The ai_helper functions are optimized for speed (as much as possible in a general setting) and do all the necessary tests. For example, get_units_with_attacks() checks both whether the unit has attacks left, and whether it has any attacks in the first place.
The relative ranking of the CA scores is not changed, except for one case when two CAs had the same score.
Reasons:
- All scores should be lower than the scores of the default Goto CA (200,000) and the default scores of most Micro AIs (300,000).
- Break tie, resulting in uncertain order of execution, of place_healers and retreat_injured CA. Healers should be placed first, to allow retreating injured units to adjacent hexes.
- Set default for generic_recruit_engine to slightly above default AI recruiting score. That way it takes effect even if the default CA is not removed.
- Increase move_to_any_enemy CA score from 1 to 1,000. It is still the lowest score that way, but allows for setting up custom CAs with even lower scores (even if it is just for end-of-turn statistics or the like).
Now that all the AIs use external CAs, there is no need to use the persistent 'data' variable any more, unless information is to be exchanged between different CAs or is supposed to be persistent across save/load cycles.
Most of the Fast MAI attack utils had been taken from a more general codebase and included things not needed here. This AI is supposed to be a slimmed down version doing only the absolutely necessary in as fast as possible a fashion.
The main reason for doing this, besides simplifying the code, is to avoid using the WML table dump __cfg, which is slow. This includes a change of the format in which the variables are stored, but since these are internal Micro AI utility functions, that does not matter.
Another efficiency improvement. This ensures that the side of the unit
is checked first before the potentially complex rest of the filter is
evaluated.
The old method is very slightly faster in some circumstances (e.g. for
simple filters and when all units have moves/attacks/etc. left), but we
are talking fractions of micro seconds. By contrast, depending on the
filter used, the new method can save large amounts of evaluation time
once some units have move or attacked.
