Jul 7th 2010, 22:07:21
The unnamed source is incorrect. A good bot could run an entire set's strat quite well if the designer knew what they were doing strat wise as well as coding wise. Certain players have proved this in the past in no uncertain terms - unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, their successes have never become public for obvious reasons.
I am in favor of mod/admin designed bots for AI countries to increase the amount of available land in servers like this, but I am not definitely NOT in favor of allowing any sort of player run/created bot, especially any that has not been rigorously checked out by the mod staff. In the decade I've been playing, I have never seen a player use a bot responsibly, and I don't expect that that will change any time soon - quite frankly, most who have the knowledge/ambition to create them don't have the maturity to use them responsibly.
So far as the beta test idea, I have to disagree with it simply on the basis that we would lose an otherwise relevant server to beta testing random ideas which may or may not work. I would much rather see a new "beta server" created, even if the rule set is similar to Express. Although I'm all for testing new ideas, I don't think a dying server is the proper environment to do it - if the testing goes poorly, this server will lose even more players to frustration.
I think the formulas currently in place are quite good. They may be a bit netting biased, but this is better than the alternative in my opinion. Perhaps you could be a bit more specific on which formulas specifically you're not in favor of?
Also, just a thought...changing 3 rules per set puts a much greater load on the development staff in what is currently a dying server. I'm much happier to see their efforts applied elsewhere, and hope for an attitude change in Express in the mean time, which is ultimately what is needed if folks want to see it survive. I think the reasons Mehul only ran Express sets once in a blue moon are starting to come to light fairly quickly here....and laziness/lethargy was/were apparently only one reason on the list.
I am in favor of mod/admin designed bots for AI countries to increase the amount of available land in servers like this, but I am not definitely NOT in favor of allowing any sort of player run/created bot, especially any that has not been rigorously checked out by the mod staff. In the decade I've been playing, I have never seen a player use a bot responsibly, and I don't expect that that will change any time soon - quite frankly, most who have the knowledge/ambition to create them don't have the maturity to use them responsibly.
So far as the beta test idea, I have to disagree with it simply on the basis that we would lose an otherwise relevant server to beta testing random ideas which may or may not work. I would much rather see a new "beta server" created, even if the rule set is similar to Express. Although I'm all for testing new ideas, I don't think a dying server is the proper environment to do it - if the testing goes poorly, this server will lose even more players to frustration.
I think the formulas currently in place are quite good. They may be a bit netting biased, but this is better than the alternative in my opinion. Perhaps you could be a bit more specific on which formulas specifically you're not in favor of?
Also, just a thought...changing 3 rules per set puts a much greater load on the development staff in what is currently a dying server. I'm much happier to see their efforts applied elsewhere, and hope for an attitude change in Express in the mean time, which is ultimately what is needed if folks want to see it survive. I think the reasons Mehul only ran Express sets once in a blue moon are starting to come to light fairly quickly here....and laziness/lethargy was/were apparently only one reason on the list.
