R100K Software Challenge

[Solitude]

I only quickly scanned through the rules part of the site but it doesn't look like it mentions a specific program. Most likely the bots will play against each other. Or you as a person can play against a bot. If there isn't a graphical interface to play against a bot then I'll see if I can create one for us on Saturday. No promises though, free time is limited.

Plus I may be completely wrong though and there may actually already be such a program to just plug the bot into. Will have to go read properly tonight.

[Faultyboy]

I only quickly scanned through the rules part of the site but it doesn't look like it mentions a specific program. Most likely the bots will play against each other. Or you as a person can play against a bot. If there isn't a graphical interface to play against a bot then I'll see if I can create one for us on Saturday. No promises though, free time is limited.

Plus I may be completely wrong though and there may actually already be such a program to just plug the bot into. Will have to go read properly tonight.

That sounds awesome... Ill keep my fingers crossed...

Yeah I see how it would work just playing the bots against each other but then all the bots game.state files should be somewhat uniform or structured the same so that all the bots are compatible.. I would like to play the game a bit and retrieve the state.file to see what it looks like to create my bot around it..

Hope I'm making sense..

[Entelect]

That sounds awesome... Ill keep my fingers crossed...

Yeah I see how it would work just playing the bots against each other but then all the bots game.state files should be somewhat uniform or structured the same so that all the bots are compatible.. I would like to play the game a bit and retrieve the state.file to see what it looks like to create my bot around it..

Hope I'm making sense..

Hi Guys,

Each 'bot' will indeed face off against other 'bots' in a tournament style face-off. We will provide the custom 'broker' program which initiates each move and provides the current game state file to each bot. We will also be providing a 3D game interface which can be viewed online (this will come in the next few weeks) and will be useful for testing your bot with.

It won't be necessary to download any external games or programs - as long as you code your player to the specification and make sure that the game.state file format is consistent with the technical specification.

Again, once the test-bed is up and running this should give you a good opportunity to make sure your player works!

[Faultyboy]

Hi Guys,

Each 'bot' will indeed face off against other 'bots' in a tournament style face-off. We will provide the custom 'broker' program which initiates each move and provides the current game state file to each bot. We will also be providing a 3D game interface which can be viewed online (this will come in the next few weeks) and will be useful for testing your bot with.

It won't be necessary to download any external games or programs - as long as you code your player to the specification and make sure that the game.state file format is consistent with the technical specification.

Again, once the test-bed is up and running this should give you a good opportunity to make sure your player works!

Thank you , you should probably add this info the the website so others don't get confused..

It will be an interesting project.. Can't wait

[Entelect]

Thank you , you should probably add this info the the website so others don't get confused..

It will be an interesting project.. Can't wait

Thanks Faultyboy - we are in the process of adding a FAQ to the site which will have all this and more. Should be up this evening. in the mean time if anyone has any Q's please contact us on challenge@entelect.co.za.

[broloks]

Hi Entelect,

Are the starting positions of the 2 bots always the same, and if so what are the coordinates on the sphere?

[gkm]

Looks like an interesting challenge.

One question, can the cycles just wrap around the sides, or can they go over the "pole" as well? Put in other words, if your start location is (0, 0); are the legal next locations just the following three:
(0, 1), (1, 0) and (30, 0)
or is up and over to the "north pole" to any other position (x, 0) also a legal move?

[nakedpeanut]

I have some more questions regarding the boundary of this sphere.

Is point (0,0) and (30,0) the same point? Or are they just connected, so you can go from (0,0) to (30,0)?
If they are the same point does that not make every (x,0) the same point?
If every (x,0) point is not the same, then does (0/30,0) map to (15,0) and thus (1,0) to (16,0); (2,0) to (17,0); ....; (14,0) to (29,0) ?

Also is every (0,x) mapped to every (30,x) as being the same point?
So if I have a wall from (0,0) to (0,30) can the opponent have one from (30,0) to (30,30) or not?

Edit: Sorry if I'm over thinking this

[nakedpeanut]

And one more Question.
If my player is boxed in, can't go down, up, left or right due. How should the program respond, since any new state already has an object there, or will the test framework already have known this was the case and not even proceed with my next move?

[mcryan]

Looks like fun, I might give it a bash!

[Faultyboy]

can you make a complete circle around the sphere on both the X and the Y? How does it work when going over the poles? can you go from (15,30) to (15, 0) or (30,30) to (30,0) by going down one?

[nakedpeanut]

My assumption is think of it like a map of the earth and how that works, in their description it wraps around on the horizontal, not the vertical, thus you can't go straight from (30,30) to (30,0), you have to go (30,30) -> (30,29) -> (30,28) etc

[Entelect]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the questions! Appreciate the participation happening here!
Please head over to our new FAQ section on the challenge website and see if your question is answered there

http://challenge.entelect.co.za/Home/FAQ

If you don't have any luck with that, please drop us an email with your question at challenge@entelect.co.za.

This will allow us to manage our responses a little better.

Thanks again.
Tim

[Faultyboy]

"once you’ve moved onto that extreme point you can move off it again to any point on the x axis. For example, you could move from (1, 1) to (1, 0) and then exit the top of the sphere on the other side to appear at (15, 1)."

Thanks so we can go over the poles..

Looks like I'm going to have no free time for the next 2 months..

[pookfuzz]

think of the board as a donut rather.

Does the board always start empty?
Do the players always start at the same locations?