Issue 22 March 25, 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
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 still out of service, you can download Pmars at
Terry's web page--http://www.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/
______________________________________________________________________________
Greetings.
Welcome to the 22nd issue of Core Warrior. We've had a flurry of activity
this week. Over half the warriors on the '94 hill are brand spanking new.
The past three weeks have brought significant change to hill as long standing
veterans have been falling to young upstart pspacers. Enjoy the show.
--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 44/ 35/ 21 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 154 230
2 45/ 41/ 14 Naked dancer Beppe Bezzi 149 48
3 40/ 33/ 26 prova Maurizio Vittuari 147 13
4 40/ 34/ 27 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 146 739
5 41/ 35/ 24 Chameleon M R Bremer 146 485
6 31/ 18/ 51 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 145 1213
7 42/ 40/ 18 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 145 355
8 36/ 29/ 36 Blue Funk 5 Steven Morrell 143 158
9 37/ 32/ 31 Tornado 3.0 Beppe 143 815
10 41/ 40/ 18 Gem of the Ocean P.Kline 142 7
11 40/ 39/ 21 Sloth v0.4 Ian Oversby 142 3
12 30/ 18/ 52 Hazy Shade II John K W 141 36
13 33/ 26/ 41 Barrage Anton Marsden 141 487
14 26/ 11/ 63 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 141 1028
15 37/ 33/ 31 A Hard Day's Night Maurizio Vittuari 141 16
16 42/ 44/ 14 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 140 1266
17 39/ 40/ 21 Cynical v0.1 Ian Oversby 139 2
18 32/ 25/ 44 Hector 3 Kurt Franke 138 18
19 37/ 36/ 26 Thermite II Robert Macrae 138 1014
20 43/ 49/ 8 Memories Beppe Bezzi 138 407
21 41/ 45/ 14 Pagan John K W 136 24
22 35/ 33/ 32 Clueless v0.4 Ian Oversby 136 1
23 34/ 32/ 34 Lithium John K Wilkinson 135 21
24 33/ 31/ 36 Flurry Anton Marsden 135 5
25 11/ 9/ 4 Gem of the Ocean P.Kline 36 64
Weekly age: 128
New warriors 13 Turnover/age rate 10%
Average age: 350 ( 333 last week, 431 the week before )
Average score: 142 ( 140 last week, 142 the week before )
The top 25 warriors are represented by 12 authors.
Boeren is on top once again this issue and has been for most of the week.
Only in 6 challenges has another warrior claimed the top spot--Thermite II
three times, Hipshot v2.1 once, and Naked Dancer twice. Grilled Octopus
reminds me of quiz's long dominance at the top. Except for the fact the
Grilled receives periodic updates.
The past three weeks have purged some of the ancient warriors from the hill.
This week Hazy Shade of Winter was _killed_ by JKW at an age of 616. Marsden
lost Blizzard at an age of 713. Both will enjoy rankings in the corewar Hall
of Fame however. Four warriors are over 1000 now--Impfinity, Frontwards,
Evol Cap, and Thermite II.
We've seen 14 versions of Naked Dancer this week. Perhaps Bezzi will be
satisfied with the number two spot. Gem of the Ocean has also been through
several mutations. Will these guys ever be content with anything less than
the number one ranking? 8)
Bombers are the dominating strategy at the moment. At least seven of the top
ten warriors are bombers or have bombing components. Last week, 130 points
would have gained the hill. Not this week. 135 points just for 25th place.
Ian Oversby has made a fairly quick jump to the '94 draft hill. Sloth v0.4
is his highest ranking warrior at eleventh place.
Only eight warriors declare using pspace in their strategy lines. And the
qscanners don't look all that effective this week.
______________________________________________________________________________
94 - What's New
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
5 39/ 40/ 21 Gem of the Ocean P.Kline 139 1
18 37/ 43/ 20 Naked dancer Beppe Bezzi 132 1
11 27/ 20/ 54 Hazy Shade II John K W 134 1
22 39/ 46/ 14 Pagan John K W 132 1
17 34/ 33/ 33 Lithium John K Wilkinson 135 1
24 28/ 26/ 45 Hector 3 Kurt Franke 130 1
14 35/ 35/ 31 A Hard Day's Night Maurizio Vittuari 134 1
8 37/ 36/ 27 prova Maurizio Vittuari 137 1
6 41/ 41/ 18 Gem of the Ocean P.Kline 140 1
23 30/ 33/ 38 Flurry Anton Marsden 127 1
12 38/ 41/ 21 Sloth v0.4 Ian Oversby 135 1
17 37/ 42/ 21 Cynical v0.1 Ian Oversby 132 1
23 31/ 35/ 34 Clueless v0.4 Ian Oversby 128 1
Newer versions of Naked Dancer and Lithium.
______________________________________________________________________________
94 - What's No More.
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
26 25/ 27/ 48 Paper Test v2a Ian Oversby 123 14
26 3/ 1/ 0 Naked dancer Beppe Bezzi 8 3
26 1/ 0/ 3 Clisson P.Kline 5 10
26 2/ 1/ 0 qtest 14 Beppe Bezzi 7 22
26 5/ 5/ 2 Test Anton Marsden 16 22
26 2/ 1/ 2 Lithium John K Wilkinson 7 84
26 33/ 43/ 24 myConfuser Paulsson 124 141
26 1/ 0/ 2 Q.S.P. John K W 6 134
26 3/ 0/ 1 Hazy Shade Of Winter John K W 9 616
26 25/ 23/ 52 Blizzard Anton Marsden 128 713
26 37/ 46/ 17 C I A Anders Ivner 129 255
26 39/ 49/ 12 Hipshot v2.1 J E Long 129 190
26 32/ 35/ 33 Torch t18 P.Kline 128 242
______________________________________________________________________________
94 - What's Old
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
16 42/ 44/ 14 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 140 1266
6 31/ 18/ 51 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 145 1213
14 26/ 11/ 63 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 141 1028
19 37/ 36/ 26 Thermite II Robert Macrae 138 1014
9 37/ 32/ 31 Tornado 3.0 Beppe 143 815
4 40/ 34/ 27 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 146 739
13 33/ 26/ 41 Barrage Anton Marsden 141 487
5 41/ 35/ 24 Chameleon M R Bremer 146 485
20 43/ 49/ 8 Memories Beppe Bezzi 138 407
7 42/ 40/ 18 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 145 355
1 44/ 35/ 21 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 154 230
______________________________________________________________________________
HALL OF FAME
* means the warrior is still running.
Pos Name Author Age Strategy
1 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 1620 P-warrior
2 Torch t18 P.Kline 1539 Bomber
3 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 1266 * One shot scanner
4 quiz Schitzo 1262 Scanner/ bomber
5 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 1213 * Stone/ imp
6 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 1028 * Imp / stone
7 Thermite II Robert Macrae 1014 * Qscan -> bomber
8 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner
9 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner
10 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp
11 Tornado 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 815 * Bomber
12 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber
13 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp
14 Night Train Karl Lewin 755 Replicator
15 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 739 * Bomber
16 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 736 Scanner/ bomber
17 Blizzard Anton Marsden 713 Qscan -> replicator
18 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber
19 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 650 Qscan -> replicator
20 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 643 Vampire
21 Hazy Shade Of Winter John Wilkinson 616 P-warrior
22 Armory - A5 John Wilkinson 609 P-warrior
23 juliet and paper Bremer & Bezzi 607 P-warrior
24 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 589 Qscan -> replicator
25 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 561 Qscan -> replicator
Hazy Shade of Winter enters the hill knocking off Boombastic by Maurizio
Vittuari. Blizzard stops climbing settling at 17th place. Remember when it
only took an age of 350 to make the hall?
Barrage and Chameleon should both make the hall next week if they survive.
______________________________________________________________________________
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 55/ 22/ 23 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 188 54
2 47/ 16/ 37 Vectorfantasy v0.2 basehead 178 12
3 54/ 34/ 11 Violent Micro v0.2 basehead 174 11
4 54/ 40/ 6 GPT 15l David van Dam 168 49
5 52/ 41/ 7 Goliath 0.3 David van Dam 163 6
6 48/ 33/ 19 ExPensive v0.1 Ian Oversby 163 61
7 45/ 28/ 27 Hyakutake Zenith Scott Manley 162 23
8 45/ 29/ 26 Obvious Thief.2 John K. Lewis 161 37
9 49/ 41/ 10 C-Seagal II Test jShelton 157 50
10 44/ 39/ 17 Three Core Monty Andrew Fabbro 149 3
11 45/ 46/ 9 Uni Charm Password Test # jShelton 145 22
12 43/ 44/ 13 Extreme Prejudice Scott Manley 143 44
13 35/ 28/ 37 Unknown John K. Lewis 142 36
14 33/ 24/ 44 Bag of Tricks Andy Nevermind 142 19
15 42/ 43/ 15 GPT 09k David van Dam 142 42
16 42/ 44/ 14 Auntie v1.1 Ian Oversby 139 60
17 43/ 47/ 10 Revision Three Andy Nevermind 138 46
18 40/ 43/ 17 Living Let Die Julian 137 5
19 40/ 44/ 16 Tonto 3 Steve Bailey 136 21
20 40/ 45/ 15 Hyakutake Approaches Scott Manley 135 51
21 39/ 45/ 15 Hyakutake Perigee Scott Manley 134 25
22 39/ 48/ 13 Simple Scanner-bomber Scott Manley 129 64
23 39/ 51/ 10 C Seagal jShelton 128 93
24 32/ 51/ 17 Vampy Jens Heunemann 114 2
25 32/ 57/ 12 testing Jens Heunemann 107 1
How unfair to inflict Jack in the box on the beginners hill! The '94 draft
hill had to tolerate him for a _long_ time. 8)
basehead was briefly seen on the '94 hill. Although his warrior scored well,
it was killed by the author. Hmmmmmm. Interesting strategy.
Is anyone on the b-hill in favor of increasing the age limit?
______________________________________________________________________________
The Hint
Before the '94 draft language, jmz scanners could only find non-zero 'b'
operands. Having zero value b-fields in your warrior was a definite
advantage. But with the new draft, many more options became available.
Scanning instructions can now scan .a .b .ab .ba .x and .i. Few authors
bother with zero operand fields anymore, so scanning .b may be just as
effective as scanning .i when searching for enemy code. Consider this:
TimeScape style replicators contain no zero b-fields (except in the launching
code). Wild Card scores 175 against it scanning .i, 173 scanning .b. Of
course TimeScape copies have tons of zero a fields. Scanning .a scores a
miserable 131. Irongate has one zero a-field and one zero b-field. Scanning
.a and .b score around 132 points. Scanning .i scores 145 points. Definite
problem. However, this technique works best against classic stones. A stone
usually will dec/inc the a or b field thus distracting scanners. By only
scanning .a or .b, you have a chance of not finding any dec/inc locations.
Juliet storm modifies a-fields. With a mov #2667, *0 imp added to it, Wild
Card scores 118.5 points when scanning .b versus 108.5 points scanning .i.
Submitting my scanner against the hill with different options had significant
effects on the individual scores of some programs. Drastic enough I don't
want to mention names. But the overall score against the hill tends to
balance out. However, if you're having a real problem with a few particular
programs, changing your scanning criteria just may be the key.
______________________________________________________________________________
Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care.
authors: Beppe Bezzi <bezzi@iol.it> or Myer R Bremer <bremermr@ecn.purdue.edu>
|
