Questions tagged [minimax]
Use for questions involving minimax and variants such as maximin. Applies both to algorithms and the minimax theorem.
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Why is depth-limited is preferable to minimax without depth limited
I have read about a question that says the following:
Why is depth-limited minimax preferable to minimax?
One of the wrong answers was:
The depth-limited minimax will achieve the same output as ...
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Is there a benefit to starting with MCTS and switching to minimax as the branching factor decreases?
I've invented a deterministic, perfect-information game with a fairly large branching factor (~150) which tapers out dramatically after the midgame (~30 at worst). I need a strong AI. My understanding ...
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Should minimax with alpha beta pruning depth be an odd number?
I implemented the minimax algorithm with alpha-beta pruning to see how it works, with application to the connect four game.
My AI works fine, considering the AI is the MAX player (VS human player, ...
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Can Deep Reinforcement Learning come up with heuristics for a game it trains on and masters?
I am taking a course where we write minimax, alpha-beta pruning and interative deepening in Python for the game of Isolation.
I am supposed to write heuristics for an evaluation function of the game ...
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Minimax evaluation function for games with score instead of loss/draw/win result
I am trying to create minimax evaluation function for the Ms Pacman game. The goal of the player is to maximize score.
I have some idea about the features that I would like to use in my evaluation ...
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Evaluating different board states with a minimax AI algorithm python
I am working on writing a connect 4 game as well as a minimax algorithm to play against. I am currently writing and implementing the minimax algorithm. Right now I am just trying to print out all ...
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Which heuristic function should I use for the ColorShapeLinks game?
For learning purposes, I am trying to implement the minimax algorithm for the ColorShapeLinks game, which is similar to connect 4, except the fact that it combines both shape and color as the winning ...
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How to differentiate left-to-right and right-to-left alpha-beta pruning?
I am new to the alpha-beta pruning algorithm. I was trying to understand the concept between Left-to-Right and Right-to-Left alpha-beta pruning examples.
Based on my understanding, according to the ...
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How does one handle different player turns in MCTS?
Suppose we have a two player game like Tic Tac Toe where the two players take turns to play their moves. It is my understanding that in the game tree that MCTS builds, consecutive levels in the tree ...
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How to handle cycles in minimax algorithm
For example, I am implementing AI for turn based game and have enough computational resources for build full game tree. My problem is the game can be infinite if both players will repeat moves and my ...
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Why is the number of examined nodes $ O(b^{3d/4})$ in $\alpha$-$\beta$ pruning?
I'm taking a course 'Introduction to AI' and, in one of the tutorials, it was written that when pruning the game tree using $\alpha$-$\beta$ boundaries, the number of nodes that will be developed, ...
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What is the meaning of the terms in this evaluation function for chess?
I'm trying to improve my evaluation and I saw this here
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Does the alpha/beta value of parent nodes change if the alpha beta value of the child node changes?
I want to do alpha-beta pruning on this tree:
Consider nodes J and K. K is the max. Therefore, node D has an alpha value of 20, node B has a beta value of 20.
Move to Node E. Pass the beta value of ...
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Strategy for playing a board game with Minimax algorithm
I want to build a player for the following game:
You have a board where position 1 is your player, position 2 is the rival ...
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What is a good way of identifying volatile positions for a checkers game?
I am implementing an AI for a mobile checkers game, and have used alpha-beta pruning with Minimax.
Now I have the problem of horizontal effect, and need to do Quiesence search to avoid that.
Any ...
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Minimax algorithm with only partial visibility
I'm trying to implement the minimax algorithm with alpha beta pruning on a game that works like this:
Player 1 plays (x1, y1).
Player 2 can only see the x-value (x1) that Player 1 played (and not ...
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Optimal mixed strategy in two player zero sum games
I am currently studying game theory based on Peter Norvig's 3rd edition introduction to artificial intelligence book. In chapter 17.5, the two player zero sum game can be solved by using the $\textbf{...
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How can I improve the performance of my approach to solving a 1-player version of the card game "The Game" by Steffen Benndorf?
I would like to create an AI for the 1 player version of the card game called "The Game" by Steffen Benndorf (rules here: https://nsv.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/the-game-english.pdf).
The ...
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How does the MCTS tree look like?
I have come across the Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) algorithm, but I can't find what the tree should look like. For example, does it still represent a minimax process, i.e. player 1 from the root ...
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Should I use minimax or alpha-beta pruning?
Should I use minimax or alpha-beta pruning (or both)? Apparently, alpha-beta pruning prunes some parts of the search tree.
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How do you prove that minimax algorithm outputs a subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium?
At every node, MAX would always move to maximise the minimum payoff while MIN choose to minimise the maximum payoff, hence there is nash equilibrium.
By using backwards induction, at every node, MAX ...
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In what RL algorithm category is MiniMax?
Q-learning is a temporal-difference method and Monte Carlo tree search is a Monte Carlo method. In what category is MiniMax?
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What happens if the opponent doesn't play optimally in minimax?
I just read an article about the minimax algorithm. When you design the algorithm, you assume that your opponent is a perfect player, i.e. it plays optimally.
Let's consider the game of chess. What ...
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When should Monte Carlo Tree search be chosen over MiniMax?
I would like to ask whether MCTS is usually chosen when the branching factor for the states that we have available is large and not suitable for Minimax. Also, other than MCTS simluates actions, where ...
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How are the Bellman optimality equations and minimax related?
Is the philosophy between Bellman equations and minimax the same?
Both the algorithms look at the full horizon and take into account potential gains (Bellman) and potential losses (minimax).
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How can I apply the alpha-beta pruning algorithm to the "1-2 steal marbles" problem?
I have the following problem called "1-2 steal marbles".
Initially, there are 6 marbles on the board. One of the players can choose to remove 1 or 2 marbles leaving 5 or 4. After that, the other ...
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Is the minimax algorithm model-based?
Trying to get my head around model-free and model-based algorithms in RL. In my research, I've seen the search trees created via the minimax algorithm. I presume these trees can only be created with a ...
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Why is it possible to eliminate this branch with alpha-beta pruning?
Can someone explain to me why it is possible to eliminate the rest of the middle branch in this image for alpha-beta pruning? I am confused because it seems the only information you know is that Helen ...
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Why does the adversarial search minimax algorithm use Depth-First Search (DFS) instead of Breadth-First Search (BFS)?
I understand that the actual algorithm calls for using Depth-First Search, but is there a functionality reason for using it over another search algorithm like Breadth-First Search?
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Is there a probabilistic version of minimax?
How would a probabilistic version of minimax work?
For example, we may choose a move that could result in a very bad outcome, but that outcome might just be extremely unlikely so we might think it ...
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Could you share with me the tree size, search time and search depth of your implementation of Gomoku with minimax and alpha-beta prunning?
Currently, I am working on a Gomoku AI implementation with minimax + alpha-beta pruning.
I'm targeting these two rules from 'acceptable implementation' in terms of search time and search depth :
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To deal with infinite loops, should I do a deeper search of the best moves with the same value, in alpha-beta pruning?
I have implemented minimax with alpha-beta pruning to play checkers. As my value heuristic, I am using only the summation of material value on the board regardless of the position.
My main issue lays ...
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Can alpha-beta pruning be used for applications apart from games?
Can alpha-beta pruning/ minimax be used for systems apart from games? Like for selecting the right customer for a product, etc. (the typical data science problems)? I have seen people do it, but can't ...
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How to choose the weights for a linear combination of heuristic functions?
I need to write a minimax algorithm with alpha-beta pruning in limited time for the 2048 game. I know expectimax is better for this work.
Assume I wrote different heuristic functions. If I want to ...
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Is this ExpectiMinimax Tree correctly drawn?
I need help with ExpectiMinimax problem:
Start a game.
The first player flips a coin.
The second player flips a coin.
The first player decides if he wants to flip another coin.
The second player ...
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Minimax combined with machine learning to determine if a path should be explored
I have an idea for a new type of AI for two-player games with alternating turns, like chess, checkers, connect four, and so on.
A little background: Traditionally engines for such games have used the ...
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Understanding alpha-beta pruning for simplified NIM
This is a simple version of NIM: Two players alternately remove one, two or three coins from a stack initially containing 5 coins. The player who picks up the last coin loses.
What does alpha-beta ...
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What kind of decision rule algorithm is usable in this situation?
I am trying to write an AI to a game, where there is no real adversary. This means, that only the AI player has choices in which move to perform, his opponent may or may not react to the move the AI ...
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Can't grasp MiniMax diagram (no alpha beta pruning)
The image is one of many similar exam questions can anyone pelase help me understand it fully?
'Internal node': This is simply every node except A?
Move choices: His only options are B, C and D for ...
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Using the opponent's mixed strategy in estimating the state value in minimax Q learning
In the paper Markov games as a framework for multi-agent reinforcement learning (which introduces the minimax Q Learning algorithm), at the bottom left of page 3, my understanding is that the author ...
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Does quiescence search even improve the minimax algorithm?
Consider this game state:
d5 captures c6
Quiescence search returns about 8.0 as evaluation because after dxc6 and bxc6 Qxd6 would be played (then Qxd6 by black). A normal player would not play this ...
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Can someone help me to understand the alpha-beta pruning algorithm?
I understand the minimax algorithm, but I am unable to understand deeply the minimax algorithm with alpha-beta pruning, even after having looked up several sources (on the web) and having tried to ...
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Why do neural nets and machine learning tend to work well with MCTS, but not with regular Minimax game-playing AI?
I've often heard MCTS grouped together with neural nets and machine learning. From what I gather, MCTS uses a refined intuition (from maching learning) to evaluate positions. This allows it to better ...
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Any interesting ways to combine Monte Carlo tree search with the minimax algorithm?
I've been working on a game-playing engine for about half a year now, and it uses the well known algorithms. These include minimax with alpha-beta pruning, iterative deepening, transposition tables, ...
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How do we find the length (depth) of the game tic-tac-toe in adversarial search?
When we perform the tic-tac-toe game using adversarial search, I know how to make a tree. Is there a way to find the depth of the tree, and which level is the last level?
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Is it feasible to use minimax to solve a board game with a large number of moves?
I have to build a KI for a made-up game similar to chess. As I did research for a proper solution, I came upon the MinMax algorithm, but I'm not sure it will work with the given game dynamics.
The ...
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Is there a way of representing the minimax algorithm mathematically?
I have successfully figured out how the minimax algorithm works for a game like chess, where a game tree is used, and you assign a value to the terminal nodes and propagate that value up the tree.
Is ...
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Transposition table is only used for roughly 17% of the nodes - is this expected?
I'm making a Connect Four game using the typical minimax + alpha-beta pruning algorithms. I just implemented a Transposition Table, but my tests tell me the TT only helps 17% of the time. By this I ...
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Connect 4 minimax does not make the best move
I'm trying to implement an algorithm that would choose the optimal next move for the game of Connect 4. As I just want to make sure that the basic minimax works correctly, I am actually testing it ...
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If certain moves are compulsory, will there still be a need for a quiescence search?
Certain games, like checkers, have compulsory moves. In checkers, for instance, if there's a jump available a player must take it over any non-jumping move.
If jumps are compulsory, will there still ...
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