AI - [RBP Help Contents]

At the heart of any competitive computer game are artificial intelligence (AI) routines. The AI helps the computer make decisions in the game...the better the AI, the better the decisions.

TRIP FINDER

The primary workhorse of RBP's AI is the trip finder; it searches the map in order to find the optimal route to the destination. The trip finder is a collection of over 20 route searching approaches; in order to save time, depending on the situation, some are skipped. You can influence how many trip finding approaches RBP employs by adjusting the Skill setting in the Game Setup window.

Even though RBP's trip finder is not perfect, it usually picks a good route in a short amount of time. For example, RBP "knows" it is sometimes better to employ a more circuitous route if the odds indicate doing so saves money. Also, unless you disable the "balanced rail use" feature on the Game Options window, RBP will minimize riding the RRs of the leading players, and thereby help keep the game more balanced. This mimics what happens in most multi-player, human-only games.

RAILROAD EVALUATOR

The secondary AI workhorse is RBP's railroad evaluator. When a player has an opportunity to make a purchase, the railroad evaluator rates the available properties on over 10 attributes, such as city access, connectivity, etc. By changing the Type/Style setting (in the Game Setup window) you can influence the relative weight the railroad evaluator applies to the attributes, and thus, the purchase decisions made. RBP also lets you create and configure the play style of computer opponents via the Custom AI editor.

OTHER AI

In addition to the trip finder and railroad evaluator, RBP also contains AI to make decisions in such areas as auction, bidding, choice of region, declaration and rover play.

BAD DECISIONS

If you find a situation in which you feel the AI clearly makes a poor decision or recommendation, we would like to know about it. In order to investigate, we will need a copy of the game saved just prior to the poor choice. See the Technical Support topic for instructions on how to send us the game.

CHEATING

The AI does not cheat. All die rolls are honest. All movement is honest (if you find an exception, it is a bug). The AI players do not even collude against the human players, unless you enable the revenge option.

When you play with the "revenge" option enabled, the computer players will gang up on you, but they still will not cheat. Ganging up means they ride your railroads less frequently. They will also not intentionally chase another computer player for a rover attempt. A revenge mode game can be especially challenging and tough to win (for humans!).

If you note the AI's dice rolls average higher than yours it is likely because the AI upgraded to faster engines sooner than you did.