TankLeader Update - 4th of May 2016

[Aevitas]

We've just released an update to TankLeader which contains a handful of dramatic changes to various parts of the bot's internals. This post will outline those changes, what we have in mind for the future, and what still may not be quite there yet. We're looking for feedback from you guys, for instance with the way stuck handling could be improved.

The bot will now use an algorithm to determine a friendly tank to stick with, or to push the objective, when it sort of makes sense to do so. This means that the bot won't just drive to the enemy objective in a straight line any more and die while making 40 XP and 250 credits. It will attempt to find a vehicle that's in the best position based on some criteria, and then sticks with them. This means that if they camp, we camp, if they push, we push, etc. If they die, we select a new guy or push the objective. This behaviour may sometimes select scouts in higher tier battles though, we recommend not using the bot too frequently in high tier games (i.e. tier 8+).

Stuck detection has been changed. Since we've been able to fix some of the stuff on the server's end, we're now able to generate paths around dead tanks that we'd run in to, or friendly tanks we're not supposed to bump into. Instead of doing the funny back up, wiggling a bit and then bumping into the guy repeatedly, we now back up a bit, wait for a few seconds, and request a new path (which will move around the obstacle if they're still there).

The bot's "engine" has been replaced by a significantly faster variant, which should be noticeable in various parts of the bot.

As for navigation, that's still a bit of a tricky part. The navigator (i.e. the path following in the bot itself) is still very much sub optimal. It has gotten slightly less terrible with the speed increase we've been able to get, but you'll still frequently notice that the bot turns around and goes back to "hit" a spot that it missed. This is something that we're working on, but has proven extremely difficult to get right for every individual tank, due to the different track traverse, speed, etc. On top of that, the bot will not venture into locations that it hasn't been in before. It may get stuck on buildings, flip the tank over while following friendlies, or doing dodgy turns because it suddenly made its mind up. Again, this is something we're aware of and we will work on fixing in the future.

Actually shooting stuff isn't where it should be either. The bot does shoot, and in lower tier games where it's pretty much mayhem you may get decent to good results from time to time. We're looking into ways to actively aim for weak spots, predict where the enemy's going to be when our shot lands, etc. We've tested the bot thoroughly with tier 2-5 premiums, and even without a premium account we're making quite a few credits.

The goal with this update was to make the bot significantly harder to detect for WarGaming. Unlike other bots, we've never actually been "detected". That is, WG detecting our software in their games and banning accounts that are running it. We have however been hit with their server side bot detection mechanisms. This update, with as its main feature the "team based" navigation, will make it increasingly harder to detect TankLeader. There are no two games where the bot will behave remotely the same, and as long as you stick to the lower tiers, your account should be much safer than before.

We realise the bot isn't perfect, and hasn't been for a long time. We hope that with the recent changes to the path generation and your input, we can make this bot great again.

You can obtain the bot from http://updates.buddyauth.com/ - the updater may not correctly detect this as a newer version, as the version numbering has changed. That'll smooth out with the next release.

Again, we're looking forward to your feedback.

Thanks.

 

[Natiiix]

It appears that it works. (However I'm not exactly sure why, but I had to use the .zip version because the Installer refused to replace the old files or something.)

I'm a little bit concerned about getting stuck in building but I haven't seen any major problem so far.

The only thing that bothers me right now is that the turret doesn't move to the right direction so your tank is rotating around, but the turret is still heading the same direction. That might looks quite suspicious in the eyes of teammates..

Edit: The bot looks very confused when playing on the left side of Fjords. It tries to follow different players unsuccessfully and then gets stuck into a random house.

 

[Natiiix]

Discovered yet another problematic bug.
The bot is trying to follow tanks that aren't on the team, therefore it just stands still in our base, getting constantly reported for inactivity and make the account highly vulnerable to ban.
"Moving to friendly tank germanyzVI" while there is no such, nor similar, tank on the team.. (started happening since tier VI)

Edit: The problem seems to be with Japanese tier VI tank Type 4 Chi-To in particular. It refuses to move and just stands still. However when I try to move it manually the bot starts going backwards for some reason.

 

[Aevitas]

Discovered yet another problematic bug.
The bot is trying to follow tanks that aren't on the team, therefore it just stands still in our base, getting constantly reported for inactivity and make the account highly vulnerable to ban.
"Moving to friendly tank germanyzVI" while there is no such, nor similar, tank on the team.. (started happening since tier VI)

Edit: The problem seems to be with Japanese tier VI tank Type 4 Chi-To in particular. It refuses to move and just stands still. However when I try to move it manually the bot starts going backwards for some reason.

That's odd - the log does however mention the "internal" names of the tanks, stuff like the Panther is called the pz5 or something, and the Japanese names are all over the place. Are you sure it wasn't just attempting to follow someone that was in our spawn as well? (now that I think of that, it should never do that, I'll fix that)

As for the turret, that's high on the list of things to fix, I'll keep you posted.

 

[stickygreen0]

bot dont work it doesnt even move when game starts

 

[Aevitas]

bot dont work it doesnt even move when game starts

Got some more info? Log would help, but also what tank, what map, etc?

 

[Natiiix]

Well, he described the same exact problem as me.
I believe the problem is with the tank detection, because once you move it manually and stop, it will think you've got stuck and move back and wait for 5 seconds.
It worked with certain tanks. However right now it's getting stuck every match so I'm not very sure about it anymore.

Here's the log, but I should probably mention that it's messed up because I started controlling the tank manually when I've noticed the bot isn't doing anything for like a minute.
View attachment 2016-05-05 16.43.txt

 

[Aevitas]

Well, he described the same exact problem as me.
I believe the problem is with the tank detection, because once you move it manually and stop, it will think you've got stuck and move back and wait for 5 seconds.
It worked with certain tanks. However right now it's getting stuck every match so I'm not very sure about it anymore.

Here's the log, but I should probably mention that it's messed up because I started controlling the tank manually when I've noticed the bot isn't doing anything for like a minute.
View attachment 201821

We've had some issues with one of the servers in the past hour and a half or so - it should be back on its feet now. I'll check those logs.

 

[Natiiix]

We've had some issues with one of the servers in the past hour and a half or so - it should be back on its feet now. I'll check those logs.

It happened many different times within the last 8 hours so it must have been longer time ago or it's not just a small temporary problem.
It's quite unfortunate when the bot just stands still as I've mentioned. It should be able to fix the problem on go (when the position of the tank doesn't change for a minute since the start of the match, rush the base or something like that, because it's more than obvious that something went wrong with the player following).

More of an advice than anything else, because it should be your priority not to get the users banned.

 

[gosikbig]

I am create all profile on all maps and resp for version TankLeader 2.1.452.264 , i am install last TankLeader 2.1.287 and on all profiles don't work and bot goes straight to the enemy base. I need rewrite profile on all maps again?))

 

[Aevitas]

I am create all profile on all maps and resp for version TankLeader 2.1.452.264 , i am install last TankLeader 2.1.287 and on all profiles don't work and bot goes straight to the enemy base. I need rewrite profile on all maps again?))

Shouldn't have to, let me look into this.

 

[gosikbig]

Yes, on all maps on 287 bot go short way to base enemy. I send you pm

 

[Aevitas]

Yes, on all maps on 287 bot go short way to base enemy. I send you pm

Thanks, I'll get it fixed asap!

 

[NergiZed]

Seeing the recent update I thought I'd give it a go.

Seems like TL2 tries to do some things it didn't used to do, like follow other tanks or pushing objectives. The key word being 'tries', since in actuality my tanks tend to just go in circles or snake about, sometimes flipping over in city environments. No crashes or anything, just dumb behavior, so I suspect the log would seem normal if not a little sparse. With all that being said, is it because of server latency? I play over on the Chinese servers, so is it because of my location? Does it function better if I were stateside or in the EU?

Sadly, for me at least, it functions much poorer than it used to. I can see what it's trying to do, but the commands are just way too laggy for it to behave in an manner that isn't that of a retarded epileptic sloth. I might just stick to the aim-bot, but even that seems to have a tough time hitting anything.

Anyhow, goodluck lads. Hope it improves in future.

 

[Aevitas]

Seeing the recent update I thought I'd give it a go.

Seems like TL2 tries to do some things it didn't used to do, like follow other tanks or pushing objectives. The key word being 'tries', since in actuality my tanks tend to just go in circles or snake about, sometimes flipping over in city environments. No crashes or anything, just dumb behavior, so I suspect the log would seem normal if not a little sparse. With all that being said, is it because of server latency? I play over on the Chinese servers, so is it because of my location? Does it function better if I were stateside or in the EU?

Sadly, for me at least, it functions much poorer than it used to. I can see what it's trying to do, but the commands are just way too laggy for it to behave in an manner that isn't that of a retarded epileptic sloth. I might just stick to the aim-bot, but even that seems to have a tough time hitting anything.

Anyhow, goodluck lads. Hope it improves in future.

Thanks, appreciate the feedback. It's not down to latency, it's down to the navigation being flat out wrong or indecisive in what it wants to do in some cases. It also currently doesn't consider going backwards ever, which results in those weird 360 degree turns you'll see every now and then. I'm currently working on fixing the navigation and adding support for bigger tanks and some other stuff that'll decrease the chance of the tank bumping into terrain with its tracks on the city maps, but it'll probably be a few weeks if not months before I can deliver the first results on that. I do intend to update my blog every now and then once we get some real progress, so you guys can see some of the inner workings of the bot and what we're working on to improve it as well over time.

Again, thanks for the feedback, I'm glad it's apparent what we're trying to have the bot do, I hope you'll bear with us while we update the fundamentals and actually get it to do what we want it to do properly.

 

[NergiZed]

Thanks, appreciate the feedback. It's not down to latency, it's down to the navigation being flat out wrong or indecisive in what it wants to do in some cases. It also currently doesn't consider going backwards ever, which results in those weird 360 degree turns you'll see every now and then. I'm currently working on fixing the navigation and adding support for bigger tanks and some other stuff that'll decrease the chance of the tank bumping into terrain with its tracks on the city maps, but it'll probably be a few weeks if not months before I can deliver the first results on that. I do intend to update my blog every now and then once we get some real progress, so you guys can see some of the inner workings of the bot and what we're working on to improve it as well over time.

Again, thanks for the feedback, I'm glad it's apparent what we're trying to have the bot do, I hope you'll bear with us while we update the fundamentals and actually get it to do what we want it to do properly.

Wow yeah, I never even noticed it never went backwards. I guess that's why it's got comparatively poorer performance getting around obstacles.

Mind posting a link to your blog? Thanks.

 

[gosikbig]

Patch 0 9 15 up))

 

[Natiiix]

I am create all profile on all maps and resp for version TankLeader 2.1.452.264 , i am install last TankLeader 2.1.287 and on all profiles don't work and bot goes straight to the enemy base. I need rewrite profile on all maps again?))

You're lucky if your bot actually gets to the base, because mine gets usually stuck in some building. And yes, if you want to update your profiles, you'll have to make them again, they won't update automatically. But there is a new engine implemented that follows other players instead of rushing into the base, so it might not help that much.