Newbie what I see on screen ?

[peterb]

 
I have to say its intresting to look at, dough I wonder what I actualy see.
I tried to wiki pages with no luck, about what is going on between those "cels".
A simply image would explain a lot there.

I see various collors of lines between the cells, do they have a meaning ?
Like for example yellow for energ exchange, geen for shielding exchange, etc etc...


Oh I also wondered are there bots that copy genes and infects others with slightly changed genes like a virus?

[Welwordion]

Well lets see, on the upper side of the frame third from left you can choose "view" options, check if movement vectors is turned on if yes try to switch it of and see what lines remain.
Now the remaining lines should be ties , ties are kind of like elastic tape and a transport tunnel between bots, normally they have the same colour as the bot if they are yellow it mean energy is "shared" trough them.
After birth there is a special form of tie that as far as I know  does bot have most options a normal tie has, its the birthtie an umbilical cord that dissappears after a while and plays a role regarding epigenetic memory(racial memory).

There is code regarding viruses shooting , the details can be somewhat complicated, some important facts as far as I know are , viruses can not be aimed and viruses suffer from repro mutations(mutations that occur on reproduction of bots),
I am unsure about that but I think viruses are placed as last gene.(I remember a discussion if that should be changed a long time ago)

[Peter]

Welcome to the forums namesake peter.

A little information, about the colors.
What do these colors mean?
The yellow color is somewhat rare, is is a MB sharing method. There aren't many MB's that do well.(MB->multibot, existing out of multiple cells.

There are plenty bots that use virus as a weapon. The light blue dots are virusus.
Virusus are not infected in the last gene, but randomly inserted. That change happened some time ago.

What kind of image would you mean peter, some kind of wike page with pictures and explanation about the colors maybe? Would that help?

[Moonfisher]

If you wan't an image then start the raw/old version of DB without using the buddy drop. Then at startup you will see an immage that explains a lot... I have only been able to ever see or find this image by starting the old version of DB... very usefull and very illusive (And you're right, the Wiki is just text and would scare away most newcomers, that picture could definately help explain a lot).
Once you can tell the difference between ties and movement vectors (Shouldn't be too hard) then you should have movement vectors visible, these show you in wich direction a bot is accelerating.

Also try selecting a bot. (you can pause the simulation, and run one cycle forward at a time, this makes it a lot easyer to figure out what's happening.)
When you select a bot you can check it's memmory and DNA and such, and you can see it's eyes, how wide they are and wich way they're pointing.

Also white shots are energy shots, these can be cause by venom or something getting shot.

But to get started I would sugest looking at the F3 league, this one only allows the use of the basic features (you can find a the topic in the Bot tavern).
Theres also some tutorial bots in the F3 league that should help understand how the sysvars work.
Theres also a bot tutorial on the wiki and a page called Sysvars, these are very usefull.

But start with the F3 league, then move on to F2 once you have the hang of it... you should save F1 for last (F1 has no rules so it will be realy hard for you to see why your bot is loosing, it could just be a dirty trick used by the bot you're facing).
In the F3 league it will be a lot easier to understand what is making one bot stronger than the previous (Especialy if you look at the tutorial bots.
The tutorial bots in F3 all have a name and no author, names like Shoot, Body, Aim asf... they're all named after the gene that seperates them from the previous tutorial bot, making it very easy to see what you need in order to get further in the league.

I wouldn't recomend starting with too much fancy stuff, advanced eye systems and all that... get the basics to work before you start on the complex stuff, or you'll have no way of knowing if your complex behavior is benefitial. (Sometimes simple is best, you can check Fruitflies from the F1 league (Can be found in the starting gate), it used to be nr 1 for a while but should be down to 3rd place now because of the sexrepro exploit. Either way this bot should show how a very simple clever gene can be enough to beat most complex bots (I think it's one of the shortest bots in F1 if not THE shortest one, and it's extremely simple, no navigation, no clever eyes, nothing advanced about it, it's only strength is to use a very simple but clever trick.)

[peterb]

Welcome to the forums namesake peter.

A little information, about the colors.
What do these colors mean?
The yellow color is somewhat rare, is is a MB sharing method. There aren't many MB's that do well.(MB->multibot, existing out of multiple cells.

There are plenty bots that use virus as a weapon. The light blue dots are virusus.
Virusus are not infected in the last gene, but randomly inserted. That change happened some time ago.

What kind of image would you mean peter, some kind of wike page with pictures and explanation about the colors maybe? Would that help?

Aloha Peter (also dutch?)


Yes I think a simple image with the types of lines and collors would explain a lot.
Sometimes I see wide orange ones?
I'm a beginner programmer myself  (.net ) , and I am intrested in these kind of programs, and this ones seams verry advanced.
Dough I think (from reading on the internet, that a lot of people didnt understand it either).
For example some people said there should be ground to eat from like a bitmap.. but ofcourse thats not the aim, those should be the vegies)
The only thing a bitmap might be usefull for is maybe a 3d ground type (so you get hills who ar more difficult to polinate who are colder and dryer, or so) But thats perhaps verson3 or so.

[Peter]

Aloha Peter (also dutch?)

Inderdaad. Ik ben ook nederlands. Wel grappig dat sommigen mij nu niet goed kunnen lezen.

I'm not sure what orange ties would be. If the bots are orange it is just the connection between them, and without any real activity. If not if you made a screenshot it could clear it up.

DB3 is currently being developed in C#. As a .net languege maybe you're interested. There where some ideas about it becoming 3D, but I believe it'll be all 2D now.

What do you exactly mean with a bitmap?

About hills, in the current version you can add shapes. Where bots have trouble going through or can't go trough at all. Not the same as hills but it adds some dimension.

[bacillus]

(Sometimes simple is best, you can check Fruitflies from the F1 league (Can be found in the starting gate), it used to be nr 1 for a while but should be down to 3rd place now because of the sexrepro exploit. Either way this bot should show how a very simple clever gene can be enough to beat most complex bots (I think it's one of the shortest bots in F1 if not THE shortest one, and it's extremely simple, no navigation, no clever eyes, nothing advanced about it, it's only strength is to use a very simple but clever trick.)

I think Occura Amplificis is the shortest, but uses ties and viruses. Not too simple  

[peterb]

Aloha Peter (also dutch?)

Inderdaad. Ik ben ook nederlands. Wel grappig dat sommigen mij nu niet goed kunnen lezen.

I'm not sure what orange ties would be. If the bots are orange it is just the connection between them, and without any real activity. If not if you made a screenshot it could clear it up.

DB3 is currently being developed in C#. As a .net languege maybe you're interested. There where some ideas about it becoming 3D, but I believe it'll be all 2D now.

What do you exactly mean with a bitmap?

About hills, in the current version you can add shapes. Where bots have trouble going through or can't go trough at all. Not the same as hills but it adds some dimension.

Oh simple 3D could be like a heightmap, then for example...
Verry low there is water (no go area)
and going to land higher the temp gets up until you get into snow areas.
Warmth would be good for plants (and seeds?) but cold is bad for plants.
Also movement would be slower at heights (as it would cost more energy (friction) to move there).
Dough some animals who's body are 'fat'  enough might feel less impact (in percentage) of cold.
Such 2D representation of a height map, can easily be translated to a 3D map (altough the main game is still 2D on this 'skin'.

Maybe it would be nice especialy for plants to have a new polination or ofspring seed option.
For example shoot seed up in a direction or use wind and travel until reached ground.
Maybe have body seize limit or energy limits (flying might cost energy)
But on the otherhand if animals would use flight or jump.. it would become problematic to write simple DNA to catch them..

Instead of a bitmap also a simple wireframe (more easy to get deflection/friction into a certain direction)..
Or in simple words its more easy to push a ball of a hill then put it upwards.

it would add maybe some other vars like
.heigth   .sunlight  .temp .frictionx frictiony  or simple .friction


  uh oh then you get seizons,... cold get .flu or worse get .ill or even .frozen so you require .antifreeze  if you dont have bodysize/fat..  

[Moonfisher]

You should remember we're talking about single cells... they don't get the flue... they are the flue...