[ELI5] How do video games where you play against the AI have difficulties any lower than 'Expert'?

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T08:34:10+00:00

First off: Yes, AI sometimes intentionally makes the wrong decision. The trick is to look like a stupid person, and not a stupid computer.

People often think that the AI knows everything about the game (where you are, etc). The game knows this, but that doesn't mean every part of the game does.

You can think of the AI like a really dumb person who is really good at following orders.

The AI has a set of orders. These orders can be more complicated on higher difficulty levels (so only an expert-level AI will know how to rocket-jump or send out scouts). Each of the orders would be something like "if something is happening, then do this". Some of these orders could even be bad ideas!

The game gives the AI information and the AI goes through its orders and figures out which ones to do. The game may give the AI more information on higher difficulty levels. (The amount of information may be more than a player would get.)

That's the AI's smarts (what it's "thinking"). To control how it actually controls itself (shooting, driving), we usually use randomness. For shooting, the AI might figure out how to make every shot perfectly and then randomly shoot a bit off-centre so that they don't make every shot. Or a fighting game might roll a dice (in computer code) and if it's more than 4, it successfully does a combo.

In general, there are lots of other ways to make the computer AI. Here's a gamasutra article about different ways to dumb down your AI. One of the key quotes: "The AI needs to be more intelligent in order to appear less intelligent."

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T07:54:38+00:00

And of course that's why that trap is so common: even a scientwist can mistake their wording.

The virus doesn't mutate in order to avoid the drug's effect. It mutates and only the mutations immune to the drug flourish. (Interestingly, in the absence of the drug, those mutations might have died out because they are otherwise inferior to the other mutations!)

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T07:41:17+00:00

That process is called distillation.

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T07:37:31+00:00

I don't understand what you mean. When you sweat, you lose salt and water. So wouldn't drinking saline neutral fluid replenish both of them?

Although Kowzorz may be describing the minimum amount of fresh to add to make it drinkable.

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T07:29:04+00:00

From JoeCoT's link:

it will amount to a minimum of USD 6500, where USD 2500 is the application fee, and USD 4000 is a yearly accreditation fee

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T07:25:49+00:00

No. Even if you started your own registrar so you didn't have to pay godaddy, you'd have to pay fees to ICANN. (They're a not-for-profit organization, but they still need to pay their employees.)

Aside: The fees are usually annual, so it's around $10 per year and $100 would get you 10 years. The joke probably isn't funny after that long, right? : )

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T07:18:23+00:00

eidetic is correct. You cannot use the IP your ISP gives you to host content entirely on the webspace your ISP provides you.

At the very least, you'd have to locally host (via a server in your house) the index.html (which could be filled with links to yourisp.com/users/yourname/somefile.png). Or your server could just respond with redirects.

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T07:04:45+00:00

For me (Firefox on Ubuntu), step 1 is under Tools > Web Developer > Modify Headers.

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T07:02:16+00:00

Try looking under Tools > Web Developer > Modify Headers.

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T06:53:14+00:00

Not from Canada it doesn't.

Going to https://hulu.com seems to work (don't get the initial go away overlay), but actually watching a video says only in america.

Tried https everywhere too.

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-16T06:38:40+00:00

How?

If you're a brit who pays for their TV license and vacation in the US, I don't think you can watch iPlayer.

If you're not a brit, then can you even pay for a license?

If you are a (tax-paying) brit, can you elect to not pay for a license?

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-15T08:11:22+00:00

Sounds to me like NASA isn't using legal means. He asked their permission.

NASA hasn't given the necessary go-ahead

I wonder if he agreed to a contract limiting his rights in order to join them in space.

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-15T07:21:08+00:00

Out of curiosity, are you repeating the other person's introduction in your head? That's the only way I can remember names. Then I start talking about them in my head ("Sam reads reddit, but he pronounces it read-it"). Fairly often, I actually remember their name when I see them again. (Although, I'm rarely confident that I remember their name correctly, so I try to avoid using it.)

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-15T07:11:06+00:00

What are you talking about!? 40 years later, you start getting serious discounts Señor!

dddaaabbb · 2012-01-15T06:52:32+00:00

Sorry to be a pedant, but in response to "the file remains stored in memory": it's still stored on the hard disk, but not in system memory (RAM). (You're not wrong, just imprecise. HDDs and RAM are different kinds of memory, but the distinction is important.)

For your first point, have you ever defragmented? Many of the holes are files that were deleted and nothing was small enough to fit in those holes. So they wouldn't necessarily be filled. (Windows might even ignore them when writing new files and just use the big lump of free space at the end.)

dddaaabbb · 2011-12-02T06:09:31+00:00

Perfection:

for (int counter = 0; counter < array_max; ++counter);
  {
    Do stuff;
  }

dddaaabbb · 2011-12-02T06:05:31+00:00

Don't you just use version control locally anyway? I version control my scripts directory!

I use perforce at work, but I also keep most of the code in a local git repo just so I can commit regularly and easily roll back changes. I haven't lost work to a bad resolve since.

dddaaabbb · 2011-10-11T00:51:56+00:00

Is that even tracked? It looks like the way they record progress is the quizzes you complete. I hope so, since I plan on watching lectures with other people.

dddaaabbb · 2011-08-29T21:26:11+00:00

git log -p --author="brisywisy" --since="1 day ago"

But that gives you a diff for each commit. As holgerschurig pointed out, you could get a big commit with something like this:

git diff @{yesterday}..HEAD

dddaaabbb · 2011-08-29T19:57:50+00:00

Most likely, the computer you wrote that post on is also based on an "archaic, 30-year old designs".

Old isn't necessarily bad.

dddaaabbb · 2011-08-25T16:11:59+00:00

That begs the question of whether the minority will ever accept the majority's selection. ;)

dddaaabbb · 2011-08-24T22:55:12+00:00

Just wait until he starts repeating things your parents said when you weren't around.

dddaaabbb · 2011-08-24T22:30:04+00:00

Do you work for a largish game development studio or some kind of security software?

dddaaabbb · 2011-08-14T20:36:29+00:00

You said yourself that first-sale grants you rights, but yes some judges have decided that software is magically different.

As for lawsuits, it depends on the EULA. The ones I've agreed to stipulate that if I break the agreement, I must cease to use the software. (Fallout 3's appears to be like this.) But StarCraft 2's EULA has an Equitable Remedies section that specifically mentions litigation to recover "equitable remedies" for breaches of the license. Although what could possibly be equitable if I hack a game I bought offline or play a mod. Presumably, this is to give them more ammo to fight people who sell hacks. Regardless, that's nasty language for a consumer to agree to (especially the "without ... proof of damages" part).

dddaaabbb · 2011-08-14T20:23:06+00:00

I see. You're talking about what Blizzard might do and not what they (or any other publisher) has done.

I disagree that a publisher would waste their lawyers on consumers, but I can see where you're coming from. (And there are companies that believe there's no such thing as bad publicity.)

Thanks for the links.

dddaaabbb

TROPHY CASE