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siggame / MegaMinerAI-12

The 12th MegaMinerAI Competition: Mars
www.megaminerai.com
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PumpStations and Adjacency. #96

Closed russleyshaw closed 10 years ago

russleyshaw commented 10 years ago

We probably want pumpStations to spawn as 2x2 tiles. We also want ~1 pumpStation right next to ice (or an ice tile placed right next to a pumpStation) so it is possible for a player to win even if the AI does not create any more paths to the pumpStation and instead, impedes his opponent.

Tarnasa commented 10 years ago

https://github.com/siggame/MegaMinerAI-12/commit/4e569077202d6d0f72053643394e8c6d02eee8ef Now pump stations generate as a set of 2x2 pump tiles A number of pump stations also now spawn adjacent to ice tiles. The number of pump stations and ice-adjacent pump stations can be specified in the config file

JustinKellogg commented 10 years ago

I think it would be better if some pumps (1 or 2) have a path already dug to an ice cap, as opposed to just being adjacent.

russleyshaw commented 10 years ago

The problem with creating a path from the Ice to a pumpStation is that the path would "derode" just like any other, which defeats the purpose of having the trench in the first place (to make it possible for a player to win even if they do not collect any additional water).

We could fix that by either making the trench a specific kind of trench, however it feels like having every trench be temporary except a few specific trenches would make the game logic even more confusing to competitors and not add much to the game.

cherez commented 10 years ago

Couldn't you just make those trenches have an extremely dugness value, so they won't derode enough to collapse naturally during the game?

russleyshaw commented 10 years ago

In that case, I think that would make sense.

russleyshaw commented 10 years ago

There is the issue of AI that attempts to fill these trenches, which look (to an AI) exactly the same as any other trench except with a higher "dugness". An AI might attempt to fill these trenches and take forever to do so. I don't know if this is a problem we should be worrying about or not.

cherez commented 10 years ago

I don't think that would be an issue; if an AI has no ability to prioritize where it digs then I think it will just kind of fail regardless.

russleyshaw commented 10 years ago

It just seems like if we are trying to make it easier to make a minimal AI, having extremely deep trenches like that would break a minimal AI or make the minimal AI more complex..

cherez commented 10 years ago

My intuition from past competitions makes me think this wouldn't factor into a minimal AI at all. Off hand, the way I think it would go is: A minimal AI won't account for trenches at all and will just try to hold pumps.

The AI past that would be making its own trenches, as before you make trenches maintaing trenches has little utility.

Then competitors would be concerned about how best to maintain trenches, and logic that would be any good at this would have to already ignore very safe trenches if it's going to be effective.

Though I may be wrong, and I suppose the test guys will be able to give more useful opinions soon enough.

Tarnasa commented 10 years ago

https://github.com/siggame/MegaMinerAI-12/commit/ae1ea21761355c0f3879d6e50d0a13b6126e7d68 Paths to pump Stations, number of paths set in config

russleyshaw commented 10 years ago

Works like a charm.