Guaranteed Hit?

"Guaranteed Hit Targeting" is a term I've only seen mentioned on this page. Based on the fact that Polylunar likes to get in close and ram, am I right to assume that a target cannot evade a bullet if it's fired under a certain distance? Or is there more to it, being a team-only targeting method?

hit rate of max escape angle based random targeting is roughly bot width in radians / max escape angle

max escape angle never changes for the same bullet power, and bot wdith in radians is roughly 18 / distance. Then, as long as the distance is close enough, random hit rate can be close enough to 1, making a hit guaranteed.

note that the actual hit rate formula is harder to calc when edge cases are considered, but the main factors affecting hit rate are still covered.

I use asin(botWidth / (distance - 18)) which takes bot width and the square shape of the bot into account(Isn't it better than botWidth / distance) but I am pretty sure that everybody else uses the formula which calculates the exact width.

asin(botWdith / (distance - 18)) is incorrect because when distance = 18 it gives NaN instead of PI.

if you assume a bot is a circle then asin(botWidth / distance) is correct; if you assume a bot is a square then atan(botWidth / (distance - 18)) is correct as long as absolute bearing from source to target is 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees.

however, a moving bot is neither a circle nor a square, that’s why precise intersection is used.

Anyway, botWidth / distance is fine as long as distance is far, and the result is almost the same as the asin/atan version.

It gives a NaN but a distance less than 36 is impossible in robocode. botWidth / distance is always incorrect, asin(botWidth / distance) is always incorrect too but it less incorrect however, asin(botWidth / (distance - 18) is correct in four cases and gives higher results than all other imprecise formulas which always results in closer results to the precise one.

a distance less than 36 is impossible in robocode, but a correct formula should give correct result in this case. So I prefer the atan approach.

asin approach is incorrect by geometry as well.

however trigs are always expensive, so using 18 / distance is acceptable since it gives similar result.