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

[Arkadiusz Danilecki <szopen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 28 Jan 2000, Tony Stuckey wrote:

[cut cheating]
A.D.Danilecki wrote:
> > 3)I have experience with newbies to freeciv and i see
that they are
> > sometimes terrfied when they had to type civserver and manually create AI.
> > Half of them resign from game, saying it is too complicated, Imagine what
> > will happened if they had to create AIat client side? 
> 
>       They click 3 buttons to set the AI difficulty level and
> preferences.
hm? You mean someone write such a ,,wrapper'' to server? 

> > 4) Real-time AI. Hm. If u can make ai thinking in real time, it will be
> > cool, but i think it could be too difficult. Lets imagine AI is coutnig
> > which towns are safe. Situation has changedm it starts again. Situation
> > has changedm it starts again. Etc Etc. I am not sure if it will cause That
> > AI will be able to move only when all players finish move. 
> 
>       Real-time AI is harder but not impossible.  The big point with real
> time is that it's not a part of the Civ experience.

        Right 

> > 5) I don't know what about you, but i hate to wait for others players,
> > when i finished my turn. With client-side no-real time playing through
> > network AI it will last even longer. Timeouts for AIs? Bue..
> 
>       Most turn-based games have found that players are willing to let
> the AI think for only a minute or so before they get fidgety.  This is
> another reason why mature AIs have never appeared.
>       Using thread-like behavior to think while the player is moving may
> or may not provide useful results.

        Right again. There are things AI can do in real time without
care about other players. Future strategies etc.

...

A.D.Danilecki "szopen"