[Computer-go] semeai example of winning rate

[valkyria at phmp.se]

Most changes I have done to Valkyria I have done without testing.  
Often a small change to one pattern just fixes a special test case.  
Sometimes it is a bug so severe that iti is obvious improvement.  
Sometimes it is an attempt to make search efficicient and then it may  
be unclear if it is good or not.

It would not so useful for me to post here every thing I do, because  
none of the improvements are general and also depend a lot of how  
Valkyria operates in general.

In the end I think Valkyria seems to do pretty well (on 9x9) despite having
a really messy code for the playouts.

Best
Magnus

Quoting Kahn Jonas <jonas.kahn at math.u-psud.fr>:

> On Tue, 18 Jan 2011, Stefan Kaitschick wrote:
>
>>
>>> Side question: How difficult would it be to design
>>> a program that generates such "bot-difficult semeais"
>>> (or at least building blocks for such) automatically?
>>
>> Only when bots can solve essential positions, do you need random   
>> problems to make sure that the answers are robust.
>> Right now, there are a lot af basic positions that bots can't solve.
>> And when programmers try to add code that does, the question is,   
>> does this make the program stronger?
>> The main problem right now is that a lot of "smart" code actually   
>> weakens the program.
>
> You know, in this case and for life-and-death in general, maybe
> programmers should be cautious when rejecting changes because it makes
> the programm (slightly) weaker.
> Maybe they already are cautious, but what I mean is that:
> we are here essentially trying to patch a bot weakness. The usual way to
> test strength is by playing other bots. Since they also have the
> weakness, and anyhow won't steer the game in that direction, patching
> that weakness does not make a huge difference against them, and can
> easily be overshadowed by any collateral change, such as being slightly
> slower. On the other hand, it might still make them stronger against
> humans.
> I know that opponent non-transitivity is usually exaggerated, but in
> this case, I would not be surprised if there was something like that.
>
> Jonas
> _______________________________________________
> Computer-go mailing list
> Computer-go at dvandva.org
> http://dvandva.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/computer-go