Okay, this sound like a lot of fun! Difficult, but fun! One question: To determine what the bot can see in it''s field of view, will you be using the OpenGL selection buffer? Or will it be a style of BSP trees with the player as a moving entity? And, in the information that is returned to the bot from what it can perceive, will information such as the opponent''s direction, if bullets are present, and their direction be returned? I know that this would make the game a little more exciting by allowing bots to strafe away from bullets heading towards them, move out of the line of sight of the opponent, and chase or run away from the opponent. These are just my ideas, though. It would be simple to find the AVERAGE direction of the opponent based on its movements, and that of the bullets, though they will probably be too fast. I know this is a lot of my rant, but it is just my $0.02. I understand completely if you can''t divulge certain information at the time of this questioning. One quick question, though. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a total newbie to programming in general and 10 a godlike professional AI programmer, where would the average difficulty of this contest lie? What prerequisites are necessary to be able to program a bot. Thanks for reading through my lengthy post.

"Donkey, if it were me, you''d be dead."
I cna ytpe 300 wrods pre mniute.

quote: Original post by drslush
A suggestion, turning should take time. You probably have that in their already, but in case you don''t... Also, what about strafing?

Turning does take time. Rates will be explained. Strafing is there.

quote:
Do the weapons have enough variance that their wont be a ton of ties? For example, if the weapons are all straight line of fire weapons with a fixed speed, and both bots fire at the same rate and same time, they will be taking off the same amount of health from each other. You know what I mean?

For weapons, perhaps some should bounce, or have time delays (like mines perhaps?). Perhaps some weapons could have a kick-back.

Yes, the weapons have variance, to the point where a weapon might not always be predictable. I like the idea of kickback.. there are already time delays that will be described when the contest starts.

quote: Original post by drslush
Another thing... is there going to be a limited sensor range?

Yes.

quote: Original post by Eponick
Sounds very fun, Ill probably join in the Just-for-fun ranks.
Havnt worked on that much AI before

Question:
Is this going to be win32/graphical or Console based(i.e. Dos)?
Either way im sure it will be alot of fun ^_^

[edited by - Eponick on July 6, 2003 11:20:54 PM]

Win32 using OpenGL.

quote: Original post by StormArmageddon
Will the weapons involve simple/comlpex physics? For example recoil, air resistance, gravity for projectiles, over-heating, etc...

Also, will their be varying damage depending on where you hit the bot? For example "head shots", shooting out the tires to impair movement, or taking out bot''s weapon/power supply.

This is tough to answer because the bots don''t have that level of control. Those are great ideas for future versions, and some of them I hope to implement.

Just to clarify, are there different orientations for movement and weapons? I.e., can you aim and fire in one direction while moving in another? (particularly effective for cover fire while retreating)

Later,
ZE.

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Okay Im just wondering... You said there would be a one time only ammo box so if a bot didn''t get that could it fall back to a weaker weapon that had alot/neverending ammo. That way if it was winning(or mabey not) it could still have a chance.