[Freeciv] Re: globalwarming

[Tony Stuckey <stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Aug 06, 2000 at 09:40:20AM -0400, Ed Cogburn wrote:
>       Ok, here's an interesting issue:  Do we intend to 'clone' CivI/II up
> to and including AI behavior?  Or will we adopt more sophisticated AI
> behavior if/when people code it, even if it doesn't match CivI/II
> behavior?  Will we have at some point a "fanatical" AI and a
> "rational" AI?

        We will adopt more rational behavior.  AI players may still make
mass warfare declarations on the human player, but they will do it earlier
in the game and with more defensible criteria than Civ1/CivII ever did.
        SMAC goes this direction as well -- it's noted that any
faction which is leading by more than 20% power over the second most
advanced is "hated".

>       In SMAC, AI behavior is very different.  For the first time I saw a
> the AI do a rational thing:  A very weak nation on the same continent
> as a powerful human player chose, after losing 3 cities to that human
> nation, to "humble" itself, and not just as long as it took to build a
> combat unit and launch a surprise attack on the nearest human unit
> (I've seen that insane behavior over and over in the Civs), it stayed
> friendly for the rest of the game.  Maybe it was because I was not
> particularly aggressive in that game.  I wasn't out to conquer the
> world; the major portion of the largest continent was all I needed, so
> I kept that weak nation around for economic trade as it was no longer
> worth the trouble to destroy it.  I'm not sure how it calculated that
> it should give up trying to kill the human player.  Now folks who play
> Civ as a (bad) wargame can use the "fanatical" AI similar to the
> Civs.  Others who would like a little sanity on the part of the AI
> nations can use a "rational" AI.
> 
>       This all assumes somebody else codes this, of course, because I sure
> can't.  :-)

        Right.  Fanatical AI players are easy.  Doing it "right" is much
harder, simply because there seems to be less agreement on what "right" is.
-- 
Anthony J. Stuckey                              stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"And they said work hard, and die suddenly, because it's fun."
        -Robyn Hitchcock.