LittleBlackBook

Background Information

LittleBlackBook
Author(s)	Miked0801
Extends	AdvancedRobot
Targeting	Guess Factor
Movement	Stop and go, Dodge oscalate, & random
Released	December 17 2009
Current Version	1.55
[Robot Repository Download]

What's special about it?: This is a table driven bot. It uses canned guess factors, desired engage distance, fire power, movement type, and movement length all segmented upon distance from its enemy. It also has a default table it uses for unknown bots and ignores the bot's version number for behavior so that bot upgrades don't confuse it much.

How competitive is it?: #1 in 1v1 ranking - way #1. #11 in Micros. Still improving as well.

How does it move?: From studies of its opponents (offline), it either goes mostly forward, back and forth, random, or anywhere I want in between.

How does it fire?: String based Guess Factor segmented heavily by distance and a little lateral velocity.

How does it dodge bullets?: Watches enemy power levels and moves when it changes at all.

How does the melee strategy differ from one-on-one strategy?: No melee strategy, but it would probably be ok.

What does it save between rounds and matches?: Nothing. It has all it needs in its string tables.

Where did you get the name?: It has a little black book on every bot it competes against.

Can I use your code?: Go for it, though give credit as this is a new concept that has yet to be fully fleshed out by me. I'd like to see how far I can push this idea before fighting the next generation of SGF gun bots :)

Add all other rumble bots for improvements outside of the nano land. (Micros complete.)
Improve default parameters.
One last tune pass for current bots.
~~Create a seperate bot to generate my tables for me - man that was tedious to do by hand.~~
~~Improved dodging and flatter random movement.~~
~~Address 0 velocity aiming issues via averaging or something.~~
~~Codesize reduction. Found 50+ bytes thus far.~~
~~Dynamic distancing per opponent -~~
~~Investigate other segmentations methods besides distance - which I'm told is one of the weakest.~~ No need...
~~Partial string matches on names. Need 6 bytes or so more.~~
~~Mode OSCO needs a little help to get closer - perhaps factor some distance into its timings.~~

Does it have any White Whales?: Multi-mode bots hurt its aim, the more modes, the worse I do. Bots that dynamically change their lead values and keep them constant over the life of the match(surfers) give him a very, very tough time. Surprisingly, PM bots are handled well by the its movement code. Basically, a flat GF profile bot with mulit-modes is a big problem.

Here's the current, updated list:

Moebius - strong movement and an excellent gun. Has a long distance weakness though
Neophyte Pattern and PRAL - Strong movement. Ditto on Weaknesses.
Pugio - Cannot lock onto his movement.
Mer - This bot destroys me and I don't know why.
Assertive - Good, strong bot.
MosquitoPM - Very hard to hit and a strong gun.
The top 15 Micros.
~~Ram Bots~~ Variable Fire Power kills them dead. Variable distance make the slaughter worse.

Mini and overall aren't real yet.