Using Bots to help balance a map

AI discussion, ideas, and SDK help.
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SunTzu
Lux Cartographer
Posts: 1586
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:48 am
Location: Maryland

Using Bots to help balance a map

Post by SunTzu » Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:36 pm

I've been working on a map that absolutely must have an balanced starting scenario.

I've been running some tests with all the players set as the same Bot, and then cycling through different Bots. I then look at the win% from each starting position. Then I fidge with the starting scenario and run the tests again.

What I've noticed is that it's almost impossible to balance a map for most of the Bots since they use widely variable strategies. Does anyone have any suggestions as far as which Bots mimic how humans play the most? I'm more interested in regard to continents & income rather than killing for cards.


My next set of tests will involve using 6 different Bots, and look at the win% for each starting position (as opposed to the win% of the bots.)

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Bertrand
Reaper Creator
Posts: 568
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2005 4:35 pm
Location: Montreal

Post by Bertrand » Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:53 pm

Sun, no bot can approach the incredible resourcefulness and flexibility of humans. What I would do is simply use the best AI for that particular map as a measuring tool.

If you want, I could send you the latest Reaper (version 5.0), soon to available in the plugin manager. This one is much better that the version you have now, on non-classic maps. In my tests on the castle maps, Reaper 5.0 wins 70-80% of his games against the previous version, BotOfDoom, EvilPixie, killBot and trotsky.

The right bot to choose also depends on the size of your map, the number of continents, and the presence/absence of bottlenecks. For example, on small maps Sparrow is pretty good (never on big maps because he can make Lux crash with a outOfMemory error). On very large maps EvilPixie can be very effective, and on some other maps BotOfDoom is king.

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top row
Luxer
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Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 11:19 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Post by top row » Sun Jan 21, 2007 5:05 pm

I tend to use EvilPixie to test maps. I'm not saying it behaves exaclty as humans, but i find it will demonstrate if whether one continent is too strong or a scenerio favours a particular player.

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