my understanding is bot are hard to write, or at least write well....

I have written a bot that is incredibly good at Diplomacy. In fact, I would use it myself for my games, but that would clearly be cheating and I would never lose. I've wanted to release it to the public, but it became clear to me that if I did, real diplomats would start modifying and using it in short order, and if there were any bugs, it could easily start WWIII. I couldn't have that on my conscience.

touché

maybe good bots for gunboat games would be possible?

You don't think Lando, the Czech, and Barn3tt are real people, do you?

courtesy damian https://sites.google.com/site/diplomacyai/QuickStart

http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=29301#gamePanel

That looks like a bot test.

Writing a diplomacy bot isn't tough for moves, but since the game is about negotiation, you need a significant knowledge base and understanding of negotiations which probably wouldn't pass the turing test.

So a bot for gunboat is very feasible, otherwise I don't see it happening for many, many years...

The one I posted apparently has some kind of press-feature. I have never used it. damian knew more about it if you can track him down.

@fortknox, i'm pretty sure op meant gunboat, in which case there's no problem. but yeah, for diplomacy with communication, it would be more difficult. but i frankly don't see any real technical reason why it couldn't happen. to have a computer learn to talk like a human in a very limited sense, like about moves in diplomacy, is not hard if you put resources behind the effort. just don't expect the ai to understand it if you start bringing in things from outside the game.

@ Lando: I downloaded and played the program you linked to. It has a press feature, but it is disabled. You can only use it to play gunboat against 6 bots. It's quite fun, mind you, but there's no discussion or diplomacy.

That makes sense. Am I correct in thinking that you can use this game to play games online? Not that one would really need to considering this site...

maybe an option to replace players that left, medium. I'm certain better ones will be programmed some day...

my understanding is that the bots design which exist (i don't know if they've been built) do not try to pass a turing test, but will proppose moves, and/or alliances, and will consider proposals. So perhaps they can evaluate the proposed moves and pick the best ones... lying to them however will reduce the credibility of future proposals...

i think this basic approach would be pretty interesting to write.

Heh, if you play against 6 bots you should be worried because they might link up and destroy you.