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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5212696" data-attributes="member: 58197">Hell no! Most computer strategy sims are VASTLY more complex than chess. Chess is a simple decision tree, practically custom-made for computers to be good at. In principle, you could write a very simple algorithm, throw enough CPU cycles at it, and get an infallible chessmaster that always makes the best possible move in any situation. (In practice, of course, you'd need more CPU cycles than there are atoms in the universe. But the point is that chess is &quot;solvable,&quot; which makes it easy to program for.)In a strategy sim, there are far more variables and possible moves. And there's hidden information, random elements, multiple opponents... all manner of fuzzy hard-to-pin-down stuff that makes a poor computer's head hurt, while we humans juggle it with ease.The reason chess seems &quot;more complex&quot; than Total War is that chess requires a human to think like a computer, while Total War requires a computer to think like a human. So we, being human, think chess is the harder game. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Plus, computer chess games have had a whole lot of extremely smart people working for decades on improving their play. And those people are working from a theoretical background (evaluating whether knight + bishop is worth more than rook + pawn, that kind of thing) that's been built up over centuries. You can't expect a couple of programmers working on a deadline, on a game whose rules are in flux from day to day, to compare to that.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 5212696, member: 58197"] Hell no! Most computer strategy sims are VASTLY more complex than chess. Chess is a simple decision tree, practically custom-made for computers to be good at. In principle, you could write a very simple algorithm, throw enough CPU cycles at it, and get an infallible chessmaster that always makes the best possible move in any situation. (In practice, of course, you'd need more CPU cycles than there are atoms in the universe. But the point is that chess is "solvable," which makes it easy to program for.) In a strategy sim, there are far more variables and possible moves. And there's hidden information, random elements, multiple opponents... all manner of fuzzy hard-to-pin-down stuff that makes a poor computer's head hurt, while we humans juggle it with ease. The reason chess seems "more complex" than Total War is that chess requires a human to think like a computer, while Total War requires a computer to think like a human. So we, being human, think chess is the harder game. :) Plus, computer chess games have had a whole lot of extremely smart people working for decades on improving their play. And those people are working from a theoretical background (evaluating whether knight + bishop is worth more than rook + pawn, that kind of thing) that's been built up over centuries. You can't expect a couple of programmers working on a deadline, on a game whose rules are in flux from day to day, to compare to that. [/QUOTE]

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