Mad Pod Racing - Puzzle Discussion

Puzzles
#274

Hi, I’m stuck in Bronze League. I wouldn’t mind for a clue.

I’ve made a bot that beats “Boss 4” in the IDE roughly 9 times out of 10.
But when I submit it, I never get above its score.
I see people discussing thrust direction and self-learning bots (genetic algorithms or other), but I guess those are features not yet available in Bronze ?

Here’s a pseudo-code of what I did :

angle = abs(next_checkpoint_angle) // absolute value

if angle > 90 then thrust = 8
else if angle > 50 then thrust = 80
else {
    // r is a small integer : 
    //   the thrust will be slightly under 100 if the angle is not close to 0
    thrust = 100 - int(angle/r)

    // f(0) = 25 ... f(2000) = 0 and f(x) is linear ; 
    //   slow down a bit when approaching a checkpoint
    if next_checkpoint_dist < 2000 then thrust = thrust - f(next_checkpoint_dist)
}

# t is a large enough integer (in the thousands) for the boost to be interesting
if boost_was_never_used and lap > 1 and angle == 0 and next_checkpoint_dist > t then {
    thrust = "BOOST"
}

Thanks for any help.

#275

your bot might be super good against the boss but quite bad against a lot of other bots. Try to test your AI against other bots in the IDE. (Either send a match from the last battles in the IDE or delete agent in the IDE agents selector)

#276

my friend wants help with wood 2 how doi help him with this

#277

I need help to detect collision.

#278

Hi, sorry if this sounds dumb but I just can’t figure it out.

When I changed from silver to gold, debug just stopped working, the error output doesn’t show anymore.

It says “You may activate debug mode in the settings panel to view additional game data.” but I can’t find the option in the settings pannel, only settings for:
Edit Mode
Auto close strings and braces
Theme
Mode
Language
Use external code editor

I’m using python

any help will be appreciated

#279

In the Gold league, the inputs change: you now have 2 pods to take care of. You must read all inputs for the bot to work.

Debug mode is actually a setting of the viewer (small cog at the bottom right of the viewer).

#280

I don’t think you read my question.

#281

I didn’t since there was none :sweat_smile:

What’s your question?

1 Like
#282

Right, I’m still unable to figure out how to debug in gold league. when I press the settings button (the little cog) I don’t get any options related to debug. ¿Is it just me? ¿Is it because I use python? ¿Is it because I use chrome? ¿Do I need an extension?

#283

you can’t see this?
image

#284

I’m a dumbass, I didn’t see there was a cog in the video thing. I was looking for it in the settings cog of the main menu. Thank you, sorry for wasting your time.

#285

Although, now that i turned debug mode on, I’m still not able to see the error stream.

#286

If you don’t see an error stream defined as

if condition in pod:
  print("prueba",file=sys.stderr)
else
  [...]

It means your condition is false.

Ps: If you refresh the IDE, you should be able to see a

Standard Error Stream:
myfunction
myfunction

Now

#287

How starting positions for four pods are calculated? Probably the pods are around the starting checkPoint but where exactly ? and in what angle?

#288

Imagine a line between checkpoint to 0 and 1. On a line perpendicular to that going through checkpoint 0, player 1 is 500 / -500 distance away from checkpoint 0, player 2 is 1500/-1500. Angle doesn’t matter as you can turn anywhere on turn 1.

#289

Sorry I am kinda lost here, it has been a while since I last played it and I would like to start all over again from the very first mission. Is there a way to go back to be able to read all the basics of the game once again?
Maybe I have it in front of my eyes, but I can’t find how to do that.
Thanks a lot.

#290

There is no way (for now) to start from scratch again in a game. However, the current statement you can see includes all the information you need.

#291

Hi all, I’m on the start of the Gold level ( two pods ), but seeing some odd behaviour…

My pods are making the checkpoint, but the nextCheckPointId value isn’t changing?

Is anyone else getting that, or am I missing something?

All help appreciated!

#292

Just in case you maybe have not noticed, the input format changes once reaching the gold league. Make sure you are reading the new inputs properly and the bug should vanish.

#293

Thanks reCurse,

I’m just using the ‘boilerplate’ input parsing provided by the game… :slight_smile:

        for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
        {
            inputs = Console.ReadLine().Split(' ');
            int x = int.Parse(inputs[0]); // x position of your pod
            int y = int.Parse(inputs[1]); // y position of your pod
            int vx = int.Parse(inputs[2]); // x speed of your pod
            int vy = int.Parse(inputs[3]); // y speed of your pod
            int angle = int.Parse(inputs[4]); // angle of your pod
            int nextCheckPointId = int.Parse(inputs[5]); // next check point id of your pod
            
            nextPod = new Pod(i,x,y,vx,vy,angle,nextCheckPointId);
            myPods.Add(nextPod);
        }

I must’ve got something else screwy somewhere… I’ll keep looking.

Cheers!

P