From bremermr@ecn.purdue.edu Tue Jul 23 23:31:12 1996 Received: by couchey.inria.fr (5.57/Ultrix3.0-C) id AA19157; Tue, 23 Jul 96 23:31:12 +0200 Received: from cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu [128.46.147.13]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id XAA01709 for ; Tue, 23 Jul 1996 23:30:58 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (bremermr@localhost) by cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (8.7.5/3.8.1davy) for delivery to "Damien.Doligez@inria.fr" id QAA16938; Tue, 23 Jul 1996 16:30:22 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199607232130.QAA16938@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu> Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 16:30:22 -0500 (EST) From: "Myer R. Bremer" To: Damien.Doligez@inria.fr Subject: core warrior 39 Status: R .xX$$x. .x$$$$$$$x. d$$$$$$$$$$$ ,$$$$$$$P' `P' , . $$$$$$P' ' .d b $$$$$P b ,$$x ,$$x ,$$x ,$$b $$. Y$$$$' `$. $$$$$$. $$$$$$ $$P~d$. d$$$b d d$$$ `$$$$ ,$$ $$$$$$$b $$$P `$ $$$b.$$b `Y$$$d$d$$$' . . a . a a .aa . a `$$$ ,$$$,$$' `$$$ $$$' ' $$P$XX$' `$$$$$$$$$ .dP' `$'$ `$'$ , $''$ `$'$ `Y$b ,d$$$P `$b,d$P' `$$. `$$. , `$$P $$$' Y $. $ $ $ Y..P $ `$$$$$$$' $$$P' `$$b `$$$P `P `$' `Y'k. $. $. $. $$' $. Issue 39 July 22, 1996 ______________________________________________________________________________ Core Warrior is a weekly newsletter promoting the game of corewar. Emphasis is placed on the most active hills--currently the '94 draft hill and the beginner hill. Coverage will follow where ever the action is. If you have no clue what I'm talking about then check out these five-star internet locals for more information: FAQs are available by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu as pub/usenet/news.answers/games/corewar-faq.Z FTP site is: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu /pub/corewar Web pages are at: (Please note new Stormking's address) http://www.koth.org/ ;Stormking http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth ;Pizza http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/ ;Planar Newbies should check the stormking page for the FAQ, language specification, guides, and tutorials. Post questions to rec.games.corewar. All new players are infinitely welcome! If ftp.csua.berkeley.edu is unreachable, you can download pMARS at: Terry's web page--http://www.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ Planar ftp site--ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars Fechter ftp site--ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. The '94 draft hill is quiet this week, as Pizza was (is?) down. My mail is currently bouncing off the server. Hopefully the problems will be fixed soon and service restored. All the Stormking hills are open and with noticeably faster response times. You can satisfy your corewar craving there. Enjoy. --M R Bremer ______________________________________________________________________________ Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server ICWS '94 Draft Hill: Hill Specs: coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 rounds fought: 200 instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft # %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age 1 39.6/ 25.6/ 34.8 Simple v0.4b Ian Oversby 153.7 12 2 29.3/ 13.1/ 57.6 Return Of The Jedimp John K W 145.4 49 3 41.2/ 37.8/ 21.0 Probe Anton Marsden 144.7 61 4 33.2/ 23.7/ 43.1 Armory II John K W 142.8 200 5 43.4/ 45.8/ 10.8 Q^2 Miro Anders Ivner 141.1 111 6 39.4/ 38.7/ 21.9 Yogi Bear P.Kline 140.1 265 7 41.4/ 42.8/ 15.8 Goldfinch P.Kline 140.1 2 8 41.5/ 43.2/ 15.4 Mist P.Kline 139.8 1 9 41.6/ 43.6/ 14.8 Blur 2 Anton Marsden 139.7 60 10 33.1/ 28.1/ 38.8 Pulp v0.2 Ian Oversby 138.2 156 11 40.7/ 43.6/ 15.7 myVamp5.4 Paulsson 137.7 109 12 40.1/ 43.4/ 16.5 Earthquake v0.2 Bjoern & Ian 136.8 18 13 30.6/ 24.4/ 45.0 Rosebud Beppe 136.7 734 14 37.8/ 39.4/ 22.8 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 136.2 779 15 26.4/ 17.0/ 56.6 ompega Steven Morrell 135.8 176 16 37.1/ 39.3/ 23.6 Dura v0.1 Ian Oversby 135.0 90 17 29.9/ 26.9/ 43.2 blue flame c1/10 bjoern guenzel 133.0 45 18 31.5/ 30.8/ 37.7 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 132.1 418 19 36.2/ 40.7/ 23.2 Paper, Scissors and Stone David van Dam 131.6 189 20 36.8/ 43.3/ 19.9 Twister Beppe Bezzi 130.3 515 21 35.4/ 40.9/ 23.7 airBag Paulsson 129.9 102 22 31.7/ 33.4/ 34.9 the historian bjoern guenzel 129.9 534 23 35.2/ 40.7/ 24.1 Scimitar 2 P.Kline 129.7 127 24 36.9/ 46.2/ 16.9 Harmony P.Kline 127.5 26 25 37.3/ 49.4/ 13.3 test mef2 Beppe Bezzi 125.2 9 Weekly age: 31 ( 84 last week, 90 the week before ) New warriors: 6 Turnover/age rate 19% Average age: 191 ( 184 last week, 158 the week before ) Average score: 137 ( 141 last week, 141 the week before ) The top 25 warriors are represented by 11 authors: Kline with 5; Bezzi, and Oversby with 4; Guenzel with 3; JKW, Marsden, and Paulsson with 2. King Report: The top 3 warriors have all been vying for the top slot, but Ian's new Simple version 0.4b is slightly more effective than the previous version giving Oversby a commanding 8 point lead over second place. Other warriors seen on the top of the hill include Mist (quite a few times) and Q^2 Miro and Blur 2 (once each). Most of the veterans are in the middle of the pack. Twister and the historian have not recovered and are in danger of being pushed off. Armory gets a nice boost since last week moving up to the 4th position. Question of the day: Is Macrae going to put a Q^2 scan on Thermite and take up space on the hill for months to come? Or has someone already beat him to it? ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New # %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age 6 42.1/ 42.3/ 15.6 Goldfinch P.Kline 141.9 1 8 41.5/ 43.2/ 15.4 Mist P.Kline 139.8 1 1 36.4/ 26.0/ 37.5 Simple v0.4b Ian Oversby 146.8 1 18 38.9/ 44.1/ 16.9 Harmony P.Kline 133.7 1 25 38.0/ 49.9/ 12.1 test mef2 Beppe Bezzi 126.1 1 13 41.4/ 42.2/ 16.4 Earthquake v0.2 Bjoern & Ian 140.6 1 Goldfinch was hanging around in the middle of the pack until Paul decided to replace it. The new warrior is holding its place well in the top ten. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More # %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age 26 1.8/ 2.1/ 0.0 Goldfinch P.Kline 5.5 206 26 1.3/ 1.5/ 1.2 Harmony P.Kline 5.1 8 26 1.6/ 1.7/ 0.7 Mist P.Kline 5.4 30 26 1.2/ 1.3/ 1.6 Simple v0.4 Ian Oversby 5.1 146 26 24.0/ 23.7/ 52.3 Ties, Ties, Ties! (+3) Ross Morgan-Linial 124.4 2 26 33.5/ 42.4/ 24.1 Goliath David van Dam 124.7 181 Kline revamps three of his warriors while Oversby updates sometime-king Simple. The only real loss is van Dam's Goliath. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's Old # %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age 14 37.8/ 39.4/ 22.8 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 136.2 779 13 30.6/ 24.4/ 45.0 Rosebud Beppe 136.7 734 22 31.7/ 33.4/ 34.9 the historian bjoern guenzel 129.9 534 20 36.8/ 43.3/ 19.9 Twister Beppe Bezzi 130.3 515 18 31.5/ 30.8/ 37.7 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 132.1 418 No new entries. No losses. ______________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still active. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Thermite II Robert Macrae 2262 Qscan -> bomber 2 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 1993 Stone/ imp 3 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 1620 P-warrior 4 Tornado 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 1567 Bomber 5 Torch t18 P.Kline 1539 Bomber 6 Chameleon Myer R Bremer 1437 P-warrior 7 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 1420 One shot scanner 8 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 1299 Imp / stone 9 quiz Schitzo 1262 Scanner/ bomber 10 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 1204 Bomber 11 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 1154 P-warrior 12 Hazy Shade II John Wilkinson 1102 P-warrior 13 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 1049 Qscan -> Vampire 14 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 15 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 16 Barrage Anton Marsden 876 Qscan -> replicator 17 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 18 Flurry Anton Marsden 835 Qscan -> pwarrior 19 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 20 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 779 * Bomber 21 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 22 Night Train Karl Lewin 755 Replicator 23 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 736 Scanner/ bomber 24 Rosebud Beppe 734 * Stone/ imp 25 Blizzard Anton Marsden 713 Qscan -> replicator T.N.T. pro moves up two spots while Rosebud climbs to 24th position. ______________________________________________________________________________ Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server Beginner's Hill: Hill Specs: coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 maximum age: At age 100, warriors are retired. rounds fought: 200 instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft # %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age 1 58.3/ 20.9/ 20.8 Yet 4b Justin Kao 195.8 48 2 45.5/ 16.5/ 38.0 (-: :-) Ross 174.6 71 3 49.6/ 29.0/ 21.5 Velveeta Shift-F shar 170.1 46 4 45.4/ 23.2/ 31.4 Versatility 1.5 Ross Morgan-Linial 167.6 38 5 46.1/ 26.2/ 27.7 Saboteur v0.4k shar 165.9 79 6 40.3/ 27.8/ 31.9 Inferno 1.0 Philip Kendall 152.8 61 7 29.5/ 11.0/ 59.5 Microsoft v1.0 Justin Kao 148.0 4 8 22.7/ 10.7/ 66.7 Ties, Ties, Ties! (+2) Ross 134.6 73 9 26.2/ 23.2/ 50.6 Utility Knife Robert J. Street 129.2 81 10 19.8/ 13.8/ 66.4 HAL 204 Justin Kao 125.7 1 11 14.0/ 8.5/ 77.6 Wasps 1.3 Ross 119.5 72 12 15.0/ 10.8/ 74.2 more testing Anonymous 119.2 32 13 11.9/ 6.9/ 81.2 Nematode v1.4e Jonathan Stott 116.8 12 14 13.2/ 9.6/ 77.3 Ties and Wasps Ross 116.7 25 15 11.5/ 7.0/ 81.4 Nematode v1.4b Jonathan Stott 116.0 45 16 16.0/ 16.9/ 67.1 Fork 4/13 Christoph C. Birk 115.1 65 17 11.6/ 27.7/ 60.8 Handy Man Robert J. Street 95.5 39 18 2.5/ 16.9/ 80.5 Mama's Boy Robert J. Street 88.2 26 19 11.3/ 35.2/ 53.6 silken stomp harleyQ2 87.4 21 20 3.5/ 19.8/ 76.6 silkbombQ2 harleyQ2 87.3 44 21 3.3/ 21.4/ 75.2 Snail Edgar 85.2 10 22 10.1/ 36.8/ 53.1 silken train harleyQ2 83.4 14 23 6.4/ 38.6/ 55.0 b3 harleyQ2 74.1 13 24 3.8/ 33.8/ 62.4 b harleyQ2 73.7 20 25 3.2/ 33.8/ 63.0 abc.i harleyQ2 72.6 2 I see a lot of familiar names on the beginner's hill. Is Kao implying the Microsoft programs are really just big viruses with his warrior Microsoft v1.0 or is he predicting Gates and Co. will dominate KotH as the do the desktop? (-: :-), very cute. ______________________________________________________________________________ The Hint In a weak attempt to gain a foothold on the hill, I thought I would develop a new type of p-brain (pea-brain as it turns out). I usually use the basic switch on loss or tie p-logic like Chameleon's. res ldp.ab _RES, #0 str ldp.a _STR, str1 ;load strategy in use seq.ab #1, res ;check result lost add.a #1, str1 ;lost change mod.a #2, str1 ;secure result win stp.ab str1, _STR str1 jmp @0, strat1 dat 0, strat2 The p-logic is quick and doesn't self destruct when brainwashed. Quickness is especially important now with the new Q^2 quickscans flooding the hill. The downside is no matter what _effective_ strategy you are using, a spurious loss will switch you to a less effective one. It may take even another loss to return to the optimal strategy if you are switching more than one component. To combat this phenomena, I developed a switch on two consecutive tie/loss combinations. Strategies will only change on a loss loss, tie loss, loss tie, or tie tie. A loss or tie will advance the table pointer contained in _STRAT. If the _STRAT pointer is 0 or 2, that strategy will get its 'second chance'. If the index is 1 or 3, strategies will switch. A win should reset the pointer to either 0 or 3 depending on what strategy is currently in use. I do this by taking the index modulo 2 and subtracting the result from the current index. _RES EQU #0 _STRAT EQU #1 result ldp.ab _RES, wlt strat ldp.a _STRAT, choice wlt sne.ab #1, #0 jmp win ; win has occured add.a #1, choice ; loss or tie has occured mod.a #4, choice stp.a choice, _STRAT choice jmp @0, strat1 ; _STRAT = 0, choose strat1 nop 0, strat1 ; _STRAT = 1, choose strat1 nop 0, strat2 ; _STRAT = 2, choose strat2 nop 0, strat2 ; _STRAT = 3, choose strat2 win mov.ab choice, #0 ; reset index becuase of win mod.ab #2, win sub.ba win, choice jmp choice-1 strat1 jmp 0 strat2 jmp 0 All in all, the brain is much bigger (8 vs. 15) and a bit slower. But I thought it had the smarts necessary to defeat non-pspace programs quite handily. However this wasn't the case. When switching the components in Chameleon (mod 5 bomber and .66c scanner), the new logic performed similarly or worse! The optimal strategy would win for awhile, but the occasional loss tie combination would cause it to switch. The secondary strategy (being a somewhat general purpose strategy) would not switch out as fast due to the new switching rules. This seemed to balance the extra wins gained. I believe the p-logic would be much more effective if the secondary strategy is very specialized against one type of program and losses quickly against everything else. But don't take my word for it. Use your nifty cut and paste and try a few components. ______________________________________________________________________________ Extra Extra by Beppe Bezzi Here is Jack in the box II, there is nothing really innovative in it. The bomber is in practice the same published in Twister, there is a little variation in the bomb pattern, but nothing worth mention. The replicator is a part of that in the old Jack, just booted away to have a faster reaction time against qscanners, even if not fast enough against Q^2 (It would need a lighter paper) The switcher is exacltly the same of old Jack, no need to change it being safe and brainwash resistant. Overall I don't expect it to live much longer than old version, even if nobody knows :-) ;redcode-94 ;name Jack in the box II ;author Beppe Bezzi ;kill Jack ;strategy Same old strategy, improved components ;strategy p-switching Tornado and silk ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 org think ;v 2.03 PIN 3371 _RES equ #0 _STR equ #1 ;more or less 500 :-) step equ -45 DIST away equ 4000 ;more or less 3900 :-) gate1 equ (gate-4) A0 equ 3488 A1 equ 1860 A2 equ 3740 marcia spl 1, <300 ;\ spl 1, <400 ;-\ generate 15 spl 1, <500 ;-/ parallel processes mov -1, 0 ;/ mov -1 ;copy mov.i bomb1, >123 ;bombing silk2 spl @0, }A1 ;split mov.i }-1, >-1 ;copy mov.i bomb1, >1001 ;bombing mov.i bomb , }2042 ;A-indirect bombing mov.i {silk2, A2 ;jmp new copy bomb dat.f >2667, >5334 ;anti-imp bomb bomb1 dat >1, }1 ;anti clear bomb for 12 dat 0,0 rof think res ldp.ab _RES, #0 str ldp.a _STR, str1 ;load strategy in use sne.ab #0, res ;check result lost add.a #1, str1 ;lost change mod.a #2, str1 ;secure result win stp.ab str1, _STR str1 jmp @0, tornado dat 0, marcia for 12 dat 0,0 rof tornado mov gate, }pt2 mov gate, *pt2 mov last, gate1 mov @djmp, >gate1 djmp djn.b clr, {bombs incr dat >-3*step,>-3*step last bombm dat <1, {1 end ______________________________________________________________________________ Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care. authors: Beppe Bezzi or Myer Bremer or Anton Marsden