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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/11/2014 12:28:54 PM   
Icemania


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Test 2: Improved AI
1. Medium Space Port Design changed to have 8 Weapons, 2 Energy, 8 High Tech (the AI builds 2 Energy Research Stations for another 16 Energy Labs) so 100% research potential is used and more Weapons Research
2. Weapons Research Order Improved (had to do it manually as still can't find a way to change anything here)
3. Ship Design Template changed to focused on One Weapon Type
4. Ship Design Template optimised for Size 500 (in this specific test case not a huge change as the Cruiser in Test 1 was Size 465)
5. And Titan Beams are 69% complete!

Here is the resulting Ship Design:



Attachment (1)

< Message edited by Icemania -- 6/11/2014 1:33:25 PM >

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/14/2014 4:13:24 AM   
Icemania


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The patch for 1.9.5.3 is out and quite rightly it has more of a bug fix focus. Time for more AI improvements I hope.

Speak up if you want to support or propose practical AI changes as Matrix are paying attention. Or stay silent, in which case the chances of the changes you want are less.



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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/14/2014 5:59:44 AM   
Kayoz


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Icemania

The patch for 1.9.5.3 is out and quite rightly it has more of a bug fix focus. Time for more AI improvements I hope.

Speak up if you want to support or propose practical AI changes as Matrix are paying attention. Or stay silent, in which case the chances of the changes you want are less.


We've had this cry for better AI being screamed at Matrix since release day. What makes you think now is any different from all the times we've asked/begged/screamed for it in the past?

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/14/2014 6:29:55 AM   
Icemania


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Because some of the changes mentioned in this thread have already been implemented.

I don't expect a significant improvement until DW2. But some further incremental changes would be welcome.

The window of opportunity is when we have patches.

Do you have any constructive suggestions?


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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/14/2014 11:32:05 AM   
BigWolfChris


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Definitely wouldn't mind the AI opened up to being moddable tbf

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/14/2014 11:51:04 AM   
Tcby


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Icemania

Because some of the changes mentioned in this thread have already been implemented.

I don't expect a significant improvement until DW2. But some further incremental changes would be welcome.

The window of opportunity is when we have patches.

Do you have any constructive suggestions?




QFT

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 9:05:13 AM   
MartialDoctor


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The AI has been greatly improved from previous versions. It still needs work but I am quite happy with the recent work done.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 12:10:04 PM   
Icemania


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quote:

ORIGINAL: MartialDoctor
The AI has been greatly improved from previous versions. It still needs work but I am quite happy with the recent work done.

Shh! If you say things like that ... they might not made other AI improvements!


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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 4:37:44 PM   
BlueTemplar


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quote:

What it comes down to is that the human player learns.

The A.I. doesn't.

I think that this is fundamental.

Between 3 of these :
- Good AI
- Scripted AI
- Complex game
You can pick only two.

It's a shame that Codeforce decided to go with a scripted AI (if I'm not mistaken) when the scope of this game would go very well with an AI that actually learns.

These AI do exist, by the way, but they probably require a completely different design.
Examples I can think of :
- Galactic Civilizations 2 AI (as already mentioned).
- Sword of the Stars 1, if I am not mistaken, uses some kind of learning algorithm for the AI ship designs. The problem is that while it seems to learn and adapt to enemy designs, it also seems to promptly forget everything when you start a new game, making it not better than a newbie player in that aspect. There's also the issue that ship and weapon balance is quite different in full real-time 3D tactical combat (that the player will usually use) compared to very simplified "1D" autoresolved combat (that the AI's will use against each other).
- http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/01/skynet-meets-the-swarm-how-the-berkeley-overmind-won-the-2010-starcraft-ai-competition/

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 6:28:24 PM   
Tehlongone


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It's not really a choice between good AI and scripted AI, AI will never really learn anything with the limits to our computer systems. If anyone were to even try that it would need to be a much more limited setting, AI thinking uses CPU cycles and the more factors you want it to consider the more demanding it'll be.

What is good AI anyway? It seems to be a term covering all positive things.

Galactic Civilization 2 AI does not learn anything. It partially adapts to your strategy based on a somewhat limited amount of options, it's decent but not all that bright. I remember beating it consistently on the highest setting where it has outrageous bonuses.

I haven't played SotS1 but I haven't heard anything about it having exceptional AI. If the ship designs work well then Distant Worlds might benefit from something similar, but it wouldn't really be AI.

Some things it could learn from player behavior but it's not a simple matter by any means.

Distant Worlds AI does have some quirks that appear easily fixed, however. I'm not sure how easy it is to modify it though, it just seems some situations could be fixed with simple measures.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 6:55:20 PM   
BlueTemplar


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It doesn't matter if the AI learns slowly if it doesn't forget between games. It's even less of a factor if that learning is pooled on a worldwide basis. I thought GalCiv2 AI actually did that?

As of what a "good" AI is, I have a (perhaps unconventional) viewpoint that it should be compared to the performance of a real player. A good AI is an AI as strong as a good player, when playing on a level ground. So if you're a good player and playing a game with 20 good AI's, and neither you, nor the AI's have any kind of bonuses nor handicaps, then on average you should lose 20 times out of 21. (Here you can guess why developers usually don't bother to even try to make good AI's)

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 7:24:52 PM   
Shark7


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Even the researchers who spend millions of dollars to figure out how to make a true learning AI haven't made a lot of progress yet. In the end, the AI is nothing but code, and it is limited by the code. Sure they can 'learn' to do simple repetitive tasks (manufacturing robots), but making an AI that can reason as complexly as a human brain is still a ways off I think.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 7:32:17 PM   
Tehlongone


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To some degree perhaps, it made little difference however, and would not be feasible in a game like Distant Worlds. It never learned anything that I noticed about my strategy or at least it had no clue how to beat it. I think it was a good AI (with issues) but the game also seemed a bit simpler.

With your definition of a good AI then I can say with great certainty that no 4X game has ever had a good AI. The most you can hope for is that it makes no clear mistakes and uses a sensible strategy. Distant Worlds is actually not that bad in this regard, though it has issues.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 7:50:31 PM   
BlueTemplar


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Well, they've managed to get a pretty good AI in the Starcraft AI competition, didn't they?
Of course it helps when the game is real-time and requires fast reflexes, since the AI can be much faster than the player can ever hope to be and can micromanage every unit at the same time...

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 9:36:55 PM   
Shark7


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quote:

ORIGINAL: BlueTemplar

Well, they've managed to get a pretty good AI in the Starcraft AI competition, didn't they?
Of course it helps when the game is real-time and requires fast reflexes, since the AI can be much faster than the player can ever hope to be and can micromanage every unit at the same time...


That sounds like it is less of a 'good' AI, and more of a human limitation.

The DW AI doesn't cheat, gets no bonuses, and follows the same rules as the player. It's one of the few that doesn't cheat which might make it seem weak, when in truth it is the fact that your aren't playing against an AI that has clear advantages to make up for its weaknesses. And while it still has the advantage of being able to manage all its units all the time, any player that leaves automation on gets the exact same abilities with the AI helper.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 9:40:47 PM   
Cauldyth

 

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Let's also remember that many strategy games have a dedicated AI programmer, at least for part of their dev cycle. Now let's remember that DW has a programmer, period. With that in mind, it's remarkable it has an AI at all!

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 10:28:03 PM   
Tehlongone


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Well Starcraft isn't 4X, it's a pretty simple game and like you said much of the difficulties in that game comes from doing everything fast enough. If the game proceded at snail pace in each fight you'd have time to outsmart the AI better.

Anyway I look forward to the day AIs get smart enough to outwit an average human in a halfway complex game. It'll probably be a few decades, though..

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/15/2014 10:47:01 PM   
ParagonExile

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Tehlongone

Well Starcraft isn't 4X, it's a pretty simple game and like you said much of the difficulties in that game comes from doing everything fast enough. If the game proceded at snail pace in each fight you'd have time to outsmart the AI better.

Anyway I look forward to the day AIs get smart enough to outwit an average human in a halfway complex game. It'll probably be a few decades, though..

Galactic Civilizations 3 is introducing AI's which are capable of adapting human ships designs and strategies to its current situation, and it can apparently search Steam's network for more. If it turns out well, I hope it becomes the industry standard.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/16/2014 2:02:01 PM   
Icemania


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I posted some links on Page 1 regarding what Galactic Civilisations 3 has in mind. While I prefer the design of Distant Worlds, if they only achieve a fraction of their vision, I'll be spending more than a little bit of time playing it ... and hopefully getting slaughtered sometimes due to AI strategies from other players that are superior to my own. I really hope this is in the base design for Distant Worlds 2!!!

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/16/2014 7:32:47 PM   
BlueTemplar


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GalCiv3 is very promising indeed :
- The strongest 4X AI ever made (probably).
- At least some form of tactical combat (won't probably be nearly deep enough to my liking, but anything deeper than GalCiv2 is already an improvement).
- A powerful ship designer, but also one where you don't need to spend way too much time on purely cosmetic aspects :
http://www.twitch.tv/stardock/b/526718527

Now, that is still not enough for me to shell 93€ on the Founder's Elite Edition, but I will be following the development of the game with attention.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/16/2014 7:56:02 PM   
Tormodino

 

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Asking for a highly qualified AI player is nice and all, but does anyone know why basic stuff like fleets/ships going off on crazy treks into the great unknown, constantly throwing themselves at superior numbers (seems to not remember the size of targets properly), resources being allocated incorrectly (spent, out of interest, 2 years waiting for a few units of Helium to be delivered to a home system mining station while it was happily building other ships as soon as the homeworld received the Helium) etc... are happening so frequently?

I enjoy the fact that it seems that the AI plays "dumber" when it plays the dumb races, but there are still many cringe inducing moments.

Btw, for reference, I spent many hours looking at how the AI plays with Rule in Absence activated. It is fascinating, but it also reveal some absolutely insane descisions by the AI. If what the player can see here represents how the AI empires actually play I would say that a slightly more conservative weighting of travel ranges and fuel requirements, designs with fewer obvious mistakes (always adding stealth (size 60!)/not adding damage control), as well as slightly tighter resource discipline could go a long way to make the AI a slightly more challenging opponent.

Also, I want to note the erratic behaviour of the AI in general. It seems to change its mind, or at the very least recheck its state(s), very often.

Case in point: I was at war with the Zenox. Their entire empire was located in the bottom left of the map. They had a mining base at the top right of the map. My biggest fleet, loaded with troops, instead of invading their closest worlds (cakewalk, they of course have no troops...) goes flying across the universe to kill the single gas mining station. Running out of fuel, stopping several times along the way etc.
To be honest, this stuff should not happen. Some limit to how many resources are devoted to a far off target could be implemented to prevent that type of behaviour. I don't want the game to be predictable and having race intelligence levels affect descisions is fine, but I draw the line at crazy stuff like that. It is totally detrimental to the AI, and makes the simple stomping of the AI via deathballinvaderfleet an excersise in tedium.

Observing the game has given me a tremendous respect for the model, but I would much rather that the current model be worked on than wait for DW2. Unless there are issues with the engine heavily limiting what is possible, I see no reason why DW in its current form could not be brought to be the new standard for 4x simulations through balancing and AI tweaks. I've outlined a few other things I would like to see elsewhere, but as it stands the inconsistent AI is a glaring flaw in each game I play.

< Message edited by Tormodino -- 6/16/2014 9:07:12 PM >

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/17/2014 2:06:00 AM   
MartialDoctor


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Tormodino makes a very good point. I've noticed those sorts of things in the past as well.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/17/2014 2:20:41 AM   
aaatoysandmore

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Tormodino

Asking for a highly qualified AI player is nice and all, but does anyone know why basic stuff like fleets/ships going off on crazy treks into the great unknown, constantly throwing themselves at superior numbers (seems to not remember the size of targets properly), resources being allocated incorrectly (spent, out of interest, 2 years waiting for a few units of Helium to be delivered to a home system mining station while it was happily building other ships as soon as the homeworld received the Helium) etc... are happening so frequently?

I enjoy the fact that it seems that the AI plays "dumber" when it plays the dumb races, but there are still many cringe inducing moments.

Btw, for reference, I spent many hours looking at how the AI plays with Rule in Absence activated. It is fascinating, but it also reveal some absolutely insane descisions by the AI. If what the player can see here represents how the AI empires actually play I would say that a slightly more conservative weighting of travel ranges and fuel requirements, designs with fewer obvious mistakes (always adding stealth (size 60!)/not adding damage control), as well as slightly tighter resource discipline could go a long way to make the AI a slightly more challenging opponent.

Also, I want to note the erratic behaviour of the AI in general. It seems to change its mind, or at the very least recheck its state(s), very often.

Case in point: I was at war with the Zenox. Their entire empire was located in the bottom left of the map. They had a mining base at the top right of the map. My biggest fleet, loaded with troops, instead of invading their closest worlds (cakewalk, they of course have no troops...) goes flying across the universe to kill the single gas mining station. Running out of fuel, stopping several times along the way etc.
To be honest, this stuff should not happen. Some limit to how many resources are devoted to a far off target could be implemented to prevent that type of behaviour. I don't want the game to be predictable and having race intelligence levels affect descisions is fine, but I draw the line at crazy stuff like that. It is totally detrimental to the AI, and makes the simple stomping of the AI via deathballinvaderfleet an excersise in tedium.

Observing the game has given me a tremendous respect for the model, but I would much rather that the current model be worked on than wait for DW2. Unless there are issues with the engine heavily limiting what is possible, I see no reason why DW in its current form could not be brought to be the new standard for 4x simulations through balancing and AI tweaks. I've outlined a few other things I would like to see elsewhere, but as it stands the inconsistent AI is a glaring flaw in each game I play.


If you have trade agreements and alliance's with other races then the AI will use them for figuring out the rations they need to get from point a to poing b. So, your alliances or trade agreements could make the trek shorter or more cost effective and it will use all those hubs for resupply. Everything is not 1-2-3 in this game or by the numbers some things will be erratic and unbelieveable just like things happen in real life. I wouldn't want a game that plays by the numbers all the time. I like randomness and whatif's and anything can happens in the games I play. This one does it quite well. It just needs to ramp up the stats for the ai to make it a little more challenging when it does things that are random or unheard of.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/17/2014 9:04:51 AM   
Tormodino

 

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We have to assume that the people who play this game a lot use the military refueling rights and other options to make fleet movement and resource flow more reliable, but that it not my point in the slightest. I am talking about the downright strange and detrimental actions of the AI such as trekking across the map to kill a single mining base while the enemy's fleets and colonies are ripe targets just next door. An action like that would get an admiral fired or shot.

I am obviously fine with the randomness and strange actions that lead to interesting outcomes.

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Post #: 204
RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/18/2014 4:38:20 AM   
thefinn12345

 

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Yeah, bascially - the craziness should go.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/19/2014 3:22:31 PM   
Icemania


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
RESEARCH AND SHIP DESIGN
- AI ship designer now always adds sufficient reactors to ship designs (possibly more than one) to enable hyperdrive to operate at full speed
- AI ship designer now more willing to shrink new designs to fit within current construction size limits, especially when first obtain hyperdrive technology
- NEW MODDING FEATURE: allow restricting any research project to specific races using the new ALLOWED RACES line in the research.txt file (updated header comments of research.txt explains)
- improved AI research pathing to better emphasize tech focuses from empire policy (ResearchDesignTechFocus1-6), while still researching other important techs
- increased research output for lab components by approximately 50% (components.txt and research.txt)

GAME BALANCE
- Shakturi now have faster construction and lower ship maintenance (updated Shakturi.txt race file)
- Shakturi ship design templates now use more weapons and other components (military ships, medium & large spaceports, defensive bases)
- Shakturi empire policy now builds more large military ships and less small military ships
- empires are now more willing to use excess cash on hand as factor when deciding whether to build new ships (e.g. low or negative cashflow, but large cash reserves on hand), especially when at war
- now much harder to perform intelligence missions against Ancient Guardians (steal maps, tech, etc)

Great work ... I can't wait to test this out!

The new research modding feature could be used to further improve AI research focus e.g. don't waste time of researching weapons technologies that will never get used.


< Message edited by Icemania -- 6/19/2014 4:23:36 PM >

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Post #: 206
RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/19/2014 4:07:24 PM   
MartialDoctor


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Yeah, those changes are looking nice. However, I don't get the increased lab output. It's already too easy to reach maximum research capacity as is.

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Post #: 207
RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/19/2014 4:35:04 PM   
Bingeling

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Icemania

The new research modding feature could be used to further improve AI research focus e.g. don't waste time of researching weapons technologies that will never get used.



As far as I know, the AI have not spent time on non-used weapons since Shadows or so. The research order can always be discussed, though.

What happens at end tech, I am not sure. I guess it will eventually research everything.

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Post #: 208
RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/19/2014 5:14:29 PM   
Cauldyth

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: MartialDoctor

Yeah, those changes are looking nice. However, I don't get the increased lab output. It's already too easy to reach maximum research capacity as is.


Maybe it'll help the AI, for when it's not building enough research capacity.

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RE: Distant Worlds AI - 6/19/2014 10:37:48 PM   
Tcby


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Cauldyth


quote:

ORIGINAL: MartialDoctor

Yeah, those changes are looking nice. However, I don't get the increased lab output. It's already too easy to reach maximum research capacity as is.


Maybe it'll help the AI, for when it's not building enough research capacity.



Pretty much this. The issue is that the AI never reaches capacity. Icemania did some testing a couple weeks ago that showed they were only using a small percentage of their total capacity (around 50% I think?). The following patch increased the AI desire for research stations by 1, bringing them up to about 70%. Now increasing the output of each lab component by 50% should allow the AI to surpass their research capacity using those same labs.

The great thing about increasing lab output like this is that it simultaneously reduces the benefit to putting them on private sector stations, because the overall cost is less than before. So another natural human advantage over the AI has been reduced in a pretty simple fashion.

:) yay patches

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