Gnome

History

26.11.04 - v1.2 - Rating 1565.57 after 24 matches! Nanoladder: 48/58 (17,24%)
Modified the gun back again, not because I didn't benefit from it, but because 250 byte is tiny and I had to prioritize... :/ Changed the movement and now changes direction not based on random(), but on enemy energy. This is to notice when the enemy fires a bullet. Codesize still 249.

24.11.04 - v1.1 - Rating 1644.55 after 1261 matches! Nanoladder: 31/58 (46,55%) General: 184/324 (43,21%)
Added pathsmoothing wall avoidance and made an adjustment to the gun. However, I can no longer control the radar without becoming a MicroBot, so it's just running wild. Annoying, but necessary I guess. Codesize = 249

22.11.04 - v1.0 - Rating 1587.78 after 311 matches! Nanoladder: 45/58 (22,41%)
Just got out. Let's fix it and see if we can get to number 1 without a freakin pm gun. Codesize = 249.

The percentage behind the ladderpositions is a measurement i use.

1 - (<position>/<total number of bots>) = x%

50% = middle, 0% = bottom, ca.100% = top.
This index actually never reaches 100%. First place on general ladder will get: 1-(1/324) = 99,69%
Index comes closer to 100% the more robots you beat. First place on nanoladder: 1-(1/58) = 98,28%

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Author

toz

What's special about it?

It's a NanoBot! I created it for a NanoBot challange vs Trab.

Great, I want to try it. Where can I download it?

https://www.stud.ntnu.no/~steffent/arkiv/robot/files/toz.Gnome_1.1.jar

How competitive is it?

Because of it's small size and dumb master, it is at best average. It is more of an allroundbot than a NanoBot-killer.

How does it move?

It turns to stay perpendicular to the enemy, and changes direction based on enemy energy. When close to walls, it turns to avoid to smash into the walls, however it the curve is too steep, it will change direction ("bounce back").

How does it fire?

It uses a bearing gun.

How does it dodge bullets?

It doesn't. It changes movement direction using random() and "bounces" when driving towards walls.

How does the melee strategy differ from one-on-one strategy?

It has no melee strategy, and the radar is suitable for one-on-one only. Never tried it in melee, but I assume it get crushed pretty easily.

How does it select a target to attack/avoid in melee?

The Gnome's radar is running wild, so there is no telling what will happen in a Melee fight. It would probably just get confused and die.

What does it save between rounds and matches?

Nothing.

Where did you get the name?

Gnomes are small.

Can I use your code?

Sure, but since the code is small, I would recommend to keep it out of reach of young children.

What's next for your robot?

Don't know. Let's see what I might cook up as we go.

Does it have any WhiteWhales?

This bot was created for a single purpose, to kill Trab's AinippeNano. I managed to kill it when we both were at v1.0, but not anymore...

What other robot(s) is it based on?

I started on MyFirstRobot, whiped the editor clean, and started from scratch.

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Comments, questions, feedback:

I'd wait for a few hundred battles before putting that rating up top. It can change a lot early. I look forward to watching this bot climb the ladder and yes, it can be accomplished without a pm; Freddie doesn't have one and neither does PulsarNano, I believe. Yay, nanobot competition! -- Alcatraz

Maybe I am not a serious person. I also see that my dream of becoming master of the NanoBots requires more than 2 days work. -- Toz

Nonsense. It only took me 2 days work to become master of the NanoBots. Of course, I was already reaching the top 10 for minibots at the time... -- Kawigi

Well, this is my first bot on the ladder :) -- Toz

The shortest way that I found, here somewhere on the Wiki, to control the radar is as follows:
In your main:(not in the loop)

setTurnRadarRight( Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY);

In your onScannedRobot:

// Always oscillate the radar!
setTurnRadarLeft( getRadarTurnRemaining());

Hope this helps. --GrubbmGait

Well, that is what I am doing now :) setTurnRadarRight(Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY), that is... I had a pretty ok radar system earlier, it just didn't fit in this one. NanoBots are small! -- Toz

I know, my smallest bot is a micro. This 'simpler' radar doesn't hurt your ranking though, a jump from place 45 to 21 is quite impressive. --GrubbmGait

When the radar is just rotating, it will only scan the enemy about every eighth time. In a larger bot this is too weak, but people have lower expectations for NanoBots. Btw, how the f(bleep) can I beat Freddie? He's a maniac! Good job programming that thing, Alcatraz -- Toz

What kind of radar you need is determined by your gun and movement. Many nanos use a radar lock. -- PEZ

I didn't have room for one... At least not in this version. I will try to make it a tradition for me to only publish NanoBots with a codesize of 249. If there is more room, a feature can be added or improved! -- Toz

It seems that you and trab have different starting-points. You have created a 'quite well against everybody' bot, while he made a real 'nano-crusher' which does less against bigger bots. If your goal is to become nr 1 in nanoland, trab's view is better ;-)
Btw, you're still defeating all of my attempts except for the latest. --GrubbmGait

Hm.. I don't know what's better... Creating a bot solely for being good on the nano-ladder, or going for a better score in general. The first involves creating a direct counter to the NanoBots movement and (mostly linear) targeting, while the other creates more of a challenge in my opinion. The best would be to create a good NanoBot which incorporates these counters, but still won't get crushed too easily by larger size bots. -- Toz

Btw, I only get 30% or so vs all your bots with large negative problembot indexes. We seem to be programming different types of bots :P -- Toz

I ment to say: you're still outranking all of my . . .
Different bots just make it more interesting. --GrubbmGait

Sure do! -- Toz

Version 1.2 of my bot was terrible... Back to 1.1 while I try to figure this out -- Toz