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> Home > The Corewar Newsletters > The '94 Warrior > Issue #5

April 2, 1994                                                         Issue #5
______________________________________________________________________________

This newletter covers the current status of the ICWS '94 Draft hills,
and also attempts to keep up with the latest ideas in how the new standard
will affect corewars in general.  I hope you enjoy it!

If you are unfamiliar with the '94 draft standard, you can learn more about
it by reading the FAQ for this newsgroup.  In addition, the program pMARS
includes a highly recommended tutorial on the new standard.  Feel free
to send me e-mail if you have any difficulty finding either of them, if you
need to have a corewar item mailed to you, or if you have any other questions.

The FAQ is available through anonymous FTP to rtfm.mit.edu, as
/pub/usenet/news.answers/games/corewar-faq.Z
______________________________________________________________________________

The ICWS '94 Draft Hill:

       Core size:	8000 instrucitons
   Max processes:	8000 per program
        Duration:	After 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
Max entry length:	100 instructions

The current ICWS '94 Draft hill:
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  42/ 31/ 27           Killer instinct         Anders Ivner     154      10
 2  38/ 24/ 38                     NC II       Wayne Sheppard     153      65
 3  38/ 25/ 37               Sphinx v5.1         W. Mintardjo     150      68
 4  32/ 22/ 46                    ttti94        nandor sieben     143      16
 5  43/ 44/ 13           Fire Storm v1.1         W. Mintardjo     142      71
 6  34/ 27/ 40        JustTakingALookSee            J.Layland     141      64
 7  31/ 22/ 47                      ttti        nandor sieben     140      21
 8  40/ 42/ 17            Sylvester v1.0     Brant D. Thomsen     139      47
 9  32/ 25/ 43               Twimpede/88              Jay Han     139       1
10  39/ 43/ 18              Request v2.0     Brant D. Thomsen     136       3
11  39/ 43/ 17               Ntttgtstitd         Simon Hovell     136      11
12  31/ 27/ 42                     Snake       Wayne Sheppard     134      20
13  38/ 42/ 21            Fast Food v2.1     Brant D. Thomsen     134      23
14  38/ 43/ 19       Beholder's Eye v1.7         W. Mintardjo     132      77
15  40/ 47/ 13                    Rave 4        Stefan Strack     132       4
16  40/ 48/ 12                      Rave        Stefan Strack     132      48
17  38/ 44/ 18                      SJ-4            J.Layland     131      14
18  37/ 42/ 21               Christopher       Steven Morrell     131       9
19  36/ 42/ 22                      tiny            J.Layland     130      45
20  39/ 49/ 13           Testing an Idea     Brant D. Thomsen     128       2

21  39/ 50/ 12                Impurge 94     Fredrik Ohrstrom     127       7

It looks like the '94 draft hill has really slowed down.  I would speculate
that this is a result of the greatly increased amount of attention being
given to the '94 experimental hill.  The one new program since the last 
issue to make it onto the hill is Jay Han's "Twimpede/88".
Congratulations, Jay, on this unique honor!
______________________________________________________________________________

The ICWS '94 Draft Experimental Hill:

       Core size:	55,440 instructions
   Max processes:	10,000 per program
        Duration:	After 500,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
Max entry length:	200 instructions

The current ICWS '94 Experimental hill:
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  48/ 28/ 24             Request-55440     Brant D. Thomsen     169      35
 2  33/ 11/ 56           Variation A-1.a              Jay Han     156       4
 3  46/ 40/ 14              Kill Imps!!!       Steven Morrell     152      22
 4  35/ 24/ 41                   CG-X IV     Brant D. Thomsen     145      86
 5  31/ 17/ 52                  Lucky 13        Stefan Strack     144       1
 6  28/ 15/ 57                  Twimpede              Jay Han     141       2
 7  44/ 47/  9                   Rave B4        Stefan Strack     140      44
 8  21/ 10/ 69         Imperfection v2.3     Michael Constant     132      29
 9  36/ 40/ 24                Vanity IIx        Stefan Strack     132      26
10  23/ 19/ 58                    Bimper       Wayne Sheppard     127      10
11  29/ 34/ 36             Night Crawler       Wayne Sheppard     124      45
12  37/ 51/ 12                 The Count              Jay Han     124      25
13  35/ 50/ 16             Dagger v6.0 X     Michael Constant     119      75
14  21/ 22/ 57                   BigImps        James Layland     119      95
15  18/ 20/ 62                    BigImp        Alex MacAulay     117      76
16  18/ 22/ 60                 Skimp 127              Jay Han     113      57
17  27/ 47/ 26               Sunburst 33              Jay Han     107      65
18  10/ 21/ 68               bimp.c test       Wayne Sheppard      99      12
19  11/ 22/ 67               bimp.c test       Wayne Sheppard      99      20
20   5/ 26/ 70                Impale v2a         James Ojaste      84       3

21   1/  1/  3                  Lucky 13        Stefan Strack       5       7

Before I even attempt to summarize what has been happening on the '94
experimental hill, I think it would be helpful to reprint the hill as it
was during the last issue.  (17 Days previously.)

The current ICWS '94 Experimental hill:
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  53/ 12/ 35                    BigImp        Alex MacAulay     194      25
 2  52/ 17/ 30       Imperfection v1.0 X     Michael Constant     187      21
 3  60/ 34/  6            Rave 3 (55440)        Stefan Strack     185      36
 4  42/ 13/ 45                 Skimp 127              Jay Han     171       6
 5  54/ 42/  4           No Ties Allowed       Wayne Sheppard     166      41
 6  51/ 38/ 10             Dagger v6.0 X     Michael Constant     164      24
 7  41/ 17/ 42                   BigImps        James Layland     164      44
 8  49/ 39/ 12               Sunburst 33              Jay Han     159      14
 9  44/ 31/ 25                   CG-X IV     Brant D. Thomsen     157      35
10  49/ 42/ 10                        BS            J.Layland     156      43
11  41/ 34/ 25                 Iron Gate       Wayne Sheppard     148      40
12  35/ 26/ 39                    FatImp              Jay Han     144       1
13  40/ 50/ 10                   Silly 2         James Ojaste     130       7
14  41/ 54/  5                     Silly         James Ojaste     129       9
15  33/ 46/ 21           testing testing     Fredrik Ohrstrom     121      31
16  32/ 46/ 22                     Crimp              Jay Han     118       2
17  34/ 53/ 13                    VJX-2a         James Ojaste     115      28
18  28/ 42/ 31                     Bloom              Jay Han     114      12
19  30/ 50/ 20                Surprise7b         James Ojaste     109      10
20  32/ 59/  8                     VJX-2         James Ojaste     105      29

Since the last issue of _The_'94_Warrior_, 51 new programs have made it onto 
the hill -- this is 3 new programs a day.  Of the first 12 programs on
the hill, only one was on the hill during the last issue.  More programs have
been submitted in this period than in the entire life of the hill previously.  
(Are you getting the point yet?!)

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the current standings on the hill
is the amount of diversity there is between the warriors.  Scanners, stones,
and imp-spiral combinations are all well represented.  In fact, the warrior
currently at the top of the hill is a vampire.  (Certainly not what I would
have predicted.)  It looks as if this is the hill where the excitement is!
______________________________________________________________________________

HINTS and HELPS:

To assist program development on the '94 experimental hill, I have used
Michael Constant's "Optima" program to calculate the twenty most-efficient
step-sizes for mods 1 to 10.  (A mod 1 step-size will eventually cover
every location in the core, a mod 2 step-size will eventually cover one-half
of the locations in the core, etc.)

Notice that there is a bug in the version of "Optima" released last year.
A quick fix is to make the variable "i" in the function "opt" long instead
of short.  An easier fix will be to wait until Michael releases the next
version.  This bug only makes itself known when using a large coresize and
a large step size.  In fact, it was due to this bug that I ended up using
a step-size of 9719 in the 55440 coresize version of Request -- it was the
best mod 1 step the program could find.

[The source code for Request-55440 will probably be included in the next
 issue.  I figured the following tables would be more useful given the current
 number of programs being submitted to the '94 experimental hill.  Also, there
 are a couple of points about program development I am finishing up for a 
 future hint, and "Request" will be good example to use for them.]

Results of running "Optima" on a 55440 size core:

Mod 1:

	16211		6.183968
	23269		6.183968
	15481		6.132795
	16921		6.132795
	22889		6.113332
	24151		6.113332
	16369		6.065658
	21649		6.065658
	12689		6.056693
	15611		6.056693
	20509		6.056693
	21151		6.056693
	20617		6.052941
	22873		6.052941
	12503		6.048468
	16393		6.048468
	16817		6.045978
	21247		6.045978
	 9719		6.028265
	23399		6.028265


Mod 2:

	16238		11.586204
	20498		11.477182
	21502		11.477182
	22766		11.439446
	23266		11.439446
	15458		11.393845
	16462		11.393845
	12718		11.343555
	23278		11.343555
	11974		11.340597
	20474		11.340597
	15314		11.325805
	22706		11.325805
	16894		11.307190
	23234		11.307190
	20546		11.242397
	21074		11.242397
	20458		11.233378
	24422		11.233378
	20558		11.232151


Mod 3:

	24357		16.517452
	21381		16.368905
	22971		16.368905
	14907		16.340657
	20373		16.340657
	21057		16.330429
	22503		16.330429
	14691		16.305265
	15261		16.305265
	19461		16.144705
	20571		16.144705
	24483		16.085124
	16473		16.023107
	20607		16.023107
	16827		16.003463
	22773		16.003463
	 9687		16.002976
	23007		16.002976
	19911		15.997132
	23439		15.997132


Mod 4:

	22964		22.001587
	20996		21.523631
	24356		21.523631
	17228		21.204705
	24148		21.204705
	22756		21.191717
	23476		21.191717
	15548		21.175265
	22892		21.175265
	20068		21.112923
	23228		21.112923
	24196		20.981312
	23404		20.955336
	20476		20.869038
	23924		20.869038
	16508		20.834981
	23428		20.834981
	21508		20.811025
	22508		20.811025
	12988		20.771196



Mod 5:

	21445		26.052133
	23435		26.052133
	 9865		25.878055
	21215		25.878055
	24175		25.794624
	24905		25.794624
	12115		25.712546
	21485		25.712546
	16265		25.675566
	22735		25.675566
	11785		25.657527
	16465		25.657527
	20315		25.560566
	24875		25.560566
	16925		25.451881
	24125		25.451881
	 9965		25.415351
	21475		25.415351
	 9925		25.400469
	15445		25.400469


Mod 6:

	16134		31.110510
	21174		31.110510
	15234		30.829960
	21486		30.829960
	21246		30.807230
	20994		30.786449
	16374		30.408486
	14946		30.113649
	19986		30.113649
	19938		29.889598
	21522		29.889598
	17142		29.831800
	24198		29.831800
	16194		29.815564
	24834		29.815564
	20298		29.745427
	24762		29.745427
	20058		29.643468
	21642		29.643468
	17382		29.622686

Mod 7:

	16373		35.304963
	21427		35.304963
	21007		35.243086
	24367		35.243086
	20041		35.102538
	21049		35.102538
	24157		34.939891
	24997		34.939891
	21623		34.906301
	24983		34.906301
	23429		34.649956
	25459		34.649956
	17129		34.616366
	21161		34.616366
	15043		34.480237
	21077		34.480237
	20293		34.479353
	22547		34.479353
	14651		34.413057
	24899		34.413057


Mod 8:

	12104		39.494299
	24184		39.494299
	20344		39.289941
	21256		39.289941
	15272		39.236831
	21752		39.236831
	16232		39.235676
	22952		39.235676
	19864		38.698802
	20296		38.698802
	20456		38.686102
	25064		38.686102
	13144		38.587964
	23384		38.587964
	24424		38.525617
	25096		38.525617
	16024		38.514071
	16904		38.514071
	23416		38.514071
	24296		38.514071


Mod 9:

	12087		44.316123
	21177		44.316123
	14967		43.623478
	24903		43.623478
	21141		43.594252
	21501		43.594252
	20961		43.468583
	21519		43.468583
	16983		43.337068
	22887		43.337068
	11997		43.281539
	21627		43.281539
	14841		43.227472
	22761		43.227472
	19647		43.107647
	21663		43.107647
	16749		42.900146
	24309		42.900146
	16461		42.870921
	24219		42.870921


Mod 10:

	19990		48.630705
	21050		48.630705
	21470		48.029948
	22930		48.029948
	16210		47.889230
	24830		47.889230
	16910		47.670936
	24130		47.670936
	13150		47.441819
	23230		47.441819
	 9970		47.376872
	22910		47.376872
	15350		47.310121
	22790		47.310121
	12490		47.265019
	19930		47.265019
	21430		47.061158
	23930		47.061158
	16930		47.021469
	19330		46.691322

______________________________________________________________________________

Looking to the Future:

The lastest draft of the standard has been on soda.berkeley.edu for a couple
of months now (as /pub/corewar/documents/icws94.0202.Z).  Take a look at it
and let the newsgroup know what you think.  There are some interesting 
additions to the former '94 draft standard, so it's worth your effort
to get a copy and study it.

Also, please submit your programs to the '94 hills.  We'd love to have your
best KOTH warrior on the standard '94 hill, even if it is still '88 
compliant.

If you have any comments or questions about the '94 hills or the '94
standard that you think might be of general interest, please let me know.

Good luck, and happy computing!
______________________________________________________________________________

Brant D. Thomsen, Editor	   Snail mail:	1197 East 6290 South
(bdthomse@peruvian.cs.utah.edu)			Salt Lake City, UT  84121
University of Utah				U.S.A.
-- 
Brant D. Thomsen                  Man will occasionally stumble over the truth,
(bdthomse@peruvian.cs.utah.edu)   but most times he will pick himself up
University of Utah                and carry on.             - Winston Churchill
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