DouRN: Improving DouZero by Residual Neural Networks
This is an incremental improvement for the domain of imperfect-information game AI, specifically targeting the complex card game Doudizhu.
The paper tackled improving the Doudizhu card game AI by incorporating residual networks into the DouZero model, resulting in a significant increase in winning rate and outperforming both the original DouZero and experienced human players.
Deep reinforcement learning has made significant progress in games with imperfect information, but its performance in the card game Doudizhu (Chinese Poker/Fight the Landlord) remains unsatisfactory. Doudizhu is different from conventional games as it involves three players and combines elements of cooperation and confrontation, resulting in a large state and action space. In 2021, a Doudizhu program called DouZero\cite{zha2021douzero} surpassed previous models without prior knowledge by utilizing traditional Monte Carlo methods and multilayer perceptrons. Building on this work, our study incorporates residual networks into the model, explores different architectural designs, and conducts multi-role testing. Our findings demonstrate that this model significantly improves the winning rate within the same training time. Additionally, we introduce a call scoring system to assist the agent in deciding whether to become a landlord. With these enhancements, our model consistently outperforms the existing version of DouZero and even experienced human players. \footnote{The source code is available at \url{https://github.com/Yingchaol/Douzero_Resnet.git.}