HaikuTrogdor

An all-around HaikuBot by Kawigi. One of the first 5 or so HaikuBots to be deemed worthy of the entire bot page template

Version 1.0 - first public version. Competes reasonably with Escape in melee, beats AresHaiku in 1-on-1 (but doesn't beat a lot of other bots that get their butts handed to them by AresHaiku).
- Won the RobocodeLittleLeague haiku melee division, just edging above Escape. Well behind AresHaiku overall, if only it could have battled AresHaiku in the one-on-one tournament... It went on to win the Sonnet melee division, pretty much due to the lack of real melee Sonnets. Set score records in both of those divisions. It has since won firsts and seconds consistently in Haiku and Sonnet melee, and has done reasonably well with a few 2nd-place finishes in haiku 1-on-1.
Version 1.1 - Still in the works. It's basically all movement tweaks, both in melee and one-on-one. It seems to finally be able to dominate against the robots that have kept really close to it or beaten it in past seasons in the RobocodeLittleLeague in OneOnOne battles. It also seems to finally get consistently better results than Escape in melee (if they're both on the field). What used to happen was that HaikuTrogdor would beat Escape in bullet damage, but would be close to the same or slightly lower in survival. Now it seems to always have well more bullet damage, always have more firsts, and end with slightly more general survival than Escape. Trying to get these best overalls more often.

What's special about it?

Just that I think it's good. It's my first Haiku built with melee specifically in mind (although HaikuCircleBot wasn't bad in that sense).

Great, I want to try it. Where can I download it?

http://www.robocoderepository.com/BotDetail.jsp?id=1765

How competitive is it?

Among Haikus, it seems like it should do well in both melee and one-on-one.

How does it move?

Mainly a stop and go movement, more go than stop, and even more go in melee.

How does it fire?

Random aim! Actually, it's linear aim with a random fudge-factor added to the velocity.

How does it dodge bullets?

Since it stops and goes in the same direction, it isn't often hit by either head-on or linear-projection targeting.

How does the melee strategy differ from one-on-one strategy?

In melee it moves along the walls and rounds the corners (not perfectly, but enough to do ok). In one-on-one it tries to orbit and also swirves to try and miss the walls.

How does it select a target to attack/avoid in melee?

It never fires a bullet or even turns its gun at an opponent who is far away from it. How far depends on the number of enemies on the battlefield. Otherwise, it's perceptual, so its not very picky.

What does it save between rounds and matches?

nada. Completely perceptual.

Where did you get the name?

Well, I got it from merrill.Trogdor?, a robot that competed in the Robocode tournament at my school last year. It had a wall-movement, oscillating back and forth along the walls. They got the name from Trogdor? the Burninator:

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html

http://www.homestarrunner.com/trogdor.html

Can I use your code?

Well, it's open source, because HaikuBots have to be. So I suppose I can't stop you. You may use it under the terms of the QualifiedKPL.

What's next for your robot?

Figure out where it can be improved, HaikuBots allow for an abnormal amount of tweaking, but not alot of new functionality.

Does it have any WhiteWhales?

I suppose it was inspired originally by trying to beat AresHaiku in one-on-one, and some development went into making it compete with Escape in melee, which is a much loftier goal for a perceptual haiku.

What other robot(s) is it based on?

Trogdor?