dmangame

writing an AI

You write an AI that is responsible for controlling a team of units. Your AI should subclass ai.AI and can implement four functions:

    def _init(self):
    def _unit_spawned(self, unit):
    def _unit_died(self, unit):
    def _spin(self):

_init() is called when the AI is first created. Every turn of the game world, _spin() is called. During this time, the AI should interact with its units and issue commands. Whenever a unit is spawned by a building, its AI is notified via the _unit_spawned(unit) call. Whenever a unit dies, the AI is notified via a _unit_died(unit) call.

You can interact with your units via the properties defined in ai.AI (ai/base.py). For example, you can have all your units move to the top left of the world with:

    for unit in self.units:
      unit.move((0,0))

or list which squares you can see, your visible enemies or which buildings are currently in view.

    print self.visible_enemies
    print self.visible_squares
    print self.visible_buildings

The game starts out with one building per AI. Each AI is then initialized with a call to _init(), and the game world starts running. On the first turn of the game, each building spawns a unit. Every UNIT_SPAWN_MOD (as defined in the map) turns, the buildings spawn a unit of whichever AI happens to be controlling them.

The end objective is to capture all enemy buildings and kill all enemy units. Every unit is capable of shooting towards a square, moving towards a square or capturing a building (If they are on the same square as a building).

a simple example AI

    import ai
    AIClass="SimpleAI"
    class SimpleAI(ai.AI):
      def _init(self):
        print self.currentTurn

      def _spin(self):
        print self.my_units
        print self.visible_enemies

      def _unit_died(self, died):
        print "Lost a unit: %s" % unit

      def _unit_spawned(self, unit):
        print "Received a new unit: %s" % unit

This AI just prints world information as it turns. You’ll notice that it dies very quickly, since it just stands there.

To run it, try:

python main.py ai/simpleai.py ai/captureai.py

building a more defensive AI:

    import ai
    import random
    AIClass="TowerAI"
    class TowerAI(ai.AI):
      def _init(self):
        self.moved_once = set()

      def _spin(self):
        for unit in self.my_units:
          if unit.visible_enemies:
            unit.shoot(unit.visible_enemies[0].position)
          else:
            if not unit in self.moved_once:
              unit.move((random.randint(0, self.mapsize),
                         random.randint(0, self.mapsize)))
              self.moved_once.add(unit)

This AI is slightly smarter - for each unit, it picks a spot on the map and moves the unit there. If it arrives there without issue, it will stop moving and attack anything that comes near it.

If the unit notices an enemy unit on the way there, it’ll start attacking. The attack stops the unit’s movement, and the unit will sit at that location. (and not continue to its final destination).

python main.py ai/towerai.py ai/captureai.py