[freeciv-ai] Re: long-term ai goals

[Per I Mathisen <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 23 May 2002, Ross W. Wetmore wrote:
> If the server returns data which is not governed by the strict rules
> it may introduce programmed/random errors into this data.

A good AI is dependent on world governed by consistent rules, and adding
random errors into this world may cause random errors in the code as well.

Not a good idea.

> There are
> viable rationales for this effect which can be introduced into the
> rulesets and/or controlled by console settings - "Bardic travellers
> arrive from <blort> giving you information about its countryside",

The AI could easily just explore undiscovered territory like any other
player. This is good also for making the other players nervous and
paranoid (so they stop expanding) and for making them believe that the AI
is "real" (behaving like a real player and playing on the same terms as
them).

> When playing solitary against an AI this is much preferable to a
> poor AI that lacks both insight and external sources of information.
> Adjustable levels make an excellent learning curve. This also fixes
> some of the unfair restrictions on the AI of not being able to move
> places it has not yet moved too. A human can figure out how to do
> this easily so such code restrictions don't really hamper them.

I don't see what you are getting at here. The AI and the human have
exactly the same restrictions and possibilities.

Yours,
Per

"As Israeli forces pursued militants, civilians
continued getting in the way and dying as a
result." -- New York Times, April 21