zman1974
Posts: 22
Joined: 12/11/2006 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: dinsdale quote:
ORIGINAL: zman1974 Concerning AI: I was corresponding with Rich over at HPS regarding the poor AI of their ACW Campaign games, and he responded with a very good point. It takes a supercomputer to match a grandmaster's playing ability at chess. Just imagine how much processing power it would take to simulate a very compentent army commander with an OOB the size of Gettysburg. We're just not there technologically yet, although I do think a game can still be "fun" playing the computer, if not competitive. Jim How many chess grandmasters are there on earth? How many "grandmasters" of wargames. Chess games have shipped with AI's capable of beating most players for decades, and using the BigBlue excuse is disingenous. It's an irrelevance which doesn't negate the chess AI which could run on a Spectrum 25 years ago was capable of winning against 99% of humanity. Further, the chess solution to AI isn't going to be applicable to most wargames, though that doesn't mean that the AIs shipped with some games to be as bad as they are. I won't speak for Rich, but I will tell you what I think of his point. It is easier to design a competitive AI in a simple game like chess. However, to design competitive AI's for gigantic wargames is much more difficult. Can it be done? I suppose there are those games where such a result is possible. SSG, for example, usually has an excellent computer opponent. A game like War in the Pacific, however, is challenging not so much because of a great computer opponent, but because it is a very hard system for a person with average skill and time to master. The computer opponent already has this huge edge on you, the player, from the outset. But I think that as one masters the UI, and makes less and less unforced errors, then the computer AI may become a much less vaunted opponent. In a way, by designing an elegant and easy to understand UI, the developer takes away one of the AI's biggest advantages. The assertion that poor AI and the incredible complexity of huge, ambitious wargames are interlinked components remains vaild. Jim
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