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00:29
1 week until early preview!
 
2 hours later…
02:26
@TheNumberOne I just posted an extremely long feature request which basically says "make ramparts cheaper and have more hits"
 
9 hours later…
10:59
we're not early preview ready I guess :-)
11:15
Are the user icons broken for you?
The customizable symbol next to you name in the top right?
Actually, they seem to work in Chrome but not Safari.
the game uses svg right?
and meh apple stopped supplying safari for windows :/
and my macbook pro is way too underpowered to handle the os itself these days...
11:34
Hmmm... my 2700-scoring program doesn't seem to be doing as well.
It only made it to 2300 one round.
Hmm, made it to 2700 again.
Hopefully I get the preview activation code sometime.
12:04
@avdg Did you know that source keepers only go towards a source if its within a radius of 5 blocks from it?
Nope
But I didn't had any interest to know that either... therefore my lack of interest to investigate :p
(though it would be interest if these things are used outside their use case context...)
You can detect if a spawn will ever be guarded by seeing if there is a Source Keeper Lair within 5 blocks from it.
though, I do wonder now how source keepers are finding their path to their source
without creeps as objects or with
simply because my creeps don't harvest the sources at the source keepers pure and alone because the source keepers themself are blocking the path to the source
I know they'll bust through constructed objects.
so that's probably not going to work :p
Not sure why I've seen this tweet a bit earlier... twitter.com/Stammy/status/598733013350948864
its getting its own life...
12:11
"Are most valuable resource sits 63 feet ahead"
I guess that's why putin doesn't like satire </political complain> uh...
@avdg They bust through (your) creeps too.
:-)
They ignore each other when they pathfind.
I should charge dummy creeps
and hope they are easy and cheaper to produce to jail the source keepers
in return for free gold
oh, this chat is public right?
12:18
yes.
why?
oops :-)
there goes my strategy
(now every1 ai starts doing this, till it annoys the developers)
nah, dunno
its just nice opportunity ground that isn't on my opportunity territory
I still don't know what you mean about dummy creaps...
yeah, the strategy is to lock source creepers with dummy creeps
maybe let source keepers even detour if they obey creeps to calculate their path
No, doesn't work :(
letting them act as bodyguards
or shields
12:22
I've tried it in custom mode.
(so they don't shoot the transporters and miners)
@avdg Ah, just have the bots kill it immediately?
no, just slow enough to cover more valuable creeps
and cheap to produce
ofc, the only bottleneck now would be the spawning time
its easy to create huge queues in spawns
With self healing creeps and lots of extensions, you can create a single powerful unit to take it down.
they though are way more expensive
now we're getting into costs vs opportunity I guess
12:25
:| true
though that strategy ain't stupid at all :-)
Just experiment in custom mode until you have the right units.
(meh... I'm kinda comparing it with an earthquake, it seems to be very easy to determine the vectors (or direction) of a plate, but hard to predict what happens at the faults)
I'm filling out a feature request for a better custom mode. Any particular features you want?
(at least for predicting earth quakes)
test cases
at least, it would be nice to some way benchmark ai's on specially constructed maps
(not sure if that would beat japanese tv though)
12:36
Interesting fact: you can upvote your own posts.
13:29
Test mode suggestion: Save Points
add lava :-)
(and a conveyor belt)
I think lava could be fun.
I don't know what it is planned to be, but it should be something that is usually impassible, but which you can build roads over.
bridge?
yeah, using roads as bridges
Over the next few days, I am going to spend more time on an MMO AI instead of a Survival AI.
hmm engine file got updated again
heh
gl
constants got updated
14:12
W7N5 doesn't have a room controller. It looks like it is meant to be harvested from the outside.
15:04
I think "it is meant" overstates the intelligence of the random terrain generator.
If robots could be creative and mix their experience to create horror map without human interaction ;-)
uh, robots and empathy...
15:19
I wonder when arena mode will be enabled.
15:43
Soon enough :-)
16:00
Lol, in creative mode I put a source keeper lair directly on top of my spawn.
Any clue how portals work?
Ever seen one?
They're in custom mode.
And I can't get them to do anything.
Seems you can add energy to it maybe...
needs a bit scrolling to the right to see though :p
just search the gist for portal
16:37
    if (b && "portal" == b.type) {
        b.ticksToSpawn > 0 && b.ticksToSpawn--;
^ That makes me think that they will spawn creeps.
    CONTROLLER_LEVELS: {
        1: 3e4,
        2: 9e4,
        3: 27e4,
        4: 81e4,
        5: 243e4,
        6: 729e4,
        7: 2187e4
    },
^ That's how much energy each controller level costs.
hmmm... oh
right now I know again
portal is the thing you spawn from
there is no spawner, the portal is the spawner
and you can insert gold and that increases your score
(the portal will spawn creeps for you and thus decide how your creeps looks like and how they will be named)
@avdg Oh, is a portal only for arena mode then?
yeah, for now I guess
the ai just has to deal with everything the portal is spitting out
which my ai can't handle...
yet
16:55
So the plan for arena mode is that both players are given the same bots, so the focus is the combat AI.
I think so. I haven't played in that mode though.
17:07
How to find closest exit?
nevermind
nah, combat is pointless
its more about gaining as much food as possible
17:26
I've been thinking about MMO bottlenecks.
I think energy supply is the main thing.
thats the economy of the game
also somehow reminds me of russia's businessmodel :p
If you have a surplus of energy, you can always manufacture more of the more expensive parts. The number of spawns you have makes a smaller difference.
Near the beginning of MMO, you want to "capture" as many sources as you can.
storing energy is actually way more efficient than putting energy in creating creeps that aren't needed
Where is energy stored?
17:29
stored energy doesn't have losses, only storage limits
hmm which mode?
@PhiNotPi ground, spawns, creeps, sources
I will be interested to see the amount of combat in the MMO
is more interested in seeing conflict resolutions
It seems like it could easily go the way of "continuous onslaught" instead of "strategic planning"
There's a three-day grace period between starting a new spawn and being connected to the MMO world, right?
right.
I guess that means that even they are worried :)
17:37
I wonder if I could do a good job of sealing myself in with a ton of walls.
Even better: four people cooperate to seal somebody else in.
How about me :-)
@avdg Are you one of the backers?
cut off transport lines
yeah 23 dollar I guess?
(sure everybody know :-))
When I first saw you, I thought you were one of the developers. :/
I didn't find out about screeps until about 15-20 days ago :(
meh, I just know a lot of js
17:40
@PhiNotPi Same here.
and my opinions are mostly constructive
so I'm appearing professional :D
@avdg Mine and PhiNotPi's only experience with javascript are on playing games like screeps.
(especially when adding a lot of emotic like that :-))
I was willing to give them a donation, but then I found out that the crowdfunding campaign ended 5 months ago.
hmm I've eyeballed the ecmascript spec before...
I'm sure they would start sales again after opening world mode
the only problem I wonder how they will fix it is how they will organize it
its not simply asking money, its more about setting up a payment system
(meh I need more money :p)
17:44
^ My bots aren't allowed to cross swamps.
I'm not sure I would play Screeps as a subscription.
yikes
not even the builders?
its lava I guess
Just the guards.
or at least they obey it as lava
They aren't allowed so that they aren't slowed down. It also allows the enemy to drown in the swamp.
The point is that two enemy creeps are outside the range of my units and can't move.
17:47
reminds me of war strategies...
and movies
there are a lot of stories about powerful horses
everybody was afraid of them
except when they meet mud
@PhiNotPi Notice all the guards have healing parts.
In custom mode, creeps simply ignore portals and walk through them.
Have you ever had Memory.rooms = undefined ?
I do have to set most Memory variables before using them, so take it as a yes
though I all do it in the first step
18:05
How do you know when to set them?
github.com/avdg/screeps/blob/master/scripts/… (generic functions are part of AI namespace there)
^ code executed on every tick
if it is first turn it does this: github.com/avdg/screeps/blob/master/scripts/…
though the rooms property is pretty new
18:25
hmmm node 0.12.3 has been released
 
2 hours later…
20:39
        if (!Memory.rooms){
            Memory.rooms = {};
        }
        if (!Memory.rooms[spawn.room.name]){
            Memory.rooms[spawn.room.name] = {};
        }
        if (!Memory.rooms[spawn.room.name].spawn_queue){ //Error thrown here.
            Memory.rooms[spawn.room.name].spawn_queue = [];
        }
I keep getting an error that undefined does not have property spawn_queue.
I have no idea why Memory.rooms[spawn.room.name] would be undefined after the 5th line.
And it only happens when ran on the server.
Ok, I changed Memory.rooms[spawn.room.name] with spawn.room.memory, and I still get an error :(
Error: Could not set room memory
    at Room.Object.defineProperty.set (/opt/engine/dist/game/rooms.js:222:15)
    at module.exports (spawns:17:31)
    at main:16:18
@avdg Is that a bug?
@PhiNotPi What do you think?
Probably api related, needs testing
Simulator or ingame?
Only in game.
can't simulate in simulator
Can't reproduce it manually
But I did it also in multiple rounds...
@TheNumberOne at which line does it produce the error? I guess at the spawn queue when it sets value no?
20:59
spawn.memory.queue = []
that shouldn't set value though
or isn't that the error?
Sorry, that's what it was before.
Now I can't even to get survival mode to work
brb
21:32
Posted my error on the forums. I'll stick to simulation mode for a few days.
Does sim mde run very slow for you?
Unfortunately :(
You?
Yes.
It's eons slower than the "real" version.
Yep.
The "real" version is also far more buggy.
I prefer the term "undocumented features."
21:42
See above for what I mean by "buggy".
I saw, and I don't have an explanation.
Also, this reminds me of a joke idea to have a KOTH where the rules are literally defined by the controller.
If the controller had a bug, that would be part of the game.
my game appears frozen :-)
Enemy creeps in survival mode don't heal themselves yet.
22:00
luckily that healing parts are expensive...
22:38
There's a 26 creep limit if you let the game pick the names.
I'm now having the I-can't-do-anything-in-game-mode-and-I-can't-quit-the-game bug
Hmm it reached tick 100 now :-)
22:56
Anyone know how commercialization of this game will work?
I've read that the original plan was to sell CPU credits.
In that case, I might treat it as a fastest-code contest.
Based on their Indiegogo campaign, 1 CPU credit = 1 millisecond per tick for 1 month.
And the retail price will be $0.08 per CPU credit.
@PhiNotPi So 43 minutes and 12 seconds (about)
23:12
Right now, everybody is given a constant (not expiring after a month, like would be normal) level of 300 credits, equivalent to a $24 a month subscription.
thats about as good as my plan :p
My latest replay. My spawner got clogged at the end :(
Ummm... my survival game is completely frozen.
good, it's not my fault
23:20
I'll upvote the problem :p
Do you have a guess as to how few CPU credits I can reasonably get away with using?
Because I'm a cheap person, and $0.08 per credit is too much.
depends on how specialized the complex functions are
specialized in running time
especially pathfinders are a big problem
but later, some kind of decisions may end up consuming a lot of running time
Pathfinding is probably a big thing.
And the findClosest / findInRange-type functions.
I've heard for ... in loops are bad.
the current path finder does reuse the result with caching
meh, they aren't that bad, they are just hints for bad code
they are more sensitive for bugs

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