Yes, and while this is basic in principle is really why it's such a great
learning tool. You don't really need to do all that much to get a working
robot. As your skills in the language, you can build smarter and smarter
bots that have complex targeting and path finding systems.

Kyle Heon
kheon / comcast.net


-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Burt [mailto:dave / burt.id.au] 
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 10:03 AM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: Re: Equvialent of RoboCode and/or Terrarium for Ruby?

Reyn Vlietstra mused:
> ah, ok
> I only thought about the simplest case, robocode doesn't seem to have 
> occluders and visibility.
>  Would be nifty to have a grid based level with obstacles, anything 
> more complex than that would probably be easier implemented as a quake
mod.
>  Robots could set traps for each other, or use known things in the 
> level, eg pull a lever when another robot is positioned over a flame.
>  Would more complexity be more fun ? Where is the line drawn ?

RoboCode is a simple system that includes limited robot-vision. Bots have a
turretted weapon mounted on the vehicle, and a turretted scanner mounted on
top of that. Scanners turn much quicker than the guns or whole vehicles, but
still at a limited rate, so you need to make a trade-off between scanning
all around to get the big picture and scanning specific threats (e.g. for
targetting).

Cheers,
Dave