Programming

Forum Archive : Programming

 
Bot weaknesses

From:   Douglas Zare
Address:   zare@math.columbia.edu
Date:   16 March 2003
Subject:   Re: Do robots make mistakes?
Forum:   rec.games.backgammon
Google:   3E74D42B.5203936B@math.columbia.edu

I think there is a tendency for people to make up weaknesses of bots based
on too little evidence, or to imagine that anything that produces numbers
and says you are wrong must be perfect. It takes a lot of work to discover
the real weaknesses of bots, and of human players, for that matter.

Unless you try to have 15 checkers sent back, it won't happen, and you will
never encounter the problems with misevaluating an outside prime being
rolled home over a single checker. Bots have had more weaknesses in
backgames than this, but it is much more important that Snowie 3 often
misevaluated holding games by 0.1 cubeless (Snowie 4 is a bit better, but
still surprisingly weak there), and that Snowie 4 undervalues the blitz in
the opening, and plays strangely against a potential backgame.

Jellyfish is much too aggressive at the start of a contact bearoff, and
misevaluates containment positions and some primes terribly, and it doesn't
handle the cube as well as Snowie.

I haven't worked with BGBlitz or gnu to determine their weaknesses, but
I'd bet that they exist. I wouldn't guess their weaknesses ahead of time.

Douglas Zare
 
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