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[COMPETITION]


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#1 pruby

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 07:40 AM

UPDATE:

Due to issues with chunk loading in Forge, and then an introduced incompatability with ComputerCraft, the environment has had to be updated. The versions I will use are now:

Forge 4.1.4.295
Computercraft 1.43
Railcraft 6.4.1.0 for its World Anchor (Core + Automation only, tweaks.rails.useOldRecipes enabled)

Hi all!

While theoretically, turtles can now produce more turtles and reproduce, we haven't yet seen this in practice. I've decided to run a challenge to accomplish this here as a competition. The best complete submission (criteria below) will receive a US$50 voucher for www.amazon.com .


Competition rules:
  • Submissions close on November 1, 2012 at 00:01 UTC time.
  • Entrants may be individuals or teams. There are no limits to team size, but all contributors must be listed.
  • No individual may be a member of multiple teams or contribute to multiple teams' submissions
  • Entrants are to provide a program for a self-replicating turtle.
  • To be provided as a zip file, attached to a post on this thread.
  • Must contain a single directory with a unique name.
  • Extracted files may not exceed 1MB.
  • The zip file will be extracted in /rom, so if your directory is "foo" your files will be under /rom/foo.
  • The "start" program in that directory will be run. In above example, would run /rom/foo/start
  • All code used must be written by the members of your team. As an exception, you may use programs in the standard computercraft bundle.
  • All submissions must be released completely to the community under an OSI-approved open source licence. Your submission must state your choice of licence.
Starting/running conditions:
  • Run with latest stable Technic Pack 7.2 on Windows, all mods enabled with default settings.
  • EDIT: By popular demand, environment will be vanilla Minecraft, ComputerCraft 1.42 and a chunk loader.
  • No additional mod/Java code will be installed.
  • No internet access will be provided.
  • Fuel use is enabled, turtle starts with no fuel.
  • Player will neither help nor deliberately obstruct the turtle.
  • Player may end up in turtle's movement path, but will not deliberately do so.
Challenge:
  • A crafty mining turtle starts at base of a normal tree in a large oak forest.
  • The starting tree will be at least 6 blocks tall.
  • There will be at least one other tree trunk within 8 blocks of the starting tree.
  • There will be water and at least 6 sand within 16 blocks of the starting tree.
  • ADDED: To enable programming more turtles without any other mods, one sugar cane will be planted by the sand/water. This will be within a 33x33 area centred around the starting tree (known safe from chunk unloading). This will not be a naturally spawned cane (don't want to be searching for days).
  • A Railcraft World Anchor will be placed in the air above the trunk of the starting tree.
  • Turtle should not break this
  • Turtle should stay within a 3x3 chunk area to avoid being unloaded. 16 horizontal blocks in any direction from the starting tree will be known safe.
  • The supplied program will be run at any time during minecraft dawn - after full darkness but before full light.
Base goal:
  • Turtle must acquire all the resources it needs to operate by itself.
  • Turtle must place a torch near its starting location by full dark.
  • Turtle must check this torch before nightfall every day, and replace it if missing.
  • Turtle must acquire all the resources required to build additional crafty mining turtles.
  • Must craft two crafty mining turtles, and place them in a chest near the starting location.
  • Must place a sign over that chest reading "Complete" when and only when this goal has been met.
  • These turtles will be removed by the judge when the "Complete" sign is found.
Proof of life:

A run may be stopped at any time if the turtle does not make visible progress towards the goal in a minecraft day, at judge's discretion. Turtles may use signs or displays to help indicate progress.

The judge may remove and discard the first-placed torch at any time in full daylight. The run will be stopped if the turtle does not replace this torch by full darkness. This will not be done excessively or unreasonably, but allows for the turtle to prove it's still working, not trapped or out of fuel. It will be done at least once for every submission.


Bonus goals:

The main goal must be completed before credit can be given for bonus goals. All submissions must list any bonus goals they will try to finish. You may try for any number of goals - none to all.

1. World domination
  • Produce additional block loaders, extend the loaded area.
  • Judged on expanding quickly and putting space to good use.
2. Construction
  • Construct a building around the starting position.
  • Buildings judged on aesthetics - would I want to live in it?
3. Bribery
  • Provide surplus materials to the player.
  • Could include metals, gems, and food.
  • Place these in a clearly signposted chest.
  • Items judged on how likely they are to be useful in a vague manner.
4. Machine uprising
  • Kill mobs and/or the player who enter your area.
  • Player may avoid visible danger.
  • Judged on creativity.
Judging criteria:

Three starting locations will be selected well apart [EDIT clarification - each program will be run at all three]. The turtles will be placed, and the world backed up. This same world will be used for all submissions.

Each site will be checked to see if it has met goals at least daily. The entries will be judged on the following criteria in a very vague way.
  • + + Speed of self-reproduction (measured in whole or part days).
  • + + Readable and understandable code.
  • + Completion of bonus goals.
  • - Messy / visibly damaged environment. e.g. floating blocks, huge quarry, etc.
  • - - Turtle fails to make visible progress for extended periods.
  • - - Consumes excessive resources and makes world lag.
[EDIT: You're allowed one dud without penalty - each submission will be judged on the two most successful sites.]

Community feedback on submissions will be sought, but I (Timothy Goddard) will make the final decision of who to give the prize to and on all matters of the competition's rules. I'll try to avoid it, but may change rules after the start if I decide they are impractical or unreasonable. I, and anyone I personally know, are ineligible to compete.

Only submissions which complete the base goal [EDIT: at at least one site] are eligible for prizes.

Breaches:

The following will result in immediate disqualification.
  • Any form of plagiarism or use of other people's material in your submission.
  • Any attempt to exploit bugs in Minecraft or mods.
  • Any breach of forum rules in relation to this competition. Keep it clean.
  • Any condition which makes it illegal for you to compete.
Prize:

The prize will be a US$50 voucher for www.amazon.com, sent to a single nominated member of the winning team. Only one prize will be issued. If for any reason this prize cannot be provided, a prize of equivalent value may be substituted.


Finally, have fun and feel free to discuss techniques here. A good enough team shouldn't be afraid to give some ideas on starting out to newer members who just want to give it a bash.

Edited by pruby, 09 October 2012 - 08:32 PM.


#2 dan200

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 07:48 AM

This is a great idea but:

Quote

Run with latest stable Technic Pack 7.2 on Windows, all mods enabled with default settings.

Technic still runs off computercraft 1.33, which doesn't include the crafty turtle!

#3 pruby

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 07:55 AM

EDIT: original mentioned railcraft world anchors. I've removed the reference as they seem to be removed. Will search for a different type of chunk loader to use.

#4 pruby

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 07:56 AM

View Postdan200, on 26 September 2012 - 07:48 AM, said:

This is a great idea but:

Quote

Run with latest stable Technic Pack 7.2 on Windows, all mods enabled with default settings.

Technic still runs off computercraft 1.33, which doesn't include the crafty turtle!

Ah, good point. I'll upgrade Computercraft to version 1.42 . Clarifying above.

#5 dan200

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 09:26 AM

Also:

Quote

Fuel use is enabled, turtle starts with no fuel.

If the turtle starts with no fuel and no resources, it won't be able to move! Unless it conveniently starts up directly in front of a block of coal


Never mind, noticed it starts next to a tree. This looks fun, I wonder if i'm disqualified from entering though :P/>

#6 jag

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 12:17 PM

Can you just use a regular minecraft with only CC installed? If so, it would make it easier instead of getting technic pack and then updating the CC mod.

EDIT: Also, could you add a picture so that we can see how the turtle will start. Just a screenshot.
Like this:
Spoiler


#7 bwochinski

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 09:49 PM

Sounds like a tough challenge, which I LOVE! I would also vote for having only the CC mod installed, otherwise I could see it taking days just for a turtle to sort through and identify all the ores in technic.

#8 Cranium

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 09:52 PM

View Postbwochinski, on 26 September 2012 - 09:49 PM, said:

Sounds like a tough challenge, which I LOVE! I would also vote for having only the CC mod installed, otherwise I could see it taking days just for a turtle to sort through and identify all the ores in technic.
That is an excellent point. There are a LOT of items in Tekkit, and even more in Technic...

#9 GopherAtl

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 10:25 PM

If this was just vanilla + cc + some turtle-compatible chunkloader mod, I'd definitely enter. In fact, I'll probably do it under those conditions even if I can't enter it without being tekkit-compatible. I've wanted to do something similar since first starting CC anyway.

#10 pruby

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 10:27 PM

Seems to be the overwhelming popular choice to use vanilla MC with CC and a chunkloader. I'll change the environment in the description.

If anyone has objections to the switch and has already started a solution in Technic, I'll accept that too (but speak up soon!).

#11 pruby

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 10:30 PM

View Postdan200, on 26 September 2012 - 09:26 AM, said:

Never mind, noticed it starts next to a tree. This looks fun, I wonder if i'm disqualified from entering though :P/>

Sure you can enter. I'll be keeping an extra eye on the "no expoiting bugs" rule though :D/>

#12 pruby

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 10:37 PM

View Postjag_e_nummer_ett, on 26 September 2012 - 12:17 PM, said:

EDIT: Also, could you add a picture so that we can see how the turtle will start. Just a screenshot.

I'll add a picture later this evening. You have the position of the turtle right. The lowest piece of wood in the trunk will be in front of it at start (will not extend down). The ground may or may not be at the same level on other sides of the trunk.

The anchor will be a solid block above the tree trunk. There will be an air gap between the top leaves and the anchor, so you can identify it and not break it. A minimum of 3x3 chunks will be loaded with the anchor in the middle chunk. It will not necessarily be in the middle of the middle chunk - you can only assume that 16 blocks in each direction is absolutely safe.

#13 GopherAtl

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 11:31 PM

I haven't tested it yet, but a few weeks ago dan had said something about the next version turtles will return false if they try to move into an unloaded chunk. If that held true with 1.42, that'll allow us to exploit the full 3x3 chunk area safely and easily.

#14 pruby

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Posted 26 September 2012 - 11:59 PM

That's a neat idea, still not risk-free. The player is also a chunk loader :P/>

#15 Luanub

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Posted 27 September 2012 - 04:11 AM

View Postdan200, on 26 September 2012 - 07:48 AM, said:

This is a great idea but:

Quote

Run with latest stable Technic Pack 7.2 on Windows, all mods enabled with default settings.

Technic still runs off computercraft 1.33, which doesn't include the crafty turtle!

Tekkit runs 1.33 (SMP)
Technic runs 1.4 with crafty turtles (SSP)

#16 GopherAtl

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Posted 27 September 2012 - 04:23 AM

I don't really care if it's 1.41 or 1.42, I just don't want to have to deal with 100,000 extra recipes, since my turtle will have to identify them largely by testing crafting patterns. This is tricky enough in vanilla+cc, it's a royal pita with every new material and recipe in either tekkit or technic added into the mix.

#17 immibis

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Posted 29 September 2012 - 09:05 AM

The turtle would need to farm trees using the saplings that drop from the starting tree, right? That would make it very slow, at least in the beginning.

#18 jag

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Posted 29 September 2012 - 11:19 AM

View Postimmibis, on 29 September 2012 - 09:05 AM, said:

The turtle would need to farm trees using the saplings that drop from the starting tree, right? That would make it very slow, at least in the beginning.
Well if you make it keep 1 log, it can go around and find other trees and compare the log it got in it's inventory

#19 immibis

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Posted 29 September 2012 - 01:41 PM

There is guaranteed to be another tree trunk within 8 blocks of the starting tree. Is the a maximum height difference between this tree and the starting tree?

#20 jag

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Posted 29 September 2012 - 02:23 PM

View Postimmibis, on 29 September 2012 - 01:41 PM, said:

There is guaranteed to be another tree trunk within 8 blocks of the starting tree. Is the a maximum height difference between this tree and the starting tree?
Dosen't matter, you can just do turtle.detectDown() to find out if you are at the ground level. And if you got a log left in the turtle's inventory you can turtle.compare() with the block in front of it.





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