Shiz

Shiz was the general of the last army to oppose Coriantumr, and he was the last man killed by Coriantumr. He tried to take down Coriantumr, after Coriantumr killed his brother, Lib, in battle.

Now the name of the brother of Lib was called Shiz. And it came to pass that Shiz pursued after Coriantumr, and he did overthrow many cities, and he did slay both women and children, and he did burn the cities.

And there went a fear of Shiz throughout all the land; yea, a cry went forth throughout the land—Who can stand before the army of Shiz? Behold, he sweepeth the earth before him! [(Ether 14:17, 18)]

Shiz was named for the second to last man standing.

Author

Kawigi

Versions

• 1.0 - Movement based on Coriantumr 1.0, head-on gun. Nothing that resembles a 1-on-1 movement.
• 1.1 (released!) - Movement closer to the dev version of Coriantumr (1.2). Still shoots head-on. I fit in some tweaks to make it team-capable, which will make it the third micro-sized team (and it should be comparably competitive to the other two I think). See ArmyOfShiz. Currently it soundly beats HOFSwarm but has trouble with TroodonPack, and it might be better than HawkOnFire in melee (but we'll see).

What's special about it?

The first big micro melee bot I know of since HawkOnFire was released. I think no one thought they would be able to compete with HawkOnFire. It's been awhile...

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

http://www.robocoderepository.com/BotDetail.jsp?id=2007 (This link was wrong before, like it was maybe Coriantumr's link?)

How competitive is it?

1.0 : I'm looking for 2nd in micro melee, maybe #5-#8 or so in mini melee. Probably won't be such a freak accident in one-on-one.

1.1 : We'll see if this version is enough to get me into first in micro melee, and in the top 5 for mini melee.

How does it move?

It uses MinimumRiskMovement. With very little lost from Coriantumr. See Coriantumr's and FloodHT's page for a little more information.

How does it fire?

Roughly head-on. It doesn't really fire head on, simply because it fires blind, so it probably fires a little behind head-on normally, but I suspect that's ok.

How does it dodge bullets?

Shiz doesn't dodge bullets, it just tries not to be shot at. I suppose that's not quite consistent with its vengeful namesake. It does generally avoid head-on targeting, though.

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

Really doesn't differ, except as a sort of side-effect of the nature of the battles. For once, this is one bot that doesn't realize one-on-one battles exist.

How does the team strategy differ from its other strategies?

It assumes that its teammates aren't shooting at it (so it doesn't worry about perpendicularity against them), and it doesn't shoot at teammates. There's probably a few other things, too.

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

It picks the closest to fire at, picks everyone to avoid, particularly those who it deems likely to target it.

What does it save between rounds and matches?

Jack.

Where did you get the name?

See the top. He's an interesting warrior from the Book of Mormon ( http://scriptures.lds.org/bm/contents ). Look in the Book of Ether, starting at the end of chapter 14.

Can I use your code?

The code is there, since it came from Coriantumr and Coriantumr is released under the KawigiPublicLicense, I would encourage you to follow those terms when using those parts of Shiz's code. See Coriantumr's page.

What's next for your robot?

Tweak it, shrink it, improve the team strategy.

Does it have any WhiteWhales?

HawkOnFire in melee, TroodonPack in teams.

What other robot(s) is it based on?

Coriantumr, and indirectly on any robot that Coriantumr was based on.

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Comments, questions, feedback:

Once version 1.1 is released, I hope I'll find some time to enter the competition (I'm kind of busy at the moment). -- rozu

Here you go, have fun! -- Kawigi

Wow, incredible, especially the team. looks like it could even top my mini team. Clearly better then the good old HawkOnFire in the melee and team rumble. congratulations!!! -- rozu

Wow, the thing I didn't anticipate in teams was that I wouldn't lose to anyone by more than 40%-60%. That gives me a really positive PBI against the top teams. However, RadnorMedSchool? and TroodonPack make up for it by exposing my awful targeting, so I think that GlowingHawks is safe in 3rd for now, even if they might have a new loss in the Team PL. In melee, that's about what I was shooting for, but it looks like it wasn't quite good enough to get a micro to stay back in the general melee top 10, at least not with two Tron's in the melee rumble :-p. At any rate, we still have to wait to see where the ratings stablize. -- Kawigi

the problem is this ratings will never stabilize. I would say that this is an incredible jump for a bot with HOT. I think it's a nearly impossible task to get a save place in the top 10 with this type of gun, despite the fact that Shiz might have the better movement then Aleph. -- rozu

Heh, well, you might have to figure that out (ABC-style) ;-) The problem I have is that while my gun is also good (in Coriantumr), it's not as good against the more basic bots as Aleph's or Shadow's. And the ratings may not stablize (especially the melee ratings), but the teams ratings should. Until we start doing team melee. -- Kawigi

Edit: maybe I should take back what I said a few posts ago - after almost 2000 battles, Shiz 1.1 is in a healthy 9th place, and with a little bit of boost, could even maybe overtake SandboxLump. I still think that it's not quite stablized in Teams, but that when it does it will stay behind GlowingHawks. -- Kawigi