[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Reproducable core dump (PR#1051)

[Tony Stuckey <stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Nov 29, 2001 at 04:41:29PM +0200, Petrus Viljoen wrote:
> Personally I HATE games where the AI cheats.

        Most people do.

> The game rules are simple enough to make the AI challenging even in the 
> end-game
> with advantage players.

        I'll disagree.

> It already has some advantages us poor humans won't have any time soon.
> 
>    * AI can monitor EVERYTHING it can see (it is more aware of the game
> world than us).
>    * AI can do PERFECT micromanagment (It's not lazy, it can review every
> order ,unit , city  every turn and optimize).

        Again, I'll disagree.  Many/most optimization problems are
exponentially complex.

>    * AI can do some predictions / forecasts to evaluate every decision ,
> We can not.

> If the AI are allowed to cheat it might get to a point where it is
> IMPOSSIBLE to win the AI.

        Well, yes.  That's easy, really.  Just start the AI with all techs.
:)

> The AI simply needs Tactics & Diplomacy
> 
> Easy: AI should tend to be more diplomatic (perhaps even trade with other
> players) less aggressive.
> Hard: AI should tend to more aggressive  on Military, Economic & Diplomatic
> levels.
> 
> Some simple military tactics can give it a definite military advantage
> over human players too.

        None of these will solve the 1-on-1 case.  None of them will solve
the many-on-1 case.  Diplomacy, in particular, has simple, unsatisfying
rules to make the game hard.  We would only need to add "All AI players
ally immediately" right now to make a 1-human, 7 ai game almost impossible.
        Saucy, unexpected plays are very hard to get as emergent behavior.
-- 
Anthony J. Stuckey                              stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"And they said work hard, and die suddenly, because it's fun."
        -Robyn Hitchcock.