[gus_massa]

> See the arena in action

> Read the docs to enter

I'd make them bigger. I though it was mandatory to register to see the games or read the info.

I'm still confusing. Does the player have to upload a program or the player just write a local client that connects to your server?

Is the game in Arena live? Can I write a client that I can control from the keyboard while watching it?

It's hard to evaluate after looking at the game for only 1 minute, but the arena looks very crowed with obstacles. Do you have games with more open arenas?

Are the bullets controlled after fire, ot they travel in a straight line?

[Vibr]

Thank you for the suggestion I’ve been thinking about changing the order on the front page.

Player writes a local client that connects to the server. In the coming sealed arena mode the algorithm is run on algohol server.

Open arena matches are almost realtime and you can as well wire up a controller or a keyboard too to control your algo via the API and have fun with it. There’s some visual latency so I suggest having a script to control some functions for quicker reactions, because the visual drags a tiny bit what happens in the engine. I could imagine a human component could be most useful for higher level tactical/strategic decisions than direct control.

The open arenas are fairly complex to provide a good challenge for the algorithms. They mutate at every auto reset. Players can create any kind of private arenas they wish with the builder. You can freely adjust the individual elements and their mix. Click “Build” in the arena viewer to see the options.

It’s not possible to control the projectile paths in SciFi ruleset. On my todo list I have the option to make drones separately programmable to some extent. In the coming Terra rules i could imagine some weapons could be steerable.

[gus_massa]

> It’s not possible to control the projectile paths in SciFi ruleset.

It doesn't go in a stright line. Does it seek an enemy automatically? I coudn't find it in the docs.

[Vibr]

Energy projections in scifi follow a straight ray casted line. Projections can be shot at an angle (lateral and horizontal), but they follow a straight line. Drones explore areas on behalf of the owner bot and if a drone detects an enemy it automatically goes into seeking and attacking mode.

[gus_massa]

Energy projections and Drones:

Where is that in the docs?

Are you redrawing the whole screen? The fan of my notebook spin like crazy.

Are there low height obstacles? Perhaps the bots can shot over the block, but not walk over it. On the other hand until you get enough users it may be useful to have an "easy" mode so the bots can play in a almost-2D word.

[Vibr]

Thank you for hanging in there.

SciFi actions Project and Deploy-drone are described on https://docs.algohol.net/?doc=scifi-actions

I make a note for myself that Docs could use a search function.

I've made several optimization passes on the viewer draw functions (and in the engine) and it doesn't redraw the whole screen. I will make new passes later and see what I can do. The browser/cpu load is already majorly reduced from what it was originally. There are options but they mostly mean degradation of some kind. Options could be made available in the viewer menu. I will focus on the viewing experience once I've implemented Space ruleset, which is a major new slice.

In the build menu you can add "cover" elements which block the projectiles but allow for observation and to drones fly over them. I made cover elements more prominent in the current open arenas where applicable. Their density varies when the public arenas auto-reset.

2D mode is an interesting idea for the future.

[Vibr]

I added a configuration panel in the arena viewer header. It offers options to adjust the visual load. Those should help at least for now.