Curious about Dominions? how the AI thinks? which AI is best/worst?

[analytic_kernel]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Thank you Johan for another release of some of the NDA stuff (non-disclosure agreement). Im very sorry thru all of the arguments here that I was unable to discuss beta-group things such as the hidden switches. --allai, --superhost, and --comptrn being some of the more interesting and informative ones.

Of course, they weren't really hidden. They reside in the same part of the executables as the other long opts.

strings -t x /path/to/your/dom3/dom3_amd64 | egrep '(--)(\w)+$'

where /path/to/your/dom3 should be your Dom3 install directory. I won't post the list here, because it is version-dependent. Also don't want anyone accusing me of reverse engineering in violation of license agreement, though I don't really see this as such....

Still very useful to have descriptions of what they do. Thanks.

[Gandalf Parker]

I know.
I often provide string-lists to people who request it. All of the units by name, all of the spells, all of the magic sites, all the forts, all the poptypes, all of the wish variables, all of the nation description texts, all of the tips file, all of the god titles, all the mod commands, all the spell effects, all the path variables, and of course all the switches. It saved alot of typing for people who wanted to create user-provided documentation on things.
You can find many in the docs directory of my server dom3minions.com

But I had to ask Johan before releasing any.

[Gandalf Parker]

OK now that --comptrn has also been revealed, Im considering adding it to these test runs. I would include into the web directory a zip file containing the rgb, fthrland, and all turn files for all the AIs.

A) it does allow seeing capital placements as analytic_kernel requested.
B) it would add to the processing time
C) it would be view only. You cannot play the game. Hitting "host" just gives you a "Game Over" message.
D) it might be of interest to new lurkers who would like to see a large end-game even if it was just AIs

[Gandalf Parker]

If you are curious about the AI builds (pretender, scales, etc) then you can create an icon which will only create a game and allow you to view those.

Short Answer: add --allai and --comptrn to a dom3 command

Long Answer:
If you are using Windows, then right-click your Dom3 icon and choose "copy".
Then right-click a blank spot on your desktop and choose "paste".
Now you have a copy of your Dom3 you can change.
Right-Click on the new copy, select "Properties".
In the "Target" window is the command line calling Dominions 3. There are tons of fun switches you can add there. For this make it..
"C:\Program Files\dominions3\dom3.exe" --allai --comptrn

That will allow you to create a game with all of the nations in as AIs, pick up their first turn, look at the gods and scales. You wont be able to play but let me know what you want and I will see if I can work it out for you. You can usually find me in the chat room. (the chat button at the top of this forum)

Personally I love to add switches. I also like to add
-fwacd (windowed, no fades, no credit screen, keep a game log, no animated backgrounds)

--clickvol 10 to turn down the keyclick thing

--scoredump which creates a seperate scoreboard page each turn like you see on some of the multiplayer servers with numbers for how many provinces, castles, etc each player has

--magicsites 65 --renaming --indepstr 7 --hofsize 15 --eventrarity 1 still gives me a chance to change them when I start a game but it sets them as the defaults that the switches are on so I dont have to change them every time. So adding --renaming to my icon changes renaming from defaulting to off and me having to turn it on for every game, to defaulting to on with an option for me to turn it off if I want.

--seapart 20 --mountpart 50 --mapgcol 50 100 50 250 some of my preferences when it creates a map. I like less water, more mountains which creates many chokepoints, and I change the color of the plains from brown to green

MY icon for looking at the pretenders includes all of those. Also it has
--randmap 20 to create a large random map
--era 1 because thats what Im checking out right now
viewgame (no -- on this one) which creates the game name and overwrites the game viewgame each time I click the icon.

here is a list of all the switches...
http://www.dom3minions.com/docs/CommandLine.txt

[analytic_kernel]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

A) it does allow seeing capital placements as analytic_kernel requested.

'Twasn't me. Might have been VedalkenBear.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showp...1&postcount=15

Still good to know. Thanks.

[JimMorrison]

Any chance of a --setcombatvol XX switch ever?

[Gandalf Parker]

Afraid not anymore.
We are just stuck with the modified sound file collections which do make it easier to live with.

[VedalkenBear]

Yes, GP, that was me. While being able to get these data is the first step, a proper analysis should be the most important step. If I have time in a couple of days, I will look into how to analyze this.

[Gandalf Parker]

The tests as they are done now were setup by Illwinter. They test everything. Not only balance but whether there is too much or too little random in map generating, god selection, scale selection, ai type, purchasing, research, etc etc. The problem being that with so much variation it takes a LOT of tests to average out any one thing such as the balance of nation strength. To test one thing, the other randoms should be limited as much as possible.

I have started looking at the maps generated on my site each day. If a set of statistics were to be done in a more controlled form then many controls could be added. The same map each time, close all the provinces so they cannot be starting provinces except specific ones so you know the distances already, give matching gods and scales (such as giving every race a monolith which is kindof hard for an AI to screw up).

Im thinking about using a medium sized map. But maps can affect the game SO much. A map with a central ocean surrounded by thin land strips, or one with a central land surrounded by thin ocean? One with multiple smaller oceans so each water nation can expand on its own but is in danger of dominion-death? Many smaller oceans and ponds which play toward the advantages of the sailing nations for having places they can strike by crossing one water province? How much of each terrain and how much should it be bunched.

[MaxWilson]

I just have to say that --comptrn is indeed awesomely fun. I've always suspected, and now I know, that the AIs run out of money and stagnate because of troop upkeep for their massive armies; and now I know that they usually only research one school of magic up to very high levels before investing at all in other schools. Extremely interesting stuff.

-Max