Using BotArena for Playtesting
Posted: 02 Jun 2013, 03:45
I have recently gotten back in to MtG, thanks to DotP. With the new DotP 2014 just around the corner, I started to wonder how I could better tune my decks this year.
I decided it would be best if I could conduct multiple AI vs AI matches and collect data about the matches to determine what cards worked better than others. Since DotP decks have limited variability in their construction, you could compare various deck builds and collect information quickly.
After browsing the forums a bit, I decided BotArena was the only program I could use that would simulate multiple AI matches and produce log files that I could parse to collect information. So far this is working well, I have started a Google Site to detail my work and provide the results of the simulations. There is already some preliminary data up as well but everything is in its infancy. At the moment I am just looking at the 4 basic deck builds in DotP 2014 that have been leaked: Avacyn's Glory, Enter the Dracomancer, Chant of Mul Daya, and Masks of Dimir. I have patched the few missing cards with lands.
So far the information gleaned looks okay. I am conducting 100 head to head battles of the different decks and parsing the log files using Python. I have seen the AI perform some odd plays and the Avacyn deck can frequently crash the simulation, especially when exiling cards, but I have noticed that setting the "Maximum thinking time" to "Test Mode" and unchecking "Re-think in Combat Phase" prevents this, though I am not sure what those settings mean. Despite, I still see some questionale plays as well as cards disappearing when they are tapped in the UI.
What I would like from the community is some discussion on this. Does this seem like a good way to playtest decks? Is there some data that would be helpful in determining if a card is critical to a deck? What would be some good builds to test after the first basic builds? What am I doing wrong?
The spam filters are blocking the website url, simply google "Magic the Shattering". It should be the first one.
I decided it would be best if I could conduct multiple AI vs AI matches and collect data about the matches to determine what cards worked better than others. Since DotP decks have limited variability in their construction, you could compare various deck builds and collect information quickly.
After browsing the forums a bit, I decided BotArena was the only program I could use that would simulate multiple AI matches and produce log files that I could parse to collect information. So far this is working well, I have started a Google Site to detail my work and provide the results of the simulations. There is already some preliminary data up as well but everything is in its infancy. At the moment I am just looking at the 4 basic deck builds in DotP 2014 that have been leaked: Avacyn's Glory, Enter the Dracomancer, Chant of Mul Daya, and Masks of Dimir. I have patched the few missing cards with lands.
So far the information gleaned looks okay. I am conducting 100 head to head battles of the different decks and parsing the log files using Python. I have seen the AI perform some odd plays and the Avacyn deck can frequently crash the simulation, especially when exiling cards, but I have noticed that setting the "Maximum thinking time" to "Test Mode" and unchecking "Re-think in Combat Phase" prevents this, though I am not sure what those settings mean. Despite, I still see some questionale plays as well as cards disappearing when they are tapped in the UI.
What I would like from the community is some discussion on this. Does this seem like a good way to playtest decks? Is there some data that would be helpful in determining if a card is critical to a deck? What would be some good builds to test after the first basic builds? What am I doing wrong?
The spam filters are blocking the website url, simply google "Magic the Shattering". It should be the first one.