CSCE-315-Project2 - Mancala AI

Executables (jars)

• KalahGame - Primary user inferface, allows a player to join or host a game and configure rules/settings
• EndlessServer(NoGUI) - Server that accepts incoming connections and plays against them using an AI
• MultiClientEndlessServer - Same as EndlessServer, except can be scaled to play 100s of incoming games simultaneously

Configuration

General Settings

These settings are used by both the host and the client

• ai-name: MinMaxAI2
• use-GUI: true
• button-image: Circle
• port: 42374

Game Settings

These settings are used by the host to determine characteristics of a game

• holes-per-side: 6
• seeds-per-hole: 4
• time-limit: 5000 #Time limit in milliseconds
• starting-player: S #F=Me First, S=Me Second
• game-type: S #S=Standard,R=Random,C=Custom
• custom-board: 8 6 4 2 0 1 1 0 #Only used when game-type: C
• use-BEGIN: true

Miscellaneous Settings

• empty-capture: false
• count-leftover-seeds: true
• last-host: localhost
• max-threads: 100

KalahPlayer Options

There are many AIs (including some min-max AIs) which can be played against. A dropdown menu in the settings window allows the user to select one of the primary AIs from the following list:

• HumanGUI #Takes imput from GUI
• HumanConsole #Takes input from console
• RandomAI #Chooses random valid moves
• DumbAI #Chooses moves that land in its Kalah
• StrategicAI #Always gets the most seeds possible from the current turn
• MinMaxAI #Has basic pruning and a clever utility function
• MinMaxAI2 #Has multithreading and basic pruning
• MinMaxAI3 #Uses a tree instead of a recursive function, has pruning and multithreading
• MinMaxAIFinal
  
  So far, MinMaxAIFinal has been the most throughly tested and is recommended for optimal results.

Additional Features

AI

Features supported by the AI

• Multiple difficulties
• Alpha-Beta Pruning
• Iterative Deepening
• Advanced Utility Function
• Mutli-threading
• Branch ordering (explores favorable branches sooner)
• Hax

GUI

Details included in the GUI

• Custom board setup and seed placement
• Ability to edit the game
• Custom graphics for each individual game window
• Dynamicly updated timer on board
• Settings window to edit settings directly from within the game
• Automatically loads and saves settings to a easily configurable file (yml)
• Can by played using either GUI or a terminal

Client/Server

Details of the Client/Server setup

• The client and the server can both be run from the same menu
• Server can connect to multiple clients
• Game keeps track of last server successfully connected to