quote:Original post by fup
Like I said earlier I''ve never played the game of Diplomacy. I have a friend who is very keen though and the impression he gives of the game is one of much negotiation and discussion. Is this correct?
Yes, it''s mostly discussion. There are tactics, and in an endgame you can beat people by being superior at tactics, but in the opening and midgame I think it''s mostly down to diplomacy, not tactics. In the big picture, do you have too many enemies or not?
We have finally ended discussion on DIPAI due to this point. One guy who was doing a lot of talking wants to write a tactics AI first, sans diplomatic info, even though that''s probably billions and billions of move combinations to consider. I think that''s the wrong way to go about it. As far as I can see, Diplomacy games are primarily determined by your diplomatic decisions, and you need the diplomatic information to cut down on the complexity of your moves. So we''re each going to go our own ways. Apparently, in AI discussions it''s quite common to get to a loggerhead where you''ve got one idea about how to tackle a problem, someone else has got another, and each to their own way.
I''m going to be writing up a game that''s "much simpler than Diplomacy" in C# and .NET to test some ideas. Partly because I want to own my IP free and clear. Also, to pad my resume with some more current buzzwords. I''d prefer Python, but I''m living in Seattle and Microsoft is the only company with contractor gigs in a big way right now. I''ve avoided dealing with The Beast''s way of doing things and I''d never become their employee. But I''m not so stuck up that I''d avoid contracting for them, and hey I need the business.
I''m also somewhat assured that C# will probably make it outside of Windows-centric stuff in the near future. There''s a GNU project that has a C# compiler for instance, and an attempt to clone the .NET framework. C# actually looks like a decent language, pretty much a C++ with the headaches removed, some higher order primitives built in, and pretty good performance apparently. Python, in contrast, is a little too abstracted and bloated in how it deals with basic types, like floats and doubles. I like many things that Python has to offer, but as a 3D programmer the bloat is hard to swallow.
When I have this thingy together we''ll have a more tangible game design to discuss. I don''t promise to make any source code available. It depends on how the experiment goes.
Brandon Van Every, 3DProgrammer, Seattle, WA
20% of the world is real. 80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.
