You must sign in to post. | Bot tournament :: Jan 2, 2008 @ 4:49pm |
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 sunpin
Joined: Jan 2, 2008
Posts: 6
Location: Dallas, TX | Thirdparty, my hat is off to you on both some excellent bots and an excellent mod for them to play in (and of course Phil for Galcon itself). It has completely sucked me in. It's like a meta-game for programmers.
I started off thinking that it would be neat to try. I looked at thirdbots.py and --learning python as I went along -- made a bot that attacked the nearest non-friendly planet with everything. It sucked, but eventually with a bit of luck it managed to beat Basic. The fans cheered.
I renamed it Viking for its knack for sending a big horde around planet-stomping. It had some pretty huge holes in its strategy, which were easy to fill. Look for big planets nearby with weak defenses. I came up with a rough formula and soon it was whipping the weaker bots consistently. You only have to put in some common sense to beat Scavenger in a duel. Eventually it moved on to tougher competition.
I started to anthropomorphosize his opponents. Kamikazee is insane, reckless beyond all reason, but his brother Exterminator has the wit to control his anger. He does not abide newbie bots. To beat him, Viking had to learn to take a hard hit early on, and he had to learn when to trade.
Lass was tougher, the first really balanced competitor. She has a lot of fight for so simple a bot. You can't leave her alone, because she loves to sit back and build up, and when you finally come in to fight she swats you away. Neither can you charge her straight away, because she knows how to block. Viking had to learn some of the finer points of just when to expand and when to go in for the kill.
Cobra was intimidating. With the way he dances fleets around, he cleaned house until Viking learned to dance his reinforcements as well. Then, suddenly Cobra came out wanting. He is a vicious fighter in free-for-alls, but in duels he tends to work the front lines, ignoring the backfield. Viking loves the front lines.
Libra was the real challenge. He expands smartly. He sends large strikes deep into the enemy, pinning defenders in the back, then stops short, turns and picks up a planet or two. On the defensive he is wily and evasive. Given an advantage, he presses it home ruthlessly. He doesn't leave much behind for defense, but when you take from him in one place, he takes more in another. Beating him required really cleaning up every aspect of Viking's game, optimizing his opening game, putting every spare ship in play, eliminating hesitation, squeezing every last drop of performance. I coded during the day, they played thousands of games at night, and I checked the results every morning. Viking started out winning like 40% against Libra, but it gradually rose as his game improved. He's at 60% now and just about ready for prime time.
I still have a bit of optimization to do, but I'm looking for the right format to release a bot. Would anybody want it as a standalone mod? Thirdparty, would you be interested in incorporating other bots in bottourney? Although it's still a work in progress. I've considered creating a Subversion repository for bottourney, so that several authors could develop bots in the same mod at the same time. One could write a script to check out the project weekly (or daily), run a tournament, and post the results. I don't know if there are enough other active botters out there to make it interesting. Anyway, that is the idea that I lay before Third, Phil, and the rest of the Galcon mod community. | | Re: Bot tournament :: Jan 3, 2008 @ 10:49am |
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philhassey 
Joined: Nov 30, 2006
Posts: 761
Location: Zarcon | Great ideas :) I've been wanting to run a bot tournament for a while ... I'm still working out the way it would work, but I plan on announcing one in the near future.
Phil | | Re: Bot tournament :: Jan 3, 2008 @ 10:55am |
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philhassey
Joined: Nov 30, 2006
Posts: 761
Location: Zarcon | BTW - if you are interested in working with me to set up the "automated results" part of this, send me an email at gmail.com.
Thanks!
Phil |
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