Winter Challenge 2024 - Feedback and Strategies

[Nipredil]

Hi all,

How did you make it through the 4th boss? I get the basics, I build a sporer, shoot at the A shaped thing. The A thing turns into a root and then I grow, but at the end I end up with the same amount of points like the boss and no resources left.

[yhuberla]

This question has already been raised (by @Dadacticiel) and resolved (by @Dadacticiel and @Rokerjea) in the thread. Here is a recap of the discussion:

@Dadacticiel

Hello !
I don’t get how we can pass Wood 1 division. We can’t beat the boss, only draw or am i missing something ?

@Dadacticiel

OK i got it, you can spawn a new root not only on protein (i thought so as the boss was always doing it)

@RoKerjea

you need to create a harvester next to the protein, not consume it like the boss. Then you just grow BASIC organs until you win

Cheers.

[azerty_04]

I ask again : what’s wrong with my code ?

import sys
import math
from random import randint
width, height = [int(i) for i in input().split()]
def next_to(pos1,pos2):
| |if (pos1[0]==pos2[0] and abs(pos1[1]-pos2[1])==1) or (pos1[1]==pos2[1] and abs(pos1[0]-pos2[0])==1):
| | |return True
| |else:
| | |return False
def diagonal(pos1,pos2):
| |if abs(pos1[0]-pos2[0]) * abs(pos1[1]-pos2[1])==1:
| | |return True
| |else:
| | |return False
def close_to(pos1,pos2):
| |if abs(pos1[0]-pos2[0]) * abs(pos1[1]-pos2[1])<4 and abs(pos1[0]-pos2[0])<3 and abs(pos1[1]-pos2[1])<3:
| | |return True
| |else:
| | |return False
dir=“N”
def analysis(_root,thing,organism):
| |if (organism==“HARVESTER” and my_c * my_d>0) or (organism==“TENTACLE” and my_b * my_c>0):
| | |enough=True
| |else:
| | |enough=False
| | |return “nothing”
| |for i in thing:
| | |for j in _root:
| | | |if close_to(j[1],i)==True and enough==True:
| | | | |typ=organism
| | | | |if diagonal[i,j]==True:
| | | | | |liste=[i[0],i[1],j[0]]
| | | | | |if i[1]>j[1][1]:
| | | | | | |dir=‘E’
| | | | | |elif i[1]<j[1][1]:
| | | | | | |dir=‘W’
| | | | | |if i[0]>j[1][0]:
| | | | | | |liste[0]-=1
| | | | | |elif i[0]<j[1][0]:
| | | | | | |liste[0]+=1
| | | | |elif i[0]-j[1][0]==0:
| | | | | |if i[1]-j[1]>0:
| | | | | | |liste[1]-=1
| | | | | |else:
| | | | | | |liste[1]+=1
| | | | |elif i[1]-j[1][1]==0:
| | | | | |if i[0]-j[0]>0:
| | | | | | |liste[0]-=1
| | | | | |else:
| | | | | | |liste[0]+=1

game loop

while True:
| |positions=[]
| |proteins=[]
| |enemy=[]
| |walls=[]
| |organs={}
| |my_roots=[]
| |entity_count = int(input())
| |for i in range(entity_count):
| | |inputs = input().split()
| | |x = int(inputs[0])
| | |y = int(inputs[1])
| | |_type = inputs[2]
| | |owner = int(inputs[3])
| | |organ_id = int(inputs[4])
| | |organ_dir = inputs[5]
| | |organ_parent_id = int(inputs[6])
| | |organ_root_id = int(inputs[7])
| | |if _type==‘A’ or _type==‘B’ or _type==‘C’ or _type==‘D’:
| | | | |proteins.append([x,y])
| | |elif _type==“WALL”:
| | | | |walls.append([x,y])
| | |elif owner==0:
| | | |enemy.append([x,y])
| | |elif owner==1:
| | | |positions.append([x,y])
| | | |if organ_root_id in organs:
| | | | |l=[]
| | | | |l.append(organs[organ_root_id])
| | | | |l.append(organ_id)
| | | | |l.append([x,y])
| | | | |organs[organ_root_id]=l
| | | |else:
| | | | |organs[organ_root_id]=organ_id
| | | | |my_roots.append([organ_id,[x,y]])
| |my_a, my_b, my_c, my_d = [int(i) for i in input().split()]
| |opp_a, opp_b, opp_c, opp_d = [int(i) for i in input().split()]
| |required_actions_count = int(input()) # your number of organisms, output an action for each one in any order
| |for i in range(required_actions_count):
| | |if len(positions)==1:
| | | |print(“GROW”,1,positions[0][0],positions[0][0]+2,“SPORER”,“E”)
| | |elif len(positions)==2:
| | | |print(“SPORE”,3,positions[1][0]+13,positions[1][1])
| | |else:
| | | |if my_a==0 and i+1<required_actions_count:
| | | | |print(“WAIT”)
| | | |else:
| | | | |liste=[randint(1,width-1),randint(1,height-1)]
| | | |print(organs,file=sys.stderr,flush=True)
| | | |while (liste in positions) or (liste in enemy) or (liste in walls):
| | | | |liste=[randint(1,width-1),randint(1,height-1)]
| | | |if my_a>0:
| | | | |typ=“BASIC”
| | | |elif my_b*my_c>0:
| | | | |typ=“TENTACLE”
| | | |else:
| | | | |typ=“HARVESTER”
| | | | |thing_that_dont_work_else=my_roots[i]
| | | | |organ_group=organs[thing_that_dont_work_else]
| | | | |analysis(organ_group,enemy,“TENTACLE”)
| | | | |analysis(organ_group,proteins,“HARVESTER”)
| | | | |print(“GROW”,my_roots[i],liste[0],liste[1],typ,dir,“slimy sounds”)

[berthy424]

I did it but I’m still stuck in wood 1 league. Every times I get a score of 12 (and 0 proteins) like the boss. I did create harvester too but I’m still in wood 1… . What do I miss?

[yhuberla]

Is your harvester harvesting the protein A, thus allowing you to create plenty of BASIC organs ?

[berthy424]

Thanks yhurbrla, but it’s impossible. In wood 1 league you start with only 6 A protein, and the A protein is 15 cells away. It’s impossible to reach it and harvest it in wood 1 league.

[azerty_04]

That’s why you must make a sporer, I guess

[yhuberla]

Here is the explicit solution to beat that one tricky puzzle in wood 1 league.

1. Build sporer next to root organ, aiming towards A protein.
2. Shoot sporer as to build new root close to A protein.
3. Build harvester next to A protein in order to harvest it.
4. Fill grid with BASIC organs.

Best of luck in the silver league.

[berthy424]

Oh thanks, I was misundertanding!! I thought it was necessary to shoot the protein to cerate a new organ! So what I missed is that it is possible to create a new organ with a spore at any place in the direction of the sporer.
Thanks @yhuberla

[MarkZ1]

When I try to grow a spore at the first turn, it fails with an error message: ((23,1)) is not to the E of ((0,1)). Is it a bug?

[_CG_KevinGuiraud]

Hello, this should now be fixed.

[_CG_KevinGuiraud]

Hello, you cannot spore there because a wall is in the way. The error message is wrong, this is now fixed:

[GargaLeNoir]

Hello, I have a strange error message telling me that I haven’t read all the input before writing on the output. I know it’s false because if I disable my current function and use another that also writes on the output I don’t get it anymore. Someone has suggested that it might be because the game runs out of time but the function in question runs very fast.
It might be linked to a bug I sometimes have when what is written on the output is what I wrote last turn, again. I log on the error output at the same time so I know what I actually sent. Since I can’t grow on the same place twice it makes me lose turns and makes me fall behind the AI.
Anyone knows what could trigger this behavior please? In the meantime I’m trying to figure out in my function what makes the engine so mad.

[GargaLeNoir]

The line that causes the error to appear is when I poll a member Queue. I’m not even iterating on it, but the engine freaks out if I poll it, remove a component from it. I tried replacing it by an ArrayList and it’s the same. It’s not static either. I have no idea why I can’t reduce this collection. I can try some ugly work around I guess, but if someone knows what the matter is I’m very interested to know please.

[GargaLeNoir]

The engine’s logic is that if I look at what’s in my queue I can never ever poll it afterward. I tried to create a fresh new object and only interact with it, but it didn’t work. This simplified code shows what causes that error (and makes me lose unfairly):
Queue< a > queueCopy = new Queue < > (mainQueue.peek());
// I do operations on queueCopy and need to remove it afterward
mainQueue.poll()