[Freeciv-Dev] Re: ai development

[Daniel Sjölie <deepone@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2001-04-17 08:16:58, Jordan Crouse wrote:
> I went over the AI with a fine toothed comb a while back (I was
> concentrating on diplomacy), and I remain convinced that the best
> direction for the AI 
> is to make a separate process that connects to the server   A while
> back, I suggested that the only way the AI could handle the asynchronous
> events that must be processed is to have a separate thread.  Many other
> people pointed out that this was worthless and dangerous and impossible
> on some architectures, but I remain convinced that the AI cannot be
> successful just by running once on every turn.  There are many things
> that happen outside of a player's turn that affect their decisions: 
> battles, treaties, others completing wonders, etc, that *must* be
> processed on an asynchronous basis.

I think there might be some confusion here about the thread as a concept
and the thread as reality... You seem to mean simply that the AI should
run in parallel with the server and not really that they should be
threads in the same process?

> Client side AI would be one way to implement this, but I wonder if we
> should have an entirely separate  thread, an "AI robot" if you will,
> that runs off the command line.

In short - an AI client...

> That would keep the size and processing
> time of the client down, but it would increase complexity, especially
> for those unfamiliar with the client server model.

AI is far more complex than any client server model. Thus anyone who
expects to have any luck writing a good AI should have no problem
understanding the client server model... (Actually, I think it is odd
that You think client-server is complex at the same time as You talk
about threads - threads are a lot more complex in my mind... :)

/Daniel

-- 
Now take a deep breath, smile and don't take life so seriously... :)