Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mynok

It would be far more rational and less expensive simply to recreate the UMP rules of the original board game....where guess what? Yep...nations are controlled by humans.

If you don't like playing against humans, you bought the wrong game. Sorry to break it to you.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mynok

quote:

Computers cannot think. They don't have personalities. They aren't human.

This is a good point. I have a good friend (who happens to post on this board as "gwheelock") that takes this "human interaction" part and puts it to good use. If a person EVER backstabs him in a game, his focus changes to the destruction of that player's chances of winning. He pulls out all the stops.

Typically, computer games never do this (although, it wouldn't be that hard to code in). But, many humans do. And, if another human is playing with gwheelock, s/he needs to know that it is a singularly bad idea to backstab him early in a game.

Then, there's people like me: I like to try to play the game historically. As Russia, I hate the Turks, and I use the Prussians. And, I don't care much for the Austrians, either, but I'll play nice with them. At least early. GB had better think long and hard about making Russia an enemy (THIS Russia has a long memory!) France? I hate him, but if someone closer goes against my wishes, sure, I'll join him. Fully expecting him to backstab me at some point, and preparing for that day.

As GB, I want to control the world. "Make the world British. SIR!" That means controlling all of the other nations, at least partially. With money, I buy Turkish favors. With money I assist Prussia, Austria, and Russia against those disgusting Frenchies. All other nations exist to serve the empire upon which the sun never sets.

As Spain, I just want to be left alone. And, of course, in control of Portugal, Morocco, Naples, etc. :) Eventually, France and GB will recognize the threat I present, but I just hope the rest of the world has grown up enough to take care of them for me. :)

As Prussia, I hate Napoleon. Not "I hate France". I hate NAPOLEON. With a bitter and undying passion. Nothing else matters. France is fine, as long as Napoleon isn't there. Oh, and she should get back to her 1796 borders, too.

There are other players that can be best described as "erratic". These are the ones who go to war at the drop of a hat. Computers can sometimes emulate this, but computers don't also PLAY erratically. It requires erratic play to be successful with erratic war declarations.

Some players are superstitious. To a computer, this would be "random chance" factoring in. But, there's this one guy: He tosses a handful of dice before a roll, and then picks out the ones that are sixes, figuring they are on a roll. The only problem is, it seems to work. His last name sounds similar to Heisenberg (of Physics' "Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle" fame). We call this fellow's dice rolling (replacing Heisenberg's name with his name) "The Heisenberg CERTAINTY Principle". This is because while his dice rolling is normal most of the time, when a critical event occurs, he can almost always roll a six at just the right time. We've nicknamed HIM "Certainty Principle" because of this.

Some players are brilliant planners. Some are brilliant strategic thinkers. Some are brilliant tacticians.

I would think that the perfect AI, would incorporate some of the above:

• Brilliant month-to-month planner
  
• Brilliant strategic thinker
  
• Brilliant tactician
  
• Lucky
  
• Unlucky
  
• Manipulative
  
• Historical
  
• etc.
  

Unfortunately, I fully realize just how hard such things would be to code. But, that's what humans bring to the table.

_____________________________

At LAST! The greatest campaign board game of all time is finally available for the PC. Can my old heart stand the strain?

(in reply to Mynok)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Murat

EiANW II will rock!

quote:

ORIGINAL: dauphan129

quote:

There will NEVER be an AI for this game that is good for anything more than training until we have true artificial intelligence.

I disagree with this statement in that the game could be programmed to follow certain paths. Perhaps have three or four profiles for each nation in which the AI prioritizes it's options in different ways, I just think it would be exceptionally hard to do.

>> snip

Still, this game was designed to be played Multi-player, all Humans. I think someday it will be a great single player game too but that was not the initial design and I think it is awesome for what it is.

quote:

ORIGINAL: joviel

I'm not happy at all with the manual, the bugs or the AI.  But I went back to some of the forum posts from when the game was in development and people were begging, literally begging for the developer to release it as was and improve it later.  So the poor developer gets put into a no-win situation.  Do I think the game was released half-baked?  Yes.  Did we ask for it?  Yes.  Will Marshal fix it?  He says so.

So I'll knash my teeth at a PBEM system which corrupts most games , at a manual written only for experienced players and at an AI which a drunk Spanish general could beat.  And I'll wait and hope the Marshal doesn't get so discouraged that he joins the French Foreign Legion. 

Scott

quote:

ORIGINAL: Fflewddur

I sooo want to buy this game, but without a credible AI there is no point. If I wanted to PBEM I could use the game I've owned for 20 years, why would I want to buy it twice? ANd why hotseat when you can all sit around the map plotting your turn? I never liked sitting in a chair someone else made HOT anyway.

Yes EIA was designed to be played with 7 humans, but the UMP rules were put in the game because the designer realized it was never easy to find 7 people with no life all at the same time. Resorting to letting your roomate say "gobble gobble" before he would play his turn at Turkey, or watching Austria never use more then 40 factors against la grande armee do not make for a fun gaming experience. This game has needed a competant AI since its inception.

Fortunatlely, Matrix Games EIA WAS designed to have an AI. If you don't like playing against computer opponents, then you AI haters are the ones who purchased the wrong game. Otherwise this game is just a play aid.

I've been following the progress of this game in the forums for a while now, and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it was released, but with such a questionable AI, I'll be waiting for a patch or 2 before I make my purchase.

quote:

Have you ever played any of the Civilization series of games? They all have wicked AIs. They are also very complex games. They pretty much have exactly the same features you list in your post (The utilization of income, manpower, military production, strategy, intuition, and diplomacy).