[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Why client-side AI could be a Bad Thing

[Massimo Campostrini <campo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jules Bean <jmlb2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> > Therefore, the AI "need" to cheat in order to compete with a good human 
> > player, as it is doing now on the "hard" level.
> > 
> 
> I don't like cheating.
> 
> Instead, use a handicap.
> 
> If the AI is cheating, then I find it hard to play against because I don't
> understand the rules it's playing by.  One of the things that annoyed me
> about payciv.  The AI should play by the same rules.
> 
> However, if the AI needs an advantage, give it a handicap on hard levels,
> and make this explicit.  Then human players can also use handicaps if they
> want to.  Possible handicaps would be: a bonus to research rate, a bonus
> to battles, etc.

I agree fully with Jules.  I much prefer handicapping to cheating.

Moreover, the present "hard AI" has the problem that its cheating
(know all, ignore science etc. % limit) is extremely effective early
on, and it gets less and less effective as the game goes on.  So if
you survive the AI for 20 centuries or so, you defeat it easily.

Finally, I would enjoy a mixed game of humans and really different AI
players (not to speak of an AI championship tournament, of course).

-- 
        Massimo Campostrini, 
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa.