Hydra

Bot Name

Hydra

What's special about it?

The movement's pretty unique.

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

https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/pclark/kc.serpent.Hydra_0.11.jar

How competitive is it?

We'll see.

How does it move?

WaveSurfing with DynamicClustering. I added some pretty interesting features to it such as multiple weighting systems and rolling averages. Besides the danger calculation, it is identical to WaveSerpent's movement.

How does it fire?

The same as WaveSerpent: a dynamic clustering gun with scans segmented on velocity and acceleration.

How does it dodge bullets?

WaveSurfing.

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

There's currently no melee strategy.

What does it save between rounds and matches?

It saves gun and surfing data between rounds, nothing between matches.

Where did you get the name?

The Hydra is an almost unkillable beast from Greek mythology.

Can I use your code?

Sure, it's released under the terms of the RWPCL.

What's next for your robot?

Improve its behavior against simple targeters.
Eventually rewrite it completely.

Does it have any WhiteWhales?

WaveSurfers I guess...

What other robot(s) is it based on?

WaveSerpent

Comments, questions, feedback:

So what's the story behind Hydra? =) --David Alves

Well, it's basically WaveSerpent with dynamic clustering for movement. I originally made it just to get into the TopTenDCParty, but I have higher hopes now :). -- Kev

Man, Hydra at 2098.93!! =) Crossing my fingers for you. When's the next release coming? -- Voidious

Hopefully soon, but Hydra is stubbornly resisting all of my attempts to tweak it. My initially assigned variables don't like to be changed for some reason, but its only a matter of time before I find something that works... -- Kev

Well, you can count on my 2 clients running for the rest of the night. Good luck with 0.21 dude! -- Voidious

Greate score! Normally, people (except ABC and Corbos) change from VCS to DC in order to get in TopTenDCParty. Now every pair of bot (except you) has it's VCS version better than it's DC version! --Nat