{"id":32681,"date":"2018-07-13T23:33:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T23:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/322076"},"modified":"2018-07-13T23:33:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T23:33:00","slug":"colonial-marines-modder-finds-big-ai-fix-by-changing-one-letter-of-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/07\/13\/colonial-marines-modder-finds-big-ai-fix-by-changing-one-letter-of-code\/","title":{"rendered":"Colonial Marines modder finds big AI fix by changing one letter of code"},"content":{"rendered":"

Word is spreading over on ResetEra<\/a>\u00a0today about how an\u00a0experienced modder of Gearbox’s 2013 bomb\u00a0Aliens: Colonial Marines\u00a0<\/em>discovered a way to significantly improve the game’s AI by changing one letter of code.<\/p>\n

Specifically, a modder\u00a0who goes by James Dickinson published a note<\/a>\u00a0on ModDB last October explaining that they’d discovered a typo in a line\u00a0of the game’s AI code that, when fixed, notably improved the way enemies in the game track and follow targets.<\/p>\n

The line in question, which at least one ResetEra user claims to have found in their own copy of the game’s code, reads “ClassRemapping=PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachXenoToTether -> PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachPawnToTeather.” When the “a” is cut from “Teather”, at least one ResetEra user claims that the game’s enemies become far more mobile and challenging.<\/p>\n

“Why is this line important?” Dickinson wrote.\u00a0“There are two reasons : 1) AttachXenoToTeather doesn’t do anything. It’s basically empty or stripped 2) AttachPawnToTether does ALOT. It controls tactical position adjustment, patrolling and target zoning.”<\/p>\n

When a Xeno is spawned, it is attached to a zone tether,” they continued.\u00a0“This zone tells the Xeno what area is its fighting space and where different exits are. In Combat, a Xeno will be forced to switch to a new tether (such as one behind you) so as to flank, or disperse so they aren’t so grouped up etc. (*disclaimer* this is inferred opinion, I cant see the actual code only bits.)”<\/p>\n

It’s a good reminder that modders\u00a0often play a vital role in deconstructing and improving games post-launch, even a game\u00a0like\u00a0Colonial Marines,\u00a0<\/em>which sparked a class action lawsuit<\/a> against Gearbox and publisher Sega after it launched in 2013 looking much different than it did in promotional materials. Gearbox was eventually dropped from the suit in 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word is spreading over on ResetEra\u00a0today about how an\u00a0experienced modder of Gearbox’s 2013 bomb\u00a0Aliens: Colonial Marines\u00a0discovered a way to significantly improve the game’s AI by changing one letter of code. Specifically, a modder\u00a0who goes by James Dickinson published a note\u00a0on ModDB last October explaining that they’d discovered a typo in a line\u00a0of the game’s AI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}