Re: [Freeciv-Dev] External AI client

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David J Porter wrote:
> 
> I've begun work on an _external_ AI client, 

I hope you have a lot of spare time :-)
(I think you'll need it to make a good client-side AI.)
You should probably try to understand the current (server-side)
AI, since you should be able to borrow or adapt parts of it.
(Though understanding the current AI may itself take some time :-)

> QUESTIONS:
> 
> 1] Does there need to be a protocol whereby an AI client needs to declare 
>    itself to the server and through it to the human players in a particular 
>    game?
> 
> 2] Should all AI clients be run on the same machine as the server? (Or at 
> least 
>    restricted to some known server machine?)
> 
> 3] Should human players be allowed to spawn AI clients, or soley connect an 
> AI 
>    client?  (The latter may be useful for developing the AI algorithms, or 
> even 
>    in the case where games are run solely for the purpose of AI versus AI 
>    battles in the FreeCiv 'arena'.)
> 
> 4] Would/Should it be possible for the server to spawn AI clients on a 
> players 
>    machine?  On willing players machines?

As far as I'm concerned, for the server (and other clients) a
client-side AI should look just like a normal player.  One of the
benefits of client-side AI would be that if you happen to have a 
local network with idle machines, you could run the AI's on 
different machines and reduce CPU usage on the server machine.
It would be cool to combine a client-AI with a normal client and 
be able to turn parts of the AI on or off as "player helpers", though
that's getting even more ambitious...

-- David