Topics

31

Veggies / Alga Sparsi (V)(Elite)-01.06.06

« on: June 01, 2006, 11:06:24 AM »

' Alga Sparsi
'
' Spreads out across the field
' rather than remaining in small
' colonies

cond
 *.robage 0 =
start
 0 .fixpos store
 32000 .tielen1 store
 32000 .tielen2 store
stop

cond
 *.robage 5 >
 *.velscalar 10 <
 *.fixed 0 =
start
 1 .fixpos store
stop

cond
 *.fixed 1 =
 *.nrg 4000 >
 *.numties 0 =
start
 .repro inc
 1256 rnd .setaim *.eye5 sgn mult store
stop

end

32

Bug reports / Bugs in 2.42.5

« on: May 29, 2006, 10:34:31 AM »

Phantom Shots

How to get the bug:

Start a sim with a combat bot. After it's run for a couple of cycles, enough for the bots to start trying to eat a few vegs, click the "Start new simulation" button. Don't touch any of the settings and start a new sim (but start it paused this time). Cycle through a couple of cycles, keeping the sim paused, and you will see some shots magically appear out of nowhere.

Here's what's happening (or what I think's happening):

If you start a new sim while a new sim is in progress, the shots that are on the field at that time aren't cleared, so when the new sim starts, they are still there.

However, if you remove the bot that fired the original shots, the 'phantom shots' will not appear

33

Suggestions / Dynamic sizes

« on: May 26, 2006, 03:46:09 PM »

I would seriously think about including the option in 2.4, of being able to toggle them on and off, from how it is now in 2.4, to how it was in 2.37.6

When I compare my combat bots in 2.37.6 and in 2.4, it's the dynamic sizes that stand out. I end up with lots of small bots, which affects their combat ability and looks messier (and the shot ranges are massive compared to the bots themselves, which leads to shots flying everywhere messily)

How easy/difficult would it be to add the option - just a simple tick-box somewhere?

34

Bugs and fixes / Vegs falling off the screen

« on: May 16, 2006, 12:09:41 PM »

When using both vertical gravity and planet eaters in a non-toridial sim ...

... this happens:



The vegs fall off the screen into an area below the field

Here is a saved sim demonstrating the odd behavior:

35

Evolution and Internet Sharing Sims / Planets sim

« on: May 15, 2006, 12:16:38 PM »

Inspired by Eric's Pacific Island Sim I've been constructing 'planets' out of vegs with planet eaters in order to build a 'planet of the bots'  

I have been experimenting with different settings and soon found that I had to give vegs a very high population limit and little (or no) energy per turn. Large vegs form unstable, 'earthquake-prone' planets that bots tend to slip through.

So my first design challenge is to encourage many small bots. A more difficult task than it sounds since small vegs get bigger.

Oh, I've got it - give the vegs no energy and they'll die, but keep repopulating the field with a constant rain of bots!

Feel free to try yourselves

36

Bot Tavern / Leagues

« on: May 14, 2006, 03:28:27 PM »

I've been thinking about leagues ...

Griz had an idea a while back about a 'league' where bots had to complete challeges like running mazes. Wouldn't it be so cool to build 'mazebots'. Maybe when walls are working ...

I had a thought recently - how about a 'pond league', where buoyancy could be used. It would allow for some interesting tactics and strategies.
Top-bottom wrap would be disabled.
Maybe PY's floating, pond veg Alga Stratificus could be used in this league, either in addition to Alga Minimalis or replacing it.

How about a 'flying', 'gravity league'?

The 'gravity league' may use pond mode too, so bots could float against gravity using buoyancy settings.

Another thought I had was a 'team league'. Two 'bot teams' compete in an empty arena with no vegs and no costs

How about a 'king of the hill' league, with one massive, sterile veg in the center of the arena and the other bots fighting to control it.
Of course, no interfering with the veg (changing it's memory values)
A fun variant of this game might be to have the veg slowly rotate and spray out ultra-powerful shots.

Thoughts? Other ideas?

37

Bugs and fixes / Major shot and energy bug

« on: May 09, 2006, 11:12:15 AM »

Here you can see a fixed bot shot feeding

• It seems to have a non-integer amount of energy, body and waste. This is weird in itself
• Even though it just sits there feeding it isn't actually gaining any energy at all

There seems to be a strange violation of conservation of energy here
Some other strange things also happen, like a bot dying suddenly

I belive PY noticed that bots were not gaining energy from feeding and were dying suddenly

38

Tips and Tricks / Bot combat tips

« on: May 04, 2006, 12:40:47 PM »

There are two ways you can beat another bot in a league:

• Outreproduce your enemy (like the Zerg)
• Be better at individual combat (like the Protoss)

Here, you can post tips for the second option: Beating your enemy in one-on-one combat

***

Messing up your enemy:

.setaim .shoot store
*.aim .shootval store

^ This gene will cause an enemy to face away from you, even if they are facing away to start with. It is very effective.

***

Counterattacking:

cond
*.shflav 0 !=
*.shflav -2 !=
start
*.shang .aimshoot store
32 .shootval store
-6 .shoot store
0 .shflav store
stop

^ If shot, a bot with this gene will shoot back with deadly powered-up shots

cond
*.eye5 0 =
*.refeye *.myeye = or
*.refshoot 0 = or
*.shflav 0 !=
*.shflav -2 !=
start
942 *.shang sub .setaim store
0 .shflav store
stop

^ A bot with this gene will immediately turn to face an attacker if no bots, a conpec or a veg, is in sight

***

Accuracy:

*.refxpos *.refypos angle .setaim store

^ This gene will aim you at an enemy with very high precision

***

Anyone got any other tips?

39

Bugs and fixes / Saving and loading in 2.4

« on: May 03, 2006, 05:22:29 PM »

My sim won't load. You can get it in the 'shortest evobot' topic.

I think Testlund found that his save got courupted too ... this needs to be adressed

40

Off Topic / Leagues

« on: April 30, 2006, 08:49:49 AM »

How do you run leagues using DB?
It just crashes saying it couldn't find a certain league file when I try to run one

I might be inclined to run some  
(but probably in 2.37.6 for now since combat bots don't work as well in 2.4X due to the physics changes, dynamic sizes and some remaining problems with ties)

41

Short bots / Una 3.0 (1G)(Elite)-29.04.06

« on: April 29, 2006, 05:07:31 PM »

Code: [Select]

'Una
'
'Who needs conditions?

def IDcode 964
def parent 965

cond
start
.tie *.robage -1 mult 1 add mult inc
.deltie inc
.fixpos *.fixed mult dec
*.refveldx .dx *.eye5 sgn mult *.memval 42 sub dup mult sgn *.refeye *.myeye sub dup mult sgn add sgn mult store
*.refvelup 60 add .up *.eye5 -1 mult 45 add sgn mult *.memval 42 sub dup mult sgn *.refeye *.myeye sub dup mult sgn add sgn mult *.eye5 sgn mult store
42 .IDcode *.robage -1 mult 1 add mult store
.IDcode .memloc *.robage -1 mult 1 add mult store
-6 .shoot *.eye5 0 sub sgn 1 add sgn mult *.eye5 40 sub sgn 1 add sgn -1 add -1 mult mult *.memval 42 sub dup mult sgn *.refeye *.myeye sub dup mult sgn add sgn mult *.eye5 sgn mult store
-8 .shootval *.eye5 0 sub sgn 1 add sgn mult *.eye5 40 sub sgn 1 add sgn -1 add -1 mult mult *.memval 42 sub dup mult sgn *.refeye *.myeye sub dup mult sgn add sgn mult *.eye5 sgn mult store
-6 .shoot *.refpoison sgn *.refshell sgn -1 mult 1 add add sgn mult *.eye5 45 sub sgn 1 add sgn mult *.memval 42 sub dup mult sgn *.refeye *.myeye sub dup mult sgn add sgn mult *.eye5 sgn mult store
-1 .shoot *.refshell sgn mult *.refpoison sgn -1 mult 1 add mult *.eye5 45 sub sgn 1 add sgn mult *.memval 42 sub dup mult sgn *.refeye *.myeye sub dup mult sgn add sgn mult *.eye5 sgn mult store
16 .shootval *.eye5 45 sub sgn 1 add sgn mult *.memval 42 sub dup mult sgn *.refeye *.myeye sub dup mult sgn add sgn mult *.eye5 sgn mult store
*.refvelup .up *.eye5 45 sub sgn 1 add sgn mult *.memval 42 sub dup mult sgn *.refeye *.myeye sub dup mult sgn add sgn mult *.eye5 sgn mult store
*.refxpos *.refypos angle .setaim *.memval 42 sub dup mult sgn *.refeye *.myeye sub dup mult sgn add sgn mult *.robage sgn mult *.eye5 35 sub sgn mult store
314 rnd .aimdx *.memval 42 sub dup mult sgn -1 add -1 mult *.refeye *.myeye sub dup mult sgn -1 add -1 mult mult *.eye5 sgn -1 add -1 mult add sgn mult store
628 .aimdx *.parent mult store
.parent *.parent mult dec
40 .repro *.body 100 *.robage add sub sgn mult *.nrg 1000 sub sgn 1 add sgn mult store
628 .aimdx *.body 100 *.robage add sub sgn mult *.nrg 1000 sub sgn 1 add sgn mult store
0 .shoot *.body 100 *.robage add sub sgn mult *.nrg 1000 sub sgn 1 add sgn mult store
.parent *.body 100 *.robage add sub sgn mult *.nrg 1000 sub sgn 1 add sgn mult inc
100 .strbody *.nrg 1000 sub sgn mult store
*.body 100 ceil .fdbody *.nrg -1 mult 100 add sgn mult *.body sgn mult store
*.tiepres .tienum *.numties sgn mult *.robage 1 sub sgn mult store
.tieval .tieloc *.numties sgn mult *.robage 1 sub sgn mult store
1000 .tieval *.numties sgn mult *.robage 1 sub sgn mult store
*.waste .shootval *.waste 10 sub sgn mult store
-4 .shoot *.waste 10 sub sgn mult store
.delgene inc .delgene inc
stop

end

42

Evolution and Internet Sharing Sims / 'Gardener' bots for evosims

« on: April 28, 2006, 03:21:16 PM »

You could use sterile bots that exert selective pressures and maintain your sim in real time

I had an idea of introducing an artificial 'predator' into some of my evosims that culled the weak bots, big berthas and other 'undesirables' so as to push evolution along.

You could even have some that fire energy at 'good' bots

Interesting concept?

Ideas? Possibilities?

43

Suggestions / DB Biochemistry

« on: April 28, 2006, 03:15:27 PM »

For compilation and discussion of our thoughts on DB biochemistry. This includes the chemicals involved in metabolism, the make-up of the bots themselves and other substances (including the chemicals that the envirogrid will have to deal with)

We currently have the metabolism system, that models chemicals as binary strings
eg. 01010001
With 1 signifying the presence of a chemical group and 0 signifying the lack of a chemical group

Can we do better?

How are we going to model the properties of these chemicals?

Maybe we should move towards having everything in DB dependant on a universal biochemistry ie. bot bodies, shots etc.

I also think we should give DNA a physical representation in the DBverse and allow it's movement around the sim, this could allow HGT, viruses etc.

If we have everything in DB coming from a universal biochemistry we may also solve the virus problem - there may be some chemicals that viruses can use to facilitate access to the cell.

Maybe we should have seperate 'behavioral', 'structural' (ie. for cell specialisation) and 'metabolic' DNA?

44

Suggestions / Poll - New Virus Paradigm Proposal

« on: April 26, 2006, 05:02:25 PM »

  Proposed New Virus Paradigm  

Sysvars

.vrepro ~ a virus can replicate by placing a number in this sysvar
.retro ~ a virus can insert some of its own DNA into it's host's genome using this sysvar

.mkvirus ~ create a new virus (from the specified codule number)
.mkretro ~ create a new retrovirus (from the specified codule number)

Methods of infection

• Feeding - If a 'healthy' bot feeds on an 'infected' bot then there is a chance that some viruses will return to the attacking bot as it recieves energy from the infected bot.
• Death - If an infected bot dies the all the viruses contained in it will be scattered with the 'poof', bursting out of the cell and infecting any nearby bots. If they don't hit anything, the viruses will slow to a stop and linger for a short time before vanishing

Order of execution

When viruses enter a host cell, they are added to a 'viral stack' and all executed in order every cycle. The viruses that were there first are executed first.

Retroviruses

A virus can incorporate some of it's genetic material into it's host using the .retro sysvar. A retrovirus will automatically incorporate itself into it's host's DNA. If a bot uses the .mkretro sysvar to create a retrovirus, then it will stay in the bot until passed on to another bot, at which point it will permanently insert into it's host's genome.

Reducing your chances of infection

Your chances of infection will be reduced by having slime layer. The more slime you have the greater chance you have of not being infected if a virus hits you. If you have no slime then an incoming virus will infect you by default.

When metabolism etc. is implemented, there will be ways configure viruses for various cell materials etc. For the moment I'm sticking with slime.

Mutations

Viruses will mutate when made or copied (.mkvirus, .vrepro etc.) and may also undergo point mutations (at a slightly faster rate than bots), when in a host.

The logic behind my proposal

All I'm doing here is giving genes the tools to spread and making it easier for self-replicating viruses to appear and evolve. 'My' viruses are essentially free floating genes/codules that have learned to reproduce.

HGT is possible with retroviruses. Altzimering into .mkretro (or .mkvirus) may transfer genetic material to another bot. Hopefully, it should be easier for self-replicating viruses to appear and evolve alsongside bots.

The current virus system acts far too much like a shot IMO. It is artificial, overpowered, transitory in evo sims and acts like a weapon rather than a tool for spreading DNA. Our current viruses will also eventually wipe out everything once they are introduced.

I propose that 'controlled' HGT (ie. under the guidance of the bots) should be made the realm of ties, the current virus system should be scrapped and this system should be implemented in it's place.

45

Biology / Immunity in microorganisms

« on: April 26, 2006, 11:05:54 AM »

This is all I'm stuck on in my new virus paradigm proposal ...

What defences do microorganisms have against viral attack?

How do they detect a virus? What do they do if infected?