- Q. How do I get a copy of the code or the maps?
- A. Type "Update" -- A mm2 directory will be created (if it does
not exist) and the code will be copied. Makefile, Turn.C, and Turn.h will not
overwrite existing ones.
- Q. Is there any printing available?
- A. Yes, there is a line printer available, which can be invoked
by typing
lpr -dlp1265 FILENAME. Laser printing is not
allowed.
- Q. Are there any sample clients I can try out?
- A. Sure. In your path are Client_sleeper (sitting ducks
that never move), Client_homeboy (a client that can find it's way
back to the base, from the tutorial), Client_random (the random
but fairly effective client from the tutorial), and Client_killers
(Mike Lee's aggressive random team).
MORE Q & A
Q. Can the enemy know what your base is?
A. No. They do not. Only you know where your home base is.
Q. What if a flag-carrying ship is destroyed?
A. The flag is dropped in the current starsystem.
Q. Is there anything special about flags at your home base?
A. Nope. They can be picked up and dropped like anything else.
Q. What happens when you fire on a ship?
A. Damage is based on your power allocated to weapons.
The enemy ship has the damage subtracted from their shields
AND their total power. This is permanent (total power will
no regenerate).
Q. Will the address of a Star (or Ship or Enemy) change
during the game?
A. No -- once a Star, Ship, or Enemy is created and added to
its respective list in your World object, its address will
be valid for the duration of execution. Feel free to keep
pointers to them.
Q. What happens if I call Configuration with parameters that
don't allocate enough power to transport the flag I am
presently carrying?
A. The server will consider this an illegal request, and refuse
to honor it like any other illegal configuration call. Thus,
your configuration would not change as a result of this call.
HELPFUL NOTE: Keep in mind with integer arithmetic,
100/3 + 100/3 + 100/3 = 33 + 33 + 33 = 99 != 100, so be carful
with your parameters in Configuration, and make sure that they
sum to Power().
Q. How do you scroll up in these terminal windows?
A. SHIFT-PAGE_UP will scroll up and SHIFT-PAGE_DOWN will scroll back down.
Q. Why are srand and drand not working properly?
A. You need to #include <stdlib.h> at the top of Team.C
Q. What are the game parameters (game time, number of ships, etc.)?
A. The tourney games will have the following:
- 20 <= number of stars <= 35
- number of flags is roughly the number of stars (some stars will have
two or more flags)
- there will be 10 ships per team at the beginning
- routes will usually be of length 1, 2, or 3. There will be some
longer routes, and there is nothing preventing us from having routes of,
say, length 20 or greater.
- there will be 300 rounds in a match.
Q. How is damage computed?
A. Suppose you attack with weapon power W. The damage done is
determined with the following: Choose x, y distributed uniformally
between 0 and 1 (from drand48()) such that x+y < 1. The damage is
W*(x+1)/2 * DMG_SCALE, where that constant is 0.75. The result is
your damage is between 0.37 and 0.75 of your weapon, with the average
roughly around 0.5. The code is in Server.C.
