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Playout Search for Monte-Carlo Tree Search in Multi-player Games

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Advances in Computer Games (ACG 2011)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7168))

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Abstract

Over the past few years, Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) has become a popular search technique for playing multi-player games. In this paper we propose a technique called Playout Search. This enhancement allows the use of small searches in the playout phase of MCTS in order to improve the reliability of the playouts. We investigate max\(^{\textrm{\scriptsize{n}}}\), Paranoid, and BRS for Playout Search and analyze their performance in two deterministic perfect-information multi-player games: Focus and Chinese Checkers. The experimental results show that Playout Search significantly increases the quality of the playouts in both games. However, it slows down the speed of the playouts, which outweighs the benefit of better playouts if the thinking time for the players is small. When the players are given a sufficient amount of thinking time, Playout Search employing Paranoid search is a significant improvement in the 4-player variant of Focus and the 3-player variant of Chinese Checkers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Games and AI Group, Department of Knowledge Engineering, Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    J. (Pim) A. M. Nijssen & Mark H. M. Winands

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  1. J. (Pim) A. M. Nijssen
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  2. Mark H. M. Winands
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tilburg Institute of Cognition and Communication, Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    H. Jaap van den Herik  & Aske Plaat  & 

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Nijssen, J.(.A.M., Winands, M.H.M. (2012). Playout Search for Monte-Carlo Tree Search in Multi-player Games. In: van den Herik, H.J., Plaat, A. (eds) Advances in Computer Games. ACG 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7168. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31866-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31866-5_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-31865-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-31866-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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