aleatorylamp wrote:Sorry, sorry...in the left picture in the second row, the red line still makes a 90 degree turn... the double track would have to move left one tile to make room to get around the copper ore mine without a 90 degree turn... More for the AI to figure out, but perhaps not impossible...
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp
Thanks for taking an interest in my AI. It's been a long time since I worked on it. Thanks for the thoughtful and detailed feedback! Saddly I just don't have the time to work on this project anymore. I am really proud of what I released. It met the goals I set out to achieve. Primary among them was to explore an "ant swarm" pathfinding solution and compare it computationally to to a generic algorithm like A* and to genetic algorithms. It that sense I was very successful and I learned a lot. It was also interesting programming in such a limited environment where algorithm choice really makes a difference.
The next "feature" of the AI that I was planning was a track analyzer that could spot and fix up problems in the track. Maybe by using an A* algorithm to double check connections and fix up problem areas.
If you check the first post I think burried in there someplace is the fact that "90 degree turns" must be allowed. You have discovered that support for that feature is probably do-able, I never really thought much about it. One of the interesting things about computer AI are things that are so easy for humans to see and so hard for computers to understand. 90 degree turns are in that catergory. It takes a lot of code to smooth out those turns.
I won't be working on this program in the foreseable future (unless you know how to get me a grant to work on computer AI!). I do encourage you to crack open the code and experiment with it. You may be able to adjust the station creation section to be a little smarter about hooking up tracks. That part of the code is basically a lookup table that plops down a pattern for the station. The "universal connectors" were just lazyness on my part. But it allows one generic station footprint to have tracks go off in about any direction.
Thanks agian for the interest and feedback. I am really sorry I don't have time to take up your suggestions.
-Dustin