Re: Technology

On Mon, Apr 14, 2003 at 10:43:16AM -0700, David Paigen wrote:
> 
> Raimar Falke <rf13-r/[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> > In my plan there are no limitations. The final goal is a full fledged
> > client side AI based on build blocks (CMA is the first here).
> 
> Cool!  I look forward to it.  

> Can you share an outline of the order in which you plan to implement
> it?

Path-finding is a dependency for EA (exploring agent) and GA (goto
agent). And GA is a dependency for the SMA (settler management
agent). Path-finding is now in. Two remaining obstacles are map
decorations (these allow to draw nice infos on a tile)
(http://www.freeciv.org/~rfalke/map-deco.gif) (old code available)
(map decorations are also useful for the general goto) and the missing
GUI for the parameters of all these (no code written yet). The map
deco is the remaining big part which has a larger code impact. All of
the actual agents are than just new files inside client/agents. No
other code changes needed except for the GUI.

The GUI is needed to IMHO to provide access to the whole new set of
flexibility we have gained with the new path-finding. So you should be
able to choose for the GA:
 - go into unknown: yes/no
 - cost of a move into unknown
 - benefit of discovering unknown tiles which lay on your path
 - the goal: shortest (by movecost) or fastest
 - conquer enemy empty city on the path: yes/no
 - benefit of doing an extra trip to an enemy empty city on the path
 - should trireme use safe paths? (I'm not sure if it is useful to
 answer this one with no)
 - should the path hold a minimal distance to enemy unit/cities
 - the distance
 - should ships be used to go from one island to the other?

A similar list can also be made for the EA:
 - what base strategy should be choosen: coast following, greedy (the
 current one), mixed
 - should huts be entered/avoided/not handled in a special way?
 - what benefit should be given a hut if the answer is "entered"
 - should unknown tiles in the city range of one of your cities get an
 extra desire to be uncovered?
 - if yes: how much

These lists aren't complete. Implementing all these may yield rather
complex dialogs. But at least the EA supports already some of the
parameters mentioned above. So it should also possible for the user to
change them.

> Any ideas of when these features will get released?

The code for EA, GA and SMA is mostly finished. The functionality is
defined and implemented. So you could update my old patch and use
it. I have also included a not-finished TMA and so the agents are a
running stand-alone client side AI. Actions which the AI does: explore
with the initial explorer, build cities, produce settlers, build more
settlers, build more cities, ... If the island is full with cities and
all terrain is improved the cities switch to coinage.

So if map deco is in and I or someone wrote the GUI these aganets can
be added to the tree quite easy. This may be in a month or in
6. Depends on a lot of factors.

	Raimar

-- 
 email: rf13-r/[email protected]
 "This is Linux Country. On a quiet night, you can hear Windows reboot."