a good value from being used. And let's also say that
since we want our AI to cast as many Storm Bolts as possible
without spending too much mana on Thunder Clap.
Since our Thunder Clap deals less damage and costs 90 mana
this means we need the AI to make a good decision of when
to use it and when not to. This is where our variables come into
play.
Our Enemies_Around group checks for all enemy units at 250
range around our Hero_Loc position. So we check if the number
of units is 2 or more and we check if the mana of the Hero is
atleast 50% or more. This saves mana for our Storm Bolts and
only uses Thunder Clap in good situations and when the Hero
has excess mana.
fight-thunder-clap.jpg
Use Spells Items
If - Conditions
(Level of Avatar for (Attacking unit)) Greater than 0
(Percentage life of (Attacking unit)) Less than or equal to 50.00
Then - Actions
Unit - Order (Attacking unit) to Human Mountain King - Activate Avatar
Else - Actions
Last but not least, we have our Hero's ultimate Avatar.
Since Avatar gives bonus hitpoints, armor and damage and
spell immunity, we can use it as a weird heal our hero can have.
For this example, I set Avatar to be cast when the Hero has
150 mana or more and when it is at 50% or less health. This
makes Avatar be used more as a heal and less as a buff.
fight-avatar.jpg
Use Spells Items
Custom script: call DestroyGroup ( udg_Enemies_Around )
Custom script: call RemoveLocation ( udg_Hero_Loc )
We clean our used variables for our Thunder Clap
checking, avoiding leaks.
Init
Events
Map initialization
Conditions
Actions
Trigger - Turn off (This trigger)
Hero - Learn skill for Mountain King 0017 <gen>: Storm Bolt (Hero)
Set Healing = False
Set AI_Loc = (Center of Attack Region <gen>)
Unit - Order Mountain King 0017 <gen> to Attack-Move To AI_Loc
Lastly, we have an INIT trigger in which we set the first pick
skill for our Hero to be Storm Bolt. And since the states become
active once the Hero starts fighting and going back to base, the
INIT trigger launches the Hero into battle. This trigger only runs
once, at the start of the game. Its just for testing purposes
Also, if you are interested in a MUI Solution to these triggers
because there were made for a single unit in mind, here is an
actual solution. Basically its just changing the Healing var to
an Array and changing the main AI_Group so it can pick
multiple heroes instead of one. Do bare in mind that the
only hero in the triggers is Mountain King, if you want more
heroes you will have to do the spells and level up triggers for
them as well.
MUI Triggers
Summary -- Last Words
I conclude this tutorial with the hope that you saw
that making an AI can be a fun process.
Its a matter of you thinking about the states you
want your AI to do. The above provides you with a
template that you can base your own ideas on.
Its important to understand that every action
that you think the AI can do can be upgraded as
a state and used by a control state. You don't need
lots of huge triggers, just smart IF/ELSE and all the
game states you want.

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How to make an AI for your map

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