1. Botmatch
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Attached is a package Ive sent to Ck (? sorry, I dont know your real name ?)
however, it either never arrived, or he discarded it. Anyways, I did not get
any response at that email.
So, i'll post it here. Its a working bot-match proggie with an extremely
dumb bot.
I wont suggest this to be the standard, however, look at it as an (working)
alpha. Some interesting techniques.
Please, look at the readme.txt
And if some one, would please make a bot, that at least, *always* finds the
way through the maze..
Ralf
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name="BOTMATCH.zip"
2. Re: Botmatch
- Posted by C & K L <candk at TICNET.COM>
Nov 08, 1998
-
Last edited Nov 09, 1998
Ralf, I did receive that and responded to it, so maybe the mail is just
a tad bit slow...?
A few major changes to the web site for anybody needing that info:
http://www.ticnet.com/thelesters/eubots
Also, I'm about to release the referee so you guys can test your own
bots for competition.
Later!
ck
Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen wrote:
>
> Attached is a package Ive sent to Ck (? sorry, I dont know your real name ?)
> however, it either never arrived, or he discarded it. Anyways, I did not get
> any response at that email.
>
> So, i'll post it here. Its a working bot-match proggie with an extremely
> dumb bot.
> I wont suggest this to be the standard, however, look at it as an (working)
> alpha. Some interesting techniques.
>
> Please, look at the readme.txt
> And if some one, would please make a bot, that at least, *always* finds the
> way through the maze..
>
> Ralf
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Name: BOTMATCH.zip
> BOTMATCH.zip Type: Zip Compressed Data (application/x-zip-compressed)
> Encoding: base64
3. Re: Botmatch
Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen wrote:
>And if some one, would please make a bot, that
>at least, *always* finds the way through the maze..
quick idea on that is you always take lefts (or rights,
which ever you prefer) unless you *cant*...
this way you will always be hugging a wall, and you
will *always* get out... an advanced form of that
is leaving a string tied to a stake in the ground,
unraveling as you go to let you know if you've been
there before...
once you have those 2 (somewhat easy) code fragments...
piece 'cake :|
4. Re: Botmatch
Actually, there a kind of maze where this would not always work. This is one
that has a (or part of a)maze structure *not* connected to any exterior
walls. If the 'bot attaches to any element in this structure then it will go
round 'n round. A solution would be to record your start position and if
this position is encountered again then some virtual decision needs to be
made to start looking for some wall not previously traversed.
Mike.
-----Original Message-----
From: Hawke <mdeland at NWINFO.NET>
To: EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Date: Monday, November 09, 1998 3:43 PM
Subject: Re: Botmatch
>Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen wrote:
>>And if some one, would please make a bot, that
>>at least, *always* finds the way through the maze..
>quick idea on that is you always take lefts (or rights,
>which ever you prefer) unless you *cant*...
>this way you will always be hugging a wall, and you
>will *always* get out... an advanced form of that
>is leaving a string tied to a stake in the ground,
>unraveling as you go to let you know if you've been
>there before...
>
>once you have those 2 (somewhat easy) code fragments...
>piece 'cake :|
>
5. Re: Botmatch
Cool!
My I suggest: when your bot retraces its steps, have it
change the color of its tracks so we can see the "dead end
paths" more clearly.
Irv
6. Re: Botmatch
Mike wrote:
> Actually, there a kind of maze where this would not always work. This is one
> that has a (or part of a)maze structure *not* connected to any exterior
> walls. If the 'bot attaches to any element in this structure then it will go
> round 'n round. A solution would be to record your start position and if
Yes, this would happen, so don't make your bot that dumb... 
7. Re: Botmatch
Your bot will have to track where it's been... the screen can't be drawn
to, because if another bot encounters your drawn tracks, it could get
confused.
Irv Mullins wrote:
> Cool!
> My I suggest: when your bot retraces its steps, have it
> change the color of its tracks so we can see the "dead end
> paths" more clearly.
>
> Irv
8. Re: Botmatch
C & K L wrote:
>Your bot will have to track where it's been...
>the screen can't be drawn to, because if another
>bot encounters your drawn tracks, it could get confused.
what about this?:
constant
BRIGHT = 8,
North = 1,
South = 2,
East = 3,
West = 4
function lookdirection(integer dir,sequence pos)
--pseudocode folks...
integer peekpxl
case dir of
North: peekpxl=read_pixel(pos+{ 0,-1},1)
South: peekpxl=read_pixel(pos+{ 0,+1},1)
East : peekpxl=read_pixel(pos+{ 1, 0},1)
West : peekpxl=read_pixel(pos+{-1, 0},1)
else Error("sumfin wrong")
end case
if peekpxl > BRIGHT then
return peekpxl - BRIGHT
else return peekpxl
end if
end function
now, when you set a marker to where you have been,
just set it to the color that is on the floor where
you are standing + BRIGHT, and your bot will
ignore it when you call lookdirection()
does that solve the prob??? :)
9. Re: Botmatch
On Mon, 9 Nov 1998 09:08:04 -0600, C & K L <candkNOSPAM2ME at TICNET.COM> wrote:
>Your bot will have to track where it's been... the screen can't be drawn
>to, because if another bot encounters your drawn tracks, it could get
>confused.
>
It seems that we have the following situation:
background = BLACK
maze walls = BLUE
finish = RED
Now, by my estimation, that leaves at least several colors
for the bots.
If we run 4 bots at a time, we can use 4 different colors for
the bot, plus 4 more for the backtrack, and still have some
left over.
Using Ralf's bot handler, your mouse will never encounter any
other tracks - because the handler only notifies when there
is a collision with a wall or the finish line.
In addition, if we intend to actually have battling bots,
it will be necessary to differentiate between the actual
bot position, and the bot trail. No use blasting away at
bot vapor trails, is it? Nor bouncing off them, either.
Irv
10. Re: Botmatch
>Your bot will have to track where it's been... the screen can't be drawn
>to, because if another bot encounters your drawn tracks, it could get
>confused.
Using the screen is slow.
Its better to have the maze inside a sequence (maybe on a smaller scale) and
display whatever is happing in full glory using sprites and all..
Plus, simply overload pixel (), get_pixel (), poke (), peek () and call ()
would eliminate all chances at cheating.
Ralf
11. Botmatch
Ralf,
I ran Botmatch and it's really cool but I couln't figure out how to "win".
I also read your "todo.txt" file and was very impressed with what you plan
to do. I'm looking forward to when I can script something like:
"go hit the guy in the red shirt 3 times on the head
and push him off the nearest cliff that is over 30 m
high and has rocks at the bottom"
:P
later,
Lewis Townsend
_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
12. Re: Botmatch
On Wed, 07 Jul 1999, Lewis Townsend wrote:
> Ralf,
>
> I ran Botmatch and it's really cool but I couln't figure out how to "win".
> I also read your "todo.txt" file and was very impressed with what you plan
> to do. I'm looking forward to when I can script something like:
> "go hit the guy in the red shirt 3 times on the head
> and push him off the nearest cliff that is over 30 m
> high and has rocks at the bottom"
> :P
That command is already built into the operating system.
Just put on a red shirt, and type "WIN".
Irv
13. Re: Botmatch
- Posted by Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen <nieuwen at XS4ALL.NL>
Jul 09, 1999
-
Last edited Jul 10, 1999
> I ran Botmatch and it's really cool but I couln't figure out how to "win".
I commented it out, so that it shows how the bot works without a end-place
and to emphasize the fact that Lucius' bot (he wrote it) doesn't know where
the end-point is, however does make a choice. (read: it doesn't cheat)
> I also read your "todo.txt" file and was very impressed with what you plan
> to do. I'm looking forward to when I can script something like:
> "go hit the guy in the red shirt 3 times on the head
> and push him off the nearest cliff that is over 30 m
> high and has rocks at the bottom"
Oops, I still have to remove that file, I don't see me working with my
botmatch engine again.
If I were to do such an engine, I would write it from scratch though, in
some areas its very hard to add some flexibility to the engine without
totally changing the design. Therefor, I prefer, I were to work on such an
engine (not in the near future) that I would 'reconsider' the basic design
of the engine, in the light of 'flexibility' .. actually I would rather see
me writing a more 'practical' engine designed for one type of game/program,
which is much more feasible in a real-life game and much more 'rewarding'
during the procces of programming and therefor I would be more likely to
finish such a project. (I admit with shame)
Ralf N.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~nieuwen
