Genious....

[Mad-Sci]

HI, guys just check this out. the guys who did this are in fact GENIUS. If some of you ( from Edesign) hang arround it will be nice to have a small chat on the algorithm .
http://www.edesign.uk.com/flash/othello.html

EDESIGN my hat off.

Mad_sci
[Edited by Mad-Sci on 11-03-2000 at 08:01 PM]

[JR]

Hi Mad Sci,

Glad you liked it. What would you like to know about the Othello game?

JR
Author Flash 5 Cartoons & Games (Coriolis 2001)

[Mad-Sci]

Ha didnt know thats you my friend boy o boy....
.
One question: did you do it witn MiniMax ? Man my hear got less trying to implement this in Flash.
Mad_sci

[JR]

Shhh...don't tell anyone that I'm really EDesign

What is MiniMax?

JR
Author Flash 5 Cartoons & Games (Coriolis 2001)

[Mad-Sci]

I dont know anyone one from Edesign...... MiniMax is algoritm for calculating the moves. Its basicaly a tree generating algorithm. With each move the computer tryes to evaluate the board in a such a way that it will increase its chanse to win ( MAX player ) and meanwhile to minimize your chances to win ( MIN player ) for each possible move it will generate all the resulting moves ( child nodes ). Now depends on the difficulty level it might look deep or not so deep.


see what I mean.
Mad_sci
I gave up on that one. I wont retire doing this. he eh h
ms

[JR]

Oh right - I know. You mean MiniMax the recursive algorithm used to search out all possible moves.........no, I didn't use that.

I wrote my own algorithm. The version on my website is actually an old version and I have a newer version, that I will release later (possibly in a checkers game).

Basically, in Othello you can rank a moved based upon 2 factors. (1) The number of pieces you capture (2) The positions you gain on the board. It's the 2nd part of this algorithm, which is most important because Othello has several keys squares that you want to capture (and a few that you want to avoid...).

My alogrithm basically ranks every available move using these 2 criteria and then chooses the highest ranking move. I do have another unpublished version, which does the same thing but will look ahead and calculate the best possible move that can be made by your opponent AFTER the current move. It's MUCH better and makes the game virtually unbeatable......

JR
Author Flash 5 Cartoons & Games (Coriolis 2001)

[Mad-Sci]

But JR this is exactly the MiniMax I think in your first version you look just up to level one. In your updated ver. you go a bit deeper...Its got be hell lot of scripting. Is it done in Flash5..

Mad_sci

[JR]

It's done in good old Flash 4.

I think my scoring mechanism is different than the Minimax algorithm. The problem with MiniMax is the speed - in the midgame of Othello you probably have 9 or 10 moves left in the game and this amounts to approximately 1 billion possible moves - even with Alpha beta pruning you still need to calculate over 1 million possible moves.

My algorithm, analyses board position quick accurately and is aware of which board positions are good (and which ones are bad!) so it's able to decide a good move by looking at just the first level - no need to look several moves ahead.

<shameless plug> Anyone who wants to know more about games programming in Flash, should buy my new book! <end of shameless plug>

JR
Author Flash 5 Cartoons & Games (Coriolis 2001)

[Mad-Sci]

And you did very good JR. My heat is still off. Ill get your book of cource if its available in USA. You know what I might buy one from ya with an autograph. Title ??? what it is add it to the shameless plug. BTW why dont you submit it to the arcade if you havent done it already.
Mad_sci

[FlashCat]

Wow, way cool JR.

Thanks for asking me to join Mad-Sci, unfortunately I am pushing relay hared to get a alpha preview / testing version of my game engine ready for public viewing by the end of this month. So I wont have much time to post or chat complex AI algorithms. I wish I could maybe after I get this part of my engine dun, I will work on AI with you some ok?

If I have the time I will try to make some comments here.

Ooo… good book on AI to get and read: AI for GAMES and ANIMATION A Cognitive Modeling Approach, by: John David Funge

Have fun teaching the computer to storm the castle!

[JR]

The book is called "Flash 5 cartoons and Games" and it will be published at the beginning of next year.

It has been written by three people:

1) Richard Bazley from Warner Bros. Richard was the supervising animator on films like The Iron Giant (1999), Hercules (1997) and Pocahontas (1995). He's also worked as an animator on The Pebble and the Penguin (1995), Thumbelina (1994), A Troll in Central Park (1993), Rock-A-Doodle (1991) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). You can read his biography here:

http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Bazley,+Richard


2) Bill Turner from Turnertoons. Bill is a cartoonist and illustrator. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Penthouse and numerous trade journals. Bill created one of the first interactive web cartoons back in 1996 and was featured in the Macromedia cutting edge gallery. Bill was a contributing author and technical editor of the Flash 4 Bible (by Lentz and Reinhardt). His Weber character is currently taking the world by storm and features on CampChaos, Ifilm and Eveo.com. See his site here:

http://www.turnertoons.com


3) .....errr that's me. Flash Games programmer. Winner of 2 Shockwave Site of the day awards in the last 6 months.

Check out our recent games:

Detonator: http://www.campchaos.com/timekillers...detonator.html
3d Crates Gold: http://www.edesign.uk.com/flash/3dcratesgold.html
Walters Been Framed: http://www.edesign.uk.com/flash/waltframed.html

The book will teach YOU how to make games like this

I hope you all buy a copy. Mad Sci, I'll even arrange a signed
copy for you


[Edited by JR on 11-04-2000 at 03:24 AM]

[Mad-Sci]

JR this is hell impresive my friend. Price ?? and JR is it going to be F5 or Flash 4. I bet it will be flash 5. That is sooo coool. Are going to include a small chapter for AI . You know we can make a small selebration here at FlashKit....virtual drinks from FlashKit. ( freee ). he he he.
Mad_sci

[FlashCat]

Very impressive JR, I would be interested in getting a copy of your book if you would autograph it as well?

[JR]

Yes, it's all about Flash 5. We'll be including full cartoons and game source code on the CD, including the complete source code for one of the best Flash games ever written in Flash. We'll be devoting an entire chapter to explaining all the code and techniques involved in this game and I'm sure that you'll find it VERY useful.

We do already have a section about some very simple AI, which I've used in a previous game. We may also have some room to include more AI features, but I'm not sure yet.

The price is $49.99 and it will be available world-wide.


JR