In message <960661d6-7942-4cd5-bb94-8b11518df...@gmx.ch>, Isaac Deutsch
<i...@gmx.ch> writes
Hi all,
I'm thinking about creating a computer player for Tichu
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tichu), a game that is rather widespread
here in Switzerland. However, to my knowledge there exists no official
bot that plays it. Someone I know has created a bot that plays using
rules only (if X, play cards YZ), but his findings were that the bot
plays pretty weak.
Of course, the game is solvable when there are only 2 players left
because then, the distribution of cards is clear and the best strategy
can be calculated.
With 3 or even all 4 players still in the game, it is clear that it is
not clear which player has which cards. :) It is a game of imperfect
information. I was wondering if Monte Carlo (MC) can and should be used
at this stage of the game. It seems that there has been some success of
MC in poker.
If yes, how would MC be used? When a move is to be made, should all
legal moves be generated, and should a number of playouts be simulated
for each (1-ply MC)? What do the playouts look like? Give all players
(weighted) random cards, then play the game out with deterministic
rules? Give all players (weighted) random cards, then play the game out
(weighted) randomly? I'm pretty much just trying to think of something
based on what 'works' in Go. :) Because of the uncertainty in the
distribution of cards gives so many possible combinations, it seems
impracticable to create a tree with all possible distributions.
If no, what alternatives are there? Neural networks?
Tichu is far closer to bridge than to Go, or Poker. There has been some
successful work on programming bridge. I suggest you talk to a bridge
programmer. I don't know any, but there is at least one who follows the
usenet group rec.games.bridge.
Nick
--
Nick Wedd n...@maproom.co.uk
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