Issue 5 13/11/95
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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
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/
______________________________________________________________________________
Hi people,
this one is quick scanners week. We have two real scoops for you: Thermite,
n. 4 in hall of fame, and never published before, with comments of its
author, Robert Mcrae, and Phq by Maurizio Vittuari, second old warrior in 94
hill, also with author's comments.
Planar, our free lance columnist has a short hint, on equ behaviour, and a
call for volunteer.
We also have to report of great battles in 94 hill, after a couple of quiet
weeks, a p-space hint, and a lot more for you dear readers.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Tournament Time
(details at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/nsfcwt.html)
NSFCWT round 5 is over. Good news. Michael Constant joined our tournament
( better late than never :-)
There were 10 battles of 10-round round robins.
A turbo Pascal program generated the following parameters:
Battle Coresize-Processes
1. 12164-4245
2. 9414-5576
3. 13230-1033
4. 12016-72
5. 6280-1164
6. 13810-6126
7. 14599-9549
8. 2798-5242
9. 6483-1330
10 .8597-2180
The detailed scores are:
Battle 1.
1 Simple Scissors John K. Wilkinson 58 33 9 275
2 Frontwards Steven Morrell 49 30 21 253
3 Perspire Robert Macrae 44 23 33 248
4 WT-Round5 P.Kline 47 35 18 240
5 Mr Dumb Maurizio Vittuari 38 25 37 226
6 black & white Anders Ivner 41 33 25 224
7 Rubber wall Beppe Bezzi 30 17 53 214
8 Rand-Man Randy Graham 15 12 73 178
9 A Quick Hack Karl Lewin 16 16 68 174
10 blah blah blah M R Bremer 15 17 67 170
11 Miss Careworn Derek Ross 30 47 23 169
12 Theme Michael Constant 13 15 71 167
13 myImp Paulsson 8 30 62 129
14 Multi-Stone G. Eadon 12 84 4 60
Battle 2.
1 Simple Scissors John K. Wilkinson 57 29 13 278
2 Frontwards Steven Morrell 55 29 16 270
3 WT-Round5 P.Kline 49 33 17 248
4 Perspire Robert Macrae 44 26 30 243
5 Mr Dumb Maurizio Vittuari 40 25 35 232
6 black & white Anders Ivner 39 29 32 225
7 Rubber wall Beppe Bezzi 29 17 53 212
8 blah blah blah M R Bremer 23 13 65 199
9 Theme Michael Constant 11 10 79 169
10 A Quick Hack Karl Lewin 13 16 71 164
11 Miss Careworn Derek Ross 28 49 23 161
12 myImp Paulsson 9 25 66 138
13 Rand-Man Randy Graham 6 41 53 106
14 Multi-Stone G. Eadon 15 75 9 83
Battle 3.
1 Simple Scissors John K. Wilkinson 53 26 21 269
2 Perspire Robert Macrae 45 22 33 251
3 Frontwards Steven Morrell 50 35 15 248
4 black & white Anders Ivner 41 27 32 234
5 WT-Round5 P.Kline 46 41 13 227
6 Rubber wall Beppe Bezzi 28 11 61 218
7 Mr Dumb Maurizio Vittuari 28 20 52 204
8 blah blah blah M R Bremer 21 10 69 197
9 Theme Michael Constant 12 7 81 175
10 A Quick Hack Karl Lewin 11 11 78 168
11 Miss Careworn Derek Ross 29 51 20 162
12 Rand-Man Randy Graham 11 23 66 150
13 Multi-Stone G. Eadon 16 65 19 101
14 myImp Paulsson 0 45 55 83
Battle 4.
1 Perspire Robert Macrae 49 21 30 267
2 Rubber wall Beppe Bezzi 37 5 58 252
3 Mr Dumb Maurizio Vittuari 43 21 35 248
4 A Quick Hack Karl Lewin 32 2 66 243
5 blah blah blah M R Bremer 34 13 53 233
6 black & white Anders Ivner 37 30 33 215
7 Theme Michael Constant 27 15 59 208
8 Rand-Man Randy Graham 19 5 76 198
9 Simple Scissors John K. Wilkinson 37 52 11 182
10 Frontwards Steven Morrell 32 51 17 169
11 myImp Paulsson 13 17 70 165
12 WT-Round5 P.Kline 31 57 12 159
13 Miss Careworn Derek Ross 17 61 22 111
14 Multi-Stone G. Eadon 16 75 9 86
Battle 5.
1 Frontwards Steven Morrell 50 28 22 258
2 Perspire Robert Macrae 47 24 29 254
3 WT-Round5 P.Kline 47 34 19 241
4 black & white Anders Ivner 39 28 33 226
5 Simple Scissors John K. Wilkinson 45 39 16 225
6 blah blah blah M R Bremer 25 10 65 211
7 Rand-Man Randy Graham 22 10 68 201
8 Rubber wall Beppe Bezzi 27 21 52 201
9 Mr Dumb Maurizio Vittuari 29 25 46 198
10 A Quick Hack Karl Lewin 15 19 66 165
11 Theme Michael Constant 9 8 83 164
12 Miss Careworn Derek Ross 23 55 23 136
13 myImp Paulsson 9 27 65 136
Battle 6.
14 Multi-Stone G. Eadon 16 74 10 87
1 Frontwards Steven Morrell 57 23 21 286
2 WT-Round5 P.Kline 51 27 23 262
3 Simple Scissors John K. Wilkinson 49 37 13 242
4 black & white Anders Ivner 45 29 27 241
5 Perspire Robert Macrae 36 25 39 221
6 Mr Dumb Maurizio Vittuari 34 26 40 213
7 Rubber wall Beppe Bezzi 27 30 43 185
8 blah blah blah M R Bremer 19 17 65 181
9 Theme Michael Constant 12 9 79 173
10 Rand-Man Randy Graham 15 17 69 169
11 A Quick Hack Karl Lewin 11 15 73 161
12 myImp Paulsson 11 21 68 150
13 Miss Careworn Derek Ross 23 53 23 140
14 Multi-Stone G. Eadon 17 77 6 84
Battle 7.
1 Simple Scissors John K. Wilkinson 63 29 7 296
2 Frontwards Steven Morrell 55 24 21 278
3 Perspire Robert Macrae 40 27 33 229
4 WT-Round5 P.Kline 41 33 26 225
5 black & white Anders Ivner 39 31 29 221
6 Rubber wall Beppe Bezzi 28 11 61 217
7 blah blah blah M R Bremer 18 13 69 184
8 Mr Dumb Maurizio Vittuari 25 30 45 179
9 Theme Michael Constant 15 15 70 171
10 Miss Careworn Derek Ross 28 45 27 166
11 A Quick Hack Karl Lewin 14 20 66 162
12 Rand-Man Randy Graham 11 17 72 156
13 myImp Paulsson 5 21 75 133
14 Multi-Stone G. Eadon 17 80 3 80
Battle 8.
1 Frontwards Steven Morrell 65 23 13 310
2 black & white Anders Ivner 46 21 33 256
3 WT-Round5 P.Kline 49 29 22 255
4 Perspire Robert Macrae 38 29 33 221
5 Simple Scissors John K. Wilkinson 43 42 15 217
6 Rubber wall Beppe Bezzi 31 22 47 211
7 blah blah blah M R Bremer 25 15 59 203
8 A Quick Hack Karl Lewin 18 11 71 187
9 Miss Careworn Derek Ross 35 45 21 187
10 Mr Dumb Maurizio Vittuari 21 27 52 171
11 Theme Michael Constant 10 23 67 145
12 Rand-Man Randy Graham 10 26 64 141
13 myImp Paulsson 7 23 70 138
Battle 9.
14 Multi-Stone G. Eadon 16 79 5 80
1 Frontwards Steven Morrell 54 31 15 266
2 WT-Round5 P.Kline 51 32 17 254
3 Mr Dumb Maurizio Vittuari 34 17 49 227
4 Simple Scissors John K. Wilkinson 44 42 14 219
5 blah blah blah M R Bremer 25 9 67 211
6 Perspire Robert Macrae 36 33 31 209
7 Rubber wall Beppe Bezzi 25 15 59 203
8 black & white Anders Ivner 35 35 30 201
9 Theme Michael Constant 15 5 79 188
10 A Quick Hack Karl Lewin 15 14 71 175
11 Miss Careworn Derek Ross 26 49 25 155
12 Rand-Man Randy Graham 8 21 71 143
13 myImp Paulsson 9 23 69 142
14 Multi-Stone G. Eadon 20 72 8 102
Battle 10.
1 Simple Scissors John K. Wilkinson 57 25 17 284
2 WT-Round5 P.Kline 49 33 18 249
3 black & white Anders Ivner 45 28 27 242
4 Frontwards Steven Morrell 47 34 19 239
5 Mr Dumb Maurizio Vittuari 41 23 35 239
6 Perspire Robert Macrae 37 28 35 218
7 blah blah blah M R Bremer 21 9 71 199
8 Rubber wall Beppe Bezzi 21 18 61 187
9 A Quick Hack Karl Lewin 15 13 73 175
10 Theme Michael Constant 13 11 77 172
11 myImp Paulsson 9 23 68 144
12 Rand-Man Randy Graham 8 23 69 140
13 Miss Careworn Derek Ross 20 52 28 132
14 Multi-Stone G. Eadon 15 79 5 77
Here are the total scores of the 10 battles:
Name Scores
G. Eadon 840
Paulsson 1358
Derek Ross 1519
Randy Graham 1582
Michael Constant 1732
Karl Lewin 1774
M R Bremer 1988
Beppe Bezzi 2100
Maurizio Vittuari 2137
Anders Ivner 2285
P.Kline 2360
Robert Macrae 2361
John K. Wilkinson 2487
Steven Morrell 2577
The overall rank after round 5:
Name 1 2 3 4 5 total
Steven Morrell 5 10 9 13 14 51
P.Kline 7.5 9 7 11 11 45.5
Paulsson 7.5 11 11 9 2 40.5
Beppe Bezzi 7 7 13 2 8 37
John K. Wilkinson 4 6 12 - 13 35
Maurizio Vittuari 6.5 5 6 3 9 29.5
Anders Ivner 5.5 8 4 - 10 27.5
M R Bremer 7 4 3.6 5 7 26.6
Robert Macrae - - - 12 12 24
Randy Graham - - 8 10 4 22
Karl Lewin - - 10 4 6 20
Derek Ross 3.5 3 3.3 7 3 19.8
G. Eadon 1.5 2 5 6 1 15.5
Kurt Franke - - - 8 - 8
Michael Constant - - - - 5 5
Anders Scholl - 1 2 1 - 4
John Lewis - - 3 - - 3
Calvin Loh - - 1 - - 1
Paulsson, previous leader, had a flop in this round, losing the head. Now
Steven Morrell is the new leader with 5.5 points over Paul Kline, that seems
the only one able to contend him first place, and more than 10 over other
contenders. The fight is open for third position, with three players in near
five points.
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94 Hill - Standings
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 41/ 23/ 36 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 158 8
2 42/ 38/ 20 Derision M R Bremer 145 9
3 43/ 44/ 13 Leprechaun on speed Anders Ivner 141 165
4 35/ 32/ 32 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 138 471
5 35/ 32/ 33 Torch t18 P.Kline 137 369
6 37/ 38/ 25 endpoint . M R Bremer 137 14
7 40/ 43/ 17 Porch Swing + Randy Graham 137 70
8 37/ 39/ 24 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 135 337
9 33/ 32/ 35 Father & Son Maurizio Vittuari 135 19
10 34/ 35/ 32 Thieves Like Us M R Bremer 133 27
11 33/ 34/ 33 Son & Father Maurizio Vittuari 132 20
12 30/ 28/ 41 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 132 357
13 39/ 46/ 15 Leprechaun deluxe Anders Ivner 132 274
14 26/ 20/ 54 Impfinity v3e7 Planar 132 34
15 39/ 47/ 14 Frontwards Steven Morrell 131 304
16 18/ 6/ 76 Chugging Along Karl Lewin 130 54
17 34/ 38/ 28 Armory - A5 Wilkinson 130 508
18 28/ 29/ 43 .Brain Vamp. B.Bezzi, M.Paulsson 128 71
19 38/ 48/ 15 Anti Die-Hard Bevo (3c) John Wilkinson 127 174
20 29/ 30/ 42 nobody special Schitzo 127 1
Revolution may be the theme word this week, the 94 hill has awaken after
some sleep. Bezzi's La Bomba exploded on the hill, taking strongly the head;
new Bremer's warrior in not worth Derision indeed: now and we have new n. 1
and n. 2
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94 - What's new
1 40/ 24/ 36 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 156 1
2 42/ 38/ 20 Derision M R Bremer 145 1
5 34/ 28/ 38 Father & Son Maurizio Vittuari 139 1
7 37/ 38/ 24 endpoint . M R Bremer 136 1
9 34/ 33/ 33 Thieves Like Us M R Bremer 135 1
9 33/ 32/ 35 Son & Father Maurizio Vittuari 133 1
20 29/ 30/ 42 nobody special Schitzo 127 1
Just a few ;-) a new King, a new n. 2 some new entries in the middle.
Welcome back to Mike 'Schitzo' Nonemacher with his improved version of an
old King.
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94 - What's no more
21 32/ 36/ 32 Tornado 1.8 Beppe Bezzi 129 203
21 34/ 43/ 23 myZizzor Paulsson 126 75
21 22/ 18/ 59 paper01o Beppe Bezzi 126 18
A veteran, Tornado 1.8, leaves us at 203 age :-( a younger but rather famous
warrior, myZizzor, the Die Hard killer, is out too.
_____________________________________________________________________________
What's old
17 34/ 38/ 28 Armory - A5 Wilkinson 130 508
4 35/ 32/ 32 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 138 471
5 35/ 32/ 33 Torch t18 P.Kline 137 369
12 30/ 28/ 41 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 132 357
8 37/ 39/ 24 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 135 337
15 39/ 47/ 14 Frontwards Steven Morrell 131 304
13 39/ 46/ 15 Leprechaun deluxe Anders Ivner 132 274
Armory passed age 500 and Frontwards 300, congratulations.
No new entry in the over 200, the only one went out at 203, see above.
Some veteran begins having problems; Torch and Phq keep positions, Jack in
the Box and myVamp lose a few places, Armory and Frontward begin to risks
being pushed off.
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HALL OF FAME
* means the warrior is still running.
Pos Name Author Age Strategy
1 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner
2 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner
3 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp
4 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber
5 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp
6 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber
7 B-Panama X Steven Morrell 518 Stone/ replicator
8 Armory - A5 Wilkinson 508 * P-warrior
9 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 471 * Qscan -> replicator
10 NC 94 Wayne Sheppard 387 Stone/ imp
11 Cannonade P.Kline 382 Stone/ imp
12 Torch t17 P.Kline 378 Bomber
13 Torch t18 P.Kline 369 * Bomber
14 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 357 * P-warrior
15 Lucky 3 Stefan Strack 355 Stone/ imp
16 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 347 Qvamp -> vampire
17 Dragon Spear c w blue 346 CMP scanner
18 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 337 * Vampire
19 juliet storm M R Bremer 333 Stone/ imp
20 TimeScape (1.0) J. Pohjalainen 322 Replicator
my Vamp enters the elite, pushing Rave off. Torch and Jack gain a few
positions. Armory is now very near B-Panama X.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Beginner's Hill standings
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 41/ 29/ 30 Lurker 1.1 Kurt Franke 152 36
2 30/ 12/ 58 juliet storm M R Bremer 147 75
3 37/ 34/ 29 Test-Fc G. Eadon 140 61
4 25/ 11/ 64 Schizo J. Doster 139 6
5 27/ 16/ 57 Trapper 1.1 Kurt Franke 139 11
6 39/ 41/ 20 Look J. Doster 137 3
7 38/ 41/ 21 Searching Kurt Franke 136 42
8 32/ 33/ 35 Hint Test v4 M R Bremer 132 7
9 21/ 11/ 68 Impfinity v3c11 Planar 131 18
10 16/ 8/ 75 Sheet 1.0 J. Doster 124 16
11 17/ 9/ 74 Paper8 G. Eadon 124 37
12 35/ 47/ 18 Heatseek2 Phil Whineray 123 53
13 16/ 11/ 72 RingWorm_v2.4 Calvin Loh 122 4
14 32/ 45/ 24 Recon V7.0 A. Nevermind 119 1
15 12/ 6/ 81 Impfinity v1 Planar 118 50
16 15/ 15/ 70 P_Banzai_v2.1 Calvin Loh 114 5
17 12/ 13/ 75 RingWorm_v1.0 Calvin Loh 112 22
18 11/ 11/ 78 RingWorm_v1.4 Calvin Loh 111 20
19 14/ 19/ 66 Paper Dragon Kurt Franke 109 32
20 12/ 16/ 72 P_Banzai_v1.2 Calvin Loh 109 24
Not too much movement here; less than 10 new warriors. I cannot say more
because I haven't got my test warrior's results.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The hint
P-space
Hi,
this time we'll speak of p-space, the last tool, implemented by pmars08,
that allows our warrior to change strategy according to the history of the
match.
P-space is a protected area of memory, i.e. every warrior has its own
p-space and cannot read or write opponent's one. P-space hold but values,
not whole instructions, and is accessed by two specific instructions LDP and
STP load and store Pspace.
At the beginning of every round p-space cell 0 holds the result of previous
round, -1 at the very beginning, others cells hold the value they had at the
end of previous round, 0 at the start of the match. The value is 0 if we
lose, and the number of alive warriors if we survive; in standard one
against one matches those values are 1 for the win and 2 for the tie.
Warriors using p-space are called p-warriors or p-switchers; they store in a
location of p-space informations on the strategy they are using, at the end
of the round they evaluate the result of prvious round and, according to it
and, sometimes, the result of others rounds, continue with current strategy
or change to another, in the hope of doing better. In practice, if you are a
general, planning long term strategies, the switcher is your colonel,
deciding on battlefield what to use against your opponent.
It's important to say that even the best switching routine is worthless if
you don't have sound combat routines; if all you components lose against
your enemy, the mix will lose too, sometimes even worst because you lose
some time at the beginning to pplan the round, and to boot components away
from the big warrior body.
P-space is a tool for intermediate players, not for beginners; until you
don't have at least two average level different warriors, a stone and a
paper for example, you cannot get anyhing good from it.
Now let's see how to assemble a p-warrior; first we need good components,
able to score points against different kind of enemies; we have them:
Paper01, to score against enemy bombers, juliet storm, to kill enemy
scanners; against enemy paper we are not defenceless, a paper usually cannot
beat another paper, so we should score:
Well against bombers, thanks Paper01
Well against scanners, thanks juliet
Ties against replicators, thanks Paper01.
Once chosen our hands, we have to assemble the brain; unless you want to do
something very complex, the switcher is not a difficult thing to do. Let's
give a look at a very simple one, and BTW successful, the switcher of Jack
in the Box, for three main reasons: it's one of my warriors, is doing well,
is the only one published :-)
Jack's has two components, a very heavy replicator, four times Paper01, and
a very fast bomber, Tornado.
Its strategy is simple: the replicator scores lots of points against enemy
bombers but, because of the size, is rather vulnerable to scanners; well if
we are winning or tieing all right, we continue with the same strategy; if a
bad scanners happens to kill the paper, BOOH, Tornado pop up and with its
high speed and colored bombs kill him.
Here it's, very simple indeed.
_RES equ 0 ;here pmars loads results
_STR equ 1 ;here I store my strategy
res ldp.ab _RES, #0 ;load result last match
str ldp.a _STR, str1 ;load strategy in use
sne.ab #0, res ;check result, win or tie OK
lost add.a #1, str1 ;lost change
mod.a #2, str1 ;secure jump
win stp.ab str1, _STR ;save strategy
str1 jmp @0, juliet
dat 0, paper
We load in res.b the result of last match, in str1.a the strategy we used,
then we compare res to 0, if it's zero we add one to the strategy, if it's
different, tie or win, we don't. The mod instruction assure us to have a
value of 0 or 1.
At last we save new strategy for the round, and we jump at bomber or paper,
according to str1.a
In 7 cycles we have finished, so even a Qscan has hard times to hang on.
Now the code, nothing more than taking the waariors, the switcher an putting
all together.
Last note, near to forget it, P-space has a 'dark side', brainwashing.
You cannot access your opponent p-space, but if you mage to force your
opponent, with a vampire attack, to execute these lines of code, or
something similar:
bwash spl 0,>1
stp.ab #0,#0
jmp -2,{-1
(usually this code is together with others spl and a core clear)
its p-space will soon fill of garbish and it's rather difficult that, in the
following round, its switcher will found what it needs to make a correct
decision. So, when you make your switcher, don't forget to think at what
will happens if something goes wrong in your p-space, and, _most_important_,
never forget to mod you STR value before executing the jump.
mod #2, 1
str jmp @0, paper ;a field holds strategy
dat 0, juliet
If you forget it, may happens your warrior will have to execute something like
str jmp @1234,paper
and you will score something like 0/249/1 :-(
Here is the code. I submitted the warrior at both -94 and beginners hill, if
you have any question, or you are interested in results, mail me <bezzi@iol.it>
------------------------------
;redcode-b quiet
;name juliet and paper
;author M R Bremer, B. Bezzi
;strategy p-warrior for C.W. n.5 hint
;strategy switches juliet storm and Paper01
;kill juliet and paper
;assert CORESIZE == 8000
ptr EQU -1333
dest0 equ 2200
dest1 equ 3740
dest2 equ -1278
range equ 933
RES equ 0 ;here pmars loads results
STR equ 1 ;here I store my strategy
imp_sz equ 2667
org start
gate dat <-445, <-446
s spl #445, <-445
spl #0, <-446
mov {445-1, -445+2
add -3, -1
djn.f -2, <-2667-500
mov 32, <-20
go dat #0, #ptr
juliet mov {-1, <-1
mov {-2, <-2
mov {-3, <-3
mov {-4, <-4
mov {-5, <-5
mov {-6, <-6
mov gate, ptr+24
mov gate, ptr+24
spl @go, <4000
jmp boot, <4013
start
res ldp.ab RES, #0 ;load result last match
str ldp.a STR, str1 ;load strategy in use
sne.ab #0, res ;check result, win or tie OK
lost add.a #1, str1 ;lost change
mod.a #2, str1 ;secure jump
win stp.ab str1, _STR ;save strategy
str1 jmp @0, juliet
dat 0, paper
paper
spl 1, <300 ;\
spl 1, <400 ;-> generate 8 consecutive processes
spl 1, <500
silk spl @0, {dest0
mov.i }-1, >-1
silk1 spl @0, <dest1 ;split to new copy
mov.i }-1, >-1 ;copy self to new location
mov.i bomba, }range
mov {silk1, <silk2
silk2 jmp @0, >dest2
bomba dat <2667, <1
for MAXLENGTH-CURLINE-9
dat 0,0
rof
boot spl 1 ,#0
spl 1 ,#0
spl <0 ,#vector+1
djn.a @vector,#0
imp mov.i #0,imp_sz
jmp imp+imp_sz*7,imp+imp_sz*6
jmp imp+imp_sz*5,imp+imp_sz*4
jmp imp+imp_sz*3,imp+imp_sz*2
vector jmp imp+imp_sz ,imp
end
______________________________________________________________________________
Planar's corner:
Next week, you'll get the sequel to my article about imp spirals.
Today, I have a short hint for beginners and a call for volunteers.
The short hint:
---------------
I have written the following program:
;redcode
foo equ 1+2
nop foo*2
Giving it to pMARS, I get this load file:
START NOP.F $ 5, $ 0
Hey ! What's going on here ? If foo is 1+2 and the argument to NOP is
foo*2, then it must be 6, right ? Wrong. The argument is 1+2*2 = 5,
because EQU does a textual replacement of the label with its argument,
not a numerical evaluation of its argument (there is a good reason for
this).
The solution is the same as in the C language: use parentheses generously:
foo equ (1+2)
Now the argument to NOP is (1+2)*2 and I'm happy. Maybe this was the
reason why my warrior failed on the hill. But then again, maybe not.
The call for volunteers:
------------------------
I have started updating the ICWS'94 draft standard. My new version
includes the new addressing modes and opcodes we are all using every
day. Who will add p-space into it ? We have missed the '94 deadline
by a long time now, and I think it's time to turn the draft into a
standard (does the ICWS still exist, by the way ?) Or at least the
draft should describe the language that we are using.
Before we start discussing read/write limits, Stefan asked that I post
a summary of all the good arguments against them, so I have to find
the postings of one and a half year ago (does anybody know where to
find an archive of recent postings to r.g.cw ?) Please no flame war
before I declare the season open.
The new version of the ICWS'94 draft standard is available at
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/icws94.95
<Damien.Doligez@inria.fr>
______________________________________________________________________________
Extra Extra:
Thermite
With impeccable timing I re-arrive on the internet just as Thermite is
knocked off the hill, appropriately enough by Michael Constant. I don't
think I ever published the code, so here it is with explanations as
accurate as the mists of time permit. I'm not really sure why it worked
for so long, but I guess it was a lack of decisive weaknesses rather than
any single strength. Maybe P-space even helped, making targets bigger...
Thermite was standard quickscan, followed by a Torch-like incendiary bomber.
The quickscan was originally developed from Michael Constant's Sauron (94
tournament) and ended up almost exactly like his Pyramid. I experimented with
various warriors to follow the scanning stage: a vampire, Midge, sadly couldn't
bite as fast as Silks could grow, and Queasy (4-word Mod-1 MOV <A,B bomber) was
good against scanners but otherwise weak.
Then Paul Kline published Torch which looked too good not to steal:
fast incendiary bombing, and multi-process -- so tending to draw if
damaged. The only constructive change I made removed the anti-scanner gaps
from the code, to make it more resistant to Silk-type strip bombing.
I called the result Phosphorus and it was modestly effective (somewhat
less so than Torch :) but it proved a great partner to the quickscan.
The Phosphorus code may appear puzzling if you don't know Torch. The key idea,
is that the instructions in the loop are executed in _reverse_ order because
the SPL #0 instruction keeps feeding new processes into the loop.
:( No-one "hides" near large decoys any more... :(
;redcode-94
;name Thermite 1.0
;kill Phosphorus
;author Robert Macrae
;strategy Quick-scan -> incendiary bomber.
;assert CORESIZE == 8000
; Since I don't launch phosphorus, vulnerable to carpet bombers. May
; pay to put it at start? I should make better use of DJN stream
; (nascent). Either use <, or else start it somewhere which gets bombed
; by mov fairly quickly. What happens if I fall through early, due to
; DAT 1,1s? Should check this doesn't hurt...
SPC equ 7700 ; (CORESIZE-MAXLENGTH-MINDISTANCE*2)
STP1 equ 81 ; (SPC / (RAM/2) / 2)
Lookat equ look+237+8*(qscan-1)*STP1
; First scan at 237; last at -67?
traptr dat #0, #trap
bite jmp @traptr, 0 ; Vampire bite.
; Lots of pointers to these, so keep them away from trap!
look
qscan for 6
sne.i Lookat+0*STP1, Lookat+2*STP1
seq.i Lookat+4*STP1, Lookat+6*STP1
mov.ab #Lookat-bite-2*STP1, @bite
rof
jmn test+1, bite ; Save a few cycles
qscan for 6
sne.i Lookat+48*STP1, Lookat+50*STP1
seq.i Lookat+52*STP1, Lookat+54*STP1
mov.ab #Lookat-bite+46*STP1, @bite
rof
jmn test+1, bite ; Save a few cycles
qscan for 6
sne.i Lookat+1*STP1, Lookat+3*STP1
seq.i Lookat+5*STP1, Lookat+7*STP1
mov.ab #Lookat-bite-STP1, @bite
rof
jmn test+1, bite ; Save a few cycles
qscan for 6 ; Should be 7 if I had space...
sne.i Lookat+49*STP1, Lookat+51*STP1
seq.i Lookat+53*STP1, Lookat+55*STP1
mov.ab #Lookat-bite+47*STP1, @bite
rof
; Intention is to place points evenly through the target area.
test jmz.b blind, bite ; if no address stored, no hit.
add #STP1*2, bite ; Smaller than pyramid, as fast.
jmz.f -1, @bite ; find nonzero element.
mov spb, @bite ; Quick pre-bomb...
add #49, bite ; aim 51 past the hit
attack sub.ba bite, bite ; bite(b) contains target-bite
loop mov bite, @bite ; (a) contains the bite addr.
add.f step, bite
djn loop, #24 ; 6 spacing => 72 cycles...
; Incendiary bomber based on Phosphorus 1.0 (from Torch).
bstp equ 155 ; Mod 5, as too big for mod 4 to miss!
gap equ 15 ; Gap between mov and spl.
offset equ 130 ; Chosen with step and gap to give long bombing run.
count equ 1500
blind
spb spl #0, <-gap+1 ; spl half of the incendiary
add #bstp, 1
mov spb, @tgt-offset ; Gives longest run, given gap & step.
mov mvb, @-1
tgt djn.f -3, >300 ; gets bombed with spl to start clear
mov ccb, >spb-1 ; Uses copied mvb for CC.
djn.f -1, <spb-18 ; Aids clear.
mvb mov gap, >gap ; mov half of the incendiary
ccb dat 0, 10 ; Core Clear.
; Bit worried about having trap so close to my code...
trap spl 0, >-200 ; Lackadaisical attempt at gates.
spl -1, >-200+2667 ; Each increments many times between
jmp -2, >-200+2*2667 ; imp steps, but then the whole imp
; moves! I only blow away rings...
step dat #6, #-6 ; QS step size. Up from 5 for speed.
end look
(Editor note: I had to change it a little, because Robert used STP as a
label, and now it's not allowed being it an opcode. Just hope I didn't
introduce bugs; I tested it and all seems OK. - B.B.)
______________________________________________________________________________
Extra Extra Extra:
Phq
Well! I have received lots of requests about Phq so I have decided to publish
it... (in other words CoreWarrior' staff has payed me enough ! ;-)
Phq is one of my first programs written in 94 standard (I have started
redcoding with the 86 standard...)
First of all two words about the name...
Phq recalls a formula of quantum mech: the original name had been
Emc2 (reference to 2c initial qscan) but Emc2 was also the name of another my
QScan-->Stone warrior that never worked very fine...
When I began making Phq, another program behaved very well:
Marcia Trionfale of our friend Beppe Bezzi; so I decided that my warrior
should contain a paper module!
At those times most of the programs on the hill reached the limit of 100
istructions, this made me choose for the initial QScan pass.
The initial QScan is also very useful to solve (without any PSpace routines)
the problem of papers in gaining points during self fighting:
QScan makes Phq able to kill itself in self fighting about 83% times.
So I took the decision: my program will have to be a Qscan --> Paper !
Well! At this point I had to decide what could I do if QScan found an enemy,
or simple a decoy :( !
The first attempt was to bomb the neighborhood of the cell differing from
dat.f 0,0 (blank) with simple dat bombs, using a series of "mov bomb,<ptr"
istructions.
The problem is finding the size of the neighborhood.
I had obtained just slight better results using incendiary bombing.
I'd have liked to use spl 0 bombs but this wasn't possible for after bombing
I had to start with paper, and a paper isn't the best to kill lots of
processes executing a "spl 0 jmp -1" loop (or similar)!
Maybe I could have tried some vamp bombing, but I didn't do this...
I choosed to copy some suicide 3-instr core-clear routines "around", hoping
that the enemy executes one of them!
This solution was quite good: if even only one enemy task executes this
3-instr code it may kill other eventually (near) enemy tasks; note that its
bombing is harmless against my paper!
An interesting question is: ...and what about against Pspace programs?
I'm mainly a paper and if the enemy switches on a scanner module, it's a
slaughter for me! :(
So I'd liked to have some brainwashing routines: I added to my core-clear a
brainwashing stp line (who fills enemy PSpace with non-sense values).
Well! This program worked quite fine but another little change made it
even better!
After bombing my initial strategy was simple to jump to paper routines...
...and what about using a spl to have in any case a task who executes my
core-clear?
Well! I added this spl line and results were 3 points more then previous
version!
I'm not sure why this works better...
maybe because I bomb more wide around the non-blank cell and sometimes I
reach the enemy before the paper itself kills my own task.
Note that I'm brainwashing myself! (as you can read in the initial strategy
line;-), but this is unrelevant 'cos I don't use PSpace in "active mode",
meaning with "active mode" that I don't use PSpace for switching.
That's all!
What?
The program?
Yeah! Of course! Here you are!
(Hoping that Phq will reach at least Thermite in old scored programs ;-)
Note that it's quite full of bugs ;-)
I leave to find them out, to my "25 readers" as exercise (as my prof. of
geometry always said...)
For any questions, flaming etc. your mail is welcome!
Mail to pan0178.iperbole.bologna.it
-----------------------
;redcode-94
;author Maurizio Vittuari
;name Phq
;assert CORESIZE==8000
;strategy New version! This one likes brainwashes...
step1 equ 3743 ; unoptimized replicator costants
step2 equ 1567 ; see CoreWarrior issue 3
step3 equ 1349
; ****** QSCAN ROUTINES ******
start
s1 for 4
sne start+400*s1,start+400*s1+100
seq start+400*s1+200,start+400*s1+300
mov #start+400*s1-found,found
rof
jmn which,found
s2 for 4
sne start+400*(4+s2),start+400*(4+s2)+100
seq start+400*(4+s2)+200,start+400*(4+s2)+300
mov #start+400*(4+s2)-found,found
rof
jmn which,found
s3 for 4
sne start+400*(s3+8),start+400*(s3+8)+100
seq start+400*(s3+8)+200,start+400*(s3+8)+300
mov #start+400*(s3+8)-found,found
rof
jmn which,found
s4 for 4
sne start+400*(s4+12),start+400*(s4+12)+100
seq start+400*(s4+12)+200,start+400*(s4+12)+300
mov #start+400*(s4+12)-found,found
rof
; just missed a line... :(
s5 for 3
sne start+400*(s5+16),start+400*(s5+16)+100
seq start+400*(s5+16)+200,start+400*(s5+16)+300
mov #start+400*(s5+16)-found-100,found
rof
found jmz rabbit,#0
add #100,-1
which jmz -1,@found
add #10,found
for 4 ; bombing enemy
mov m3,<found
mov m2,<found
mov mp,<found
mov m1,<found
rof
spl @found,{100 ; So... why not ?
; ****** REPLICATOR ******
rabbit spl 1, <200 ;create 11 processes
mov -1, 0
spl 1, <300
mov -1, 0
s1 spl step1, #0
mov.i >-1, }-1
mov.i bomb, }1942
s2 spl step2, #0
mov.i >-1, }-1
mov.i bomb, }1842 ;I've changed > with } so many times
mov.i bomb, >1900 ;that I can't remember if this version
mov.i bomb, }2000 ;is the one actually on the hill...
mov.i <s2, <s3
s3 jmp @0, }step3
bomb dat <2667, <5334 ;anti-imp bomb
; ****** BRAINWASHING CORE-CLEAR ******
m1 mov m3, {m3
mp stp <0, #20 ; brainwashing instruction
m2 djn.f m1, }m3+1
m3 dat }bomb, <2667
end start
_____________________________________________________________________________
For questions and congratulations mail me <bezzi@iol.it>, flame Myer
<bremermr@ecn.purdue.edu> or if you think it's of general interest post to
rec.games.corewar
Anyone with hints or warriors to publish is welcome.
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