Observer Mode idea

TaeraRepublic · #1 July 1st, 2001, 10:44 AM

Got that idea just a minute ago, and decided to post it.

What do i mean by "Observer Mode"?
When i was designing AI scripts for myself, i've done realy many testings, but the real test was when i put my Taera (as AI) against the Rage (another AI) and myself didnt do anything. Eventually, one of the races would come and kill me. Boom.

And if i want to see how the race is doing, without actually playing myself?

All it could do is that the human player starts in a separated system (i.e No Warpoints) with a single, VERY poor planet. What means you wont be able to build anything, and go outside. But then noone would reach you. All you have to do it sit there and watch the AI expanding....

BTW that was pretty good test for my Taera, i found some bugs in there which i have fixed.

ANy comments on that thing?

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Emperor Klis't of the Taera Republic.
Proud member of the League of Empires.

E-Mail -
Ora Planet - Taera Republic - League of Empires

Alpha Kodiak · #2 July 1st, 2001, 04:46 PM

I think it would be great for testing AI's! One part that would help would be if, when you are watching the AI take a turn, it wouldn't stop and ask for a planet type when a colonizer reaches its destination. Part of what I test is how the AI selects the planet types. Unless someone knows something I don't, currently you have to make sure that the AI you are testing is under computer control on any turn that a colonizer lands.

I would love to be able to sit back and watch each AI take its turn, examine what I want to examine, and hit end turn. That would help a lot.

PsychoTechFreak · #3 July 1st, 2001, 07:09 PM

Another idea: I remember a startrek movie with an obscured observation station on a planet, "big brother is watching you", first direction: no intervention, just observation.

If you change settings.txt:

Created Storm Maximum Obscuration Level := 2

... to level 5 or 6 and then create a storm level 6 around your home planet ? Nobody should find you then. Also I doubt that the AI uses sensors, even in high-tech games I haven't seen them so far, but I might be wrong.

TaeraRepublic · #4 July 1st, 2001, 08:49 PM

Alpha Kodiak:
No, i meant that you setup a game with the tested race, enemy and yourself.
The two other races are completely AI, and you is somewhere. My idea that a trigger would separate you from the rest of the quadrant, so the enemy wotn reach you.
Though if you set it that all players can see all systems, and omnipresent view of system, so you wont even have to encounter that race to see it's proggress.
And if "All Players Can See All Player's Scores", you wopnt have to count the ships and bases etc.

------------------
Emperor Klis't of the Taera Republic.
Proud member of the League of Empires.

E-Mail -
Ora Planet - Taera Republic - League of Empires

Baron Munchausen · #5 July 1st, 2001, 11:50 PM

You know, some sort of "AI reporting mode" would be REALLY useful for us beta testers, and for modders. If there were a switch to tell the system to write a log file for each AI telling what state it's in and give some details of the decisions it's making we could really figure out how get it to do various things much faster.

TaeraRepublic · #6 July 2nd, 2001, 11:36 AM

OK, here's an idea:
YOu know, there is a switch:
controlled by human/controlled by computer

Now thats a checkbox. It could be a dropbox, where you select human/computer/TESTING.

In testing mode the race is completely controlled by the AI, but you can still see it as if you were playing it. And to that mode there will be some kind of hotkey, or a function in, for example, the 'Empire' or 'Options' windows which will launch dialog which will show the current state of the AI, OR a state history window, which will act much like the treaty history.
(example:
Year 2400,0 - exploration state
Year 2401,6 - Infrastructure State
etc, etc, etc.)

------------------
Emperor Klis't of the Taera Republic.
Proud member of the League of Empires.

E-Mail -
Ora Planet - Taera Republic - League of Empires

PsychoTechFreak · #7 July 2nd, 2001, 03:03 PM

At the moment we have to select at least one human player. If we could disable this (only AI players) and if we could still observe the AIs PLUS a TESTING button (good idea)... I guess the only workaround is to hide the players race or make it unreachable for the other races.

The problem with the one human player is that he could be killed by another AI empire and the observation ends although you maybe want to see the performance of the other races until the end...

TaeraRepublic · #8 July 3rd, 2001, 09:55 AM

Right, if your race is killed by someone, then two things happen:
First you know that your race is either incomplete, or that the enemy race is better

Second you appear to be lost

Whats the point of observation after the observed race is gone?

PsychoTechFreak · #9 July 3rd, 2001, 10:18 AM

quote:
Originally posted by TaeraRepublic:
Whats the point of observation after the observed race is gone?

Not important if just one or two races should be observed, ok, maybe I have missed your point about your observation idea. I considered more to compare the performance of e.g. 20 races at the same time...

Every race could be set to human player, fully AI control, but then you would have to stress your mouse finger. Another workaround could be to set the player control to the race which is obviously the strongest and adjust this setting every 100 turns or so.

capnq · #10 July 4th, 2001, 04:19 AM

quote:
Whats the point of observation after the observed race is gone?

If you're observing multiple races in one game, losing the human player's race will cut off further observation of the survivors.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"