StopAndGo

There are still lots of bots that use one of the simple targeting methods like HeadOnTargeting, LinearTargeting or CircularTargeting. Therefor there are people looking for an easy way to dodge the bullets fired by these methods, without the complexity of the very effective WaveSurfing or using Enemy VirtualBullets.

For HeadOnTargeting there already is the MusashiTrick, enabling anybody to score more than 90% against any HOT-bot.

For LinearTargeting and CircularTargeting there also exists a quite effective movementscheme, although not so commonly known, that is called StopAndGo. A good implementation of such a movement could reach the performancelevel of WaveSurfing, see WaveSurfingChallenge2K6 against botB and botC

The idea behind it is simple: If the enemy fires at you while you are standing still, start moving. If it fires when you are moving, stop. The enemybullets will fly in front of you and behind you, but will rarely hit. There are two main flavours of this movement:

• start moving when the enemy fires, but stop again before the next bullet is fired. See for example ms.Ares
• start moving when the first bullet is fired, stop when the next bullet is fired, etc. See for example gh.GrubbmGrb

These are (some of) the bots using StopAndGo, each with their own tweaks (add some if you know of more):

• Ares
• Che
• Cigaret
• GrubbmGrb
• Gruwel
• Puzzle
• Vyper
• Thorn
• Splinter
• Chicken?
• Decado

A short explanation how to check if an enemy fired can be found in the BeginnersFAQ: DetectingFire and in EnergyDrop.

Note that any more advanced targetingmethod will chop this movement to little pieces, therefor it is not recommended to use StopAndGo as only available movement-option. This movement should be used when starting a battle and, if not successfull, be replaced by a more generic overall movement, see also MultiMode.

Related topic

• EnergyDropSurfing

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Comments / Questions

It seems that StopNGo has made a comeback. It is easier to understand and smaller in codesize than WaveSurfing while giving comparable results against a big part (one-third) of the rumble. Especially the codesize restricted classes could become the playground of this revived type of movement, see Splinter and Thorn. -- GrubbmGait

MyFirstRobot is a weird implementation of StopAndGo...in that you rarely hit it with LT (and CT). --Starrynte