I agree, PDO is the way to go. Perhaps that is a good start to fix some of the AI AI issue.My focus has been on code correctness, so for example, I'm working on switching the code away from using the very poorly maintained and bug-ridden ADODB DB library.
The AI players in the code base as it exists have many, many problems, the least of which is that the database calls fail. But beyond that, they also don't "play" fairly or reasonably. They would need a substantial rethink to be useful, in my opinion.
I am going to continue the start of the Dev threads in the Dev section on the forum and move from this forum area. Hope that's cool with everyone...
Glad to hear from you and have ideas, questions and hopefully can contrib ...