Darwinbots Forum

Welcome To Darwinbots => Newbie => Topic started by: asterixx on March 26, 2008, 07:54:55 PM

Title: Hello
Post by: asterixx on March 26, 2008, 07:54:55 PM
I've been interested in these sort of programs for sometime now and I came across your forums and decided to give it a try. It's a wonderful tool clearly capable of really cool things (and I've only spent a day or so figuring out the codes  )

I see there are some people who use this forums more than others; at any rate, greetings all!

I have many questions, many of which I have been able to answer for myself, but 'thank you' to the developer(s) who made the interface very user-friendly. I've browsed these forums up and down and there is no doubt a lot of useful knowledge so I decided to make an introductory post. Oh, and that 1000 hr zerobot thing is amazing!  

Nice meeting you all!

-Asterixx
Title: Hello
Post by: Numsgil on March 26, 2008, 08:13:57 PM
Hi!  Feel free to ask questions.  It gives us something to post about
Title: Hello
Post by: asterixx on March 26, 2008, 08:21:31 PM
Quote from: Numsgil
Hi!  Feel free to ask questions.  It gives us something to post about

Are you a forum troll   ?

 

Actually I do have 2 questions:

1) I obviously got the internet mode working, because I could see EricL's 1200 pop. hunters, but I'm confused about how the system works and more specifically, its purpose: Why should I try IM?

AND

2) Are there advanced commands that exceed the sysvars list located in the installed files? Because one of my bots acquired a ".how" command or something and I have NO idea what it does...

Title: Hello
Post by: EricL on March 26, 2008, 08:41:06 PM
Hi.  Welcome.

1) Interent mode uses the FTP protocol to connect everyone's sims together through a common FTP server.  When you swithc a sim into IM, a "teleporter" is created that floats around and teleports bots between sims more or less randomly.  The idea is to create a giant mega-sim with all sorts of different species and environments utilizing the CPU cycles from many different machines.  You can hand author bots and try to take over other sims (I.e. grow your bot's population) or just watch selection work and the various bots evolve over time.

2) The sysvars file is no longer used.  The list of sysvars is internal to the code now.  With one or two exceptions, they should all be documented on the wiki.  .how is not a sysvar.  If you have questions about a specific sysvar or find something you don't think should be there, sing out!
Title: Hello
Post by: Numsgil on March 26, 2008, 08:47:40 PM
Quote from: asterixx
Quote from: Numsgil
Hi!  Feel free to ask questions.  It gives us something to post about

Are you a forum troll   ?

Heh, probably
Title: Hello
Post by: asterixx on March 26, 2008, 08:49:47 PM
Thankyou for responding so fast!

Ok, well I get an IM log message like 26/03/2008 5:36:56 PM: Error disconnecting Unable to connect to remote host, Im thinking its a firewall issue maybe?

Oh and about the .how thing...I think I remember the mutation looking something like this:

"Insertion changed the .repro command to the advanced command: how at point x during cycle x..."

Thanks  
Title: Hello
Post by: shvarz on March 26, 2008, 08:59:57 PM
Welcome to the DB!
Title: Hello
Post by: EricL on March 26, 2008, 09:02:54 PM
Some connection errors are expected in IM.  Let it run and see if bots come and go.  If the population numbers for other sims (see the Interent Sims graph) change over time, it's working.

It was probably pow not how.  The pow command raises the top number on the stack to the power of the second number on the stack.
Title: Hello
Post by: asterixx on March 26, 2008, 09:10:35 PM
Quote from: EricL
Some connection errors are expected in IM.  Let it run and see if bots come and go.  If the population numbers for other sims (see the Interent Sims graph) change over time, it's working.

It was probably pow not how.  The pow command raises the top number on the stack to the power of the second number on the stack.

OK, thanks.

Oh, and the bots that I'm running are going into the teleporter okay, but they just end up coming back. Will I expect to see different bots coming through the portal, or just my own bots with mutations?
Title: Hello
Post by: EricL on March 26, 2008, 09:15:44 PM
Quote from: asterixx
Oh, and the bots that I'm running are going into the teleporter okay, but they just end up coming back. Will I expect to see different bots coming through the portal, or just my own bots with mutations?
You will see bots from other sims over time but if you are running a smaller, faster-running sim relative to others in IM, then you will teleport out more bots than others and get some of your own bots back since your sim will send more bots out than others (since it is smaller, the probability of bots hitting the teleporter is higher - I plan to fix this soon by scaling the IM teleporter based on sim dimensions) and since it is faster, it will poll more often than the others and suck back some of it's own.  This is by design to prevent faster running sims from swamping attacks.    Patience....  

Title: Hello
Post by: asterixx on March 26, 2008, 09:18:42 PM
Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the help, and its funny you should say that because several of your bots just came through just as I was reading this.

And nice to meet you shvarz!