[freeciv-ai] Re: (PR#3663) [PATCH] The AI gets tech too quickly at the easy level

["banjo@xxxxxxxxxx" <banjo@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 2003-03-10 at 07:07, Gregory Berkolaiko wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 9 Mar 2003, Anthony J. Stuckey wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, Mar 08, 2003 at 04:49:32PM -0800, Gregory Berkolaiko wrote:
> > > I would ask you to listen to "recreational" players, whose opinions are 
> > > contained in Sam's email and the link he gives.  
> > 
> >     I read both, and far more besides.
> 
> Reading is not the same as listening.
> 
> > > Yes, Diplomacy with non-attacking AIs will make _survival_ trivial.  But
> > > it won't make winning easier: once provoked, the AI will come down on the
> > > newbie player like an avalanche, with all it's tech advantage.  If not
> > > provoked, the AI will just blast off to space in 1775.
> > 
> >     With survival "assured", there will be far less pressure and more time
> > for learning the game.  I believe that people will learn to beat the Easy
> > AI relatively quickly.
> 
> When I played Civ I for the very first time, I (as a Prince) built what I
> perceived to be a neat historic empire, of 5 cities.  I was in peace with
> my neighbours until I decided to get a city off them.  I built an "army"
> of 3 or so units.  After my attack my army was massacred and the AI
> clamped down on me with quite some vigour.  This experience put me off
> completely.  I did not play Civ again until about 5 years later (not
> necessarily a bad thing of course :)
> 
> 5 years later I was less pretentious and set the level to warlord, managed 
> to get a couple of cities of my rather peaceful neighbours and noticed 
> that more cities I have, better the units I can build.  Then I read 
> Civilopedia and eventually grew to kick AI at Deity.
> 
> The point is, to learn you need to win at least once (or to read the
> strategy guides).  Survival alone, as a puny empire of 3 cities, won't
> teach you a thing.

Could we have an "Advisor" mode?

If the AI can look over the players shoulder, and occasionally 
popup a hint, that may help new players.

It would also mean that our (highlevel?) AI code would need to have
textual rationalizations/explanations throughout it's code, which
may be useful for AI tuners, and for possible API's between various
levels of the AI.


-- 
  \_   banjo 
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