Re: [Freeciv-Dev] External AI client

[Greg Wooledge <wooledge@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

David J Porter (porterd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:

> 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?

If an AI client connects, then it must follow all the same rules that a
human-driven client follows.

> 2] Should all AI clients be run on the same machine as the server? (Or at 
> least 
>    restricted to some known server machine?)

See below.

> 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'.)

There's no way the server can possibly distinguish between a human-driven
client and an AI client.  The packets are the same.

It's possible to write an AI client *right now* with no changes at all
to the server.  It's just such a monumental task that nobody's been
willing to approach it. :-)

> 4] Would/Should it be possible for the server to spawn AI clients on a 
> players 
>    machine?  On willing players machines?

It definitely should *not* be possible for a server to spawn processes
on players' machines without authorization.  Enough said on that.

If a player wants to host an AI client on his/her system, either instead
of or in addition to a human-driven client, then I'd suggest it should
be arranged at the player/client level.  The server shouldn't really
have any role in this (although the server administrator may have input).

* * *

One of the ramifications you might not have considered yet is the
potential abusiveness of certain players.  Perhaps this parallel isn't
valid, but on IRC it's all too common for people (usually young, impulsive
people) to run "bots" which harass people or do other malicious things.
By introducing a working AI client for Freeciv, you might open up
this can of worms in Freeciv -- people with way too much time on their
hands and way too little common sense might modify the AI client to do
obnoxious things....

Even with that in mind, though, I really like the idea of a separate
AI client.  It's got hacker appeal. :-)

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