autred / dota2-fulloverwrite

Work in progress for a full-overwrite Dota 2 bot framework

AUTHOR: Nostrademous

GITHUB REPO: https://github.com/Nostrademous/Dota2-FullOverwrite

This is a full bot over-write implementation. This means that for each hero (eventually all of them, but we start with small sample) we will implement a bot_<heroName>.lua file with an implementation of the Think() function.

This is a WORK IN PROGRESS. I share it in the hope that other developers will find it useful and potentially contribute by requesting pull commits against this code base building a better community bot framework.

The code representing this bot codebase is largely comprised of work of the author and many contributors of the "Dota 2 Bot Scripting Forums" which can be found here: http://dev.dota2.com/forumdisplay.php?f=497

Code Layout:

The design intention was to largely leverage the concept of class-based inheritance as existant in Object Oriented Programming languagues, but in LUA. To that end, there exists a "decision_tree.lua" base class that loosely defines the behavior of every bot we make by the virtue of the fact that all bot_<heroName>.lua files will derive off of it. This allows the hero-specific files to only over-load those decision_tree.lua functions that they want the specific hero to handle differently, while keeping other aspects of bot behavior untouched.

Current Files:

• readme.md - this file

• constants.lua - constants that allow for easy use of our defined values across all files

• utility.lua - many utility functions that are used by other files which implement generic logic and behaviors of the bots

• hero_selection.lua - basic and very simple hero selection and lane assignment for the bots. The lane assignment is only useful for not implemented bot_s as the ones that are implemented have their lane assignment controlled by the ROLE they are assigned. This whole file will eventually be scrapped I think for a better counter- picker implementation based on hero choices made by opposing team. For now it's just a stepping stool to get other stuff working.

• role.lua - this assigns roles to bots based on a not-fully filled out concept of what hero belongs in what role. Roles are categorized into 7 buckets: HardCarry, Mid, Offlane, SemiSupport, HardSupport, Jungler, and Roamer. This file implements a brute-force technique for minimizing role overlap by attempting to not assign more than one hero to a bucket. I was going to implement the Hungarian Algorithm to do this, but brute- forcing 80,000 possibilities if faster than doing advanced matrix math. The concept of roles flows down into laning for purposes of last hitting and denying.

• enemy_data.lua - this was my attempt to globally track information about all of our enemies based on metered updates by our bots as we have vision of the heroes. Intention here is be able to predict ganks and enemy hero rotations based on noticing the disappearance of the heros from vision while knowing what the last values of their location, health, mana, etc. where. I am aware that the API exposes GetLastSeenLocation() and GetTimeSinceLastSeen() - however these don't provide the values like mana & health which will help us know probabilistic reasons for why the bots disappeared (e.g., low health/mana -> probably went to heal at shrine or fountain -> don't be as worried). Currently the information is just stored and not used in any way. TO BE FIXED! I wasn't sure how Valve calls multi-bot over-writes so I made it atomic via locks. I honestly think that our bots are called by a single thread though and we won't have race conditions every present.

• global_hero_data.lua - this is a global table that allows for per-hero persistant storage of variables. It is saved based on the hero's playerID. If a variable is retrieved via getHeroVar() that does not exist, nil is returned.

• decision_tree.lua - this is a start... there will be lots of things that need to be fixed here and actually implemented (many place holders). For now laning is in and some item-swapping when dead and rudimentary retreat functionality (read below) are implemented. This is the BIG KAHUNA of the majority of the bot logic. Larger concepts, like laning, will have their own files and states and be tied to this file and transitioned between based on the bot's foremost ACTION in actionStack. In a way I'm trying to re-implement what I think Valve's Think() is doing, but I have no clue really, so I'm doing what I think should be done. It would be very appreciated and useful to have more people fill placeholder functions out.

• laning_generic.lua - an implementation for laning based on role. Some aspects are still completely missing like: neutral pulling, camp stacking, support enemy hero zoning for safelane, etc. Additionally, while last hitting and denying seem "ok" for ranged heroes, they are rather bad for melee. Need to improve and change logic based on utility.lua->IsMelee() in the future.

• retreat_generic.lua - draft implementation of retreating when taking damage from tower, creeps, or heroes/overall. There are BUGS in here with logic as I see bots say they are RETREATING but sometimes they just stand in place.

• item_usage.lua - this implements basic and generic use of items. It is very limited for now to use of clarity, salve, bottle, TPs, arcane boots (not efficiently -> doesn't care about allies being in range). Needs to be largely implemented still.

• generic_item_purchase.lua - this is a generic class for all hero-specific item purchase files (e.g., item_purchase_lina.lua) that actually does all the work of buying the item when appropriate. It is named as such to not interfere with "item_purchase_generic.lua" which if exists in the bots/ will over-ride all bot purchases that don't have a named file for them resulting in no items being bought for "ANY" bots that don't have a specific hero-named lua file for item purchasing present. The hero-specific LUA files now only need to define the appropriate ROLE specific table for item purchase order (i.e., Mid, HardCarry, Support, etc).

• bot_<heroName>.lua - three exist for now - Lina, Viper and Antimage. Look, they are hard-coded implmenetations for now that don't build according to the game state, but rather to a hardcoded ordering. This will need to be largely re-written in an intelligent fashion eventually so it makes choices that respond to what's happening in the game and based on the makeup of enemy heroes. These heroes require supporting lua files to really function: item_purchase_<heroName>.lua and ability_usage_<heroName>.lua These exist for Lina only. The existing hero files were created to demo some of the possibilities of decision_tree function over-loading.

• other files are in support of bot_<heroName> files

TODOs/FIXMEs:

Lots, we need :

• fighting logic
• rune logic
• ward logic
• tower attack logic
• ally defend logic
• tower defend logic
• bot 5-man assembly logic
• roshan logic, etc.
• item_purchasing for heroes and lots more heroes.

Some FIXMEs are commented in code - I add them as a tag to get back to with ideas.