[crack-attack-devel] Re: Crack-Attack "not easy enough"?

[Andrew Sayman]

Chris Boyle wrote:
> Any recommendations for this user? :-)
> 
> http://bugs.debian.org/403176
> 

I have some suggestions, but they require modifying the code as none of this
stuff is configurable otherwise.

Right now the AI are actually differentiated by how fast they respond to player
actions, and what height the invisible AI stack must be at for them to lose. You
can modify both of these settings pretty easily in the code and recompile.

src/ComputerPlayerAI.cxx:154 is where EasyAI::baseSteps() is defined. The
multiplier 15 is a general timing variable that determines how long the AI waits
to respond. This is measured gamesteps, which isn't useful to explain. Raising
the number makes the AI wait longer to send a return volley of blocks.

src/ComputerPlayerAI.cxx:161 is where EasyAI::lossHeight() is defined. This is
the height you need to get the invisible stack to before the AI does a custom
shatter. Lowering this number means you have to send smaller combos to win.

Considering how parametric this is right now, it probably should have command
line options, but we still officially intended this as an interim AI. Real
Life(tm) has a way of rearing it's ugly head.

Andrew Sayman