Select the robot to play by clicking on select robot next to the start
button.
The robots are currently known as DumbotSmartbot and BestBot. Each game has
its own family of robots, and some are better players than others, but
generally Dumbot plays well
enough to win against beginners, Smartbot
in intended to play well enough to challenge intermediate skilll
players, and Bestbot is the
best available, challenging even for advanced players. Some
games may not have any robot, or may not have all three.
The robots are written in Java, and run on your machine rather than on
the server. Consequently, if the robot seems too slow, my first
suggestion is to buy a faster machine. I calibrate the robots'
speed and playing ability so they will respond at least as fast as a
typical human player.
Robot games are scored just like regular games, and each robot has a
ranking for each game. In ranked robot games the player to
move first is random, and the games are remembered if you quit
them. Consequenly you can always quit to join a human player, and
come back to your robot game later, and also you can't get out of
eventually finishing a robot game you are losing. The robots are
happy to play unranked games
and let you choose who will move first.
If your opponent quits a game before it is over, you can let the robot
finish the game by clicking on the "actions" menu in the game
room. In these games, the robot's win or loss is credited to the
player who quit.
