[appleeaters]Robots Library

With the time limit, does this include the time it takes to run the library move function. The way it is set up currently, on very large boards each move takes a few seconds. The max number of moves you can perform on these boards in 60 seconds is about 20. So, I guess the better question is whether this will be sped up for the competition. I'm sure you have something done up already, but if you're interested in a faster script, I just threw one together for testing purposes, though I doubt it's quite perfect yet.

Another question I have is in regards to how the robotslib.php file handles dead robots. I could be wrong, but from what I can tell, when two robots collide one dead robot is created where they collide. When a robot and dead robot collide, another dead robot is added at that location. I imagine that these redundant dead robots are for counting purposes. There are a couple of problems though. When two robots collide they should give you two dead robots I would imagine. This also gives you a bunch of extra superflous entries in the deadrobots array. I think the better way would be just to create a counter and use that.

Now I'm sure I'll receive a response that the current script is not how the final script will operate. That's fine. The only reason I ask this is I'm not really sure what the authoritative value for the final dead robot count should be. The current script seems to be trying to judge in two separate ways. I just want to know the correct method.

My last question is if we can be confident in the library exiting for us. The sample library does the exiting for us, which makes the check on $game['status'] fairly pointless. Granted, I'm in favor of this method. I prefer not having to bother with $game['status']. I just want to know if this is going to be the method used by the final library.

I appologize if any of my questions have been answered previously or if the answer is in the contest rules. Hopefully these are all valid questions.

The library will exit for you.

When two robots collide, they create one dead robot at the point of collision. Every time a robot collides with that dead robot, another dead robot is added to that location. Each robot that collides with a dead robot gets added to the pile, and you collect points for each one. You only collect points for one dead robot when two robots first collide, however, because they only create one dead robot.

In the real game of robots (where, I might add, there are no apples), two robots collide to create one dead robot. The question was, should the player get points for other robots hitting that dead robot? In the Codewalkers contest, the answer is yes.

If you want to see and develop your strategy with the robots game that I based this contest on, download Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com) for Windows... it comes with robots.