Re: Galaxy Playing (was Re: Galaxy Turn Format)

From: amead@s.psych.uiuc.edu (Alan Mead)

Date: Thu, 07 Jan 1993 06:01:24 +0000

M22367@mwvm.mitre.org writes:

>An automated Galaxy playing program might lose quite quickly if it did not
>
>The Tintin (Russel's Game #4) have fought all their wars with at least one
>ally seperating them from their opponent.  Had I taken my neighbors out earlier

Er, I think Photons bordered you, no?  Anyway, YES the concept of an
automated player is facinating, but I never thought about diplomacy.
Certainly you could have it spit out pre-prepared messages ["Tinin, I
intend to attack Party Monsters.  Stop.  I still intend to attack
Photons.  Stop.  Hope you will support your ally.  Stop.  -Jagdein"].

But I don't see how it could process a natural language message (even
for the limited domain of a game of Galaxy) unless you have a long,
long rainy weekend to devote to that part of the program.

In my conceptualization, the galaxy computer player could be of one of
two models.  Model 1 is like an expert system.  Each planet and group
makes decisions based upon a number of if..then.. rules.  There may a
certain amount of ambiguity possible (or not) in the rules which may
complicate programming.  How do you tell if your neighbor is
"threatening" etc...

Model 2 uses uses, say, three agents.  Agent zero is a "super-ego" that
regulates all other (usually competeing) agents.  Agent zero may be
constructed from model 1 or not.  Agent 1 is entirely occupied with
development of owned worlds.  Agent 2 is entirely occupied with
developing an effective navy and aquireing new worlds.  In the simplest
senario, agent zero just rolls a die to decide which subordinate agent
makes the production decision for a particular world.  The
agressiveness or peacefullness of a race could be manipulated by
changing  the probability of agent 1 winning decisions.

Further, you could expand the second conceputalizaion so that there are
multiple agents within the "peace" side of things and multiple agents
within the "fleet" side of things.  Maybe one "fleet" agent wants to
place a COL route, another wants a CAP route and a third wants to
change the production type to Drone (to gather information) while the
last wants to produce warships.

And so on.

I've even thought about running a computer tournament where only
programs could play.  How many people would be interested in submitting
code?  Not too many, I suppose :(  Potentially, a good computer player
could revolutionize the present game.  It would allow you to play an
entire game in a weekend for practice...

-alan mead

References

Galaxy Playing (was Re: Galaxy Turn Format)
M22367@mwvm.mitre.org
Mon, 04 Jan 1993 19:22:45 +0000

Referenced By

Galaxy Playing (was Re: Galaxy Turn Format)
M22367@mwvm.mitre.org
Mon, 04 Jan 1993 19:22:45 +0000