Re: Using Project Firemind to test speculative AI improvemen
Posted: 09 Mar 2015, 15:58
It plays quite poorly with mass removal in general. Death Cloud is a good example, the AI typically plays it for 4 mana, clearly to remove one creature. I feel the problems with how is uses that particular card are two: it doesn't try to gain card advantage with it, and it seems to focus solely on the creature removal part of the spell - I haven't seen a play that seemed intent at destroying the opponent's land base or discarding his hand. Of course, that's what it feels like to me - I really know nothing about how the evaluation processes take place. Improving handling of mass removal in general would be important, and Death Cloud, in particular, still seems to be a relevant card in some formats.mike wrote:Does anyone know about cards or card combinations the AI currently handles badly?
I'd like to include some more challenges for future AI implementations that show that it "knows the cards better" than old versions.
I also tried an Astral Slide / Lightning Rift deck in Firemind once and it was a disaster. The AI would skip using the effects upon cycling, the timing was completely off... However, those decks seem to have been out of fashion for a long time, so I'd see that as a secondary priority.
It also seems to handle madness based decks badly. Again, from a few glances I've taken recently on mtgsalvation, probably a secondary concern right now if we were thinking about Firemind resembling competitive play a bit more closely.
Obviously the biggest hole is combo. Since we've been using some analogies with chess: chess engines are known to play the opening way below their strength in other areas of the game. I remember once removing Chessmaster 7000's (a GM strength engine already) opening book and leaving it thinking for 24 hours over the starting position. It came up, as it's #1 rated move, with 1.g4, known to be a terrible opening move. Even today, without opening books, engines will play the opening sub-par. In order to compensate for this weakness, they're given massive opening books. Perhaps in the future something kind of similar could be used here - the AI could be given "combo books" of sorts, telling it how to use certain card combinations: what board situation it should reach, what order the cards should be played, or whatever. Dunno if this makes sense, just some wild speculation here.
Edit: Also, Magarena sometimes uses Fireblast's alt cost early, destroying its own game. I think the alt cost should mainly be used as a finisher. This and other "sacrifice a mountain" alt cost cards might need some tweaking.