Darwinbots Forum
Bots and Simulations => Evolution and Internet Sharing Sims => Topic started by: EricL on September 12, 2007, 12:45:30 AM
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I use the same code to teleport bots between sims as that used for moving bots from one side of the field to the other in toroidal sims. In both cases, all the cells/bots of a multibot get teleported together at the same time (up to a hard-coded limit of 50).
Each connected sim in Internet mode (or in your own private teleporter connected multi-sim) can be thought of as defensible space - a place where bots of the same species can kill off all competitors and become local rulers, having the advatnage of numbers over any individual bots of different species which happen to get teleported in from another sim (where they may be the ones which have the advantage). Even if a new species is more effecient, has better aim or vision or what not than the defenders, the less effective "native" bots may still be able to sucessfully defend their sim from incursions due to their larger numbers. This could result in a stable situation where different internet connected sims are "owned" and defended by different species over the long term. That is, unless interlopers learn to form multi-bot clusters so that they can get teleported together in sufficient numbers to win out over the defenders. Thus, selection may favor multi-botness in Internet mode as it lets you teleport to other sims in a single hop with greater numbers.
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I've sorta noticed this too. There's a definite advantage to getting teleported as a cluster of 50 bots. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, though. It's definitely an artifact of the simulation.
Of course, I don't really have a more fair way of moving multibots from sim to sim.
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That just gave me an idea for when I learn to code bots...
A swarm that can recognize teleporters, and when it sees one and has enough swarm members, they all tie together into a blob and go through, then they break the ties and swarm once on the other side... Brilliant! Now, if I can only figure out how to make it happen... And get IM to work so I can test it...
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That just gave me an idea for when I learn to code bots...
A swarm that can recognize teleporters, and when it sees one and has enough swarm members, they all tie together into a blob and go through, then they break the ties and swarm once on the other side... Brilliant! Now, if I can only figure out how to make it happen... And get IM to work so I can test it...
Uhm, one small point there. Bots can't recocnise teleporters yet(I think).
It is a smart idea through, a nasty way to conquer IM.
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Actually I think that's something Eric is either working on or has done recently (relatively recently).
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Actually, hiding the IM teleporter is deliberate on my part so as to avoid this very tactic or at leat make it difficult. I do plan in the future to enhance shapes, which can be visible, so that they can do a variety of things from provide nrg to perhaps teleport intra-sim or even between private sims, allowing those teleporters to essentially be visible, but I think the IM teleporter should be invisible at least for now to make this kind of swarming attack harder (but not impossible).
There is nothing to prevent very smart bots from using clever ways to figure out where the IM teleporter is. IM teleportation is not random. The IM teleporter drifts from one place to another, potentially leaving a path of disappearing bots. One can imagine a bot probing for the existence of the IM teleporter by watching other bots disappear or even actively launching low-nrg offspring and watching to see if they disappear for some unexplained reason....
I should also point out that multi-bots get teleported all together, so one might imagine a bot that forms multi-bot clusters in it's home sim or one that it has conquered but separates once teleported to a new sim (determined by the ratio or *.totalmyspecies to *.totalbots) so as to arrive in numbers....
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One can imagine a bot probing for the existence of the IM teleporter by watching other bots disappear or even actively launching low-nrg offspring and watching to see if they disappear for some unexplained reason....
I figure a fast reproducing multibot would probably be enough for that. I'm thinking of giving another shot at internet mode, using a special copy for that of my evosim I'm running.