Increasing AI difficulty

[Warshed]

I think the first Master of Orion did this ratio idea in order to gauge where, how often, and when to attack another empire. The AI would just do a ratio check each turn on the other empires and if the number of their ships were sufficiently low as compared to them, then they would start diplomatic threats and/or start warring.

[Fyron]

If only programming AI was so simple...

[Grandpa Kim]

Imperator Fyron said:
If only programming AI was so simple...

It's not the difficulty, it's the will.

All the data is there. It's just a matter of gathering it and using it appropriately. Someone in these very forums (perhaps even you Fyron) said it: Not enough work has been done to perfect AI opponents in general in the software industry.

[Xrati]

Remember that these people do this for a living. The people here who create mods and graphics do this for fun. If I were programming AI I would try to incorporate a random event to check for conditions that would activate a suicide attack. Like Fryon said. Programming AI is not that easy. You can’t have AI files in size that rival your game files.

[Grandpa Kim]

Xrati said:
Remember that these people do this for a living. The people here who create mods and graphics do this for fun. If I were programming AI I would try to incorporate a random event to check for conditions that would activate a suicide attack. Like Fryon said. Programming AI is not that easy. You can’t have AI files in size that rival your game files.

I didn't mean to imply I blame our modders. They have done a marvelous job with the tools available. Kudo's to their hard work and imagination.

In fact, I don't even blame Aaron. He designed the AI the way he wanted it. Take it or leave it. Remember the software industry as a large industry is barely 20 years old and they have not yet concentrated effort on AI opponents, at least not in an industry-wide, dedicated effort.

On the other hand, why shouldn't the AI rival in size the main program? After all it is simulating a human being! In fact, it is half the game!

[Xrati]

I didn’t want to make it sound as though you were blaming anyone. I’m sorry if it sounded that way. Nobody here will knock anyone for trying.

AI is just not high up on the list of things publishers want in their games. If they do, they’ll just have to devote more time to programming along with the graphics and sounds. It’s the GLITZ and GLITTER that they seem interested in selling the public. The game creators are at their mercy when it comes to due dates and what is expected of them. ONLY the time proven games seem to be given the latitude to get continuity in the next released product.

[Warshed]

The fact of the matter is that I don't expect a superb AI that does tricky stuff that humans normally do, I just want an AI that pushes his advantage when he knows he has one. I don't think it would be too hard to incorporate into an AI some sort of manner of checking the ranking for other empires.
For instance, suppose we gave a real generic value to each component in the game and some sort of value to the each ship size in the game. A given ship would have a value dependent on the components it has and the size it is. All the given values of an empires ships would be added together to form the ship strength of a given empires. When it is the computers turn, it consults this value of all the empires boardering it and divides that value by its own ship strength value. If the resulting number is sufficiently below one then the computer has a certain % of deciding to either declare war or start negative diplomatic negotiations. If the resulting value is sufficiently high then the computer will be more inclined to ask for non-aggression pacts or accept trade treaties, etc.
I think that the AI of SE 4 is good, don't get me wrong. I mean when the computer sends mine sweepers through a heavily mined area, I think it is great.
I just want the computer to be more mindful of when it has an overwhelming advantage and to act realistically accordingly.
I will try the TDM-modpack. Hopefully it will provide a challenge. Thanks, everyone for your replies.

[Urendi Maleldil]

It's too bad there's no way to script the AI so they attack suicidally with obsolete ships. If they got rid of their ships through combat, it would save them on maintenance, and it would free up resources to build all those new ships they've been designing.

[Fyron]

*cough* SE5 *cough*

[Xrati]

Was that a sniffle or a sneeze? [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Target.gif[/img]