AI longtime simulation feature

dmm · #1 February 13th, 2002, 05:16 PM

I third the idea.
1) I usually play solo. I like to play games to completion, even after I'm way ahead. It would be nice to have the AI play for me for a while. (Emperor goes on a well-deserved vacation.)
2) It would help with scenario generation. Set up a random game, make everyone AI, let it run for 50 turns, then go in and take over one of the weaker empires (or one of the strong empires, for newbies).

Gryphin · #2 February 13th, 2002, 07:18 PM

I forth the idea. I used to play Empire Deluxe and do that. Among other things it gave me an idea of how the AI played,
(hmm, is that cheating or is it research).
I also agree with letting the AI finish a game for me.

rdouglass · #3 February 13th, 2002, 07:35 PM

I like the idea as long as you can specify the number of turns. Don't really care personally 'bout it finishing the game. Maybe adding a capability to run AI until some condition is met (victory, declaration of war, hostile activity, treaty breakage, etc.). Sure its been said before but maybe someone will include my vote somewhere....

Egregius · #4 February 13th, 2002, 11:29 PM

I sixth this idea.

PsychoTechFreak · #5 February 13th, 2002, 11:39 PM

quote:
Originally posted by rdouglass:
... Maybe adding a capability to run AI until some condition is met (victory, declaration of war, hostile activity, treaty breakage, etc.). Sure its been said before but maybe someone will include my vote somewhere....

I guess if victory condition is met this would stop the game anyway, but I like the idea to ask for other conditions also. The intention of this thread is to accumulate the ideas for a while, and I will send them to MM within the next days.

tesco samoa · #6 February 14th, 2002, 05:20 AM

I am not one to jump on a band wagon. But I know a good hoe down when I see one.

Fantastic idea.

# of turns would be good
Summary log would be nice as well. ( Ie the score page every 5 to 10 turns for all races)
It will be great for mod testing.

PsychoTechFreak · #7 February 14th, 2002, 10:11 AM

I thought about the stopping conditions Last night. Maybe this could be done by an extension of the victory condition setup, e.g. as a kind of victory/AI simulation stop condition. There are just a few disadvantages:

-the conditions cannot be changed during a game, means: you cannot simulate until one condition, change it, and go ahead to the next condition

-the conditions seem to be requested every 3 to 5 turns or so. I have tried to run a single human player (for weapons testing, ship setup and so forth), after the first few turns (it seems to be not always after the first turn), a victory window pops up plus a question about continuing the game

All right, I guess there are better solutions.

As for the additional stop/break simulation conditions, we have now:

1. War declaration
2. Hostile activity
3. Treaty breakage
4. Score point goal
5. Research area goal
6. First contact
7. Number of turns (of course)

Any additional ideas ?

I guess some of them are not possible or needed, but let's see, what else would be important for AI testing and for scenarios (dmm: thumbs up !)...