Thursday, October 11, 2007

Intervalo and Nomignolov

Contents!

I wrote the details of how Nomignolov was used to select the best algorithm for the Intervalo tournament. You can download the pdf here.

You can download the files Intervalo.lua and Intervalo_algoritmos.lua. Copy them in your Nomignolov directory and update the file GamesList.csv accordingly.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

BEER

Thanks to juegosdeingenio.org, I discovered bitsenelring.blogspot.com (BEER); both sites are in Spanish.

BEER runs contests of algorithms. The owner, Marcos D., describes a game, allows people to send algorithms that choose a move from any given position, and then makes the war begin. Each algorithm plays 100 games with any other algorithms, gaining 1 point for each algorithm it defeats more than 50 times.

I love the idea, and I hope one day people will compete to find the best "LUA_AI" for abstract games implemented in Nomignolov!

I decided to compete for the current game ("Intervalo"). With the help of Nomignolov. Together with my sister, we thought of 11 different algorithms, and I used Nomignolov to see which one was our strongest warrior.

It was a bit tricky, because:
  • players in Intervalo move simultaneusly;
  • the algorithms choose a move instead of evaluating a position;
  • Nomignolov does not support repeated games at present.

At the end I was able to select one algorithm (it was one of my sisters') and sent it.

More details later, but the big news is that Nomignolov started doing what it was designed for: study abstract games and collect data (still, someone may use it to play...).

Nomv 1.2 "Benbow"

Mesdames et Messieurs, voilĂ  Nomignolov 1.2 "Benbow"!

The single most interesting new feature of this version is the possibility to play via internet, with a client-server architecture! Also, Nomignolov provides a chat box, useful to exchange messages to the other player and to display information about the net game.

I made some adjustment to the graphics, adding a few controls to the GUI, and display some more graphics buttons, etc.

I couldn't resist, and I added a new game... Sicic, of course!