Re: PBM design and formulae - a fresh start

From: doug@abby.chem.ucla.edu

Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1993 16:08:01 +0000

In article <199307061948.AA19285@orion.lnec.pt>, bc@lnec.pt (Luis Miguel Sequeira) writes:
>Which means  that  a game  designed to be  played by humans to act  as
>referees  (eg. ASL) is too complicated for our  poor average computers
>of the '90s?
>
>I wonder how anything is ever simulated, then. Say, we want to model a
>mission of  the Space Shuttle.  I suppose they go to Victory  Games or
>Avalon Hills, get a few thousand rules written, and get back with some
>hundred  or  so  "typical  wargamers"  (eg.  old  chess  fanatics  who
>discovered a lot of interesting things in Diplomacy - or even Galaxy),
>and let  them "simulate" the actual Space  Shuttle mission using dice,
>some cardboard  pieces - and  LOTS,  and LOTS  of formulas, tables and
>rules!
>
>Interesting idea. Hmmm. Hope that this isn't widespread, or else we'll
>see a major sales drop in all computers...
>
>
>Just by the way, I'm really curious.  Without using computers, how are
>simulations _really_ done, then? :-)

I think you're being intentionally dense here (I suppose it's possible that
you're being UNintentionally dense, and I'm wasting my effort, but I'll assume
otherwise).

I am a graduate student in theoretical physical chemistry.  I DO computer
simulations.  You are comparing apples and oranges.  In a dynamic computer
simulation of a real object, branching is not a problem; you go from a state at
time 0, to a state at time dt, to a state at time 2*dt, etc. in, say, a
molecular dynamics simulation.  Most other simulations commonly used are linear
in this sense as well.  On the other hand, in even a relatively simple game,
like chess (which branches orders of magnitude less than ASL), the best
computers available today can't analyze the game (due to this branching
characteristic) as well as the best humans available today.  1/2 B^)  The
computer just can't handle the vast number of board configurations that need to
be examined to determine the best course of action, even in chess.  ASL has
more pieces on the board and MANY more valid board locations for them to
occupy.   Believe me, chess will be solved MUCH sooner than ASL.

Your method of Space Shuttle simulations might make a fun game, though.  B^)

-Doug Gibson
 doug@abby.chem.ucla.edu

Neither UCLA nor the National Science Foundation has a clue what I am doing.
They just pay me to do it.

"We have to tear you to shreds because we care." - EAC

References

Re: PBM design and formulae - a fresh start
bc@lnec.pt (Luis Miguel Sequeira)
Tue, 06 Jul 1993 17:49:51 +0000

Referenced By

Re: PBM design and formulae - a fresh start
bc@lnec.pt (Luis Miguel Sequeira)
Tue, 06 Jul 1993 17:49:51 +0000