====================================================================== @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@``````````@@ @@``````````@@ @@`````````````` @@@@ @@@@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@``@@ @@ @@`` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@`` @@ ``@@`` @@```````````` @@``````````@@ @@```````````` @@`` `` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@`` @@`` `` ```````````` `````````````` `` `` ====================================================================== A Fanzine for Free Computer-Moderated Play-By-Electronic-Mail Games ====================================================================== volume 95, number 3 march 13, 1995 ====================================================================== Greg Lindahl, Editor gl8f@virginia.edu ====================================================================== World Wide Web: http://fermi.clas.virginia.edu/~gl8f/pbm.html ====================================================================== Table of Contents: Opening Stuff o The Editor's Corner o Short Summary of Available Games Articles o Advice from C++Robots players Regular Features o Game Descriptions & Information o Archives and subscriptions by email o What's this "ftp" thing anyway? ====================================================================== The Editor's Corner ====================================================================== As usual, we're starving for articles. If you're interested in writing one, please contact me. -- g ====================================================================== Short Summary of Available Games (full information down below) ====================================================================== Abstract games --- an automated email server has 4 different abstract games available: Abalone, Hex, Twixt, and Trax. These are detailed in the PBM List mentioned below, or you can send email to "pbmserv@netcom.com" with the word HELP in the subject of your email. Atlantis 2.0 --- open-ended strategic fantasy game. Began Jan 15, now has 380 players. New players welcome. C++Robots --- program your robot to blow the other guy into tomorrow. Send mail to "pbmserv@netcom.com" with the word HELP in the subject for details. Celestial Empire --- a more complicated space-opera game. There are 2 games running. New games start occasionally. Dougal Scott is looking for a moderator to take over running these games. Diplomacy --- Play Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boardgame by email. On February 15, there were 1500+ players involved in 277 games, with new games starting frequently on several fully automated email servers. Galactic Conqueror (German language) --- An economic/strategic space-opera game, with fancy interface programs available for PC's and Atari ST's. Galaxy / Galaxy/2 / Galactica / Blind Galaxy --- An economic/strategic space-opera game. There are 200+ players involved in about 10 games. New games start occasionally, and new GM's are needed. Star Empires --- A simple strategic/economic space-warfare game. Fly around the galaxy, maim your enemies, capture their planets, and produce more ships to maim the enemy with, etc. Sports Simulations --- a variety of different electronic leagues are available, with the most popular being a set of soccer leagues with compatible rules. Decentralized games --- a couple of games are available which are designed for a few players, and the moderation programs are available so you can run your own games. For more information on any of these games, please wade through the "Game Descriptions and Information" section below. It lists ftp sites and the addresses of the moderators. The sports simulations details and decentralized games descriptions are located in the "PBM List", which is a separate document available at the FTP sites. ====================================================================== Advice from C++Robots Players ====================================================================== [ Three players answered Richard Rognlie's appeal to write about their winning strategies in C++Robots. Right now Morten Piil's Crawl is #1, Chris Fordor's one_man_one_bot is #3, and James Reed's robot is #13 on the hill, behind my bot at #11 (bwhaha.) I hope that this information will prove useful to C++Robots players, and I look forward to better competition on the hill! -- Greg ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Strategy Behind Crawl Morten Piil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The current C++Robots King of the Hill (All Hail the King!) writes: 1. Don't move, it spoils your aim, and it's more difficult to keep track of the opponent. 2. Move! Crawl grew out of "Aim" my previous 'bot witch didn't move, Aim/Crawl actually got a bit better after I started to creep forward against robots too far away to shoot. I had a lot of ties in my score, crawling slowly forward reduced these ties and converted them into wins! 3. Adjust the scanning angle according to the distance of the enemy, I use a formula: ScanArg = 5730/d + 1; where d is the distance of the enemy. This is derived from being able to keep up with a robot traveling at full speed at 90 degrees across my line of sight. 4. If his angular position doesn't change, I actually decrease my scanning angle to get a better shot (at the possibility of losing track of the 'bot.) 5. Remember his last position, and use this information to estimate where he will be at impact time of own shot. For estimation I use a polar coordinate system, and linear extrapolation. d = d1 + (d1-d2) * dt / (t1-t2); v = v1 + (v1-v2) * dt / (t1-t2); where d is the distance, v is the angle, t is the time, 1 refers to last position, 2 to the one before, and dt is the time from the last observation till impact of the shell (see 8). Polar extrapolation is inaccurate at close distances, and I've noticed that Chris Fodor uses the absolute coordinates for his extrapolation, but the calculations are a bit more complicated and use too much time to fit in a single cycle of the simulator (for me at least). 6. Keep cannon as many cannon shots in the air as possible. Cannon shot travel at approx. 100 m/s. I use an algorithm that says above d=5200 units I fire one shot. above 4000 I fire 2 shots, below 4000 I fire 3 shots. The 'bot Rikke (by John Schmidt, not me!) uses an array to keep track of his shots, so he can keep exactly 3 shots in the air at all times (when he has track of the enemy 'bot). 7. You can actually harm a bot that's 7399 units away, at impact time, but you must use 7000 as the argument to cannon (otherwise Richard's combat engine doesn't fire !) 8. KNOW YOUR WORLD, When I started to play this game, I had a mental image of the world these 'bots live in, you probably has one as well, and so does Richard Rognlie. These images were *NOT* the same. I requested a copy of the source code for the combat engine from Richard. (Interesting reading BTW!) I had this notion of a smooth running time where a robot would be moving constantly forward within the timeslices of the simulator, because of this I had a routine for calculating the (relative) impact time of a cannon shot: dt = calctime + d/10 + time() - t1; where calctime was the time it took to calculate the new position (later), d/10 was the flight time (in clockcycles) for the cannonshot, and time() - t1 was the time from now till my last observation of the enemy. Now Richard has a different point of view: Robots only move and cannonshots only land between timeslices. This means that when you see a robot with scan() the information is already one timeslice old. When you fire a cannon shot it *MAY* travel up to 150 meters in 0.01 seconds thats 15,000 m/s, not 100 m/s. After this I changed my robot to calculate in whole timeslices, and used Richards formula for finding the impact time of a cannon() shot: dt=((d+500)/1000); if (!dt) dt=1; dt+=t++; Thats when Chris Fodors "susan_unit" stopped being number one. So check your world against Richard's you may be surprised. 9. Use the trace facility, i.e. c++robots challenge your_bot's_name bot_on_hill's_name to run your robot against a bot on the hill. Observe the timing of your calls to scan, cannon and drive. Check that they fit in your timeslice, and use your timeslice. Don't waste CPU cycles (crawl actually uses up to 98-99 % of the slice in the tight places. 10. Check that all your cannon shots go off. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C++Robots Insights Chris Fodor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Try to put external commands near the end of 100 cycles (so that you don't lose to many instructions). Staying on the move by limiting turning makes you a harder target. (Actually, it makes it easier for "trackers". Zigzagging makes it harder for "trackers".) The way my best bot has worked is to stay on the diagonal, and use actual geometry to predict the position of the enemy bot when the bullet reaches it and fire at that position. My second best bot (daisy) worked by chasing the robot and assuming that it was behind the other robot when it fired. (i.e., both traveling at 100) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C++Robots Tradeoffs James B. Reed ---------------------------------------------------------------------- When I wrote my robots, I found that I could get a pretty good grip on the different strategies by issuing challenges and paying attention to what the other robot did. After observing and thinking about it awhile, several tradeoffs and basic considerations became apparent. 1. Moving targets may be harder to locate and hit. 2. Targets that change direction and/or speed may be even harder to hit. 3. It's easier to aim when you're sitting still or at least moving consistently. 4. If you don't understand polar coordinates, you'll have a hard time targeting accurately. 5. Every calculation takes some amount of time, so performing more calculations for more accurate targeting means you'll get to shoot less often. 6. It's easy to know the distance to the target, the scan resolution specifies the uncertainty in direction. That uncertainty can be quite large for a distant target. 7. Luck in the starting position can affect the outcome (I assume that's why the robots face each other 5 times). By emphasizing different considerations, you can devise different strategies. For example, pointnshoot emphasizes point 2 by changing direction every time it detects that it's been hit. That makes it a more challenging target to track, but it also makes it more difficult for pointnshoot to track its opponent. hereicome emphasizes point 6 by driving straight toward the target as soon as it's located. That reduces the uncertainty by reducing the distance. It also emphasizes point 5 by keeping its calculations to a minimum so it can shoot more often. I know that there are some robots that spend a lot of effort in locating the target and shooting accurately. A well implemented intelligent robot is more likely to place high up on the chart, but they can still get beat on occasion by a fast-but-stupid robot. ====================================================================== Game Descriptions and Information ====================================================================== Note: This information grows old. If you are looking at this issue from an archive, consult the file "PBM.list.gz" in the ftp archives for more up-to-date information. ====================================================================== All of these ftp sites are mirror copies of each other. Please use the closest one. FTP Site: ftp.erg.sri.com username: anonymous Directory: pub/pbm FTP Site: ftp.funet.fi username: anonymous Directory: pub/doc/games/play-by-mail World Wide Web: http://fermi.clas.virginia.edu/~gl8f/pbm.html ====================================================================== Game: Atlantis 2.0 Type: strategic economic/military, fantasy setting Duration: open-ended Turns: one per week GM: atlantis@rahul.net Status: running; accepting new players Description: Atlantis 2.0 is a vastly expanded version of Russell Wallace's original Atlantis 1.0 system. Atlantis features multiple faction types, a mostly player-run economy, simple economics, and a simple combat system. The rules are available from ftp.rahul.net:/pub/atlantis. As of early March, there are 380 players in the game. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: C++ Robots Type: Dueling programs written in C++ GM: rrognlie@netcom.com (Richard Rognlie) Status: continually accepting new players Email Server: pbmserv@netcom.com (with "help" in subject) Description: Much like the earlier game C Robots, this game involves programs written in the computer language C++ which control robots fighting a small war in a square arena. For more information, contact the email server for help. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Celestial Empire Type: strategic economic/military space-opera Duration: close-ended, 30+ turns Turns: one per week GM: dwagon@aaii.oz.au (Dougal Scott) Status: occasionally starting new games Description: Players compete to capture worlds which produce many different types of resources, of which different amounts are needed to manufacture various items. The author, Dougal Scott, is running several games, and he periodically starts new ones. The rules can be ftped from the ftp sites. After you have read them, if you still want to join a game, send your name to Dougal at the address above. He is also looking for a new moderator to take over running his games, because he doesn't have much time to run them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Core Wars (King of the Hill Tournament) Type: battling computer programs Email Server: pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu, subject of "koth help" or "koth faq" Description: The Pizza Server gives you access to the ``King of the Hill'' ongoing Core Wars tournament. Core Wars was invented in 1984 by D. G. Jones and A. K. Dewdney. A May 1984 article in Scientific American discusses it, as does a lovely article in my PBEM fanzine. More information about Core Wars in general may be found in the rec.games.corewar FAQ, available from the email server, or via anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar. Most discussion about Core Wars will be found on the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.corewar. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Diplomacy Type: email version of Avalon Hill's pure strategy game Turns: frequency varies from one per day to one per 2 weeks for different games. Email Server: judge@morrolan.eff.org HELP in body of message; the subject is ignored. Description: The Diplomacy Adjudicator is a fully computer-moderated gamemaster for Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boardgame. To get more information from the moderator, send email with the word "HELP" in the body of the message (the subject is ignored) to judge@morrolan.eff.org. There are also other judges available, but most games are run on the EFF judge. The diplomacy Hall of Fame is available via ftp from ftp.nda.com, directory /pub/diplomacy/HallOfFame. Diplomacy is probably the biggest PBEM game out there, with 277 games going as of February 15, 1994. I'd estimate at least 1,500 players are active in one or more games. Most discussion related to Diplomacy takes place on the newsgroup rec.games.diplomacy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Galactic Conqueror (German language) Type: strategic, economic/military, space opera setting Duration: typically 25-30 turns Turns: typically 1 per week GM: hz@zardoz.ruhr.de (Harry Zimmermann) Description: Galactic Conqueror is strategic SF-PBeM-Game for up to 50 players. Each player starts the game with a small fleet of starships and is the owner of one of several hundred planets. The winner is determined by an point system which gives points for specific actions each turn. The first player who reaches a pre-set winning score will be the winner of the game. Since there are almost no trade options in the game, player interaction mostly concerns negotiations about borders and coordination of attacks or defense. Players can: o invest in science o build industrial facilities and strongholds on planets o build ships (26 different classes) o attack enemy or neutral planets o engage in espionage or corruption o and much more... At the start of the game, each player can see only 4-10 planets, whose coordinates are given relative to his own starting-planet. Every time a new planet is conquered, all planets up to a given distance from this new one are revealed. The rules and an Atari ST and PC Clone client can be ftped from ftp.cp.tn.tudelft.nl, in the directory /pub/pbm/Galactic_Conqueror. The clients are graphical point-and-click interfaces to the game. You could play without a client, but this is not recommended. An X11 client is in the works, as is an eventual translation of the rules into English. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Galaxy Type: strategic, economic/military, space opera setting Duration: typically 50-80 turns Turns: typically 1 or 2 per week Waiting List: graeme@abekrd.co.uk (Graeme Griffiths) [ all kinds ] GM: bampton@cs.utk.edu (Howard Bampton) [ blind galaxy only ] GM: roger@bimcore.emory.edu (Roger Dingeldine) [ blind galaxy ] GM: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace) WWW page: yes, see main PBM page. Description: The game typically takes place on a 100x100 2D map, with a few hundred planets and 20 to 50 players. Players compete to capture planets, which can be used for economic expansion. You can purchase technology in several different areas, allowing your ships to fight harder and move faster. Galaxy turns range in size from 10kbytes early in the game to 100-200kbytes late in the game. The rules and source code are available for ftp. You can write to humans who run games; they start games occasionally and also have standby positions. The main contact is: graeme@abekrd.co.uk (Graeme Griffiths) In addition, there are a few GM's who were running games before Graeme volunteered to run a master waiting list. If you can't contact Graeme, you can contact them directly: bampton@cs.utk.edu [ blind galaxy only ] roger@bimcore.emory.edu [ blind galaxy only ] rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie Howard Bampton has a variant called "blind" galaxy. It features a wraparound map, a double-blind mail-forwarding system, and you received only limited information about other players other than what you can observe at systems where you have ships. GM's WANTED: There are always players interested in starting new games. If you have enough clue to operate a mail-server, you can be a Galaxy GM. Contact graeme@abekrd.co.uk for details. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Republic of Rome Type: Historical (Roman Empire) Turns: player-paced Email Server: DOWN, looking for a home HELP in body of message, the subject is ignored Description: This server is currently down, because the author (Will Walker, ww@csn.org) doesn't have a machine to run it on. Donations welcome. RoR is an email adjudicator for Avalon Hill's game Republic of Rome, a cutthroat game of politics set in ancient Rome. All aspects of play are fully automated; there is no human GM. Players control factions of Senators; each turn they must elect officers and vote to raise and deploy forces to fight the many wars that arise; they work to increase the influence and popularity of their own Senators but must also work together to prevent destruction by war or by popular revolt. If Rome falls everyone loses. To get started, buy a copy of the board game, read the rules, then send email to the address above with the word "help" in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Star Empires Type: strategic empire-building, space setting Turns: one per week, 60+ turns per game GM: rhl@jambo.mitre.org (Roger Lincoln) Status: occasionally starting games; watch rec.games.pbm Description: Star Empires is a very simple game which is very addictive. Players compete to control planets, which produce resources which can be used to build various types of ships. There is generally a large amount of diplomacy, and the GM encourages humorous player press releases. The rules are available for ftp. ====================================================================== A large number of sports leagues exist. Here's a list of types and addresses of the moderators -- more details can be found in the PBM List. To preview the rules, look on the ftp site. Game: Experimental Electronic Baseball League (EEBL) Type: sports simulation, american baseball GM: peiper@phoenix.cs.uga.edu Game: Experimental Electronic Football League (EEFL) Type: sports simulation, soccer GM: wickart@ichips.intel.com (Bill 'Prune' Wickart) Game: Fast Electronic Football League (FEFL) Type: sports simulation, soccer GM: mange@lysator.liu.se (Magnus Nilsson) Game: Ladder Electronic Football League (LEFL) Type: sports simulation, soccer GM: ingram@u.washington.edu (Doug Ingram) Game: Formula 1 Pick 6 Type: Auto racing prediction contest GM: vallee@essi.essi.fr (Thierry Vallee) Game: Strategic Postal Australian Rules Football (SPARF) GM: mel@csua.berkeley.edu Game: Sugar Ray (German language & English language) GM: gerstnet@informatik.tu-muenchen.de (Thomas Gerstner) (german language) (email) Game: Ultra Cricket GM: ta@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Tim Astley) Game: United 3 (Soccer) (German language) GM: allard@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de Game: United Electronic Football League (UEFL) GM: billones@digex.com (Jeremy Billones) Game: World eMail Hockey Association (WeHA) GM: inb@creare.com (Ian Brown) ====================================================================== Archives and subscriptions by email ====================================================================== PBEM is archived at the ftp and WWW sites mentioned earlier. I have a mailing list that distributes the magazine, but I prefer that you obtain it via Usenet or other means instead of asking to go on the mailing list. ====================================================================== What's this "ftp" thing anyway? ====================================================================== ftp is an acronym for "file transfer protocol", and it is only directly available to the privileged few who are directly hooked to the Internet using heavy-duty hardware. There is a way to use ftp via email, and if you can get email to me, I will send you a document explaining how to use it, or you can get this information by yourself by sending email to any of the following addresses; if they don't recognize any commands, they'll send back instructions: bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu (USA/New Jersey) ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu (USA/North Carolina) ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com (USA/West Coast) ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk (Europe/United Kingdom) bitftp@vm.gmd.de (Europe/Germany) ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au (Pacific Rim/Australia) ====================================================================== PBEM is published monthly. Please redistribute it far and wide, but do not modify or delete any articles. Write me if you want to redistribute it in other forms; such permission is easy to obtain. For example, some old articles are being translated into German. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE! Our focus is primarily on free wargames, but we're interested in articles about anything relevant to play-by-email.