compare with the big budgets like CIV3

Suicide Junkie · #1 January 5th, 2003, 06:44 AM

Quote:

anyway, the more i get into it, the more i think that a chess brain applied to se4 ai would make it really rock... anyone else work on pruning tree algy's?

Even though you can't see all the pieces, and are often lacking most of the information?

Cirvol · #2 January 5th, 2003, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:

quote:
anyway, the more i get into it, the more i think that a chess brain applied to se4 ai would make it really rock... anyone else work on pruning tree algy's?

Even though you can't see all the pieces, and are often lacking most of the information?

ya, a lot of that can be taken care of heuristically... something even based on a game turn function to make reasonable guesses for fleet/tech strengths... and an equation for trade treaty amounts modified by racial trade modifier...

all you'd really need to do is setup a good hueristic for spending by each minister on each planet... even basic things like putting mineral miner facilities only on your high % planets etc etc

things which the ai seems to lack right now

with a good spending/expansion budget, i think a lot of the ai weaknesses would be overcome...
much of that can happen in a vacuum, outside of what anyone else is doing...

then u just need to come up with a good 'war budget' if stuff starts to hit the fan

Baron Munchausen · #3 January 6th, 2003, 04:00 AM

Actually, what SE needs is more disadvantages for the humans.

If sensor range was actually limited and you didn't automatically know everything about a system just by being in it the AI would have much more chance to surprise you. As it is, no AI ever coded yet can out-strategize the human brain. We can see things happening in many systems and see what the AI is 'thinking' while it is too slow to finish its own thoughts let alone guess ours. Viz, the yo-yo effect when it sees one threat, moves fleets and then moves them in another direction next turn because it sees another threat...

That said, yes, there's plenty of room for improvement of the AI, especially the development/infrastructure part of it. If it were smart enough to re-designate colonies to different types based on its needs, or even just change the course of colonizers to worlds with the type of resource it needs like a human would rather than 'force' the next colony to be the type it needs regardless of the planet value, it would be dramatically more effective.

[ January 06, 2003, 02:03: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Skulky · #4 January 6th, 2003, 05:49 AM

What about that combat system, ummmm remember that game Homeworld, how bout attaching that to SEV.

Krsqk · #5 January 6th, 2003, 06:20 AM

Quote:

If sensor range was actually limited and you didn't automatically know everything about a system just by being in it the AI would have much more chance to surprise you.

It would also give birth to more strategy. "Do I conserve supplies and run straight past his planet, or do I sneak and skulk around the edges?" It would be nice to have, say, a three-sector sensor radius for planets, two for ships/sats/etc.

Cirvol · #6 January 6th, 2003, 06:21 AM

starfleet battles is the best 'board' type space tactical game imho...

starfleet command 3 (and the earlier Versions) are based on it... i think that combat engine is really good, se4 would still have auto combat, but using formations and even some form of 'rule' system like the ship design 'orders'... but more in depth, more along the lines of starfleet battles

(or something else similar)