Path: news-rocq.inria.fr!univ-lyon1.fr!pasteur.fr!jussieu.fr!rain.fr!news.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!lerc.nasa.gov!purdue!mozo.cc.purdue.edu!cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu!bremermr From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Subject: Core Warrior 18 Date: 26 Feb 1996 19:21:00 GMT Organization: Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN Lines: 364 Message-ID: <4gt16s$1q6@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu .xX$$x. .x$$$$$$$x. d$$$$$$$$$$$ ,$$$$$$$P' `P' , . $$$$$$P' ' .d b $$$$$P b ,$$x ,$$x ,$$x ,$$b $$. Y$$$$' `$. $$$$$$. $$$$$$ $$P~d$. d$$$b d d$$$ `$$$$ ,$$ $$$$$$$b $$$P `$ $$$b.$$b `Y$$$d$d$$$' . . a . a a .aa . a `$$$ ,$$$,$$' `$$$ $$$' ' $$P$XX$' `$$$$$$$$$ .dP' `$'$ `$'$ , $''$ `$'$ `Y$b ,d$$$P `$b,d$P' `$$. `$$. , `$$P $$$' Y $. $ $ $ Y..P $ `$$$$$$$' $$$P' `$$b `$$$P `P `$' `Y'k. $. $. $. $$' $. Issue 18 February 26, 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. ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. It's me again--unfortunate for you. Bezzi threatened to fire me for the poor job I did on the last issue. I didn't think you could get fired from a job you did for free. Apparently the rules are different in Europe. My apologies to J K Lewis for mistaking him with J K Wilkinson. How could I have done that? JKL = redcode-quiet. JKW = redcode-verbose. Won't happen again. Remember the deadline for Lewis' tournament is March 5th. Mail entries to jklewis@umich.edu. ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 Last challenge: Mon Feb 26 05:33:26 PST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 30/ 26 Grilled Octopus v0.2 David Boeren 157 16 2 42/ 34/ 24 Chameleon M R Bremer 149 10 3 39/ 32/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 146 539 4 38/ 30/ 32 Tornado 3.0 Beppe 145 340 5 37/ 31/ 31 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 143 264 6 33/ 22/ 46 Barrage Anton Marsden 143 12 7 31/ 18/ 51 Clisson P.Kline 143 25 8 42/ 42/ 15 quiz Schitzo 142 938 9 41/ 40/ 19 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 142 791 10 43/ 46/ 11 Memories Beppe Bezzi 139 77 11 34/ 30/ 36 Trade Wars P.Kline 139 34 12 40/ 42/ 17 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 138 452 13 43/ 48/ 9 Wild Card M R Bremer 137 92 14 28/ 18/ 54 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 137 738 15 26/ 15/ 59 Hazy Shade Of Winter John K W 137 167 16 29/ 22/ 49 Haziest Shade Of Winter John K W 137 4 17 39/ 41/ 20 Wraith Kurt Franke 137 18 18 37/ 38/ 25 C I A Anders Ivner 137 1 19 34/ 32/ 33 Torch t18 P.Kline 136 1317 20 29/ 24/ 47 Link Kurt Franke 134 41 21 32/ 29/ 39 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 134 1305 22 23/ 12/ 66 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 134 553 23 26/ 19/ 55 Blizzard Anton Marsden 132 258 24 30/ 29/ 40 patroclus Kafka and Kurt 131 334 25 37/ 46/ 17 test me 129 2 Weekly age: 159 New warriors 10 Turnover/age rate 6% Average age: 333 ( 308 last week, 249 the week before ) Average score: 139 ( 139 last week, 132 the week before ) The 25 warriors on the hill are represented by 14 authors. ( Lost Karl Lewin's Night Train ) Boeren has been nothing but dominate. Grilled Octopus v0.1 was on top of the hill most this week, but was strongly contested by Memories and Frontwards v2, each claiming the number one rank for more than a few challenges. And then replicators Night Train and Hector 3 fell off the hill hurting the scanners' scores and dropping them into the middle of the pack. None the less, David started a new test series to consolidate his position. Clisson took the top spot for awhile as testing continued, but quickly fell to the successor--Grilled Octopus v0.2. Since it's introduction, only Chameleon--another new warrior--has been able to steal the lead, and for only one challenge. Can his dominance continue? This week also marks the return of pspace. Somewhat neglected for a few months, pspace is back with a vengence. Is it any coincidence that bombers started falling off the hill shortly after? Blue Funk 5 was doing very well at the beginning of the week, but with Boeren testing his new pspacer and Trade Wars making it onto the hill, it was easy for Marsden's new paper warrior to force Blue off. seventyfive was pushed off much the same way. With the code bloat associated with p-warriors, qscanners should score some easy points. Thermite has enjoyed a boost in score, and Barrage is doing well. I suppose we'll see the real test of booting versus decoy making as more qscans appear to do battle. The pspace cycle: Here we go again . . . Vampires are attempting a comeback with Paulsson's classic myVamp seen on the hill earlier. Wraith has managed to cling onto the lower half of the heap. It's too early to tell if it has staying power. M R Bremer (me) finally returns with Chameleon and Wild Card. Both programs have been ranked number one albeit for only one challenge each. Ivner didn't much care for the loss of seventyfive, so he's back with C I A. And what exactly are intelligence bombs anyway? Lots of significant losses this week with Night Train and Boombastic falling the farthest. Night Train by Karl Lewin stops at 10th place in the Hall Of Fame at an age of 755. Maurizio Vittuari's Boombastic will rest at 21st place at an age of 521. Torch t17 and Jack in the box are both still alive and kicking. Will a pspace comeback help or hurt the dynamic duo? Find out next week. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 30/ 26 Grilled Octopus v0.2 David Boeren 157 16 2 42/ 34/ 24 Chameleon M R Bremer 149 10 6 33/ 22/ 46 Barrage Anton Marsden 143 12 11 34/ 30/ 36 Trade Wars P.Kline 139 34 13 43/ 48/ 9 Wild Card M R Bremer 137 92 16 29/ 22/ 49 Haziest Shade Of Winter John K W 137 4 17 39/ 41/ 20 Wraith Kurt Franke 137 18 18 37/ 38/ 25 C I A Anders Ivner 137 1 20 29/ 24/ 47 Link Kurt Franke 134 41 25 37/ 46/ 17 test me 129 2 ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More. # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 26 38/ 45/ 18 Test J E Long 131 27 26 36/ 48/ 16 test Beppe Bezzi 125 3 26 33/ 45/ 22 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 122 521 26 2/ 2/ 0 test P.Kline 6 23 26 36/ 50/ 14 seventyfive Anders Ivner 122 311 26 1/ 1/ 1 Blur Anton Marsden 6 27 26 17/ 12/ 72 Night Train Karl Lewin 121 755 26 25/ 30/ 45 Blue Funk 5 Steven Morrell 120 152 26 22/ 23/ 56 Hector 3 Kurt Franke 120 266 26 1/ 1/ 2 Grilled Octopus v0.1 David Boeren 5 192 ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's Old # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 19 34/ 32/ 33 Torch t18 P.Kline 136 1317 21 32/ 29/ 39 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 134 1305 8 42/ 42/ 15 quiz Schitzo 142 938 9 41/ 40/ 19 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 142 791 14 28/ 18/ 54 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 137 738 22 23/ 12/ 66 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 134 553 3 39/ 32/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 146 539 12 40/ 42/ 17 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 138 452 4 38/ 30/ 32 Tornado 3.0 Beppe 145 340 24 30/ 29/ 40 patroclus Kafka and Kurt 131 334 5 37/ 31/ 31 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 143 264 23 26/ 19/ 55 Blizzard Anton Marsden 132 258 ______________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still running. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Torch t18 P.Kline 1317 * Bomber 2 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 1305 * P-warrior 3 quiz Schitzo 938 * Scanner/ bomber 4 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 5 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 6 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 7 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 8 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 791 * One shot scanner 9 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 10 Night Train Karl Lewin 755 Replicator 11 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 738 * Stone/ imp 12 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 13 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 650 Qscan -> replicator 14 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 643 Vampire 15 Armory - A5 Wilkinson 609 P-warrior 16 juliet and paper Bremer & Bezzi 607 P-warrior 17 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 589 Qscan -> replicator 18 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 561 Qscan -> replicator 19 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 553 * Replicator 20 Thermite II Robert Macrae 539 * Bomber 21 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 521 Bomber 22 B-Panama X Steven Morrell 518 Stone/ replicator 23 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 452 * Scanner/ bomber 24 NC 94 Wayne Sheppard 387 Stone/ imp 25 Cannonade P.Kline 382 Stone/ imp Anton Marsden joins the ranks of the Hall of Fame replacing Torch t17. ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 Last challenge: Mon Feb 26 06:05:01 PST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 52/ 14/ 34 Pretentious Ian Oversby 191 78 2 52/ 19/ 29 Gluttony JEL 184 88 3 58/ 33/ 9 Assassin XII-b Andy Nevermind 184 52 4 55/ 35/ 10 test J E Long 176 57 5 55/ 34/ 11 CoreWarrior M R Bremer 175 38 6 48/ 22/ 31 Shabba J E Long 174 70 7 47/ 20/ 33 Hyakutake C/1996 B2` Scott Manley 174 59 8 45/ 29/ 26 Uvavu II (revistited) Scott Manley 162 80 9 45/ 29/ 26 Uvavu II (test 25) Scott Manley 161 76 10 49/ 41/ 10 Paper Eater David Boeren 157 69 11 49/ 43/ 8 Assassin XI Andy Nevermind 155 63 12 40/ 39/ 20 Swan's Lament Chris Arguin 142 26 13 38/ 35/ 27 Jezebel's Revenge CXX Andy Nevermind 141 67 14 41/ 43/ 16 Lenochka 3 Julian 140 7 15 44/ 49/ 6 Fei-Oh v0.6 David Boeren 139 75 16 31/ 25/ 44 AB Scanner 2.9.3 Chris Hodson 138 27 17 42/ 46/ 12 XPEH 2 Julian 138 6 18 39/ 42/ 19 Swan's Lament Chris Arguin 136 10 19 39/ 46/ 14 test Julian 133 8 20 39/ 54/ 7 XPEH Julian 123 48 21 28/ 45/ 27 Evil Elf Andy Nevermind 112 5 22 30/ 50/ 20 Pommes-Ketchup V1.03 S. Schroeder 110 4 23 28/ 47/ 26 Inchworm J E Long 109 64 24 27/ 51/ 23 Blubbi V1i.0b bjoern guenzel 103 11 25 28/ 68/ 4 A-Cluster v2 Iain Hogg 88 1 Is your only goal in life getting a warrior on the 'pro' hill? ( If it is you should seek professional help. ) Want to know the tricks those mensa geniuses use to tweak their programs? Just mail your warrior to us at Core Warrior. We'll attempt to point out strengths, weaknesses, and strategies you can use to improve your core warring skills. And requests for hints are always welcome. ______________________________________________________________________________ The Hint Modern replicators breed like epileptic rabbits. Scanners need to take extreme measures to eradicate Timescape and DieHard style papers. The trick is to stun them as rapidly and thoroughly as possible. Simple spl/jmp bombs aren't enough. Even spl/spl/jmp bombs may be inadequate without a multipass coreclear. So what type of payload should a warrior deliver to maximize stunning power? A paper product typically employs parallel processes to achieve replication. I tested 6 stun bombs by executing 6 parallel processes on the first bomb instruction. The number to total processes after 100, 200, 300, etc. cycles was recorded and entered into the graph below. #Processes 1000 + - 56 900 + 56 - 800 + 5 - 6 2 700 + 5 2 - 6 600 + 5 2 1 - 6 2 1 500 + 5 1 - 6 2 1 400 + 56 2 1 4 4 34 34 - 3 3 300 + 56 2 1 3 - 2 13 3 4 200 + 56 13 4 4 - 123 4 100 + 12356 4 - 4 0 +------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 cycles These are the payloads delivered: 1. spl 0 2. spl 0 3. spl 0 4. spl -1 5. spl #N+1 6. spl #2, 0 jmp -1 spl 0 spl 0 spl -1 . . . mov -1, }-1 jmp -2 spl 0 spl -1 mov -N, }N (spl 0) (spl -1) The raw data: Cycle --- 100 70 85 89 (105) 49 ( 67) 101 85 200 132 161 142 (188) 96 (128) 202 180 300 195 238 189 (265) 129 (193) 303 277 400 257 314 228 (330) 192 (252) 402 375 500 319 391 263 (393) 193 (315) 501 474 600 382 466 294 (454) 240 (378) 598 574 700 444 543 325 (513) 341 (443) 695 673 800 507 619 356 (564) 384 (504) 786 773 900 569 696 383 (617) 385 (567) 877 873 1000 632 771 414 (676) 384 (628) 974 973 Initially, the bombs were limited to 3 instructions, but the split carpets performed so miserably I executed them with an extra instruction just to see how much improvement it would make. The 4 line versions are shown in parentheses. The graph contains the 3 line versions. The analysis: The spl/jmp bomb is used for a reference point. It is not effective against modern replicators. The spl/spl/jmp bomb is more powerful and attacks three locations as opposed to two. There is little difference if the jmp instruction is the first to execute. The spl 0 carept is only effective if four instructions long. However, its performance degrades rapidly if the lead spl 0 is not the first instruction to be executed. The spl -1 carpet is ineffective even in the 4 instruction version. A 5 instruction carpet with the middle split executing first generates about the same number of processes as the spl/spl/jmp bomb. The spl/mov bombs generate the most amount of processes. The incendiary bomb is the equivalent of a 6 instruction split carpet when the move is executed. However, sometimes the other instruction is executed reducing the effectiveness of the bomb. In addition, the powerful part ( the move ) attacks only one instruction. It is very easy to miss the active part of a silk module with this bomb. The last spl/mov bomb is slightly less effective in stunning capability, but is more effective overall. If the move is the first instruction to be executed than the bomb is the equivalent of a 6 instruction spl 0 carpet ( same as the incendiary bomb). However, if the spl #2 is first to execute, we get a continously expanding split carpet-- forty-three instructions long after 1000 cycles. This could even overwrite other silk modules. There are some disadvantages however. The split carpets can color core thus distracting the scanner. And the bomb only attacks two instructions. Real life test: Wild Card is a spl/spl/jmp scanner. At this time it is scoring around 131 points on the hill. A similar scanner using spl/mov bombs only scored 111 points. Changing the bombs to spl/spl/mov increased the score to 115 points, BUT the stun power of this bomber is not as good as the spl/mov. The double split spends more time increasing the size of the carpet and not stunning. The increase in the score is most likely due to the increased coverage of the bomb. I didn't spend any time trying to integrate the bomb components into the executing code. The resulting warrior is more fragile and larger resulting in an increase in losses. It also attacks the split carpets. By eliminating these problems, perhaps someone could write a more credible, quick stunning scanner. ______________________________________________________________________________ Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care: Beppe Bezzi or Myer R Bremer