Managing Triple Triad CPU Players

Triple Triad CPU Players are optional, but it allows you to setup computer controlled players that forum members can match themselves against at any point in the day for as many times as they like.

First to add a CPU Player you should click Manage CPUs while on the Manage Sets screen, once there you should see a screen similar to this:



You can assign the display order here too which determines the order shown on the Matchmaking section within Triple Triad. To add a new CPU Player simply press "Add", the form below will be presented.



CPU Player Name
Self-explanatory. The name of the CPU Player.

CPU Player Cards
Choose atleast 5 cards the CPU Player has, note that the CPU Player will always have these cards even if it looses them to players. CPU Player cards are always chosen at random, so you can select as many as you like.

Triple Triad Rules
You can choose which rules the CPU Player will play with. Members cannot change these rules when matching themselves against a CPU Player. This is done to stop members manipulating the rules to make it easier to beat a CPU player to win cards, so how you set it up will stick.

Note that the CPU will follow all rules assigned, and as a result becomes more effective/harder to beat if the opposing player is not fully aware of rules or understands them completely.

Victory Rule
If you wish, you can assign a Victory Rule so that if the member wins they can have cards from the CPU Player (the cards won/lost depends on the victory rule itself). Note that when a CPU Player wins with a victory rule, the cards taken from the player are not assigned to the CPU Player, the member simply loses the cards taken from them.

CPU Intelligence
The CPU Intelligence is a mixture of 4 settings to guage simply how Dumb or Smart a CPU player is, these 4 settings come under 2 categories: Attitudes and Accuracy, for each category there are 2 attributes: Aggresive and Defensive.

Firstly to cover the CPU Attitudes we'll explain what attitudes mean and do.


The options attributed to CPU Attitudes is a % chance, both ranging from 0-100. So if you wanted a CPU Player that played half aggresive and half defensive you'd enter 50 for both values, or if you wanted more aggression you might enter 80 for Aggresive and 20 for Defensive. Note that values should ideally sum upto 100, but this is not required, it just helps administrators understand the chances better.

Now that attitudes is covered, the next 2 options cover CPU Accuracy for both Aggresive/Defensive attitudes. The accuracy is basically the chance a CPU player has of making a correct move for the attitude it is currently playing.

For example, if a CPU player is making an aggresive move with 10% accuracy, a random number between 1-100 is generated. If that number is equal-to or below the accuracy then it is determined the CPU player will play the best aggresive move possible, otherwise a completely random aggresive move is executed. The same applies to defensive moves.

Sub Attitude: Defensive-Aggresive
This sub-attitude is part of the AI core programming, it's where the CPU initially chooses to execute a defensive move based on it's attitude settings. By default if an AI is successful in executing a defensive move it will choose the best move available to it, however the defensive play can also use the Aggresive Accuracy setting, if successful (by random chance based on accuracy), then the CPU player will not only choose the best defensive move, but the best defensive move that unintentionally flips the most cards.

God Mode
In version 1.1.0 CPU Players have a new setting available called "God Mode", this setting is an override to all other intelligence settings. By enabling God Mode the CPU AI uses advanced permutations to look ahead of the game and possible paths. By doing so it can determine based on choices the AI makes and the player the eventual outcome. Knowing the outcome the AI can then proceed to take the path that is most likely to result in Victory or settle for draw. Note that the permutations are progressive, at the start of the game the AI can only look 2 or 3 moves ahead due to the mass amount of permuations required to see all outcomes (over 5 billion), so the AI will look progressively - as more moves are executed in the game the further the AI can permutate until it can safely determine all outcomes of the end of the match without consuming all available PHP resources. This also means the AI is not impossible to beat as it cannot determine the full outcome straight away giving the player a chance to set the game up, however the mode should prove extremely difficult even to advanced players and becomes harder with additional Triple Triad Rules applied.