Sunday, July 24, 2022

Proposal: Don’t tar all bots with the same brush

Timed out and enacted, 4-0. Josh

Adminned at 26 Jul 2022 17:44:53 UTC

Repeal the rule Very Aggressive if it exists.

In BotScript:

Replace the trigger ‘“If the Opponent [has / does not have] Y…” where Y is any Status.’
with

If the [first / second / third / [...]] closest Opponent [has / does not have] Y…” where Y is any Status.

Replace the trigger ‘“If the Opponent [has / does not have] Z…”, where Z is any system.’
with

If the [first / second / third / [...]] closest Opponent [has / does not have] Z…”, where Z is any system.

Replace the Reaction “...use the following System:”
with

...use the following System [on the [first / second / third / [...]] closest Opponent]:

To the end of BotScript, append:

If an opponent is being referred to with an ordinal by a trigger or reaction but that opponent is not valid (either due to not enough opponents being in range or otherwise), then the closest valid ordinal to that ordinal is used (rounding down where there is a tie). If no such opponents exist, then the Reaction in that reaction/trigger pair is not considered resolvable. If an ordinal would be required but none is provided (such as if multiple enemies are within range of a system), the ordinal defaults to “first” and the appropriate snippet is implicitly assumed to be in that script entry for the purposes of resolving that instance of that trigger/reaction pair.

Append the following to the House bot entry in configuration (if that entry exists):

A trashed or defunct house bot is immediately removed from the bout, and if its current space does not have a physical obstacles (as defined in the configuration physical obstacles), then it gains a physical obstacle and is handled as per that configuration.

In the Bumper Sides configuration of Configuration, replace “random square” with “random empty square”.

In the effect of Nox Tank in Systems, replace the sentence “If all Bots in a Bout have this System then it has no further effect.” with:

If more than one Bot in a Bout has this System then it has no further effect.

The final change is an unrelated bug-fix - since house bots are bots but generally don’t have Nox Tanks, you could end up with both player bots starting on the left which feels a bit messy.

Comments

Brendan: he/him

24-07-2022 17:47:40 UTC

This is a valid fix but it’s so much work in place of a simple delete-this-line fix. I really don’t understand how house bots make matches more fun.

SingularByte: he/him

24-07-2022 17:51:24 UTC

Honestly, I’m seeing house bots as a possible precursor to matches with multiple player bots. Not sure how that would work exactly, but this proposal might take us a few steps closer.

Josh: Observer he/they

24-07-2022 17:55:42 UTC

(I am also interested in four-player matches as an end goal)

Trapdoorspyder: he/him

25-07-2022 21:57:44 UTC

for

Josh: Observer he/they

25-07-2022 22:12:00 UTC

imperial

Darknight: he/him

26-07-2022 12:34:05 UTC

imperial

Snisbo: she/they

26-07-2022 16:16:16 UTC

against

Snisbo: she/they

26-07-2022 16:22:39 UTC

CoV for