Neo

"What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?"

"No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to."

Author

Extends

What's special about it?

It tries to shoot incoming bullets. Doesn't work all the time, but with AgentSmith out there I thought I had an opening for this bot. I'd love to fix this collision issue.

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

Not yet...

How competitive is it?

Not very, so far it just sits there and fires head on at the enemy when it fires, using an algorithm to have it hit at the right moment. It either works fairly well, or doesnt work at all, I think it has to do with double precision on a tick basis...

How does it move?

It doesnt

How does it fire?

It fires at bullets going towards it.

How does it dodge bullets?

It blows them up

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

Hmm, it would probably totally freak out in melee.

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

It doesnt

What does it save between rounds and matches?

Nothing

Where did you get the name?

The Matrix

Can I use your code?

If you really want to.

What's next for your robot?

I want to figure out why the bullet collisions dont register most of the time.

Does it have any WhiteWhales?

Hmm, depending on if Im lucky or not it will either survive through some of the top bots,

What other robot(s) is it based on?

Well I got the idea both from my victory dance (I shoot my own bullets), AgentSmith, and the Matrix quote.

Comments, questions, feedback:

If anyone knows anything about shooting bullets and why it doesnt work all the time, please let me know. -- Jokester

A quick note: In testing I have found an interesting thing. Against TrackFire (thats been my main test bot) TrackFire is given 15 to 20 survival firsts in a 10 round battle. Strange bug there. I think it has to do with being killed at the end of each round (when the bullets dont collide they will kill each other in the end, with track fire getting it first since it always fires first) -- Jokester

If I am correct, bullets are handled as a line with length 8. The chance to hit a line head-on (1 pixel) is not that high. Shooting bullets from a bit sideways has a much bigger chance, but then you have to move. You could always try to shoot bullets of 2.49 power at the end, then you can shoot one tick earlier the next time, and the bullets are a bit faster too. With a bit of luck the enemy is killed and you are registered as the winner before you are killed. -- GrubbmGait

Cool! I remember someone else trying to do something similar to this before. I can't remember the author or the bot though. But with a bot named Neo out there, its giving me more incentive to get AgentSmith finished so I can crush Neo! :) --wolfman

Check SineSweep and BulletShielding. -- GrubbmGait

Well at the moment I am using a formula that takes the fastest possible time until a collision (assuming they are moving along the same line) and then varying my speed so that that time is an integer. The two reasons that that wont work are either the gun isnt exactly aligned with the target when I shoot, or that there is a double precision error that is causing the bullets to register at a slightly different location. I have a similar issue with my victory dance (if you download PheonixM and let it win youll see what it does) where about 25% of the time the bullets dont hit each other, while with the exact same variables they sometimes do. I might try getting Neo to move to the same X or Y as the other robot in order to keep the bullets on the same line, but I dont think that will be particularly effective. -- Jokester

Nice stuff GrubbmGait, I should have seen this earlier. This has been bugging me for a bit, but its nice to know how it works now. -- Jokester