Something equivalent was mentioned by PEZ elsewhere, but I thought the strategy deserved a page and a discussion of its own. I sketched this idea for my first series of bots, although I never implemented it. It is basically a Movement technique of hiding behind weak bots to avoid being hit in melee battles.
When hit by a bullet, we create a Line2D through the centers of the attacking bot and the weakest bot we can find. This bot is our bomb shelter. We then determine a point on the line that is 'behind' the bomb shelter (ie. the distance to the attacker is greater than the range between the attacker and the bomb shelter) and go to that point. After that, we stay on the line behind our shelter.
Once the shelter's energy level drops too far, we find a new bomb shelter to hide behind.
Also, an obvious strategy would include monitoring both of the two robot's energy levels, and determining when one of the attacker's bullets has hit the bomb shelter, then jumping out of hiding just long enough to fire a bullet at the attacker.
This is all just a thought; as I said I didn't implement it because I went on to 1v1 bots, but could it be done?
Main issues I can think of:
But what do you think?
It seems like most of the best melee bots are targeting the closest enemy, so if the BombShelter is between you and the other bot, the other bot probably isn't even aiming at you, and by being behind him, you're biggest threat is being hit by bullets that missed him. Of course, if you stay on the ray that the bomb shelter has filtered the bullets from, you're probably OK - but remember two things - first, your bomb shelter in practice is not stationary, and second - the one you're trying to be sheltered from probably didn't fire at him as if he was stationary. But you can depend on there not being a bullet at the angle the shelter would have been hit at, so you can go there and be pretty safe at least from that other bot. Meanwhile, don't get shot at or rammed by the shelter. -- Kawigi
It seems that you could implement a simple type of WaveSurfing using this technique. You simply set the risk at the point of the wave that touches the shelterbot to 0, and everywhere else 1. -- Skilgannon
The only problem i foresee is if both bots 'team up' on you (enemy1 targets enemy2, enemy2 dodges enemy1's bullet, enemy1's bullet hits *you*, and enemy2 targets you). (This is not related to your comment Skilgannon) --Starrynte
Yes, it seems another prerequisite would be to stay further from the shelter than the attacker is, so that the shelter goes for the attacker and not you. If someone has already said this, apologies =) -- Skilgannon
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