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Online BattleBots / RobotWars

motiggidy
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  • Submitted by: motiggidy
  • Created: Aug 14, 2006, 6:16 pm
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The Idea

Autonomous bots battle it out in an online world where evolution rules. The bots live, breed, and die in a continuous 24hr/day darwinian landscape. Bot builders purchase standard robot weaponry: flippers, axes, jaws, spinners, and spikes, and can modify their characteristics in a darwinian tradeoff - a heavy axe increases damage but decreases mobility. The best characteristics are impossible to predict and depends on type of enemies. Bots can be decorated to the designers choosing including corporate logos and websites. The battlebot arena can be syndicated for display on other websites, like advertising.

I thought of this idea when I was...

A combination of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Wars http://probability.c.../java/evolution.html http://www.cambrianh...ter/ideas-id/Blq0Yyl http://ccl.northwest...rn.edu/netlogo/docs/


Comments Posted

techguy
techguy Posted: August 16, 2006, 8:58 pm

How hard is it to develop this type of robot action that is interesting and fair?

I love the idea of the 24 hour game. I think an 24 hr/day game has got to make it to the tops of Cambrian House.

motiggidy
motiggidy Posted: August 16, 2006, 9:07 pm

Did you check out that java applet called evolution, Mr techdude? I challenge you to watch that for an hour and then tell me it is not fascinating to watch them evolve! (and fairly simple to program). If you don't have a whole hours time, then I suggest to at least check in on it every 5 or ten minutes or thereabouts. Leave it running in the background for a few hours. I just want to drive home a point with everyone. :)

_Matt_
_Matt_ Posted: August 17, 2006, 2:25 am

Its kinda been done, and for free... its not exactly what you describe but it is an arena for battling robots, which you can code:

http://jrobots.sourceforge.net/

ajw
ajw Posted: September 8, 2006, 1:41 am

Oh, boy! It's Mutilation Ball!!

I can see this working - most of us don't have skill, time, money, or some combination to build a battlebot in the real world.

Virtual battlebots could be very cool - bird's-eye view, 'bot's-eye view...

I can see battlebot leagues, championship tournaments, and corporate sponsorships. (hmmm... Coke.... Mentos.... :)

Cool!!

- Al Weiner -

ajw
ajw Posted: September 8, 2006, 1:44 am

oh, by the way - that Java Evolution *is* enticing - but I didn't like the Sourcefoge irobots at all.

- Al Weiner -

Buddysaul_BillyBob_Taladega_Johnson
Buddysaul_BillyBob_Taladega_Johnson Posted: September 10, 2006, 1:10 pm

Sounds a bit like watching your idea on 'Warz. Submit it, get the badge, feel real good if it goes up, and bad when it goes down.

Two architectures I can forsee are P2P vs. hosted at a website. I don't know much about the sourceforge project but I'm guessing it won't take off because no one wants to pay to host the site.

P2P might work with a free/opensource license model because contestants are using their own computers as resources. But you would need to leave your computer on 24/7 to keep your bot battlin.

How well do the game hosting sites do as revenue generators?

 

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