From news-rocq.inria.fr!jussieu.fr!oleane!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in1.uu.net!despina.neptune.com!news.new-york.net!news.stormking.com!bezzi@iol.it Tue Feb 13 13:14:59 1996 Article: 3851 of rec.games.corewar Path: news-rocq.inria.fr!jussieu.fr!oleane!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in1.uu.net!despina.neptune.com!news.new-york.net!news.stormking.com!bezzi@iol.it From: Beppe Bezzi Newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Subject: Core Warrior 16 Date: 12 Feb 1996 13:19:34 -0500 Organization: Storm King Ind. Inc. Lines: 337 Sender: server@news.stormking.com Distribution: world Message-ID: <199602121754.SAA32297@iol-mail.iol.it> Reply-To: bezzi@iol.it NNTP-Posting-Host: valhalla.stormking.com Originator: corewar-l@stormking.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 .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 16 February 12, 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: http://www.stormking.com/~koth ;Stormking http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth ;Pizza http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/ ;Planar ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. Hi, being my partner Myer away for work I'm back again for second week in a row; Myer's fans will read again theyr favourite next week, don't worry. This week an historical event is happened, Paul Kline's Torch t18 broke the 100 wall for first time in the 94 hill history, congratulations Paul. ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 43/ 31/ 26 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 154 1 2 38/ 28/ 34 Tornado 3.0 Beppe 149 63 3 42/ 39/ 19 quiz Schitzo 144 661 4 42/ 42/ 17 test i7a Beppe Bezzi 142 17 5 29/ 16/ 55 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 141 461 6 24/ 7/ 69 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 141 276 7 29/ 16/ 55 Clisson P.Kline 141 3 8 37/ 34/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 141 262 9 26/ 12/ 62 Hazy.Shade.Of.Winter John K W 141 208 10 42/ 44/ 13 seventyfive Anders Ivner 140 161 11 35/ 29/ 36 Torch t18 P.Kline 140 1040 12 41/ 42/ 18 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 140 175 13 42/ 44/ 13 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 140 514 14 40/ 42/ 18 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 139 396 15 39/ 41/ 20 Harmony P.Kline 138 44 16 41/ 45/ 14 orestes Kafka 137 26 17 39/ 41/ 21 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 137 32 18 33/ 29/ 39 patroclus Kafka and Kurt 136 57 19 22/ 9/ 69 Night Train Karl Lewin 135 548 20 40/ 46/ 14 smart crow again Karl Lewin 135 58 21 28/ 21/ 52 Blizzard Anton Marsden 135 11 22 32/ 30/ 38 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 134 1028 23 37/ 40/ 23 Koolaid II: WoGG v2.2 David Boeren 133 66 24 28/ 23/ 48 Hector 3 Kurt Franke 133 7 25 32/ 31/ 37 Breeder v2 J. E. Long 132 109 Results have been obtained submitting a lose all warrior, so as not to be biased. Weekly age: 55 New warriors 8 Turnover/age rate 15% Average age: 249 ( 284 last week, 265 the week before ) Average score: 139 ( 132 last week, 131 the week before ) The 25 warriors on the hill are represented by 15 authors. The 1000 age wall is no more !! Torch t18 and Jack in the Box have passed this magic quote for first time in the 94 hill, even if some 88 warrior passed 2000. Stats are more or less the same as last week, the increased average score is due to the loss against the scorekeeping warrior; we have a younger age, having the hill lost 3 aged veterans: La Bomba, juliet and paper, and Hector 2 All warriors pushed off were in the bottom positions last week, apart obviously those replaced by their authors. Maurizio's new warrior, T.N.T. is the new King with a confortable lead over the second from the moment it entered. Fast bombers are still dominating, holding position 1 and 2, scanners are still proving good as are stone imps; replicators are confined in the last positions. Those with ;redcode verbose may have noticed some strange experiment made by two authors, Paul Kline and your beloved writer, attemping the hill with warriors unable to enter and scoring in a strange way; Paul has now showed down with Clisson, entering the top ten, what Beppe is Planning to do nobody knows :-) ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New 1 40/ 32/ 28 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 147 1 3 42/ 43/ 15 test i7a Beppe Bezzi 140 1 5 41/ 40/ 19 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 141 1 9 25/ 17/ 58 Clisson P.Kline 134 1 17 26/ 22/ 52 Blizzard Anton Marsden 130 1 17 38/ 47/ 16 orestes Kafka 129 1 18 27/ 24/ 48 Hector 3 Kurt Franke 131 1 18 37/ 43/ 20 Harmony P.Kline 130 1 A new king, T.N.T., and three others new warriors in the top ten. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More. 26 29/ 32/ 39 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 126 650 26 23/ 25/ 51 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 121 607 26 24/ 22/ 54 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 125 561 26 34/ 46/ 20 ajax Kafka and Kurt 123 131 26 19/ 15/ 66 The Lime Twig 2.1 John K W 123 85 26 36/ 52/ 12 Days John K W 119 51 26 2/ 2/ 0 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 5 16 26 1/ 1/ 1 Harmony P.Kline 5 2 :-((((((((((((((((( I'm not in the mood to comment those results, just to say this is new record of lost age in a week: 2103 (previous record 1617 on 4 December 95) ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's Old 13 31/ 30/ 39 Torch t18 P.Kline 132 1040 22 28/ 30/ 42 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 126 1028 3 38/ 40/ 22 quiz Schitzo 136 661 19 18/ 9/ 73 Night Train Karl Lewin 127 548 14 38/ 46/ 16 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 131 514 6 25/ 16/ 59 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 134 461 15 37/ 43/ 20 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 131 396 7 20/ 7/ 72 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 133 276 11 34/ 35/ 32 Thermite II Robert Macrae 133 262 10 22/ 12/ 66 Hazy.Shade.Of.Winter John K W 133 208 A new entry, the mysterious, and poetic, Hazy Shade of Winter, and three losses, see above. ______________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still running. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Torch t18 P.Kline 1040 * Bomber 2 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 1028 * P-warrior 3 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 4 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 5 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 6 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 7 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 8 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 9 quiz Schitzo 661 * Scanner/ bomber 10 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 650 Qscan -> replicator 11 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 643 Vampire 12 Armory - A5 Wilkinson 609 P-warrior 13 juliet and paper Bremer & Bezzi 607 P-warrior 14 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 589 Qscan -> replicator 15 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 561 Qscan -> replicator 16 B-Panama X Steven Morrell 518 Stone/ replicator 17 Night Train Karl Lewin 548 * Replicator 18 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 514 * One shot scanner 19 Impfinity v4g1 Damien Doligez 461 * Stone/ imp 20 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 396 * Bomber 22 NC 94 Wayne Sheppard 387 Stone/ imp 22 Cannonade P.Kline 382 Stone/ imp 23 Torch t17 P.Kline 378 Bomber 24 Lucky 3 Stefan Strack 355 Stone/ imp 25 Derision M R Bremer 351 Scanner 25 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 347 Qvamp -> vampire Torch and Jack passed 1000 age, now both have a 100 advantage over the previous leader, being 2000 next 'round number' I don't think to speak again of them until ... quiz and La Bomba enters the top ten even if La Bomba has finished his run, as did juliet and paper and Hector. Vittuari's Boombastic enters in 20th spot. ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 49/ 16/ 34 CoreWarrior M R Bremer 183 35 2 40/ 11/ 49 Breeder v2 J. E. Long 168 76 3 38/ 10/ 52 silkworm v3.0 Brian Haskin 166 63 4 34/ 9/ 57 Breeder J. E. Long 159 86 5 31/ 5/ 64 Test2 George Eadon 158 43 6 31/ 8/ 61 New Papery v0.1 Ian Oversby 154 84 7 32/ 14/ 54 Paper8-IV 2.5 George Eadon 150 61 8 43/ 42/ 15 Our Vamp v3 R Bartolome & JS Pul 144 94 9 23/ 10/ 67 Wanderer v0.1 Ian Oversby 136 17 10 30/ 25/ 46 Yakumo v0.3 David Boeren 135 10 11 41/ 48/ 12 Veld's fist Julian 134 9 12 23/ 14/ 63 Banshee VI Andy Nevermind 132 1 13 39/ 46/ 14 Auntie v0.2 Ian Oversby 132 14 14 21/ 11/ 69 Thunder V 1.2 Andy Nevermind 130 75 15 31/ 33/ 35 Szyzyg Scott Manley 130 60 16 31/ 33/ 36 Uvavu Scott Manley 129 71 17 30/ 31/ 40 You Wouln't Let It Lie! Scott Manley 128 70 18 22/ 17/ 61 AB Scanner 2.9.1 Chris Hodson 128 46 19 30/ 32/ 38 D'arko Scott Manley 127 50 20 28/ 36/ 36 idiot/savant v0.1 Brian Haskin 119 78 21 31/ 49/ 20 Slaver v1.1 Christoph C. Birk 114 27 22 30/ 49/ 21 MJv5 J. E. Long 111 12 23 24/ 44/ 32 Maya v1.6c Christoph C. Birk 105 44 24 20/ 36/ 44 beemer 1.5 Chris Hodson 104 25 25 7/ 36/ 57 Multi-Worm v1.0 Christoph C. Birk 78 2 Hill top is kept by Myer Bremer, we are waiting his return in 94, followed by J. E. Long with a warrior that's in 94 too and Brian Haskin. ______________________________________________________________________________ The Hint The defence. What is the defence ? it's using part of your resources not to damage you enemy but to avoid it damage you; in soccer and basketball the defence is as much important as attack is, if not more, same in Corewar even if the scoring system gives some advantage to attack. A defence only warrior, even if a perfect one, has no chances to make the hill being an all ties score too low, but some form of defence is needed and the right balance can help you score better and live longer on the hill. Let's give a look at some forms of defence, how well they work and how much they cost in terms of resources expended. ------- Self splitting If we add a spl 0 instruction on top of a stone we have some advantages: A hit in the first or the last line don't stop it working, we accumulate processes so as an imp spiral won't kill but only tie us, we can use a djn stream because a process falling off it won't kill us and we can couple an imp spiral to our bomber This is payed somewere because: We have larger footprint for a scanner to find and there is slight speed reduction. The sum of advantages is more than those of disadvanages so, in practice, every stone is self splitting and some use even more process eating structure to accumulate processes even faster, see Cannonade, Impfinity and juliet storm for examples. --- Adding imps In 94 imps are used more for survival than for attack; adding imp spirals to stones and replicators my get them much harder to kill for a replicator, without reducing too much their offensive potential. The drawback is that a stun attack on the spiral can have a negative effect on the stone, so the number of wins is reduced. --- Boot and decoy Booting away from a decoy is a common form of defence against scanner, very effective against one shoot like Frontwards and Porch Swing if you have a good way to attack a core clear of course. There are very little negative effects for bombers, apart the time spent booting away, but it's difficult to make a decoy invisible to your own scanner, Agony II is the only cmp scanner I know using this tecnique. Some warriors now use a decoymaker instead of booting, i.e. they add at the beginning some lines like mov xx hitting it can have devastating effects. --- Pspace Should your warrior score very good against one opponent class but be useless against another, you can switch it with something else, able to score against your enemy; obviously using pspace has its weaknesses: brainwash and slow startup. --- djn defence It's sometimes good to have a jmp clear+1 line leading your warrior; should it be decremented by a stream it will jump to the core clear that, if well made, will work even if decremented. ______________________________________________________________________________ Planar's Corner Due to heavy work and study needs of mr. Damien we are sorry not to have our favourite columnist article this week. ______________________________________________________________________________ Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care: Beppe Bezzi , Myer R Bremer