Questions regarding AI

[Prometheus]

Hi all,

Currently thinking about getting a few friends together and starting an AI project for Spring, but I had some questions and concerns first:

1. Can AI players join games online on their own, without needing to launch the Spring engine to render units and so on?
2. If so, are AI players be marked differently from human players?
3. A follow up to 1: Can they join online games, and let us programmers move the camera around to see what our AI is doing?
4. Can AIs of different models duke it out in skirmish?
5. What about online?
6. Is it possible to have a cyborg like AI, where the AI will interface with the player and allow the player to make some strategic decisions, while not having to make the player micromanage?
7. Are cheating AIs marked differently from non-cheating AIs?

I would like to also add that I think for (2) and (7) that AIs should be marked as AIs, and cheating AIs marked as AIs that cheat.

Sorry if some of the questions are dumb, I'm a mathematician first, programmer second -- the other guys have it reversed but aren't here to ask questions yet

[Acidd_UK]

1. Don't know, probably not atm, but should be possible
2. They are at the moment, since a player is required to join/view the game to 'run' the AI.
3. Yes you can add bots in an online game and be a spectator afaik.
4. Yes
5. Yes
6. Yes
7. Not as far as I know.

[krogothe]

1 : no
all others: yes

[Firenu]

havent seen any ways of running an ai without loading the graphics and so on

as for nr 6, ive tried to make groupAI's that do things like that but i stopped since its considered cheating if the "help" you get from a groupAI is too extensive.