What does this mean about engine playing styles?

[John_Grabowski]

The documentation says this:

"Hiarcs has three different playing styles, namely, Active, Aggressive and Solid."

Clear enough. But then it says:

"The Normal style is the default and believed to be the best."

So what do I take from that?!?

[Skwerly]

haha, my guess is that playing overly aggressive or too solid results in weaker play. Clearly, playing normally is best.

[John_Grabowski]

Your verbal abilities are even worse than the people who wrote the documentation...

[Skwerly]

eh, unless you're in the 2700 club it won't matter what style, anyhow. I think that info is most pertinent to engine vs. engine matches.

[herO]

The documentation says this:

"Hiarcs has three different playing styles, namely, Active, Aggressive and Solid."

Clear enough. But then it says:

"The Normal style is the default and believed to be the best."

So what do I take from that?!?

I asked Mark about Hiarcs playing styles 1,5 year before. This is official Mark's reply about Hiarcs playing styles.

Mark Uniakce:
The Active style is the default and plays actively seeking an advantage, the Solid style plays a more wait and see approach where it tries to win while avoiding risks. The aggressive style is more willing to mix things up and take risks to gain an advantage by playing aggressively.

The playing style does not affect move choice from the book in the current version.

[herO]

haha, my guess is that playing overly aggressive or too solid results in weaker play. Clearly, playing normally is best.

I have made many tests at Lichess server. I tried active and aggressive playing styles there and played thousands games at Lichess. Hiarcs was not set to maximum playing strength. I set ELO from 1000 - 1400 ELO. I do not get caught at all, even Lichess server has very good anticheating software. Every single person thought that they play against human opponent and that's a good thing! I found out that aggressive Hiarcs personality is MORE EFFECTIVE than active playing style against human players. Games were more entertaining and exciting, when Hiarcs playing style was set to aggressive.

So, solid and aggressive playing styles results in weaker play in engine matches, but they don't have to be weaker against human opponents.