NOTE: As of the posting of this document, not all of the AI code has been decompiled and deciphered, but there's a lot of it already available. So, once again as a service to the fans who like knowing the juicy details, I present the following (and other) documents about how the AI tracks information in the game.
Crystite TrackingEach AI player starts the game with an empty 5x9 grid of values, all initialized with a null value (not 0), to indicate that there is no information available on those plots. As the game progresses and players take Assays, install Crystite MULEs, or Meteor Strikes occur, this grid is updated with the information made available to the public. Because the pattern of Crystite blooms is consistent and predictable, the AI also updates plots that haven't been directly identified, based on the information gained about surrounding plots. This map also does not make a distinction between recorded values and ones that are inferred from the bloom patterns.
When the AI player updates its current Crystite map, it does so one square at a time, based on the following facts:
- All plots with a BPV of 3 (High) must be surrounded on all sides by plots with a BPV of at least 2 (Medium). (In same fashion, don't update adjacent plots if they already have a BPV of 2 or higher.)
- All plots with a BPV of 2 (Medium), including the ones just updated from the above rule, must be surrounded on all sides by plots with a BPV of at least 1 (Low). (If an adjacent plot to a 2 is already a 2 or higher, don't change it, as blooms can overlap.)
- A plot with a BPV of 4 (Very High) is a Meteor Strike, which has no bloom pattern - update nothing.
The "deduction routine" is performed at the beginning of every round (from the analyzation of Crystite MULEs revealing BPV), and whenever an AI player performs an Assay.
When a human player performs an assay, the AI does not perform deduction immediately; while it
does update its information on the assayed plot, it waits to apply the deduction routine until the next round or the next AI assay.
QUESTIONS:
Why does the AI not perform deduction immediately after a human assay? Is this a deliberate dumbing-down of the heuristic because the AI would be just as aware as a player writing down results?
