Lua attribute player.ai_type

[SimonHeimberg]

Type of change
New feature

Before
In a multiplayer game, it is not possible to to detect reliably if a player is controlled by an ai.
The property wl.Game().interactive_player only shows the human player on the current game instance.
Computer players are named "Computer N", but this is not a reliable source as it is translated in the hosts locale (#5991) and human players can choose such a name (partially prevented, see #5985).

New behavior
With the property player.ai_type, determining ai players is reliable. Making the exact type available to a script should not be a problem.

Additional context
Be aware the type of the ai player can change, probably only when a human player looses the connection and is replaced by an ai.
It is possible that a player is controlled by a human and an ai (by using playerX.switchplayer()). This can not be detected.

A use case is in forum post ..48

[SimonHeimberg]

Now the tests pass.
How can I verify that the netclient has this attribute correct?

[SimonHeimberg]

I could not yet practically test if the attribute is set in the game.

The setting player.ai is received and saved in netclient (see below, probably writes in player from game_settings.cc). So it hopefully is also available in game (on the netclient). But maybe player.ai (of src/logic/player.cc) stays empty.

widelands/src/network/gameclient.cc

Line 643 in 6ba442a

player.ai = packet.string();

The type of ai is visible in the new game dialogue for the netclient. I guess it is still available in game.

[SimonHeimberg]

I finally managed to compile and have everything so I can start the executable.

The ai_type works as expected in multiplayer mode. Random ai players get a valid value in the game.
In single player mode random players seem to get the value "" (empty string), which is used for human players normally. As it is known that there is only one human player, it is still obvious, but unhandy.

[SimonHeimberg]

This could be included in 1.2 as is. It already adds helpful functionality. And it warns about what is not reliable.

The fixing of single player must be in a complete different place, probably in single player startup code. It could be investigated later.