Want to learn to program AI

[Melhisedek]

Hello there folks,
well after wasting my life with WoW and Civ4 I've decided to donate at least a fraction of time to doing something creative and "useful" for a change
Reading this thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=184128

just further inspired me. Now I understand that AI is hard to grasp and that I will need some serious programing knowledge but who am I to dissapoint myself :P

Anyway I have a bit better than basic knowledge of C++ and some Java so programing is not new thing to me. Now I need to understand basics of AI and how to program it and hopefuly help in any way with this wonderful Civ4 project. So any books/links/software/forums you guys could recommend would be greatly appreciated. Basically I'm not really sure where to start so every little bit helps. Thank you for your time!

 

[Zenitram]

FSM's!!! Beginning a hobby in AI, you should start learning the in's and out's of finite state machines(fsm's) because a lot of AI concepts utilize a FSM in one form or another. I started simple when I decided to pursue my interests in AI. I ended making a path-finding system which is a neat playing field for practicing some of your findings. Start with simple path-finding then expand it to make your own "intelligent" path-finding. The quotations are important for making things "intelligent" because you must always set aside the scope of what could and might be and focus on what you know. Baby step, don't expect to make a T800 or anything like that right off the bat.

Most of what you will start off doing is making software --seem-- intelligent when in fact it's just tricky engineering. Good luck!
My 2c!

http://zenphoenix.net/?p=25
http://zenphoenix.net/?p=44