🚀 go-pugleaf

>Please post your questions
>on building artificially intelligent computer players.  Give some specifics
>I am interested in this.  We (Josh and some others) were building a game
>to have a computer player, and eventually scrapped that entire aspect, because
>it seemed so difficult, at the time.  Since then I have encountered a few 
>"classic techniques" and have had some ideas on how to handle this.  We have 
>some ideas from playing StarControl on the Amiga, but have not implemented 
>them yet.  (Another Josh is doing that.)  I would be interested in hearing 
>some discussion on the different view points.

OK, I'm interested in this topic, and it's certainly generic enough.
Just what are these "classic techniques" for computer-controlled
players? Assume for the sake of argument that this is an adventure game
like Zork (everybody remember the thief in Zork?) This guy had a pretty
detailed personality. He would follow you around, picking up the things you
dropped while mapping a maze, just to screw up your map making efforts.

I read an article in an old Byte (April 1980 I believe) written by a
couple of the authors of Zork, talking about the implementation of the
game. The article says that basically the thief is just a formula: the
chances of him attacking are a certain percentage, lower if you are
unarmed; the chances that he will filch an item vary depending on how
valuable the item is, and so forth. It doesn't seem as though there's a
whole lot to it, but I'm interested in what other techniques there are
to implement computer opponents.

Strategy games are, of course, a whole 'nother kettle of fish, since a
chess opponent who makes random moves isn't partu=icularly challenging.
;-)