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> Home > The Corewar Newsletters > Core Warrior > Issue #1

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	<bootslk,{bootslk
bootslk	spl	4000,	silk+15       ;more or less 4000

silk    spl     @0,     }A0     ;split 
	mov.i   }-1,    >-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, <silk3  ;copy
silk3   jmp     @0,     >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,   <pt1
	spl     1,      1
	mov     {pt1,   <pt1
	mov     {pt1,   <pt1
	mov     {pt1,   <pt1
	mov     {pt1,   <pt1
	mov     {pt1,   <pt1

go      djn.b	@pt1,   #2      ;start Tornado
	mov     gate,   <pt1


pt1     div.f   #last,	#last+1+away
pt2     div.f   #gate+away-5,#1


;--- Tornado 3.8
for MAXLENGTH-CURLINE-14
	dat     0,0
rof

start
	
	dat     -25,    last-gate1+5
warr
gate    
	dat     -25,    last-gate1+15
bombs   spl     #(step+1),  -step           ;hit spl
start1  sub     incr,   @b1           
stone   mov     (0*step)+jump+1,*(1*step)+jump
b2      mov     bombs,  @stone
b1      mov     bombm,  *stone
jump    jmz.b   start1, #0         ;hit by spl
clr     mov     @djmp,  >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 <bezzi@nemo.it> or Myer Bremer <bremermr@ecn.purdue.edu>
or Anton Marsden <amarsden@comp.vuw.ac.nz>
© 2002-2005 corewar.info. Logo © C. Schmidt