Re: [glob2-devel] Creature AI

[Andrew Sayers]

On Fri, May 20, 2005 at 11:39:36AM +0200, Jean-David Maillefer wrote:
<snip>
> To successfully implement the AI, you need:
> 1) a good measure of quality of the AI. This may sound quite easy, but 
> it takes often too many computational power or memory space. (It's a 
> common mistake to underestimate this when creating genetic algorithms)
> 2) a deep understanding of how glob2's core is programmed, since you 
> need access to many part of it.
> 3) a lot of time (I think programming will take less than 50% of the 
> total AI creation time)
> 4) a very good AI design (should be fully agreed by the core 
> developers. I think here to NCT and Nuage, who wrote the existing AIs)
> 5) the AI needs to be better than the existing AIs (logical).
> 
> If you think you can (with help) satisfy these five points, it will 
> work.

I probably am underestimating [1], but I'm most concerned about [2].  To
be honest, one of the things that attracted me to this project was the
thought of being able to contribute without wading through lots of
undocumented code.

On the other hand, if you're willing to put the time into explaining how
things work in simple terms, I'd be happy to try and do some
documenting.  Admittedly, this significantly increases the chances I'll
get burnt out before doing anything interesting, but IMHO Glob2 would
attract a lot of developers if the code were easier to dive into.

        - Andrew