[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Development Strategies

[Andrew Sutton <ansutton@xxxxxxx>]

On Monday 03 December 2001 12:11 pm, Per I. Mathisen wrote:
> This is very good for making rulesets better and the server simpler. There
> are only two problems:
>  1. The code gets slower, since it has to be interpreted
>  2. AI doesn't know what to do
>
> The first depends largely on choice of solution (language+compiler). I
> simply don't know how well the different compilers do when embedded,
> except tcl works pretty ok. The second can be solved by adding procedural
> AI hooks for units/buildings/governments with abnormal behaviour.
>
> So the Healer would also have a procedure OverrideAIControl, which, if
> present, would be run instead of normal AI code for this unit. Then it
> could have flags to determine how it would fit into the general AI
> build/deployment strategy.

extensibility and AI is tough. i hadn't really been considering. maybe we 
could extend the new unit architecture to include some pedantic information 
to the AI. it could actually work like the helptext except be exclusive to AI 
clients.

this could even be in the form of the AI scripting language that would allow 
the AI to dynamically bind the capability into its knowledge base.

now that would be interesting. it's not quite the same as automated learning, 
but it gets a step closer than hardcoding :)

as a matter of fact, this idea could be extended to everything the ai needs. 
for example, something pedantic about unit types, when and what to build. 
city improvements, wonders, technologies. interesting.

andy