Rate the SP AI...

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Kuroth1:
Hey... Cool So far we have the "Bell Shape Curve" going..... Throw out the highest vote and the lowest vote... Only 1 each so far....

Its interesting. Actually Im kindof surprised at the results. But whichever way it turns out we need to think of it as a poll "for entertainment only". The devs wills see the numbers best if no one intereprets them for them. They are interested.

[HotNifeThruButr]

I'm sure only newbies like me (I can only consistently beat Easy AI with easy races, still trying to overcome easy Ulm, Jotunheim, Arcosephale, Pythium, Machaka, Ermor, and the more outlandish races in Caelum, Atlantis and R'lyeh on easy) voted for the SP is enjoyable one.

[Gandalf Parker]

Well Im not a very good player, and I dont get to play as often as I want, but Im still finding it worthy. Im not continually beating all the AIs on maximum game settings (not just the AI setting but the other settings that affect AI also). And Im definetly not ready to take on maps with boosted AIs allied together against me.

[Tris]

The poll lacks the central "AI is ok, but no better than that" entry.

Actually, as human behaviour tends to select the median answer more often than would otherwise be indicated, the poll needs two more answers - a positively and a negatively slanted middle ground.

I would suggest "AI needs improvement, it does hurt my enjoyment of SP"

and "AI does the job quite well, but could be improved a lot"

for the negative and positive options.

[tinkthank]

No offense, but this poll is fairly odd.

Firstly, each of the four choices is broken down into categories which are purely normative (great, good, not very good, bad), which I suppose is fine enough, but to what are you going to compare purely normative categories? "Good" compared to what?

Secondly, some of the above-mentioned categories are paired with *additional* purely normative ones, namely: level of SP fun. These two options are compiled with the middle two voting options.
These additional categories suggest an implicit syllogism, which also happens to be flawed (the syllogism proposing a supposed causal connection between "fun" value of SP and normative worth of AI in question, the conclusion of which is that a game lacking extreme AI quality will also lack in extreme SP fun).

Judging AI in purely normative categories will get you nothing but subjectivism and a very good chance of inducing weird feelings in developers, should they read the results of these polls.
Additionally, I believe that "fun" and "quality of AI" are not necessarily causally interdependent, and hence I refrain from voting. Temporary conclusion of the foregoing.

[proteus]

4 options for the quality of the AI.

1-very good
2-good
3-not good
4-awful

Just look at the poll like this, and you can choose.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
No offense, but this poll is fairly odd.
Judging AI in purely normative categories will get you nothing but subjectivism and a very good chance of inducing weird feelings in developers, should they read the results of these polls.
Additionally, I believe that "fun" and "quality of AI" are not necessarily causally interdependent, and hence I refrain from voting. Temporary conclusion of the foregoing.

Excellent points but I think the vocabulary exceeds the purpose.

It would seem so far that the poll is simply whether or not people like the AI. The only problem I see is if someone tries to jump the gun and say that everyone not liking the poll automatically means that they all thought it was broke. Or that they feel it should be fixed. Or worse yet that they automatically feel it should already have been fixed and should be a priority right now.

[proteus]

Well I agree, that maybe a more detailed poll would be nice, but this is good as well. Simple options to decide the quality of the AI.

[proteus]

*Update*

The SP AI is some of the best I have ever seen in A PC game 2% (2)
The AI is good and the SP game is very fun to play 43% (38)
The AI is not very good and I dont play much SP because of it 24% (21)
This game has taken the "I" out of AI.... 31% (27)


I can tell you 2 things so far after this poll, so far.
1. Lot of people are playing/would like to play the SP part of the game.
2. More than the half of the voters think that the AI is far from good. In fact 31% say that the AI is very bad.
Interesting..

Vote people!

[ May 10, 2004, 17:29: Message edited by: proteus ]

[Gandalf Parker]

(diplomatic mode ON)
Well I can now point out that over the Last couple days we have had 35 new accounts from the same dial-up servince in Hungary who wanted to vote on the Last couple of options there. Many from the same IP number. There are alot possible reasons for this. Possibly there is a really strong gaming club there of solo Dom2 players.
(diplomatic mode OFF)

Alot of good that did our case. Thank you very (*@&#*($ much "hungary club". The devs have been doing alittle more than 1 code tweak every DAY since Dom2 came out. Every patch has had a number of items in it which obviously were not anything the devs felt was what they wanted or that they were having fun putting in. Every patch has had at least 1 AI improvment. Up to now at least.

Whats next guys?

(edited to reflect new count)

[ May 10, 2004, 18:32: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]