PulsarMax

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Version History - Archived Talk 20041002

PulsarMax
Author(s)	Pulsar
Extends	AdvancedRobot
Targeting	GuessFactor Targeting
Movement	Wave Surfing
Current Version	0.8.9
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Background Information

PulsarMax is my attempt at a really sophisticated robot. One on One only for now. As a software architect/developer I couldn't stand doing it any other way than using different classes and general stuff, so no code size restrictions :) First of my bots which has more than distance segmentation for targeting and the first which has a decent movement. Been working on it for quite a few weeks before releasing the first version (0.1).

What's special about it?

It's a pretty strong all-around bot.

How competitive is it?

Very strong - currently #13 in RoboRumble General 1v1, top 40 in Melee.

Strategy

How does it move?

Wave Surfer mainly. Selects other movements under specific circumstances.

How does it fire?

Multiple GuessFactor Targeting guns with waves.

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

It tries to stay away from everyone else and the middle of the battlefield. It also tries to avoid head on and linear targeting.

What does it save between rounds and matches?

Matches: Nothing. Rounds: Movement and targeting stats.

Additional Information

Where did you get the name?

My alias is Pulsar, MAX is something me and my colleagues tend to add to software stuff when we want a new and improved version :)

Can I use your code?

No, PulsarMax is closed source.

What's next for your robot?

I still have a long todo list, some things are fairly basic too actually. More and better segmentation for the targetings. Faster learning for targetings. Code refactoring. Dynamic data segmentation (looking forward to this one!), a secret targeting thing, selection based targeting, etc.

Goals:

• Get into top 20 -Done
• Get over 1900 score -Done
• Get 1930+ score -Done
• Get a a stable Top-10 ranking in the general 1v1. -Done
• Get 1970+ score -Done
• Get a higher ranking than SandboxDT -Done
• Win against SandboxDT -Done
• Have a higher score than any smaller bot size (mini, micro, etc) -Done: July 31, 2004
• 2000+ score -Done: July 31, 2004
• 2040+ score -Done: Nov 25, 2004
• 2050+ score -Done: Dec 6, 2004
• Top 5 -Done: Dec 6, 2004
• Top 3 -Done: Feb 24, 2005
• Top 2 1-on-1
• Top 10 Melee
• We'll see...

What other robot(s) is it based on?

SnippetBot! Lots of things from the Wiki! Uses Albert's FuturePosition for now. Inspirations are from persons rather than bots I guess as the wiki is the source of many ideas. I tend to read and take notes. Everyone seems very helpful and I hope I can return the favour to some small amount one day. Especially PEZ has helped a lot and while no code of his is directly in use in PulsarMax he has inspired and given hints. The actual gun segmentations are fairly similar to some older version of CassiusClay.