[Freeciv-Dev] Scripting and client-side AI's {was AI again!}

["Bobby D. Bryant" <bdbryant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

½²«íµØ wrote:

> Again, I would like to call for client-side AI. We need a stable
> protocol or at least a protocol translator which enable coders to
> develop their own AIs without fear of future version mismatch.
> There have been many attempts to write client AIs but none of them
> (AFAICR) can last longer than a few months as it becomes incompatible.

The easiest way to do this, IMO, would be to go ahead and start adding
client-side scripting to the player clients, and then bootstrap a true
client AI off the scripted player clients.

As scripting support is added for the various game decisions (e.g., what
to build next, where to irrigate, etc.), players could go ahead and write
and test their scripts for those specific features and play the game as a
hybrid man-machine cyborg player.  Eventually most of the game would be
scriptable, and players would have scripts for most of the game
functions, so the final step in the bootstrap process would be to cut the
human out of the loop.  Essentially, that would involve having the server
launch a client with a --noGUI flag and the name of a script to run.

Bobby Bryant
Austin, Texas