Poison/venom/shell

[Ark]

Hi, I'm new here obviously, got told about this game recently and I've fallen in love.  Trying to figure out the ins and outs of programming my own bot, and I'm a bit confused as to the effects of poison/venom/shell.

Shell seems to defend against shots but how much shell is necessary to be effective and what does it not defend against?

Venom is supposed to paralyze, but again how much is needed and how effective is it?

Poison is said to fire at bots that are attacking me and force them to move away, again, how much is needed to be effective?

Thanks in advance.

[Griz]

I haven't a clue ...
but thought I'd pass on these links to you in case you hadn't found them yet.
http://www.darwinbots.com/WikiManual/index.php?title=Defense
http://www.darwinbots.com/WikiManual/index.php?title=Sysvars
http://www.darwinbots.com/WikiManual/index...tle=Sysvars2.21
some of these have info and examples ...
some not yet.

[Endy]

Slime stops viruses and ties.

Shell stops -6 shots and Venom

Poison stops -1 shots and info shots (those + shots, like Icarus's Turning shot)

You can make a shot more powerful by storing a positive value in .shootval for -1 and -6 shots. This number is what multiple of the cost for a shot you're spending. The shot increases roughly log base 2 (energy spent) * 100 percent.

You can make shots have a further range as well. Store a negative number in .shootval. This number is what multple of the cost to shoot you're spending. The shot increases roughly log base 2 (energy spent) * 100 percent.

Here's some info that Nums posted up awhile ago.

Shot Types:

Info shots any positive number stored into .shoot coupled with some number stored into .shootval. These set another bots memory location to that value for one cycle.

Poison shots-Automatically fired upon being hit zeroing the location stored into .ploc. The time it remains zeroed depends on the amount of poison that your bot has stored(.strpoison).

Venom-Can be deliberatly fired by storing -3?(double check me here, its on the wiki) into .shoot. Similar to poison it targets the memloc stored into .vloc. Unlike poison though it can set that location to a particular value with the use of .venval. The length of time it remains that value again depends on the amount of venom that has been stored(.strvenom).

Honestly I don't anyone has ever done a full analysis on the exact levels of shell/venom/slime/poison required for defense against a particular shot. The best advice I can give is to try to have the most your bot can manage without draining it's nrg reserves.

I hope this helps I'll see about posting up a more informative wiki some time in the future. I think there's some good info in the shots section.

Work calls gotta run.  :o

[Ark]

ok, I think I'm getting the hang of this, I've got my bots storing both venom or poison, and I've got my venom bot firing venom, but I'm seeing these commands Venloc Venval Ploc and Pval.  Do I need to use these for the venom/poison to have an effect and if so what do I put in?  thanks again!

[Endy]

Venloc Venval Ploc
There's no pval out there, you can only select the memloc that is poisoned(set to zero for however long). Poisoning something like up, myeye, shoot, tieloc would have a decent effect, confusing a bot attacking you. Venom is more of an offensive weapon, useful to make the enemy to perform some action harmful to them.

Code: [Select]

cond
*.robage 0 =
start
.shoot .ploc store
1 .venval store
.backshot .vloc store
stop

cond
200 *.poison >
start
100 *.poison sub .strpoison store
stop

cond
200 *.venom >
start
100 *.venom sub .strvenom store
stop

cond
*.refeye *.myeye !=
*.refeye 0 >
*.eye5 30 >
start
'fire venom
-3 .shoot store
stop
end
Here's a basic example showing a bot making venom and poison as necessary. It poisons shoot keeping attackers from feeding. If it sees an enemy not a veggie it'll attack it's shooting ability making it fire backwards.

With some additional coding it could then feed from an enemy once it knows a venom shot has been fired.

Other stuff:

If ploc is zero, a random location will be chosen. Not too sure about venom, haven't really played with it recently.

The question about how much is needed is actually fairly complex. A bot's shot strength is based on body levels and number in .shootval. (Neg num longer range, pos stronger shot) Then it boils down to the type of shot and the defending bot's defenses. Presumably there's a massive equation out there to exactly determine how much and when; but I'd hate to try and figure it out :D . Although, he who does, would rule the arenas... B)

[Elite]

Hi  :D

.ploc , .vloc .and .venval determine what happens to the bot on the recieving end of your venom or poison shot.

Poison uses .ploc
Place a value in .ploc sometime (usually when you're born) and when an enemy gets hit by the poison the memory location you placed in .ploc will be set to zero for a while.
Popular poisons include:

Code: [Select]

.eye5 .ploc storeWhich blinds your enemy; and

Code: [Select]

.shoot .ploc storeWhich prevents your enemy form shooting
Poison is automatically fired back at an enemy when you are hit by a -1 shot. You can't fire poison 'manually'

Venom uses .vloc and .venval
.vloc is the memory location (like .ploc) but this time, when an enemy is hit by venom, the value in .venval overwrites the value in his memory location (.vloc). You can have lots of fun with this.
Popular venoms:

Code: [Select]

.dn .vloc store
100 .venval storeMakes your enemy fly backwards

Code: [Select]

.shoot .vloc store
-2 .venval storeMakes your enemy shoot nrg

Code: [Select]

.myeye .vloc store
*.myeye .venval storePrevents your enemy from recognising you as a conspec and therefore stops your enemy from attacking you (assuming he's using .myeye conspec recognition)

Code: [Select]

.refeye .vloc store
0 .venval store

'or
.refeye .ploc store
'for the poison versionStops your enemy from identifying anyone as a conspec (goes cannibiotistic) and he will attack everyone including his own kind.
Venom is fired by putting -3 in .shoot. It is not fired automatically. The number in .shootval when you fire the venom determines how much venom you fire. More venom lasts longer.

As for shell, slime and poison:

Poison will protect you from -1 shots. If a -1 shot hits you, you will fire poison back.

Shell will only protect against -6 shots (body shots), which are fired by putting -6 in .shoot rather than -1. The shell will slowly wear away and take damage for you. Shell makes you heavy and slow however.

Slime protects against ties and viruses. Slime slowly melts away however. Slime is not 'used up' when ties and viruses hit (at least not to my knowlage). A few hundred units of slime will protect you against most (if not all) viruses.

Another cool trick is firing info shots. Put a memory location in .shoot and then that memory location will be overwritten by what's in .shootval.

Code: [Select]

.aimsx .shoot store
314 .shootval storeIcarus used this to dominate F2 for a while.

Go check out the Wiki - there's lots of information there

Here's a neat little alga  (check the 'autotroph' box) that uses venom and poison

Code: [Select]

' Alga Toxicus
'
' Don't get too close!

cond
 *.robage 0 =
start
 .shoot .ploc store
 .shoot .vloc store
 -2 .venval store
stop

cond
start
 120 rnd .aimdx store
 -3 .shoot store
stop

cond
 *.nrg 1000 >
start
 50 .repro store
 100 .strpoison store
 100 .strvenom store
stop

end
Any more questions  :)

[Griz]

excellent!
added this spiel to the wiki:
http://www.darwinbots.com/WikiManual/index.php?title=Venom

do join there Elite ... so we can interface there as well.