New ALife simulator

[Greven]

Did I just write that????

Well, in short, I understand you, can thank you for you inconvience to state that to me. I just have a problem with been corrected (so to speak) by other humans I havent met (or in general, but when I havent had a chance to meet you and evalute you as a human (intelligent), I have a hard time when being critizied.

Forget it, let us just be friends, like we do in my country, which have had no real civil war and it is one of the oldest countries in the world (from around 900 AD)

[Numsgil]

I just offer the above as soemthnig I've learned over the 10 months working on DB.

It's not like all my ideas have been greeted with great enthusiasm.

[Griz]

I just offer the above as soemthnig I've learned over the 10 months working on DB.
It's not like all my ideas have been greeted with great enthusiasm.

and just what do you mean by that?!?!?!?!  :angry:
 :lol: LOL
so far ... I haven't run across many, if any, flames here on this forum ...
and that's a relief ... as it seems there is usually a troll or two ready to
stir up the &%$# and be a pain.

maybe folks here stay too busy DBotting to play that game ... ;)
I hope so.

~griz~

[Old Henk]

Well, it would be very useful to get rid of Big Berthas, random killing (or a set limit to lifespan) would be an easy solution to that problem.

I did program an EVO-bot of mine to die after a specific amount of cycles, but the bot evolved and eventually no bots had programmed death anymore.

A don't think a 'preset lifespan' is a great idea. It sounds to artificial to me.
But maybe there could be more ways of dying than just getting shot by another bot. I'm thinking deceases, radiation etc.

Henk

[Ulciscor]

How is a preset lifespan artificial? Aren't there insects (possibly male dragonflies if I remember rightly) that die immediately after mating?

[PurpleYouko]

I think it can be quite realistic and should be available to us.

However the way to implement it is most likely with scripts rather than any other kind of hard coding.

we could use one such as

If Bot age > 20,000 then kill bot.

or

if bot has just reproduced then kill bot.

With a good script system there are few if any limits to the fun stuff we can do.

[Ulciscor]

Can't we do that now, by shooting out an energy shot with 100% of the bot's energy?

[PurpleYouko]

Well actually no because there is a limit of 1000 on a -2 shot but that isn't the point.

The only way you could do this now is from DNA and that is subjec to change with mutation.

The script system is totally independent of the DNA and is able to control all manner of stuff, even down to changing physical constants in the sim.

A script like this would be possible.

If bot DNA length > 1000 then increase cost per DNA execution to 5

It would be a way to control DNA length within the sim.

[Griz]

 
A don't think a 'preset lifespan' is a great idea. It sounds to artificial to me.

artificial? do you expect to live forever Henk? ;)

I think setting a 'maximum' is indeed a valid simulation of life as we know it ...
I once wrote my own version of the classic Conway's LIFE ...
only I could set a maximum life span ...
the results were most excellent! ... no more clogging up the board with thousands
of 'beings' that never changed. this made the results much more dynamic and
interesting ... and I discovered some great, simply, glider engines.
also ... assigned various colors to correspond to the 'age' ...
which also resulted in very interesting/eye pleasing displays and patterns.

one never knows what the result of a simple change will be ...
what will come of it ... that's evolution ...
and it includes our programming efforts. ;)

I think the idea of a script to set a max life span is a great one!!!
and this idea of scripts itself ... to be something that we will find
to be of great value.

~griz~
ps ... that Life prog was in VB ...
ironically ... I lost everything I ever wrote in VB while trying to save the files
to a place where they would be safe.  :
the only data I have ever lost was lost in just this way ...
while trying to protect it. :angry: Grrrrrrrrrrr!
perhaps I will get back into VB again now ... DB having inspired me.

[Old Henk]

I think it can be quite realistic and should be available to us.

However the way to implement it is most likely with scripts rather than any other kind of hard coding.

we could use one such as

If Bot age > 20,000 then kill bot.

or

if bot has just reproduced then kill bot.

OK, you convinced me! I am really looking forward to the possibilities of an enchanced script system.

Henk

[PurpleYouko]

Biggest problem I am trying to work out is how to have every bot check every script on every cycle without a massive hit on speed.  :wacko:

[Numsgil]

Well actually it's not too bad.

See, it's order of complexity O(n), sicne you check every bot once.  Compare this to checking what bots can see what other bots, O(n^2) currently, possibly O(nlogn) later on, and it becomes a meer pittance.

[PurpleYouko]

Actually that is a good point.

Mathematically it shouldn't take too long for each bot to scan down to the bottom of the list of scripts on each cycle. It will only need to act if the script applies to it.

[Numsgil]

If most of the scripts apply to things the bot can easily check, such as age, nrg, etc. then it's real easy.

Mutation scripts, like "x happens if you mutate y", are slightly more difficult.  You should probably check against those as they happen.

[PurpleYouko]

Actually I think those are easier.

As you say they just need to be checked when a robot is born and not every cycle. They are really a different type of script and should be kept in a separate place.