I own a copy of it and it's a great game. I just don't get enough of a chance to play it.
Writing an AI would probably be harder than it looks. While the game is quite simple conceptually, there's quite a bit of strategy involved. Now, there is probably code and theories out there that would help, but I don't think it would be a trivial exercise.
In particular, I'm thinking that things like calculation of which gears to use through corners with cars in front of you is much more amenable to brute force** calculation than human intuition.
** well, sort of brute force - there's no need to simulate what can readily be directly convoluted, for example. Perhaps "direct calculation of the game tree by reasonably straightforward methods" would be more appropriate.
I do know that when I'm playing, I tend to start looking at which gear to choose based not only on how far I have to the next corner, but also how many stop I have to make in that corner and what kind of speed I want to have coming out. I find it helps to think a corner ahead as well, sometimes.
Indeed. It was explicitly that kind of "looking ahead" I had in mind when I made my original statement. When randomness is involved, humans often have trouble with much lookahead. Actually so do computers (because randomness makes the game tree have a very high branching factor), but there are some things you can do to cut it down.
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Writing an AI would probably be harder than it looks. While the game is quite simple conceptually, there's quite a bit of strategy involved. Now, there is probably code and theories out there that would help, but I don't think it would be a trivial exercise.
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In particular, I'm thinking that things like calculation of which gears to use through corners with cars in front of you is much more amenable to brute force** calculation than human intuition.
** well, sort of brute force - there's no need to simulate what can readily be directly convoluted, for example. Perhaps "direct calculation of the game tree by reasonably straightforward methods" would be more appropriate.
Reply
I do know that when I'm playing, I tend to start looking at which gear to choose based not only on how far I have to the next corner, but also how many stop I have to make in that corner and what kind of speed I want to have coming out. I find it helps to think a corner ahead as well, sometimes.
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I recently managed to grab a copy of the last two boards: Bahrain and Shanghai. Huzzah.
I even managed to finish 3rd...
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