Thesis Details

Artificial Intelligence and User Interface for Board Game of The Settlers of Catan

Bachelor's Thesis Student: Husa Rostislav Academic Year: 2014/2015 Supervisor: Košík Michal, Ing.
Czech title
Umělá inteligence a rozhraní pro hru Osadníci z Katanu
Language
English
Abstract

Subject of this thesis is creation of graphical user interface, internal data representation of going game progress and design and implementation of player artificial intelligence bot for a game of The Settlers of Catan in the basic version of the game. One part of the motivation behind the idea is the fact that while the game already has several computer implementations, none of them can so far be a challenging opponent for an experienced player. Another reason is that analysis of player decision making process presents a nontrivial problematic that can bring valuable knowledge when studies from artificial intelligence point of view. Creation of graphical user interface and internal representation of ongoing game aren't focus of this project, they however are necessary step to allow for proper verification of bot functionality and revealing possible issues that need to be addressed.First section presents overview of application of artificial intelligence in the field of board and tabletop games, both as case studies for a verification of algorithms with wider application and with the purpose of challenging and overcoming ability of human player. This section also lists a brief history of the game and highlights its characteristics, focusing on those relevant to potential bot design. End of this section the summarises goals and planned steps of this thesis.Next section brings more focus on individual areas of artifical intelligence theory, highlighting those that can be used for the analysis of problematic at hand. The suitable options of specific approach to the bot design are also mentioned here, giving brief review of their usual primary use and their respective strengths and weaknesses.Third section further explains the Settlers of Catan game itself. Introduces individual game mechanics, game board components and their function as well as the means of player interaction and point scoring. This is followed by more detailed description of individual game steps, overviewing the decisions players are making during each of them and their impact on successful gameplay. Further emphasis is given on the trading, as it represents the cooperative aspect of the game and thus doesn't require one player's optimal choice but the ability to find consensus between players. Lastly this section mentions commonly used game strategies and possible flow of the gameplay between them.Following section focuses on design of the planned application, intended distribution of functionality between individual components - graphical user interface, data representation of the game and framework of the player bot. Followed by explanation of their respective details and expected issues that need to be resolved. Next up is overview of the possible ways of bot design in order of implementation priority. Importance of log record necessary for proper monitoring of both application functionality and bot decision making is also mentioned here.As a direct follow up, next section goes into detail of actual application implementation, explaining aspects that were not clarified in the previous section or that changed against the original design. This section also describes specifics of user interface and its use.Next section evaluates results of the whole project. This opens with introduction of tests perpared to measuere application performance, followed by listing of their outcomes and summarisation of the results. Individual implementations of the arificial intelligence are compared against each other and more importanly against a live player.Last section draws conclusion from the outcomes of the project, presenting possible use in the future and prospects of a follow up work and project extension.

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence, Settlers of Catan, Games of Chance, Cooperative Games, Bot, Java, Graphical User Interface.

Department
Degree Programme
Information Technology
Files
Status
defended, grade C
Date
18 June 2015
Reviewer
Committee
Zbořil František V., doc. Ing., CSc. (DITS FIT BUT), předseda
Burget Lukáš, doc. Ing., Ph.D. (DCGM FIT BUT), člen
Drábek Vladimír, doc. Ing., CSc. (DCSY FIT BUT), člen
Křivka Zbyněk, Ing., Ph.D. (DIFS FIT BUT), člen
Rogalewicz Adam, doc. Mgr., Ph.D. (DITS FIT BUT), člen
Citation
HUSA, Rostislav. Artificial Intelligence and User Interface for Board Game of The Settlers of Catan. Brno, 2015. Bachelor's Thesis. Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Information Technology. 2015-06-18. Supervised by Košík Michal. Available from: https://www.fit.vut.cz/study/thesis/17745/
BibTeX
@bachelorsthesis{FITBT17745,
    author = "Rostislav Husa",
    type = "Bachelor's thesis",
    title = "Artificial Intelligence and User Interface for Board Game of The Settlers of Catan",
    school = "Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Information Technology",
    year = 2015,
    location = "Brno, CZ",
    language = "english",
    url = "https://www.fit.vut.cz/study/thesis/17745/"
}
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