An artificial player for a turn-based strategy game

Abstract

This paper describes the design of an artificial intelligent opponent in the Empire Wars turn-based strategy computer game. Several approaches to make the opponent in the game, that has complex rules and a huge state space, are tested. In the first phase, common methods such as heuristics, influence maps, and decision trees are used. While they have many advantages (speed, simplicity and the ability to find a solution in a reasonable time), they provide rather average results. In the second phase, the player is enhanced by an evolutionary algorithm. The algorithm adjusts several parameters of the player that were originally determined empirically. In the third phase, a learning process based on recorded moves from previous games played is used. The results show that incorporating evolutionary algorithms can significantly improve the efficiency of the artificial player without necessarily increasing the processing time.