Chloroplasts

[Numsgil]

I'd just point out that any upkeep costs in terms of energy are going to be redundant.  Chloroplasts give energy to a bot = positive nrg gain - upkeep cost.  So during daylight, any upkeep cost just lowers the energy a bot receives from its chloroplasts.  At night, it creates an upkeep cost, which could be interesting, in that plant bots have to learn to conserve energy at night so they don't run out.  But they have to do that pretty much anyway, and just passively existing works for that, so I'm not sure how much it adds in terms of interesting behavior.

Unless there's another specific utility I'm not seeing.

[ikke]

Unless there's another specific utility I'm not seeing.

I agree with everything you said but want to point out one thing for db3: object consistency and simplicity. Every substance in the bot has upkeep, chloroplast just has negative upkeep...

[Numsgil]

Yes, that's a good way of thinking of it.

[Panda]

I do like the idea of a percentage of the energy given to them taken away all of the time, at night, and it wouldn't be too difficult to include too.

[Panda]

It's funny watching veggies move around when they have chloroplasts. With only 235 chloroplasts, they are moving at a very low speed, loosing massive amounts of energy, and spiralling out of control, trying to go forwards. Does it take, on DB a larger amount of energy to move a heavier object.

[Numsgil]

It's funny watching veggies move around when they have chloroplasts. With only 235 chloroplasts, they are moving at a very low speed, loosing massive amounts of energy, and spiralling out of control, trying to go forwards.

Which veggy are you using?

Does it take, on DB a larger amount of energy to move a heavier object.

If this is a question, yes, the amount of nrg it takes to move forward increases with your mass.  If the sim has drag enabled, your volume will also slow you down.

[Panda]

Erm, my own written one, which was just to check out the physics, and it was a question, and thanks, that was why massive amounts of energy of theirs was disappearing to.

This comes together, to limit what veggies can do now.

[Numsgil]

Yeah, veggies should end up fairly lethargic out of necessity.

[Botsareus]

Panda, I have seen your changes. I have a few suggestions:

Yeah. What about leagues, I think we might have to change that around a little.

A: Please make your changes 'optional', I need my Leagues ( Formula1 mode, etc. ) to work as they did b4... (Yes, I know you will have to start all over, bc you screwed a lot of code such as the .veg, don't worry, I am starting all over for the third time already )

        Examples:
                Example1 : Instead of 

If rob(t).exist And Not rob(t).Veg Then

we do

If rob(t).exist And (Not rob(t).Veg or blnChloroplastMode) Then

                Example2: If blnChloroplastMode = False then the program treats commands such as "strchlr" simply as just another memory location. The idea is that since all the commands update only after the DNA  is done executing (or per chromosome in DB3) you can specify the right values for stuff like "strchlr" at the end of each chromosome if the DNA  mutated and is putting stupid values into the command.

B:  You did not clean up all the code correctly so the program will not compile.

C: One more thing: The options form is going to run out of memory after 6 more controls, I need them for my changes. We have to deside to eather move the veg controls or my controls in to a new form. thx. happy coding...

D: This is kinda off-topic but, for my work I need to run all the Formula1 league settings w/o running the actual league (that is the score keeping form, with the InstaWin buttons), we need yet another option (err... possibly a btnSetF1Settings?!) to do that.

[Panda]

I complied fine for me. And I am not going to work on it at the moment, because Shasta is still doing some work, can't you just use previous versions of DB for the leagues?

[Botsareus]

Yes, I can, but I want to update the program, and I want to publish it. What I don't want is having two separate versions of the program, one with my updates and the other with the new Chloroplasts. So what shall we do? And believe me we need the leagues running the same way they used to. However, I invasion a new league:

TheChloroplastLeague:

Uses F1 conditions w/ no vegs.
Robots may use chloroplasts and multi-bots.

 

But even here we run into a problem, all robots will end up using chloroplasts bc if none do everyone will die...


P.S.

Compile is not the same thing as pressing the blue run arrow... (I believe that’s called “Run”)

[Panda]

I know, I compiled it, to test it.

[Botsareus]

Hey Panda I have another idea:

We can make the Chloroplast checkbox along side the Vegetable checkbox. The idea is a user can check one of these checkboxes but not both. We add the chloroplast code and keep everything else the same way it is in 2.45. Then for the chloroplast league to give all robots a fair chance: we will keep 1/2 the vegs from the Formula1 league and feed them half the usual energy.

This is from an older version of DB just for illustrative purposes:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

This now only leaves the re-spawn issue: do we even need it?

Numsgil/Panda/Shasta what do you think?

[Panda]

Yeah, it is possible, however, after I stripped it, it will have created some extra work, either you could do it, or I could do it(which might take me a little longer.

[Botsareus]

Sounds like a plan, I will do it.

Make sure you submitted everything into the trunk.

If possible give me the locations where all the code that effects robot behavior is, I can find it all myself but it will be easier if you tell me...