Beyond the Sword Fact Sheet

[Todesengel]

Right, I am too ignorant to continue this.

[Will9]

The Civ4 AI has always been a great AI. Firaxis did as best as they could. Firaxis released the AI files so people could read them and make them better.

[joncha]

Originally posted by Todesengel
Right, I am too ignorant to continue this.

When has that ever stopped anyone from continuing an online debate?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by DanQ

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=4962675#post4962675

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=4962696#post4962696

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=4962706#post4962706

The events look amazing . That'll definately be a welcome change for me .

[Todesengel]

Originally posted by joncha


When has that ever stopped anyone from continuing an online debate?

Good point, but draw my self-worth from other sources. So I do not need to get personal or shout other people down. Lucky me.

[couerdelion]

I’m with Solver on the AI question. Even when we take into account Blake’s improved AI, it is still possible to beat even when it has bonuses. Much of what I understand of the improved AI, it seems to model “sensible” decision-making into various aspects of the game. These decisions are those that can be identified, from play-testing as being ones that the AI makes poorly and therefore in need of improvements. They are also ones that can be reasonably easily parameterised in such a way that the AI can adopt option A because it gives it a higher score than option B -> option A is better than option B.

But even with this high threshold of defined good play, there is only so much that can be modelled. Human beings still retain a major advantage in being able to take into account more subjective factors – while the computer might be ABLE to deal with more factors, it is handicapped in only being able to take into account those factors which have been identified by the AI programmer. So in reality, it deals with everything at quite a micro-level and can never just “stand back and look at the bigger picture”

Take a simple example of building wonders. The human player decides that it has a good chance of building a wonder and then directs his resource into acquiring this wonder in the most efficient and speedy way. My guess is that the AI cannot do this. All it can do is to see that the wonder is available and decide to build it without taking into account the likelihood of acquiring it nor considering that it might be better waiting for another city to build that wonder because it has the better production and has forest that can be chopped.

That’s one example, controlling a complex military system is another, and the list goes on. But it still leaves the human with a big advantage and the only way that any AI can ever be competitive is to give it bonuses.

[Krill]

[q=Solver]Siege units can't kill - they do a maximum amount of damage.[/q]

Everyone remember this. It will be more important than every other change to the game, excluding AI updates.

[Dis]

my siege units never kill anything anyways

[Methos]

The Official site is now up!

Edit: Whoops, looks like someone already posted it in the forums. Sorry, I just monitor this thread.

[oholiab]

If the AI is going to be more humanlike is it going to get distracted, forget things and compare itself to the AI's of other games

[ZargonX]

Justinian!? I can't help but notice that is not Theodora

[Guynemer]

Justinian is such an obvious choice; I'd have prefered Zoe myself. That'd give us two leaders from Laz's all-female edition of Historical Filth.

[Common Sensei]

De Gaulle looks like he acts exactly like Bismarck.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by oholiab
If the AI is going to be more humanlike is it going to get distracted, forget things and compare itself to the AI's of other games

Don't forget that it'll quit when it's losing

[Blake]

Originally posted by couerdelion
I’m with Solver on the AI question. Even when we take into account Blake’s improved AI, it is still possible to beat even when it has bonuses.

The largest advantage the human has over the AI, is the ability to choose the difficulty level.