Battle Event - 12th March 2008
This event was held using version 4.3 of the battle framework.
Entrants and Results
Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Total | |||||||
Owner | Name | Language | Placing | Points | Placing | Points | Placing | Points | Points | Placing |
Caleb | HR Exterminator | C# | 8th | 5th | 2 | 8th | 2 | 7th | ||
Cam | Chongy Pull My Finger | C++ | 4th | 4 | 6th | 5th | 2 | 6 | 5th | |
Dave I | Zippy | C++ | 5th | 2 | 1st | 10 | 1st | 10 | 22 | 2nd |
Jeff | 5 | C# | 1st | 10 | 3rd | 6 | 2nd | 8 | 24 | 1st |
Jim | Space Invader | JavaScript | 2nd | 8 | 2nd | 8 | 3rd | 6 | 22 | 2nd |
Matt | Fartacular | Ruby | 3rd | 6 | 8th | 6th | 6 | 5th | ||
Saxon | Penfold | C++ | 7th | 7th | 7th | 8th | ||||
Stephen S | Illuminator 2.1 | C++ | 6th | 4th | 4 | 4th | 4 | 8 | 4th |
Jeff's 5 (56KB) won overall, narrowly beating Space Invader and Zippy, despite Zippy finishing first in two of the three rounds.
Logs
Log files from each round, including who bought what equipment, and what taunt messages were sent.
Screenshots
This event was held on my last day at ISS. I had handed in my computer the day before, and was using a temporary computer for the day. My ineptitude at handling the unfamiliar system resulted in this as the only screenshot I managed to record of the event.
Woeful.
So, the following is a 'dramatised reenactment' of the last two rounds.
The game began with the usual chaos of robots attacking each other.
Before long only Zippy, Space Invader and 5 were left.
Both Space Invader and 5 used defensive strategies, driving around backwards and shooting, in the expectation that other robots would chase them and get shot. Neither took any offensive action (and don't seem to have used their sensor at all).
Space Invader took the approach of firing munitions at the same speed as it was travelling backwards, essentially dropping 'mines' which would stay in position until they timed out after two minutes. Although it took steps to avoid mines it had previously dropped, it would occasionally run into them or shoot itself while dropping them. So given enough time it would kill itself off.
5 took the approach of driving in a loop around the borders, firing randomly. By sticking to the borders it would generally avoid most of the mines dropped by Space Invader, but would still ultimately die by hitting the occasional mine, or by occasionally shooting itself while turning corners.
In both rounds Zippy seemed to get stuck within a cluster of mines from which it was unwilling to move to attack either of the other robots.
From this position, Space Invader and 5 would eventually kill themselves or each other, leaving Zippy as the 'champion'.
Unfortunately for Zippy, it was killed off early in the first round and so didn't receive enough points overall to win the competition.
Curiously, in order to produce these screenshots I ran the competition with the same entrants 20 times, and this situation didn't happen once, even though it happened in two thirds of the games on the day. So I ended up having to fake these screenshots.
And finally, in a fitting farewell for my last ever robot battle, my robot Penfold managed to come dead last! :)
Saxon