stuff for newbies?

[cliftut]

I just got the program yesterday and since I'm a newb myself, I think I'm in an ideal position to suggest a thing or two that could make this place less overwhelming for new people. I hope this doesn't get on anyone's nerves...

-------
Maybe I'm a bit spoiled, but I like to look at pictures. A gallery showing examples of interesting bot behavior with short descriptions telling what's going on in the pictures would be nice. Something like that could go in the wiki. The current "screenshots" section is a good introduction to the program, but a gallery would be nice and show some of what bots themselves are capable of.

Along those lines, some screen captured videos of bots in action would be nice as well. A video that shows the evolution process of some bots would be cool, as would any that show interesting behaviors exhibited by bots.

A tutorial video that leads the watcher through some basic runs of the program might help as well, all though it isn't really necessary, it could help keep the UI in DB from being overwhelming.
-------

Of course, I could help out with this once I have a little bit of experience, although I don't know how long I'll be a part of this community. I'll probably be sticking around for a while though, because I find this stuff very interesting!

[Numsgil]

I just got the program yesterday and since I'm a newb myself, I think I'm in an ideal position to suggest a thing or two that could make this place less overwhelming for new people. I hope this doesn't get on anyone's nerves...

By all means, suggest away.  It's hard to put yourself in the position of a new user once you've used the program for a while.

Maybe I'm a bit spoiled, but I like to look at pictures. A gallery showing examples of interesting bot behavior with short descriptions telling what's going on in the pictures would be nice. Something like that could go in the wiki. The current "screenshots" section is a good introduction to the program, but a gallery would be nice and show some of what bots themselves are capable of.

Alot of the issue is that Darwinbots isn't all that interesting to look at in still motion.  Bunch of circles bumping into each other, with various lines pointing everywhere.  Video works better, which leads to:

Along those lines, some screen captured videos of bots in action would be nice as well. A video that shows the evolution process of some bots would be cool, as would any that show interesting behaviors exhibited by bots.

I believe Endy posted some on YouTube not so long ago (look here).  A more formal introduction to the program using a video with some audio commentary on top would probably work pretty well.

Of course, I could help out with this once I have a little bit of experience, although I don't know how long I'll be a part of this community. I'll probably be sticking around for a while though, because I find this stuff very interesting!

Generally people seem to stick around because they're either working on bots for the leagues or working on the program's source code.    A small few tinker around with the program as a long term evolution simulator, but the patience required is usually Herculean.

[cliftut]

I believe Endy posted some on YouTube not so long ago

Yup. I found those a moment ago when I was browsing the forum. I saw the first one and thought "what on earth?" *eye twitches* "those plants just went crazy..."

I can see what you mean about long term evolution studies. From what I know of the topic, that generally takes lots of tweaking and runtime because it tends to work best in large areas.

We'll see what happens. This ought to be interesting.

[Endy]

Not a bad idea, I was just using the recorder to "film" a sim. Don't think the one I have has audio recording though...

Yup. I found those a moment ago when I was browsing the forum. I saw the first one and thought "what on earth?" *eye twitches* "those plants just went crazy..."

I can see what you mean about long term evolution studies. From what I know of the topic, that generally takes lots of tweaking and runtime because it tends to work best in large areas.

Did take a bit to rig, and that's one of the better episodes I "filmed". Mutating plants are some of the best evolvers around   The other bot is one of the best at surviving so they'll last decently long against each other.

[Henk]

Not a bad idea, I was just using the recorder to "film" a sim. Don't think the one I have has audio recording though...

[...]

Windows movie maker (which is a standard feature of XP I think) has a "narrate" feature, so I think its possible to just paste some raw video data into WMM and then narrate over it.