Slitherine

Which RTS/Turn based or whatever strategy game offers according to you excellent AI gameplay/oponent, is unpredictable etc. ?

I've never found such a game. Sure, you can create complexity by having an AI that, when a particular event or situation occurs, randomly selects from a number of possible responses, but an AI that can learn and come up with its own response rather than one programmed in? It will be a while before that reaches your PC.

Actually, before a PC can offer an AI that can work out how to defeat a human opponent in a game as simple/complex as PzC, Skynet will have become self aware - and that's a scary thought.

Artificial AI, even with supercomputers, is still essentially an exercise in brute force - trying all the possible options. As I nearly posted in your thread about morality in games, Homo Sapiens has spent tens of thousands of years refining its competitive nature and problem solving skills. That isn't right or wrong, it is just how we are - and we are damned good at it. AI has a long way to go before it can outthink something that has had that much development time.

AI is big think last few years (there is organization for non-devious AI already in place), so I hope games and strategies and EXCELLENT strategies would soon appear... Few years ago nobody believed "Go program will probably never beat human player" yet some programs already done it... dtto for chess. Actually some problems are by AI solved relatively easy - give random response in 90 % situations to act like crazy etc. Brute force or human brain results are the same...

I was thinking, perhaps performing a proper fighting retreat might be a great challenge for AI.

1) Decisive Campaigns series - especially DC: Barbarossa. When playing as Germany was pleasantly surprised by AI capabilities. Fighting retreats, counter attacks, building fortifications, delaying my advance - It's all there.
2) Pike and Shot / Sengoku Jidai. AI is more than competent. Some battles are hard to win. No easy victories.
3) Unity of Command. Adequate AI. No silly mistakes.
4) Chessmaster series and other chess engines. Really good analytical abilities. Better than average player.

5) Battle of the Bulge. By Shenandoah Studio. AI plays without obvious blunders.

Interesting... I think I sought good retreating and regrouping in Wesnoth too... Today is relatively common that they leave AI to play against itself to learn (checkers etc.).

Panzerpimp wrote:2) Pike and Shot / Sengoku Jidai. AI is more than competent. Some battles are hard to win. No easy victories.

Though it's far from the worst AI in strategy games, I find the Sengoku Jidai AI still has some fairly basic issues that make it too easy to defeat in detail. Once local superiority is achieved in one part of the battlefield, which isn't usually too difficult since the AI has issues with getting its units to engage as a cohesive battle-line rather than piecemeal and also tends to leave a bunch of its troops too far in the back to contribute to anything, it tends to snowball into a chain-rout of the AI army. Haven't played the rest of the games on that list.

Soar wrote:...Sengoku Jidai AI still has some fairly basic issues...

etc

Nice observation.

What about Pike and Shot? Do you find these problems there as well?

I haven't played Pike and Shot, so I can't say.

Greetings, commanders!

Nival is reporting that we've been working on solving one of the most ambitious problems for artificial intelligence specialists. Company’s engineers created the world’s first neural network AI for the real-time strategy. This challenging task was chased by a large number of leading companies, including the Deep Mind, IBM, etc. AI, named Boris, is capable of playing at the top player’s level while not using any hidden information about the enemy.

Every few seconds AI, who we kindly named general Boris, analyzes the gaming session and makes neural network-based predictions of the enemy future behavior. This approach allows him to think up sophisticated counter-strategies and bring them to life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AB7KGxisAs

The video of AI ​​playing against one of the studio staff was published on the the official Blitzkrieg 3 channel on YouTube and on the game's page on Steam. It stresses the AI’s unusual behavior: Boris constantly scouts the map, actively relocates his units, and changes his tactics depending on the situation. For instance, in one of the episodes Boris started by landing his paratroopers to attack a single enemy tank. But when reinforcements tanks came, his troops immediately took the defensive positions in the buildings and tried to utilize the artillery.

The video also states that playing with general Boris will be available for general public at the upcoming March update.

"Despite the fact that the leading companies of the world are working on this problem, we have managed to create the first neural network AI for RTS", - says Sergey Orlovskiy, founder and CEO of Nival. "It is worth noting that Boris plays fairly. He does not use the information under the fog of war, as well as any other hidden information about the enemy. We gave him only the basic tactical moves, but during his training he invented a variety of strategies. He makes decisions just like a talented military leader. It has become difficult to predict his actions now, and, most importantly, to distinguish them from human behavior."

We also state that such an AI approximates the not-so-distant future. Sooner or later AI-based generals will surpass their human counterparts and AI-controlled armies will defend the national borders.


http://en.blitzkrieg.com/news/aiboris

I reckon Strategic Command series has the best of all the things I've played. One time it took Rome when I wasn't looking, and has also defeated a better-than-historical Barbarossa.

- BNC