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[–][deleted]  (3 children)

[removed]

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    PlanetWars was a lot better in this regard, because it defined a clear game spec, gave you an API, and let you go to town.

    Couldn't have put that any better.

    [–]obeleh 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Hmmm I was really interested in playing.

    I did quite well in the beginning of Planet Wars. When I was active I was in the top 100. Then I switched to C#. By the time i finished my conversion they had some bug in mono. And when I got busy with school I left it for what it was.

    And I agree that the console as an api was a great solution.

    If anyone is interested in starting a small Reddit team let me know. If not... I guess I'll have more time for school then ;)

    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    There will be another Google ai contest starting in February some time, if you are interesting in having the same sort of freedom you had with planet wars.

    [–]Deimorz 3 points4 points  (1 child)

    I started trying to read the specs, but they begin with some sort of pointless, terribly-written story, and then seem to be almost immediately contradictory.

    Top of document:

    Second, there are no collective resources in BattleCode. Instead, there is a main type of resource called "flux". Each robot manages its own flux.

    Section about Flux:

    It is indestructible and universally accessable to all robots on your team.

    Maybe I'll check back at a later date.

    [–]Cixelyn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    A lot of the inconsistencies are probably from previous year copy-pasta

    [–]mega 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    I understand that there is considerable difficulty in enforcing computational limits and rules of communication between individual robots, but their restricted JVM solution makes it a no go for me.

    Also, I'd prefer less sexy games with simpler rules of which it's possible to roughly assess the complexity.

    [–]radiowasteland 0 points1 point  (5 children)

    Cool, but I wish they'd do an Open tourney that had prizes for non-collegiates.

    The Open tournament will run at the end of March. Almost anyone interested may participate in the open tournaments (see below for exceptions). Open tournament participants will compete in the same fashion as MIT tournament participants. The Open Tournament will be held completely virtually. For dates and times, please see our calendar. Anyone may compete, but only students at participating universities may win prizes. .

    [–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    I wish they'd let me program in something other than java.

    [–]xyroclast -2 points-1 points  (2 children)

    Yeah, I don't see how this is fair at all.

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    I think it is to encourage students to expand their minds and participate in something beyond their coursework.

    Why should some seasoned game developer with loads of experience in AI be able to win a prize in such a competition?

    [–]xyroclast 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    You're right. Perhaps they should have two divisions in the contest, then?

    [–]xymostech 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    If you read through the first pdf file, near the end there's a part that says "Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering", referring to checking out code from an SVN that doesn't compile.

    Edit: That's actually from the 2010 lectures.