Monitoring my AI

Chris Woods · #1 March 20th, 2003, 07:44 AM

Hey all,

After I make modifications to a new AI type, what is the most efficient way to watch my AI play? Can I somehow select to "be my AI" and just hit "end turn", paying careful attention to what choices the AI is making without actually changing them?

Any help here greatly appreciated.

Chris Woods

PsychoTechFreak · #2 March 20th, 2003, 10:23 AM

Do you have Win98 or 95 ?

Search for Master Belisarius' SE4 Batch (does not work under XP) :

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...0;t=000004;p=3

You can setup the savegame backup frequency, like every turn, every 10, 50, whatsoever. After the batch simulation you can jump (load) into the game to investigate the AI. With renaming one of the backups to the original test name (your setup under simultaneous save name) you can start another batch starting from this point.

Krsqk · #3 March 20th, 2003, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PsychoTechFreak:
Do you have Win98 or 95 ?

Search for Master Belisarius' SE4 Batch (does not work under XP) :

Does it not work even with compatibility mode? Why doesn't it work?

DavidG · #4 March 20th, 2003, 03:56 PM

I had the same question. Can you not just play your own empire with all the minsters turned on?

oleg · #5 March 20th, 2003, 04:04 PM

Yes, of course, just play with all ministers "on". It plays almost exactly like a normal computer player. If you want to see how AI select planets, you must uncheck "ask for colony type" or something like this in "empire settings" window. So far the only difference I noticed is the bug I described in "Proportions AI problem in "classical" turn games" topic.

If you want to see how AI performs when played with bonus, simply save the game, take over computer player by using game pulldown menu, see its turn and then reload the savegame !

Master Belisarius · #6 March 20th, 2003, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Krsqk:
Does it not work even with compatibility mode? Why doesn't it work?

I don't know why doesn't work... I have used routines in Visual Foxpro for rename/delete files, that where done for windows. I checked it and everything was ok... but I had not win2000 or XP.
Now... also I have lost the source code.... then, sorry guys, I can't change the things!

Slick · #7 March 20th, 2003, 05:00 PM

Another difference using all ministers is that you must click yes or no when deciding to attack. I don't think this can be automated so that you can just hit "end turn" repeatedly to watch a game. At least I don't know how. Based on what I have seen, it seems that the AI would always choose to attack, even if it has no chance of winning.

Slick.

Master Belisarius · #8 March 20th, 2003, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Slick:
Another difference using all ministers is that you must click yes or no when deciding to attack. I don't think this can be automated so that you can just hit "end turn" repeatedly to watch a game. At least I don't know how. Based on what I have seen, it seems that the AI would always choose to attack, even if it has no chance of winning.
Slick.

No, sometimes I saw the AI avoid the combat.

Here my 2 suggestions to run SE4 manually:
- play simultaneous: you only need to click 'end turn'.
- don't play the AI that you want to test, as the "human" player: usually I saw that is not the same play the AI as "human" with all the ministers "on", than run as 100% AI.

Slick · #9 March 20th, 2003, 05:05 PM

Thanks for the correction. Also, MB, any chance you could recompile your batch program to work under XP? I would really like to use it, but cannot.

Slick.

Master Belisarius · #10 March 20th, 2003, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Slick:
Thanks for the correction. Also, MB, any chance you could recompile your batch program to work under XP? I would really like to use it, but cannot.

Slick.

Sorry my friend, but I have lost the source code...
Maybe someone have time to do a new Version, using a different computer language? I could tell him what I did, and think would be rather easy to do again.