Enjoy
--> http://theaigames.com/competitions/warlight-ai-challenge-2

Not many games played so far but the maps certainly will be good for some intense fights.

hope to find some time to do submit something :)

I'm relatively fresh to programming, could one of you guys give me a step by step guide on how I can get the starter bot into eclipse (java). I have tried but couldn't figure it out :S

Same here ps. I think this will be a lot more interesting without the ability to hardcode strategies for 1 map.

Henns: you don't really need to load it on eclipse to get it working. java compiles and executes via command line. check the website for guidelines of getting the simulator and a simple bot running locally. if you're looking for a text editor with java syntax highlight you have textwrangler, sublime editor and notepad++, depending on your os of choice.

Henns: for this you should create new project from existing sources. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2636201/how-to-create-a-project-from-existing-source-in-eclipse-and-then-find-it

So sad that nothing works at present... I wanted to write an improved version of the Java starterbot. In my opinion following functionality should be added:
- Basic algorithms, especially for shortest path calculations
- Some stuff to make it more convenient to calculate the PlaceArmies moves and the AttackTransferMoves at the same time
- Ability to 'commit' your move decisions before sending them to the game engine. This should make it easier to not lose track of your decisions so far.
- Some sort of a History class to wrap all the information about the game states from the start of the game and on your bots thoughts about the game so far.
- A new map type besides the old VisibleMap where you also store your knowledge / heuristics about what the opponent has behind the fog.
- Another map type where you store the information about how you think the game looks at the end of the round according to your committed decisions and your thoughts on the opponents moves.

Edited 12/14/2014 14:10:12

I programmed a bot in C, but I want to test it and I have no servers. D:

I would like to learn how to program one on C# but don't know where to start.

Norman: me just replace changed core classes, and fix starting placement of armies. 1 hour for all of this. Sad that it's so low count of games so far :( But by current games I see that module of strategic moves sometimes turns on too early and bot start to put all income in one stack, instead of expand.

About your ideas of improvements -> you moving in right direction.

Thanks guys, I managed to get it to work and won over the test bot with the 11th version :p I hope I'll be able to provide some competition (though proably not)

Edit: Turns out I didn't win, i lost lol

Edited 12/15/2014 01:05:07

Currently 2 loses was because exception in expansion code. Just fixed it. Interesting, how much time will pass since start when I lose at least one game not because of error or timeout xD.
EDIT: it happened today http://theaigames.com/competitions/warlight-ai-challenge-2/games/5490ab774b5ab272af67d7cf

Edited 12/16/2014 23:44:14

Hello

As you might have realized I wrote a bot for the second challenge that does 'kind of' sound moves. (Rank 3 as I write this.) However this isn't supposed to be a competitive bot but just an advanced Java starterbot. You can download it under following link:
https://github.com/Norman1/AdvancedStarterbot

My AdvancedStarterbot has following features:
- Everything of the official starterbot. I didn't write this bot on my own but made some improvements to the official starterbot.
- One function to calculate the AttackTransferMoves and the PlaceArmiesMoves in a convenient way as one task.
- Ability to commit your moves so you don't have to keep track of your already made decisions on your own. Also there is a new map called WorkingMap that gets automatically updated according to your made decisions.
- Shortest Path algorithm
- All the needed architectural components that a competitive bot needs rudimentarily implemented. That is a "FogRemover", "OpponentMovesGuesser", "StrategyComponent" and an "EvaluationComponent".

Everything is just very rudimentarily implemented and I often also don't bother about getting wrong results. I just wanted to write a framework before adding my 'real' code and this is what you get.

Edited 12/17/2014 17:09:53

Hey norman, do you have any coding background besides the competition? looking through ur code now :), altho i have a bit of self taught programming skills im not the brightest :P, but its a lil hard to read as comments are minimal :P

Hello Jason

Since I'm a computer scientist I do have some coding background besides the competition ;). The most difficult code in my oppinion isn't from me but from the original starterbot. I admit I kind of hacked some code in the class MovesCalculator but this is just to serve as a showcase with all the components coming into play and you want to write completely different code there.

Edited 12/18/2014 14:30:24

Ahh kk computer scientist :P gonna say you seem to have alot of know how for some guy who just plays warlight :P

I think ill just focus on writing my bot in the style i was going about it as to practise my own skills at approaching a complex problem

so far ive broken the problem down to the

Early
- Choosing a good starting region (small super, min 1 worth, region can attack two regions in the same super)
- Basically getting early +1-2 army bonus in the first 5 rounds
Middle
Late

So for now just focus on my bots ability to play the first 5 rounds, then later work on its core logic (middle-late game)

any thoughts norman? any hints that you could give me in regards to finding a solution to a complex problem? how do you go about it?

Here we go! Awesomeness will follow swiftly.

Version 1 of my bot is a straight unmodified upload of the final bot that competed in the first challenge. But I don't expect it to go very far: it does not take into account wastelands...

With time I'll bring around a complete rewrite, a proper pedrito 2.0 - until then you guys are off the hook ;)

@ Jason: Have a look into the original AI competition thread. There is heaps of useful information in there, discussion on all kinds of specific and general subjects, as well as links to the sourcecode of some of the best bots of the first competition.
https://www.warlight.net/Forum/Thread?ThreadID=34646&Offset=0

It's also some 600 posts long, some of them are textwalls. :)

i will read it all :D

@Norman, the advancedStarterBot looks awesome :) However, when I try to upload it (with no changes) I get a weird error during the input test: "Error: Could not find or load main class src.bot.BotStarter"
I can't figure out what's is causing it, tried playing around/googleing etc. How come it can't find the main class? Thanks :)