A case for genetics?
The question therefore becomes one of whether the problem you're trying to solve lends itself to the genetic algorithm search method. This depends on the nature of the search space (ie. how the values of how well the agent is doing are distributed, relative to the agent's behaviour) and how well you understand the problem. Usually, there are better ways to find good parameters for the situation, though GAs benefit from being quite simple to implement and usually good enough for the task in my experience.
You can do it in two major ways. One, each gen is seperate. The game is over and you see who the best ones are - then after letting them procreate, you start a new game with new agents. Two, there is continuous birth and death in the game. As agents die, they are evaluated and placed into the "gene pool" if they measure up. If not, you discard them. Each birth, therefore, is hacked together from members of the "gene pool" as the agent is created. Either way will take a long time.
Also, if the agents are playing against each other only, they will take the other agents "sub-optimal" behavior early on into their own behavior. That is, they will be reacting unnaturally to the unnatural behavior. That's a good case for actually starting with reasonably pre-programmed agents that are at least not completely pathetic. It will save time getting to that point.
Dave Mark - President and Lead Designer of Intrinsic Algorithm LLC
Professional consultant on game AI, mathematical modeling, simulation modeling
Co-founder and 10 year advisor of the GDC AI Summit
Author of the book, Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI
Blogs I write:
IA News - What's happening at IA | IA on AI - AI news and notes | Post-Play'em - Observations on AI of games I play
"Reducing the world to mathematical equations!"
It's is a really cool programming contest hosted by www.topcoder.com. It's just coming up for the end of the first week (it's a two week contest but plenty of time left); this particular problem being essentially AI may interest members here. Look under the "Marathon matches->Active contests" menu option, the contest is "DiscetizedContinuousPacMan". If you register, can you put me as your referrer if you get the option - and post here. Anyone interested?
Dave Mark - President and Lead Designer of Intrinsic Algorithm LLC
Professional consultant on game AI, mathematical modeling, simulation modeling
Co-founder and 10 year advisor of the GDC AI Summit
Author of the book, Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI
Blogs I write:
IA News - What's happening at IA | IA on AI - AI news and notes | Post-Play'em - Observations on AI of games I play
"Reducing the world to mathematical equations!"