[MUD-Dev] Thoughts about smarter Sims

[Jon A. Lambert]

Mordengaard wrote:
> 
> Uh-huh... I was thinking of implementing more intelligent NPCs on my MUD...
> I've just about got a few mobs working using the feed/fight/mate system of
> drives, but what you're doing here seems (to me) to be of another order of
> magnitude altogether.  Is there an "AI for Dummies" that I should be looking
> at before I can grasp half of what you've covered here?
> 

Well at my web page below I've got a section of links under 
General Developent / AI.   The most interesting one is the Hitch-
Hiker's Guide to Evolutionary Computing which is a massive page
of links to many things.  "Autonomous Agents" is a good search 
engine keyword.  I'll try to update my links page with goodies.  

I do believe the Neural Net path is not necessarily the way to go 
here.  Theoretically, the process of classification of context from 
a host of inputs is an ideal problem for NN.  However there is much 
voodoo, many mumbling incantations and rocket science involved in 
coming up with sets of training data that will result in any sort
of sensical output.  And frankly, part of the reason has to do with 
me (Algebra-man) possessing just enough mathematical brain watts to 
know that NN has got me licked.  I've waded through intro books
and examples.  Coding a net is simple.  Making it work correctly or
at all in new and strange problems is simply beyond my ken.  YMMV.

So I've had better success treating the problem as one statistical
analysis, approaching the problem as a Vegas gambler might.
I find Use Cases...umm useful.  Every "what if situation" requires 
several probable responses.  Now you _can_ code all this straight 
into reams of code.  Procedural reasoning systems are basically just 
processors of templates that allow you to avoid writing a lot of one 
shot non-reusable code.  The codify the decision process, you supply 
the data and probabilities.  As the number of inputs (context) goes 
up, I suspect they get less attractive, but then hand-coding special 
procedures (like mobprogs) gets exponentially unattractive.

--
--* Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD        Email:jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com *--
--* Mud Server Developer's Page <http://tychomud.home.netcom.com> *--
--* If I had known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself.*--




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