From: bc@fccn01.fccn.pt (Luis Miguel Sequeira)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: Re: Galaxy Results Format
Date: 23 Dec 1992 01:42:27 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

In article <1992Dec23.004143.7348@netcom.com>   sutin@phaeton.UCSC.EDU
(Brian Sutin) writes:

[...]

>A simple computer program could undoubtedly play better than many galaxy
>players.  If a player cannot play better than an AI program written by
>a rank amateur like myself, then he/she will not survive long in a galaxy
>game anyway.

Heh heh heh. My thoughts exactly. I  _can't_ win any AI playing chess.
I was often  defeated by   the 16  K chess  program   written for  the
Sinclair ZX81 back in  '82. So, I must  conclude that I'm a _terrible_
chess player (which, in fact, is absolutely true).

So, I find it most interesting that someone actually  has got the time
& nerves to write an AI Galaxy game player!  If some of  you have read
Loeb's articles & papers on  the  Diplomat, I think  that an AI Galaxy
player would be something interesting; for instance, if by some reason
a player drops from the game (i.  e., due to long  Xmas vacations...),
the AI could play for him for a while. Perhaps  the AI player wouldn't
be a genius, but, at least, the player wouldn't have to be  bumped out
of the game, or, even worse, being "eaten  up" by his neighbours while
he was doing nothing...

On  some very few games I've  seen around  there  are  a  few hints of
"automatic playing", meaning mostly  that if  you  forget to give some
orders, the computer  will fill  them for   you. Perhaps these  orders
won't be  a master  strategist's  moves, but they'll be  fine to  keep
those blood-hungry neighbours away...

I once  even joined a  group of PBM  developers where the game concept
circled around the following major issue: the  NPC's controlled by the
players were actually  _better_  players than the players  themselves.
That meant that,  in order to  win,  you  should  interfere the  least
possible  with them - or,  when  interfering,  the  player _should_ be
quite aware of the implications, or else...

The game, of course, was  too  ambitious (most "programmers" had  just
grasped the bare notions of C...) and was never finished.

You don't need  to  go that far on  Galaxy, however. Ruling  diplomacy
out, an "automatic player" would be something quite  nice indeed! Just
add an order:

o automatic on

and the computer plays for you...


>My program, however, is not very smart -- I have to correct all sorts of
>amazing things it comes up with, and it does not know what to do in case of
>an attack, nor does it understand any sort of strategy.  What it does is
>take care of the tactics and leave the strategy to me.

But it's a start!!!


>As soon as I understand the game well enough to write a program to play it
>for me, then you are right -- there is no longer any reason to continue
>playing.

I think your program will still skip politics &  diplomacy. There will
always be a place for you to take part in the game...

Unless, of   course,  Russell  et.  al.   develop  similar concepts to
Loeb's Diplomat, and create some  form  of  a "diplomacy language".  I
think they won't... :-)


>I don't think this will happen anytime soon.

You're probably right... but drop me a note. I'm interested in knowing
more about it... :-)

	- Luis Sequeira
	  (newcomer to Galaxy, of course)

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  bc@fccn01.fccn.pt                        Luis Miguel Sequeira
                                  Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia Civil
  Phone 351-1-8482131 Ext. 2752   Centro Informatica/Grupo Sistemas Centrais
  "Don't call me, I'll call you"  Av. Brasil, 101 - 1700 Lisboa, Portugal
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