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Improving Temporal Difference Learning Performance in Backgammon Variants

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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

Palamedes is an ongoing project for building expert playing bots that can play backgammon variants. As in all successful modern backgammon programs, it is based on neural networks trained using temporal difference learning. This paper improves upon the training method that we used in our previous approach for the two backgammon variants popular in Greece and neighboring countries, Plakoto and Fevga. We show that the proposed methods result both in faster learning as well as better performance. We also present insights into the selection of the features in our experiments that can be useful to temporal difference learning in other games as well.

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Papahristou, N., Refanidis, I. (2012). Improving Temporal Difference Learning Performance in Backgammon Variants. 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_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31866-5_12

  • 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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