Improving the AI

[Ellimint]

creating seperate sets of rules for each AI level will only increase the d/l size of the game and turn programming into a nightmare.

I'm a programmer.  If AI brain rules are coded properly, it shouldn't be; d/l size would be a mild, not-noticeable increase if a rules doc was ingrained.

[Ellimint]

The only thing that changes are the decks. So AI4 is meaningless unless you are talking about new new decks.

AI4 wouldn't be meaningless if it was AI3 with a different controller following a more intelligent strategy.

[Evil Hamster]

creating seperate sets of rules for each AI level will only increase the d/l size of the game and turn programming into a nightmare. If Zanz decides to change something he would have to change it 3 places instead of one. I'd prefer he spend his limited programming time creating new cards than that kind of change.

[thearchduke]

I'm wondering if there will be an AI 4.
AI 1 is the random trainer.
AI 2 is a pre-staged deck.
AI 3 is a pre-staged deck with rare weapons and slightly smarter AI.
Top 50 is a player-custom deck with rares, upgrades and probably AI 3.
AI 6 are the false gods.

So is Top 50 AI4 or 5?  I would guess a better AI is in the works, but AI3 should be tuned more, IMHO.

I wanted to expand on this, because I think this is a very important factor in evaluating the AI.  The AI, from what I can tell, plays every game at every level by the same set of guidelines.  The differences are in the decks.  The decks in AI 1, the trainer, always contain way too many elements.  Ditto the decks in AI 2, they generally are more focused but generally suffer a lot from having too many different types of pilllars.  AI 3 does have rare weapons, but more importantly the decks are more tightly constructed and, just like the false gods, there are a limited number of possible opponents.  There is a rainbow-ish deck with life mark, there is a scorpio-like deck with a water mark, there is a time deck with time mark and lots of fate eggs, a light mark deck with life and air with lots of dragons, and others I'm sure most of us are familiar with.

However, I do not think there are different AI rules.  I think the AI plays the same way, the only difference is the decks it is using.  I see it make the same kind of bad prioritizing mistakes in 2 and 3 that it does at the false god level.  False gods benefit from getting double draws and having fully upgraded decks, but ultimately the AI seems to play the same.  Thoughts?  Should the AI scale from 1-6?  ie, make more mistakes at the lower levels?

[Uzra]

There a many simple things that can be done to increase the AI's performance.

That being said, AI 1, 2, 3, top50, and false gods all use the same AI.  The only thing that changes are the decks. So AI4 is meaningless unless you are talking about new new decks.

[Differ]

My question is, why are you trying to help zanz improve the AI? I think we have enough trouble with god decks as is.

[ejnomad07]

My question is, why are you trying to help zanz improve the AI? I think we have enough trouble with god decks as is.

I think if the AI could be improved such handicaps would not need to be placed. Besides, they are not that hard once you reach a certain level of play. You just grind and exploit bad AI again like LvL3.With how many different types of gods there are. The success rate should be much lower.

[thearchduke]

If the AI could play better, the game would be more challenging and demand ever more intricate strategies.  The top players in this game would surely appreciate yet a further quest and new levels, as it were.