Help With COMP3411 Artificial Intelligence Term 1, 2024 Assignment 3 – Nine-Board Tic-Tac-ToeHelp With C/C++

COMP3411 Artificial Intelligence

Term 1, 2024

Assignment 3 – Nine-Board Tic-Tac-Toe

Due: Friday 19 April, 10 pm

Marks: 16% of final assessment

Introduction

In this assignment you will be writing an agent to play the game of Nine-Board Tic-Tac-Toe. This game is played on a 3 x 3 array of 3 x 3 Tic-Tac-Toe boards. The first move is made by placing an X in a randomly chosen cell of a randomly chosen board. After that, the two players take turns placing an O or X alternately into an empty cell of the board corresponding to the cell of the previous move. (For example, if the previous move was into the upper right corner of a board, the next move must be made into the upper right board.)

The game is won by getting three-in-a row either horizontally, vertically or diagonally in one of the nine boards. If a player is unable to make their move (because the relevant board is already full) the game ends in a draw.

Getting Started

Copy the archive src.zip into your own filespace and unzip it. Then type

cd s rc

make all

./servt -x -o

You should then see something like this:

. . .  |  . . .  |  .  . .

. . .  |  . . .  |  .  . .

. . .  |  . . .  |  .  . .

------+-------+------

. . .  |  . . .  |  .  . .

. . .  |  . . .  |  .  . .

. . .  | . . x  | . . .

------+-------+------

. . .  |  . . .  |  .  . .

. . .  |  . . .  |  .  . .

. . .  |  . . .  |  .  . .

next move for O ?

You can now play Nine-Board Tic-Tac-Toe against yourself, by typing a number for each move. The cells in each board are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 as follows:

+-----+

|1 2 3 |

|4 5 6 |

|7 8 9 |

+-----+

To play against a computer player, you need to open another terminal window (and cd to the  s rc directory).

Type this into the first window:

./servt -p 12345 -x

This tells the server to use port  12345 for communication, and that the moves for X will be chosen by you, the human, typing at the keyboard. (If port 12345 is busy, choose another 5-digit number.)

You should then type this into the second window (using the same port number):

./randt -p 12345

The program randt simply chooses each move randomly among the available legal moves. The Python program agent.py behaves in exactly the same way. You can play against it by typing this into the second window:

python3 agent.py -p 12345

You can play against a somewhat more sophisticated player by typing this into the second window:

./lookt -p 12345

(If you are using a Mac, type   ./lookt.mac instead of   ./lookt )

Writing a Player

Your task is to write a program to play the game of nine-board tic-tac-toe as well as you can. Your program will receive commands from the server   (init, start(),  second_move(), third_move(), last_move(), win(), loss(), draw(), end()) and must send back a single digit specifying the chosen move. (the parameters for these commands are explained in the comments of  agent.py) Communication between the server and the player(s) is illustrated in this brief example:

Player X               Server                Player O

Language Options

You are free to write your player in any language you wish.

1. If you write in Python, you should submit your .py files (including   agent.py); your program will be invoked by:

python3 agent.py -p (port)

2. If you write in Java, you should submit your .java files (no .class files). The main file must be called  Agent.java; your program will be invoked by:

java Agent -p (port)

3. If you write in C or C++, You should submit your source files (no object files) as well as a Makefile which, when invoked with the command "make", will produce an executable called  agent; your program will be invoked by:

./agent -p (port)

If you wish to write in some other language, let us know.

Starter Code

Two types of starter code are provided. The src directory contains a minimally functioning agent in each language which connects to the socket and plays random moves   (agent.py, Agent.java, agent.c). The directory code/ttt contains a standalone program in each language which plays normal (single board) tic-tac-toe and chooses its moves via alpha-beta search   (ttt.py, ttt.java, ttt.c).

Note: You are free to use some method other than alpha-beta search if you wish. The starter code is simply meant to provide you with one viable option.

Testing Your Code

To play two computer programs against each other, you may need to open three

windows. For example, to play  agent against   lookt using port  54321, type as follows:

window 1:  ./servt -p 54321

window 2:  ./agent -p 54321

window 3:  ./lookt -p 54321

(Whichever program connects first will play X; the other program will play O.)

You can alternatively use the shell script  playt.sh, and provide the executables and port number as command-line arguments. Here are some examples:

./playt.sh ./agent ./lookt 12345

./playt.sh "java Agent" ./lookt 12346

./playt.sh "python3 agent.py" ./lookt 12347

The strength of  lookt can be adjusted by specifying a maximum search depth (default value is 9; reasonable range is 1 to 18), e.g.

./playt.sh "python3 agent.py" "./lookt -d 6" 31415

Question

At the top of your code, in a block of comments, you must provide a brief answer (one or two paragraphs) to this Question:

Briefly describe how your program works, including any algorithms and data

structures employed, and explain any design decisions you made along the way.

Groups

This assignment may be done individually, or in groups of two students. Groups are   determined by an SMS field called  pair3 . Every student has initially been assigned a unique  pair3 which is  "h" followed by their student ID number, e.g.

h1234567 .

1. If you plan to complete the assignment individually, you don't need to do

anything (but, if you do create a group with only you as a member, that's ok too).

2. If you wish to form. a pair, you should go to the WebCMS page and click on

"Groups" in the lefthand column, then click "Create". Click on the menu for

"Group Type" and select "pair". After creating a group, click "Edit", search for    the other member, and click "Add". WebCMS assigns a unique group ID to each group, in the form. of  "g" followed by six digits (e.g.  g012345 ). We will periodically run a script. to load these values into SMS.

Submission

You should submit by typing:

give cs3411 hw3 ...

Remember to include all necessary files in your submission (including the one with the answer to the Question).

You can submit as many times as you like – later submissions will overwrite earlier   ones. You can check that your submission has been received by using the following command:

3411 class run -check

The submission deadline is Friday 19 April, 10 pm.

5% penalty will be applied to the mark for every 24 hours late after the deadline, up to a maximum of 5 days (in accordance with UNSW policy).

Additional information may be found in the FAQ and will be considered as part of the specification for the project.

Questions relating to the project can also be posted to the Forum on WebCMS.

If you have a question that has not already been answered on the FAQ or the Forum, you can email it to  [email protected]

Marking scheme

  10 marks for performance against a number of pre-defined opponents.

   6 marks for Algorithms, Style, Comments and answer to the Question

You should always adhere to good coding practices and style. In general, a program that attempts a substantial part of the job but does that part correctly will receive more marks than one attempting to do the entire job but with many errors.