Looks like I'm a little late to the party. =/ Real life dramas have taken me away from the game for too long.
That's a really efficient AI Sevas. Nicely done. Avaren is right that you could remove the things he's covered in red and it would still perform the same.
Thanks for your one as well Avaren. Haven't had time to analyse it yet.
I'll try to post one of my older ones when I get a chance.
I'll hopefully get some time to get back to playing soon, but gotta look after family first.
Please move the delete all button from bottom left to a different location. Maybe swap with top left fit to screen button. It's too easy to mistakenly click on the delete all button instead of delete node when playing on a mobile device. (Especially when tired)
Loving the new trello board! Especially when we can see what'll be coming next. Even though I know Alpha 5 is a long way away, I'm excited about the features that are listed for Alpha 5!
You could implement what Dagger is asking for if you "randomize" the seed value for every solo game. I acknowledge that you get the whole keep repeating till you get the good roll in your favor, but those people will likely have a poor showing in multiplayer anyway. The ones who will be real threats will always be trying to improve their AI to minimize their reliance on luck.
Actually, if you store your "random" seed for every multiplayer game, you get increased randomness but still keep repeatability for particular matches.
In this context, "random" would still be pseudorandom. ;)
I've come up against your wait for them to charge you strategy. It's nice, as long as you can focus fire correctly. Also, as you've already mentioned, since you don't advance, you do run the risk of backing up into the wall.
I fundamentally agree with point 3, however, over time, I've seen strategies which exploit this. The most damaged enemy backs off and draws fire, while the rest of the full strength group stays close and rips into your formation. I've used it against you a couple of times I think.
Dagger (and Goums and I) at one stage toyed with a shoot closest to you strategy. My reasoning was that I could push the enemy group back into a wall if they all retreated.
I would really like the ability to set different ranges rather than just short-med-long. That way I can control how far I back off and how far I will keep shooting at a weak enemy as it retreats.
As far as I'm concerned, one who wins is the one with more guns on the same target. I just have to figure out a way to make that happen in every situation possible.
Oh, and regarding grabbing balls while under fire. This is always a good idea if you can figure out how to accomplish this. ;) I've got a working strategy. Just remember that once you have the ball, you can't shoot anymore. (I've played a few people who didn't realise this and their ball carriers kept trying to get closer to me to attack.)
Wow! That's very detailed and interesting ideas. I'm not sure how to go about putting it into the list. I can see votes for hotspots, chassis, weapons.
GFX47 might have a better time categorising everything.
The only things I can see there that can't be squeezed into an existing wish is pick up ally and local multiplayer.
Ah! You were the one who made me stay up so late last night! (and cost me a lot of my ranks =P) Nice to meet you. Good games btw.
Our play styles are similar only because I was adapting (*cough* blatantly copying him *cough*) my bots to take him on.
Actually, Dagger is probably the one who's forced me to make the most changes to my AI. I've still got plans to make them smarter, though the programs are getting quite large now.
If you'd like me to post a vid of one of our matches, I'd be happy to.
Heh, yeah... was up waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past my bedtime playing.
I went to #1 then #15 then #6 then #10.
All over the ladder basically. I think this was because I was creating games with AI developed to take on Dagger and other high level players. (Different priorities with targeting and retreating).
However, these bots fell prey to newbies since they were designed to exploit higher level players (*cough* Dagger *cough*).
I have a feeling that the "newbies" were also quite tough - not your standard "I only played all the solo missions" guys.
So losing just two or three games dropped me significantly down the ladder.
There is a danger here in that if I want to protect my rank, I will either not play or not create games. I will only join games since that allows me the advantage of choosing which version of my bot I will deploy. (Defenders are always going to have a disadvantage since attackers know who they will be fighting.)
So recommendations:
1) Give new players provisional rankings - when they first start they get points but their opponent does not lose points for the first few matches. (This will smooth out the top players dropping so suddenly, since the newbies initial rank might not accurately reflect their skill level). See this stack overflow comment. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1881310/elo-rat...
2) Need to have some sort of private match invite system.
3) Training Arena would really be welcome, so that I can test my AI without having to risk my ranking getting destroyed. (The only way to test my AI is to create matches on all the avaliable fields)
I wrote this back before multiplayer was available so currently targeted was an easy was to keep attacking a bot that just backs off to long range when shields are low.
That being said, I do use it in specific circumstances in multiplayer.
Though I have it coupled to other conditions in case of enemy with ball, low shields/health etc.
You are correct that currently targeted does not currently allow you to access individual bots targets for other bots. Maybe in the future? Depends on what gfx47 does with targeting.
It's ok. I'm already using enemy currently targeted and I assumed that or weakest shield was what everyone was using but Dagger started using different tactics on me which don't seem to be based on those two shooting styles.
I'm happy to go with elo. Reading up on it says that it does allow realistic relative ranking. I guess if it's good enough for chess rankings, I'm happy to go with it.
Ah I see... yeah, I'm not really keen on the 30 day and fall off the rankings. Not that I haven't played in 30 days. I'd prefer a slightly longer window is all. Seasons would be nice too.
Welcome to the first trial broadcast of Gladiabots TV!
Where we aim to bring you coverage of exciting matches played between teams of killer robots as they fight each other for your entertainment!
In this first match we bring you an exciting round between Chunky Monkey and Dagger.
Chunky Monkey is ranked third in the worldwide leader board and is the underdog in this match, going up against the juggernaut of current world number two - Dagger.
