[freeciv-ai] Re: Borg AI.

[Gregory Berkolaiko <Gregory.Berkolaiko@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 27 Jun 2002, Vasco Alexandre Da Silva Costa wrote:

> On Wed, 26 Jun 2002, Gregory Berkolaiko wrote:
> 
> > I don't know why I bothered to check out the Japanese screenshot, but what
> > I saw exceeded my expectations.
> >
> > A brand-new AI which is actually working.  Wow!
> 
> > Please enlighten us on the history of this development.  Is it being
> > actively developed?  Can we join the fun?
> 
> Basically Luэs and me spent several weeks to make what you see there. It
> is quite far from complete. Making an AI for a game like Freeciv is a
> large project.
> 
> That said, I found it much easier than I thought. It is a large job, but
> not that hard.
> 
> We stopped developing it some months ago due to lack of time. Luэs can't
> work on it at the moment and I am busy with the upcoming release and the
> GTK+ 2.0 client. If you wish to further develop it, be my guest!
> :-)

Grand!  I am off for July but when I come back in August and finish 
quibbling with Raimar on path-finiding, I'll definitely have a go.

> > I cannot say I am big fan of how certain things are done.  And maybe I
> > would change the structure a little bit, but it is so wonderful to
> > actually see a well-structured AI!!!  Written in a comprehensible manner!!
> 
> Heh. Yes we put quite some effort into it. We wanted the BORG AI to be
> pretty clean. By this i mean an easy structure with well separated AI
> agents, and the less intrusion in civserver code as possible. The AI the
> current Freeciv AI gets called and messes with data in civserver is just
> too much.
> The BORG AI is not very smart, but it is way faster than the current AI.

Well.  The current AI is way stronger.

> BTW which things did you like and dislike in it?

Like: general structure, vertical ordering.

Dislike: I thought hunting enemies by id is a big cheat.  But it can be 
justified I guess.  

I would change the structure a bit, especially military.  HQs tied to
cities can handle defence and at most counter-attack.  But serious attack
should be handled one level higher, in Army.  Also there should be few
higher level RegionProductionManagers, responsible for clusters of cities.  
It is a sort of queue, responsible for building "common projects" such as
wonders, military units for armies, settlers.  Each city can still handle
production of things of local importance: marketplace, library, defence
units (but these can be also ordered through the RegionPM, in time of
need).

Also, Borg happily leaves the cities undefended, so I saw and entire civ 
taken out by few lucky enemy chariots.  I suspect it can be easily tuned, 
though.

> > Also I am quite envious, as it was my dream to built a structured AI from
> > scratch but I haven't got the guts / time to do it.
> 
> I know how you feel. I thought about starting a new AI about 3 years ago
> but never had the time. I only managed to get the time for doing this
> because i was able to shoehorn it into one of my classes at university.

That's the way to do it :)

G.