AI - [EBP Help Contents]

At the heart of any competitive computer game are artificial intelligence (AI) routines. The AI helps the computer make decisions in the game...the better the AI, the better the decisions. AI players in games are often called robots, or "bots". You select and configure AI bot opponents via the Game Setup window.

TRIP FINDER

The primary workhorse of EBP's AI is the trip finder; it searches for a good series of load pickup and delivery trips. The number of possible trip combinations grows factorially with the number of cities supplying loads, and number of demands. In order to save time, depending on the situation, some combinations are skipped. To influence how deeply EBP searches, adjust the Skill setting in the Game Setup window; at higher skill levels, EBP searches deeper.

Even though EBP's trip finder is not perfect, it usually picks a decent route in a short amount of time. The most difficult calculation occurs at the start of the game when the AI also has to decide the city in which to start its train.

When setting up a game, the Skill setting for human players determines how deeply EBP searches when that person uses the Turn, Suggest Plan menu.

BUILDING DECISIONS

The next most important AI decision is where to build. By changing the AI's "personality", the Type/Style setting (in the Game Setup window), you can influence the relative weight the AI applies to the decision, and thus how it plays the game. For example, the Jay Gould AI prefers to build track to cities that generate high payoffs.

BAD DECISIONS

If you find a situation in which you feel the AI clearly makes a poor decision or recommendation, we would like to know about it. In order to investigate, we will need a copy of the game saved just prior to the poor choice. See the Technical Support topic for instructions on how to obtain and send us the game.

CHEATING

By default, the AI plays "fair and square" (no cheating). It does not know what contract or event is coming next. Unlike the AI in most games, in EBP the AI players do not collude against the human players.

If you should want the extra challenge of the AI colluding and/or cheating, in the Options window, see the Computer Play frame, and pick one of the revenge or cheat options. When you play with the "revenge" option enabled, the computer players will gang up on you, but they still will not cheat. Ganging up means they ride your railroads less frequently. Cheating lightly means the AI will deal itself the next contract from the deck that demands a load supplied by the city at which it is presently located. Cheating heavily means the AI will search the deck and deal itself what it deems the best such contract. Note that this form of cheating merely exploits good luck: the specially chosen contract might have been dealt to the player via sheer randomness.

TESTING

To run experiments with the AI, see the continuous play topic.