I don't think there will be that many objectives to keep track of. If there are then we of course have 2 observer slots, but then having two commanders may be worse than having one. Is it possible to adapt conventional three-dimensional fighting tactics to a two-dimensional game? If it is, then we might just be able to consult "public" sources of aircract tactics, such as "Fighter Combat" by Robert Shaw, and adapt them to Netrek. The biggest problem with having a commander is that there are at least 8 individuals on the other team. The biggest benefit is that there are at least 8 individuals on the other team. The bots can think as a collective, it doesn't matter if they have direct socket connections or not. Because we programmed the bots, we can exchange enough context information in the form of normal messages to allow the other bots to know its state. We also have another advantage, we have the source to the INL. The bots know the way that the universe works, so they can better predict outcomes. We know how fast the ships move, how fast the ships turn, what rate their engines and weapons cool. It is possible to come up with a threat evaluator, that takes the guesstimate/estimated enemies ship condition into account along with that players personal track record against various bots or strategies. Darryl -----Original Message----- It may be difficult to dynamically manage 5 or more separate objectives from a message window. Then again, perhaps that would be the mark of a true commander... I still want a team that functions completely independent of human instruction. However, I don't see any harm in ensuring that the code properly separates the low-level combat and targetting engines from the higher level objective determination code. If properly implemented, this would allow for the objective determination code to function independently, or for it to only accept instructions from an observing "commander". This applies to lower levels as well. Specific defensive patterns or offensive patterns could be inserted into the code that normally 'adapts' as a form of override. The observing commander could instruct the team to "F3,F4,F5: ogg R2 using pattern delta-5, sync on F4". Specifically, this would aid in the implementation and debugging of individual patterns. It would also look very startrek-like to an observer. After all, isn't it the computers job to target enemies? :-) In the future, who in their right mind would always disable the auto-pilot? mark -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature Size: 3043 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://shadowknight.real-time.com/pipermail/netrek-dev/attachments/20011211/938f5edb/smime.bin