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Vindinium: An artificial intelligence programming challenge

vindinium.org

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Re: Vindinium: An artificial intelligence programming challenge

#21

Post by Revex »

roryokane wrote: post #13

I saw this a while ago and thought that I would love to try playing this game as a human, so I could explore different strategies, or just have fun. Well, that is finally possible. I just created LiveHumanBot – a “bot” that really just lets you, a human, type in directions to control your character. Here is its code, with instructions: https://github.com/roryokane/vindinium-live-human-bot . I fare pretty well against…

Now this is brilliant. I was thinking the same thing, "Man I'd like to play as a real person, before I build a bot." I feel silly now that I didn't think of building a software controller like you did. Also thanks for sharing the code. I'm gonna have to try it out.

Re: Vindinium: An artificial intelligence programming challenge

#23

Post by Rexxar »

serf wrote: post #15
Rexxar wrote: post #12

Does someone here has already created a bot for the game ?

there are starter kits available on the site.

I don't ask for help, I just want to know if people are really trying to create a bot. Currently 90% of games are between only two AI. ("wolfie vs wolfie vs arthropod vs arthropod"). A competition like this one is much more interesting if there is a lot of players.

Re: Vindinium: An artificial intelligence programming challenge

#24

Post by mrqwerty »

ClayFerguson wrote: post #19

Seems like something that Google or Microsoft would ask as an interview question. You have all day to complete it, on your laptop, but once done, no matter how much code it is, they want it transcribed from your computer onto a physical white-board, because the only thing they know how to read is white-boards. If you tell them they are crazy and try to end the interview right then and there, you are hired, because yo…

I don't get this. I could easily transcribe anything I could write in a day into a diagrammatic representation. Hell, I could do it for anything I could write given a large enough whiteboard. It might consist of complicated flow diagrams or fragments of mathematics, but it would convey the salient points. This seems like fanatical code worship, "code is the only appropriate representation for all analytic thought". Nonsense. Maths, state diagrams, uml, even prose are useful and in combination adequate languages.

Re: Vindinium: An artificial intelligence programming challenge

#25

Post by jebediah »

mrqwerty wrote: post #24
ClayFerguson wrote: post #19

Seems like something that Google or Microsoft would ask as an interview question. You have all day to complete it, on your laptop, but once done, no matter how much code it is, they want it transcribed from your computer onto a physical white-board, because the only thing they know how to read is white-boards. If you tell them they are crazy and try to end the interview right then and there, you are hired, because yo…

I don't get this. I could easily transcribe anything I could write in a day into a diagrammatic representation. Hell, I could do it for anything I could write given a large enough whiteboard. It might consist of complicated flow diagrams or fragments of mathematics, but it would convey the salient points. This seems like fanatical code worship, "code is the only appropriate representation for all analytic thought". N…

He said transcribed, I guess he meant letter by letter

Re: Vindinium: An artificial intelligence programming challenge

#26

Post by hrjet »

gren wrote: post #9
vutekst wrote: post #5

Can anyone comment on general strategies that would be applicable to this game? Has anyone tried some kind of crazy machine learning stuff, or is it dominated by relatively simple algorithms?

This game is fully observable and determinist so that is not the hardest situation. However there is still a lot of possible game states. I've started an attempt to have a tree of all possible actions and using a minimax algorithm (with a score function + alpha-beta pruning) but this is not yet conclusive because I can't explore so much deep (was able to explore up to 20 next player decisions but that is just 5 moves…

> This game is fully observable and determinist

Off-topic, but are there any AI games which are not-observable and / or non-deterministic? That would be also a lot of fun!

Re: Vindinium: An artificial intelligence programming challenge

#27

Post by ClayFerguson »

mrqwerty wrote: post #24
ClayFerguson wrote: post #19

Seems like something that Google or Microsoft would ask as an interview question. You have all day to complete it, on your laptop, but once done, no matter how much code it is, they want it transcribed from your computer onto a physical white-board, because the only thing they know how to read is white-boards. If you tell them they are crazy and try to end the interview right then and there, you are hired, because yo…

I don't get this. I could easily transcribe anything I could write in a day into a diagrammatic representation. Hell, I could do it for anything I could write given a large enough whiteboard. It might consist of complicated flow diagrams or fragments of mathematics, but it would convey the salient points. This seems like fanatical code worship, "code is the only appropriate representation for all analytic thought". N…

I was making fun of how in love some interviewers are with the whiteboard. I can write great code, but not up on a damn whiteboard -- kina because I do this thing called "typing". Also I'm making fun of the absolutely ridiculous complexity of many of the 'brain teaser' type interview questions. IMO the correct response to a brain-teaser interview question is to talk out. Better yet, tell them BEFORE the interview you WILL walk out IF the try that route.

Re: Vindinium: An artificial intelligence programming challenge

#28

Post by baddox »

gren wrote: post #9
vutekst wrote: post #5

Can anyone comment on general strategies that would be applicable to this game? Has anyone tried some kind of crazy machine learning stuff, or is it dominated by relatively simple algorithms?

This game is fully observable and determinist so that is not the hardest situation. However there is still a lot of possible game states. I've started an attempt to have a tree of all possible actions and using a minimax algorithm (with a score function + alpha-beta pruning) but this is not yet conclusive because I can't explore so much deep (was able to explore up to 20 next player decisions but that is just 5 moves…

When I saw the premise, I was expecting that the server would provide a line of sight for your hero each turn. You could even make the map initially undiscovered, and leave it up to the bot to "remember" what it discovers. I think that would make the game a lot more interesting, although also probably much more difficult to program bots for with standard techniques.

Re: Vindinium: An artificial intelligence programming challenge

#29

Post by ClayFerguson »

ClayFerguson wrote: post #27
mrqwerty wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get this. I could easily transcribe anything I could write in a day into a diagrammatic representation. Hell, I could do it for anything I could write given a large enough whiteboard. It might consist of complicated flow diagrams or fragments of mathematics, but it would convey the salient points. This seems like fanatical code worship, "code is the only appropriate representation for all analytic thought". N…

I was making fun of how in love some interviewers are with the whiteboard. I can write great code, but not up on a damn whiteboard -- kina because I do this thing called "typing". Also I'm making fun of the absolutely ridiculous complexity of many of the 'brain teaser' type interview questions. IMO the correct response to a brain-teaser interview question is to talk out. Better yet, tell them BEFORE the interview you…

Typo: "Talk out" was supposed to be "Walk out". Looks like you only have limited time to edit or something, because it won't let me fix that. Somebody please ding my karma again, I'm trying to see if I can make it go negative.

Re: Vindinium: An artificial intelligence programming challenge

#30

Post by sytelus »

Over use of term "AI" is back. It's 80s all over again :). These kind of "challenges" are no where close to AI. They are just bit complex program whoes behavior is fully programmed by humans and they are only good at for very very specific "challange". These programs would be unable to hold a conversation with humans or read a newspaper and create their internal belief system. Stop calling these things "AI".
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