Programming Contest

Saber Cherry · #1 February 27th, 2004, 11:23 PM

I'm thinking of having some sort of programming contest... but I'm not really sure what to do. So, a poll is in order!

Saber Cherry · #2 February 27th, 2004, 11:26 PM

If many people are interested, and the contest is Dominions II related, it would be neat if the devs could step in with a real problem, the solution of which is useful to the game...

Like, for example, a module that best determines AI troop choice, or something along those lines.

Endoperez · #3 February 28th, 2004, 06:18 AM

I WOULD like to be of help here, but my skills are very low... Java I can write won't do you any good, yet. I'm still studying, though, so I might be able to help later.

Saber Cherry · #4 February 29th, 2004, 06:00 AM

Hmmm...

That's a bigger response than I anticipated, though the gap between "wanting to do" and "doing" is always substantial.

So - are there any suggestions? Some examples:

A system of assuring leader names are not duplicated until all names are used?

A small algorithm that quantifies the power of a single unit? (In other words, it uses the unit's stats, and deterministically generates a number that represents the "threat rating" of the unit. My combat sim is slow and nondeterministic, as it uses pseudorandom simulation. Such a function would be crucial in AI prioritizing and targetting.)

A search-path module that produces an optimal site-finding path for a mage in friendly territory, accounting for movement speed, search status, provincial site richness (e.g., mountain vs farmland) in different terrain types?

A scripting language for the Dominions II strategic AI? If the devs could somehow enable AI modding, a competition for the best strat AI for a given nation would be awesome=) The quantification would be in running multiple all-AI games and counting wins.

Ideally, a winner would have to be correct (or else, the most correct, for hard problems), and some sort of quantification would be needed to select the best of the correct solutions. For example, runtime and code size can be useful. Thus, a problem whose solution's quality can be quantified is always good.

-Cherry

Pocus · #5 February 29th, 2004, 08:38 AM

you restrict the contest to C, C++ and Java ???

PhilD · #6 February 29th, 2004, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:

A scripting language for the Dominions II strategic AI? If the devs could somehow enable AI modding, a competition for the best strat AI for a given nation would be awesome=) The quantification would be in running multiple all-AI games and counting wins.

-Cherry

Can you make pure-AI games now? I admit I never even tried... (since you cannot even look at an AI's screen, it's not that useful, but...)