Missed an important piece of advice
Made the webpage simpler.
Tweaking manager/simulate.py, updating manual and webpage You can now pass arguments to your AI through the manager program. Simply include the path to the AI and arguments in quotation marks. EG: ./stratego "../../agents/foo/bar --debug" ../../agents/other/agent simulate.py was making broken links to log files, fixed. Logging of stderr! If anything is printed to stderr, it is all saved in logfilename.stderr by simulate.py Tried to make the manual page better, probably failed. Updated webpage since we have now changed the date. Also tried to fix vixen again, haven't tested.
Trivial changes to webpage
Trivial to webpage Added link to mailing list page.
Added faq and Copyright notice
Trivial update to webpage Thanks to Hipikat for pointing out some things that needed clarifying. Email matches or post in irc if there is anything else.
[RULE CHANGE] "NO_MOVE" is no longer a legal Previously AIs could respond with "NO_MOVE" whenever they felt like. Officially, now they can only respond with "NO_MOVE" when they have no mobile pieces left. (That is, only Bombs and the Flag are left). However the game should end by a VICTORY_ATTRITION condition as soon as either player loses its last mobile piece. So technically, "NO_MOVE" can't ever be legally printed, because the game should have ended. If it doesn't, there is a bug. Updated webpage, updated manual, updated README Going to email the list later today. Goodluck! PS: The rule change is due to a mean initial setup, for example: ********** ********** ********** BB**BB**BB ..++..++.. ..++..++.. etc Here, Red has placed Bombs in all three "lanes". Red is unable to move. However, as long as Red can use "NO_MOVE", an unsuspecting Blue will lose most of its pieces on the Bombs. (Unless Blue puts a miner up the front...) But anyway, being able to not move is silly and not allowed in the real game.
Trivial changes to webpage
Moved manager manual page
Changed directory structure (again) I got fed up of typing progcomp2012/progcomp Obsessive compulsive urges rising...
Changed the directory structure.
Modified manager program, updated website Major changes: Added simple GUI for human players Setup phase doesn't use GUI yet (uses a default if -g enabled). Click in the general region of where you want to select/move pieces. Modified Board::Draw to allow for showing of already revealed pieces, but not all pieces. Used to make human player GUI nicer (hides AI pieces). Modified -t switch to allow for "infinite" stall_time (wait for user to press enter) Changed website. Removed protocol description and linked to manual.txt. Added screenshot to make things slightly more exciting. Updated manual.txt Minor changes to simulate.py (output) TODO: Fix segmentation fault found in manager program It occurs just before exit. Memory error in the cleanup process? ANNOYING! Still have to bring myself to take the time to finish setting up that vm... Need to talk to a non-hostile wheel member about security. I don't want my vm to take out our network or something. Preferably I don't even want the vm to be compromised, regardless of the rest of ucc. So much I don't know about servers/linux... Need to stop staying up past midnight...
Fixed broken links in webpage
Revamped manager program and added manual page Seperated controllers into AI and human controllers, which inherit from the same base class Using "human" as an argument instead of an AI program will allow human player. However, the human player has to use the CLI. I have tried playing a few games, and it is incredibly annoying using the CLI (especially when each turn was printed to stdout - now suppressed). Usually I accidentally enter the wrong coordinates, or spend 30 seconds trying to work out the coordinates of a piece. Then when I switch the focus, the SDL window goes blank, and I don't know what the hell is going on. In conclusion: Should probably add GUI for human players! Created Game class to manage playing the game, rather than hacking everything into main.cpp Added argument switches for timeouts, graphics, output file, help, allowing illegal moves, revealing colours etc Added result lines (output who actually wins... amazing!) The massive spamming output that used to be printed is suppressed (enable with -o stdout/file). Created manual.txt which is the manual page for stratego (the manager program). stratego --help will display the page (using "less" - should probably fix for systems without "less"). Changed tokens used for pieces from alphabet characters to digits for the ranked pieces, 's' for the Spy, 'B' for Bombs and 'F' for the Flag. This makes things clearer. The Spy would be "10", except thats 2 characters, which is a bit awkward! Didn't change the order of the enum, because thats just asking for trouble and besides, it works. Changed stratego to output the characters for the piece, instead of an integer rank (except for Flag, Bomb and Spy, no difference). Need to handle situations where a player has lost all their mobile pieces. Do they lose? Currently they will be forced to make an illegal move, and the other player wins by "default". Found mistake in forfax move score calculation that lead to moves having negative scores, and hence occasionally an illegal move would be chosen as more valuable than legal moves. Probably fixed. Illegal moves now score -1, so should NEVER be made! Ironically the change seemed to decrease forfax's performance against dummy. Forfax still seems to make really stupid moves, and I can't see why. Occasionally it does something smart (attacks Marshal with Spy just after the Marshal reveals itself), but I'm not sure how often these are coincidences. Even with the devaluing of moves that don't end in combat, Forfax still gets into long cycles of repeated paths with no purpose. And Forfax NEVER attacks Bombs or the Flag... even if thats all the enemy has, and even if the attacking piece would be a miner. Updated web page. Considering replacing Protocol Description as is with that written for manual.txt, which I feel is clearer. Need to make next git commit message shorter...
Modified Turn Response Protocol, added handling for SIGPIPE, changed placeholder images The "outcome" of a move is now listed as: TYPE [ATTACKER_RANK] [DEFENDER_RANK] Where ATTACKER_RANK and DEFENDER_RANK will be present if TYPE is one of: KILLS, DIES, BOTHDIE, and indicate the ranks of the pieces involved. This involved adding a class MovementResult, which stores the ranks of pieces in addition to an enum, replacing the enum Board::MovementResult The sample agent "forfax" was causing broken pipes, which caused the manager program to exit. I added a handler for SIGPIPE in manager/main.cpp to ensure that the manager program reports a DEFAULT victory to the other AI, and exits gracefully. However, I still don't know WHY forfax causes broken pipes, but hopefully its a problem with forfax and not with the manager program. I edited the images used by the graphical display to show the ordered ranks of the pieces, rather than some obscure characters. Unfortunately I have just realised that the enum used for Piece::Type stores ranks in the wrong order. In the actual game, LOWER numbers are better, in my enum, HIGHER numbers are better. To make things more confusing, I made the printed ATTACKER_RANK and DEFENDER_RANK correspond to the traditional numbering, not the enum numbering...
First actual commit More details to follow :P