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SandboxDT by [[Paul Evans]] is the evolution of SandboxLump, which had a superb record in the IBM RobocodeRumble. DT is usually the top bot in every contest anyone has thought up (from time to time somone comes up with a new stratergy - but DT usually catches up. It supports 1-v-1 [[Melee]] and Team battles, and in addition it always attempts to out-survive its enemies, This is THE bot to beat.

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Download from the repository here [http://robocoderepository.com/BotDetail.jsp?id=793 http://robocoderepository.com/BotDetail.jsp?id=793]
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= History =

DT - "Dodge This"

'''3.02''' - (rating 1992)

Will it break the 2K barrier?  (3.02 fixes bug in 3.01 where full power bullets were not fired when enemy was close).

'''2.91''' - (rating 1993)

A couple of tweaks here and there.

'''2.81''' - (rating 1970)

Moves mainly on enemy bullet fire - opponents that fire waves on every tick will be at an disadvantage.  If in challenge/reference mode and enemy moves or fires incorrrectly reverts back to normal mode.

'''2.71''' - (rating 1995 (at best))

Added a couple of anti movement adaption guns to make life a bit more difficult.  Also created separate entry for Melee competition - but no change to melee release.  New team entry also created (also no change) but should sort out a long standing memory leak problem.

'''2.61''' - (rating 1992)

Fix memory issues and improved movement against weak targeters (at the expense of good targeters).

'''2.51''' - (rating 1970)

New Movement introduced for fine tune flatening in 1v1 - no change to the guns - that's for the next release :)

'''2.41''' - (rating approx 1912)

The new movement introduced in version 2.21 is weak against some good guns - 2.41 hopes to merge the good elements of the movement in versions 2.11 and 2.21.

'''2.31''' - (rating approx 1930)

Small change to keep a 'Crib Sheet' for targeting against opponents indefinatly - requires around 67 bytes per opponent.

'''2.22''' - (rating approx 1912)

Bug Fix - DT 2.21 was in slow but accurate targeting mode (used for testing my movement).

'''2.21''' - (rating approx 1910)

A new feature in the movement should make this version harder to hit. When Running under Java 1.4.2 I have ensured that the worst that can happen is that DT is disabled in round 1 only. No changes to targeting or melee in this update.

'''2.11''' - (rating approx 1890)

I've had to improve targeting and movement to prevent people thinking I'm a soft touch - not tested as well as usual but should beat the present threat to the throne.

'''2.01'''

New adaptive movement - attempts to ensure enemy bots see a 'flat' movement profile for DT. 
Minor Bug fix in linear gun calculations - may make Melee and Team marginally better. 
A little more aggressive in that it will, on average, stay closer to the enemy.

'''1.91'''

Bug fix in gun - slightly better in longer battles against weaker bots. 
Additional gun (still statistical) 
Optimisation of movement 
Supports reference and challenge mode via properties file in data directory. For movement challenge in RoboWiki (reference = stationary fires 3.0 bullets, challenge = moves but does not fire).

'''1.81'''

Slight tweak of gun - selection of best gun sould be achieved more efficiently

1v1 movement replaced - after noteing some 1v1 bots had better movement I replaced my 1v1 movement so that it is no worse than any other bot at any distance according to DT's guns. Watch how DT turns just in time to miss the walls (it took ages to get this to work).

All new melee movement - no AG and no corner movement. This has not yet been tweeked so expect futer improvements.

Team: Old movement, may look at this if anyone beats DTTeam.

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Some stats:
* Current EternalRumble rank: #1
* Current EternalRumble melee rank: #1
* Current EternalRumble best rating: 1898.12 (Sat May 03 00:22:18 CEST 2003) 
* Current SurvivalistLeague rank: #1
* Best Team
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Below are some graphs of the movement of DT2.01 acording to StatistRobot after 5000 rounds.

http://www.aqre94.dsl.pipex.com/images/dtshortdist.jpg
http://www.aqre94.dsl.pipex.com/images/dtmiddist.jpg
http://www.aqre94.dsl.pipex.com/images/dtlongdist.jpg
----

Graphs generated from [[FloodMini]]'s saved data (a hobby of mine lately) don't show quite as pretty of a curve in some places (particularly close up), but version 1.81 has clearly the best profile when approaching a wall of any bot I have graphed.  The no-fear-curving-with-the-wall mentality was worth it, and just ahead of [[FloodMini]] 1.2, which took advantage of the weakness so many bots have in this segment. -- [[Kawigi]]
----
With the Eternal Rumble out of action I was wondering what is the best bot against DT at the moment in 1v1, 800x600 field, a typical 500 round result (i.e. not the best) with no data files before the start.

If you have any results please post them below (even if it is not your bot) percentage score should be calculated as your score/total score and wins as your firsts/total rounds.

Check out Tron 2.01's properties file for a "legitimate" way to beat DT... ;) -- [[ABC]]

Ha, I just saw that!  Did my latest Nano inspire that?  Regardless, it's pretty friggin' impressive.  Can't beat 'em, join em.  Doesn't work quite as well against FloodHT, though. -- [[Kawigi]]

Hehe, Tron 1.5 has a "sandboxkiller" flag too, I use it to boost morale sometimes ;). I know I just need an excellent movement to beat DT, it's just that it's easier said than done... -- [[ABC]]

Shouldn't work against Marshmallow either. But this must sure mean that your gun is good. The mirroring is perfect, beautiful to watch. If you like I can send you my new movement when it's ready and you could try that against DT. Should be a movement that works good against most bots as well. Just holler my way if you would like to try. -- [[PEZ]]

At first I thought I was hallucinating when I saw it not moving at right angles :-p -- [[Kawigi]]

What it means for sure is that DT's movement is amazing, it can do what everybody else has been trying to do for ages, it can "Dodge This" :). I believe my gun is pretty good too, I'd be more than happy to try it with your movement PEZ, send it to asbc@mail.telepac.pt when it's ready. The Targeting challenge can probably tell me exactly how good it is, and I still have some ideas for improvements. Of course it is not Tron... I'm a stubborn guy, I won't give up easily on making a "Tron themed" kick ass bot! ;)

ABC I've just has a look at Tron 2.01 Sandbox killer - nice one.  Don't get too excited however - I was assured that my development version of DT does not fail against Tron in the same way (I need to look at this - I don't know yet if it is it the gun bug I fixed or the new movement of DT or some other strange factor).  In other words your gun may not be better - I will let you all know asap. -- [[Paul Evans]]

Update:  It looks like DT looses against Tron's Sandbox killer due to movement - DT's movement had been optimised against other versions of DT.  As a result DT find's it difficult to hit itself (or movement of itself) but the movement is sub-optimal against different bullet powers - so, by using different power bullets Tron gets a target it can hit.  My development version od DT attempts to optimise against all bullets powers and does not fall into this trap.

M has an AntiMirrorGun in it's VG array in order to avoid others to take such easy advantage of its movement. Even if it's a crap anti mirror gun, it's not worth mirroring M. Interestingly this gun is Ms best guns at far ranges against some non-mirroring  bots as well. DT is one of these bots actually. It's probably why M is one of DTs hardest foes (when M and DT has gotten some 500 rounds to get to know each other that is, with clean data files M is snack for DT). -- [[PEZ]]

So Paul, are you saying that DT's movement doesn't addapt to the enemy's bullet power at all or that it is unoptimised for Tron's particular bullet power choices? I also have a "mirrorBulletPower" flag in Tron, but I never got around to fully implement it, maybe I'll try it one of this days. This of course only serves to exemplify the dangers of only optimising your movement against your own gun...

The new DT does take into account bullet power and distance - and does so better than DT1.91 - I think it's in the final stages of development - I'm just testing it against some key bots to see if I have made any mistakes.

oooh!  oooh!  Do I get to have any of those key bots this time? -- [[Kawigi]]

Sorry - not at the moment - my final test set of bots are Cigaret 1.17, DT 1.61, Marshmallow 1.4.4, GlowBlowAPM 1.0, DuelistMini 1.1.  As you can see the list is fairly old - I've been using them since development of 1.71.  I thought they needed an update (hence the question at the top of this section). -- [[Paul Evans]]

Well, I guess you are seriously considering Tron 2.01 in SandboxKillerMode? =) -- [[PEZ]]

Fine, then, just read about the wrath of FloodHT on your bot ;-)  I'm guessing you're also not testing against WhatTheHeck (but then, I wouldn't either) -- [[Kawigi]]

Just for fun DT 2.01 has been released :) (version 1.91 is still available for the movement challenge).  DT 2.01 beats Tron in SandboxKiller mode (without the aid of a anti mirror gun).  [[ABC]] do you want to try reflecting bullet power as well as movement - your gun might just do it.  --  [[Paul Evans]]

About CigarQwhgads, I've emailed Iiley to ask if we should stick this one out in the wild.  I would propose the name UltimateDeathToMegaBots, but I doubt the name would last.  And I haven't tested it against other significant MegaBots (like FloodHT or Chameleon or BlestPain) -- [[Kawigi]]
* I would suggest you name it [[Griffin]]. Of course you'll need to update its hype page. In my head Griffin will be able to transform and fusion from different parts of the world depending on where the power is strongest at the moment. wiki.mini.Griffin in this case I guess. -- [[PEZ]]
** [[Iiley]] and I have decided on the name [[Sedan]].  Coming soon.  Along with an explanation for where the heck that name came from. -- [[Kawigi]]
Oh~~NO~!!!Why you come out so fast,[[BlestPain]] only beat DT 1.91 a little some times,then DT 2.01 come out,kicked my pain,it's really a big deep pain for me.~;[  -- [[iiley]]

Sorry [[iiley]] I had not realised you were so close to beating DT - I would have released 2.01 faster if I had realised :-).  BTW I like the performance of this bot - please don't add pattern matching.  Nice victory dance. -- [[ Paul Evans]]

I've just run a 5000 round battle between BlestPain and DT2.01 - I just made a win, but only just - so close I say it's a draw - time to look at my targeting... - congrats iiley. -- [[Paul Evans]]

The real difference here is that BlestPain just had the edge before, and now DT just has the edge.  And for some reason the opposite has happened with this random MiniBot I need to polish up... -- [[Kawigi]]
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I've cleaned up this page some. Lots of what has been said here is very valuable so I have saved it under the subpages /OldDiscussions and /MovementRiddles. -- [[PEZ]]

Now to my questions/remark. I tried repeat Tron's success with using MirrorMovement against DT in [[GB]]. It didn't improve GB's performance against DT of course. But if you try pitting the two foes against each other you'll probably see something strange in the beginning of many battles. DT seems to get stuck against the vertical wall and/or corner for a very long time. Is this on purpose? It almost looks like DT have problems as long as you are pushed back up against a wall, but when DT then decides to fight a closer battle the problem isn't an issue any more. -- [[PEZ]]

DT's movement never gets itself in a position where it will hit a wall in normal play, or to put it another way it will start turning to avoid a wall just before it need's to even if going at full speed.  Unfortunatly the start condition of a battle is not under DT's control and if placed near an edge DT estimates it is in a position to hit a wall - DT's emergency action is to set a very slow max speed until the wall hitting danger is passed (usually by being parallel to the wall) - as it occurs at the beginning of a round before firing commences I don't think there is a problem.  -  [[Paul Evans]]  p.s Thanks for the tidy up.

But the thing is that from my observations many shots are exchanged before DT gets unstuck. The only thing saving DT here is that GB can't hit a target, stationary or not. Though it couldn't be a big problem this since DT is by far the king of the hill. =) -- [[PEZ]]

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Hmm... I keep getting an ArrayIndexOutOfBounds exception with SandboxDT 2.11.

<pre>=========================
Round 6 of 100
=========================
pe.SandboxDT 2.11: Exception: java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
 at pe.a.e.a(Unknown Source)
 at pe.a.b.a(Unknown Source)
 at pe.a.f.try(Unknown Source)
 at pe.a.f.else(Unknown Source)
 at pe.SandboxDT.run(Unknown Source)
 at robocode.peer.RobotPeer.run(RobotPeer.java:616)
 at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)
SYSTEM: pe.SandboxDT 2.11 wins the round.
=========================
Round 7 of 100
=========================
pe.SandboxDT 2.11: Exception: java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
 at pe.a.e.a(Unknown Source)
 at pe.a.b.a(Unknown Source)
 at pe.a.f.try(Unknown Source)
 at pe.a.f.else(Unknown Source)
 at pe.SandboxDT.run(Unknown Source)
 at robocode.peer.RobotPeer.run(RobotPeer.java:616)
 at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)</pre>

Wierd... Is anybody else getting this problem? -- [[Vuen]]

Lol, that's the most bizarre stack trace I've ever seen in my life.  Of course, what do you expect from DT, and Paul's nasty habit of having a method called 'a' in a class called 'e' in a package called 'pe.a'... -- [[Kawigi]]

I'll try to find the problem - thanks for the information.  DT also suffers from a file security problem running under Java 1.4.2_01 (I think all bots that do file i/o will, see the CompressedSerialization Page).  In the mean time try deleteing DT's enemyStats file, it may corrupted. --  [[Paul Evans]]
* Paul, did you try the fix on the [[MSWindows]] page to fix your IO problem? I have been using the 1.4.2_02 JVM for quite a while now with it and everything seems to work well.
* The I/O security problem is sorted out with the -Dsun.io.useCanonCaches=false java option on 1.4.2 - this however has no affect on raw binary communication between team mates - for that a workaround is required.

<pre>...and Paul's nasty habit of having a method called 'a' in a class called 'e' in a package called 'pe.a'...</pre>
I think Paul didn't realy wrote classes , methods and packages called 'a' 'b'.. . That just some kind of encryption. Paul doesnt't want others to read his code by decompiling it.
--[[deathcon]]

I know, I just like to pick on his obfuscator. -- [[Kawigi]]

Hey Paul.Why don't you add a VictoryDance to SandboxDT?It would be nice to watch AND your bot wouldn't be hit from a bullet that was fires from the enemy just before he died.SandboxDT often get hit in such situations. --[[deathcon]]

I have no artistic flare, I'm sure any victory dance from me would be naff.  I'm not so sure standing still after the enemy has died makes DT vulnarable - the enemy does not know when it is going to die - if it were to take advantage of the fact that DT goes stationary it would need to do head on targeting in situations where its energy is less than 16 - a side effect would be DT would probably increase it's likleyhood of not being in this position if the enemy took such an approach.  --[[Paul]]

Bots that always fire head-on would get a few hits against you, as would very lucky other bots, it may give you 1 or 2 extra rating points, and as you aren't restricted in codesize, i would be inclined to do it.  Try a 5 pointed star pattern, that might look nice, and fire outwards at each point, with a lower power each time, so you get a nice circle of bullets for a brief moment.  -- [[Tango]]

I think just stopping any action the moment you have won is a rather cool VictoryDance. It's a very royal thing to do. -- [[PEZ]]

Paul, as you can see here it is not unnormal that a bot fires head on head at you: 
(GuessFactors anticlockwise/clockwise moving and both together) 
and please ignore these bars at 0.5 and -0.5 - that if from default data 
10 Jan 2004 : removed pics. You can see my new one below.
--[[deathcon]]

Interesting graphs - when you add the clockwise and anticlocwise graphs why don't you swap the sign of the guess factor on one of the graphs so that positive guess factors occur when either the opponent was going clockwise at fire and the hit was clockwise from the head on point or the opponent was going anticlockwise at fire and the hit was anticlockwise from the head on value (negative guess factors would be when the opponent was moving in one direction at fire and the eventual hit was in
the opposite direction).  In this way you should not need two graphs - you could pool the data and learn twice as fast (the two graphs are basically mirror immages of each other).

So far as the peak at 0.0 is concerned I am a little sceptical - the peak looks very sharp which is not typical of DT's movement.  However, it appears to have about the same density as the peaks at around +0.7 (+ve in direction of initial movement) and so would have the characteristics DT movement is designed (to be hit as often in the high guess factor range as the mid (0.0) guess factor range - so far DT only actively adapts the relative sizes of these two natural peaks in it's movement profile).

--  [[Paul]]

Yes, what Paul says about mirroring clockwise and anticlockwise is an important feature of guess factors. Take advantage of it. If you want to see an example how it is done in code I think a pretty straight-forward implementation could [[Aristocles]]. At least it is very little code to read. =) No segments or anything to blur the picture. -- [[PEZ]]

But if you are always mirroring clockwise and anticklockwise you wouldn't need two segments at all.Maybe it't a nice trick at the beginning of a battle. However i have tweaked my gun a little. Removed old pics and here are the new one:
http://www.mycgiserver.com/~deathcon/pe.sandboxdt_2.41.graph.jpg
--[[deathcon]]

Exactly. You don't need a segment for clockwise / anticlockwise direction. That's the point. -- [[PEZ]]

Although there is a chance that some bots move differently when going clockwise as opposed to going anticlockwise.  Probably due to bugs, rather than design.  If you have DynamicSegmentation it might be worth adding a direction segment, but it would reduce the number of hits on each GF too much (about 50%, obviously) in other bots. -- [[Tango]]
----

Any news on the upcoming version of DT? Are you working exclusively on 1on1 or will the new version have improved melee/teams strategy? Btw, I don't know if you are aware but DT crashes sometimes when the final duel of a melee battle starts, something to do with the onBulletHit event. -- [[ABC]]

Hi [[ABC]] - glad you're thinking of me - DT 1v1 is being worked on at the moment - I've just spent a few days predicting where DT will be so that it can control it's movement and create a anti mirror gun.  I have some positive results but I'd like to make a BIG return - watch this space. [[Paul]]

I will, got to watch my back now ;). Anyway, I was wondering if you are considering "artificial" ranking boosters, like pre-saved data, anti headOn/mirror movements, etc. I'm particularly worried about pre-saved data, since that would probably force me to develop my own gessFactor gun (I have some ideas but not much time). Alternatively I could start saving dodging data, that would maybe earn me some points in the rumble... Basicaly what I'm curious about is how serious you are on that 2000 points race. :) -- [[ABC]]

I guess Paul is more serious about it than most! =) You go watch your back good man. -- [[PEZ]]

I wouldn't say AntiHeadOn and AntiMirror were "artificial". (presaved data is, of course, and usually only gives you an advantage for the first couple of battles against any bot, anyway) -- [[Tango]]

Since you seldom get more than two battles against any bot presaved data gives a considerable advantage in the RR@H. I agree that anti-this-or-that-weakness are not artificial. Unless, of course, you are a supporter of PremierLeague rules. Which I am. But given the regular rules, any weak-bot-trashing is totally '''not''' artificial. -- [[PEZ]]

Agreed, I shouldn't have mentioned AntiHeadOn and AntiMirror in the same phrase as pre-saved data, they are both very valid tactics that make a bot more complete. I would call them "easy ranking boosters" instead, since they rely on the fact that a lot of bots in the rumble use HeadOnTargeting and wouldn't be so effective in a ER style competition where you only fight close ranked bots. Nevertheless, they would surely affect something DT is still the king of: Specialization Index. -- [[ABC]]

Might be. But a [[DT]] with the MusashiTrick and a Musashi-class AntiMirror gun would be kinda scary anyway. =) -- [[PEZ]]

No doubt about that. :) -- [[ABC]]

Paul, i was just testing your new 2.51, and got this:
<pre>
=========================
Round 1 of 35
=========================
Reading Data
pe.SandboxDT 2.51: Throwable: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError
</pre>
It's strange because it's the first time in my life that I see that kind of error (the vm running out of memory). Could it be something in the new DT? -- [[Axe]]

It's happening oftenly here. The memory alocated to the process goes +90Mb... An easy way to get it is trying a match DT 2.51 X DT 2.51. I'm running it in a WinXP, Athlon 1.7Ghz, 512Mb. Please let me know if the problem is here. -- [[Axe]]

Another DT 2.51 error:

Round 26 of 100
 =========================
 SYSTEM: Bonus for killing ms.Ares 0.19: 7
 pe.SandboxDT 2.51: Exception: java.lang.NullPointerException
 java.lang.NullPointerException
    at pe.a.i.a(Unknown Source)
    at pe.SandboxDT.onHitByBullet(Unknown Source)
    at robocode.peer.robot.EventManager.onHitByBullet(EventManager.java:572)
    at robocode.peer.robot.EventManager.processEvents(EventManager.java:719)
    at robocode.peer.RobotPeer.tick(RobotPeer.java:1024)
    at robocode.AdvancedRobot.execute(AdvancedRobot.java:186)
    at pe.a.i.goto(Unknown Source)
    at pe.SandboxDT.run(Unknown Source)
    at robocode.peer.RobotPeer.run(RobotPeer.java:616)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)

This happened in about 30% of all battles. :-p --[[David Alves]]

Amazing! Even with these exceptions & errors, first and 1970+ scoring. Congrats, man! -- [[Axe]]

That error was in a melee battle, 1-v-1 I've only had out of memory errors, and those went away when I set -Xmx512M --[[David Alves]]

Yeah, I've had speed and memory issues with it too, grinds robocode to a screeching bloated halt. Very impressive release, though. -- [[Kuuran]]

Congrats! That new movement is great. But you must fix the memory leak. This DT hangs my RR@H client and you know what I do with bots doing that, right? I'll leave it in a few days since a king has certain privilegies. Amazing you could improve your movement this much! -- [[PEZ]]

I'm having memory problems when DT runs. It slows down RR@H to the absurd and finally it stops because it has no memory. -- [[Albert]]

Heh, I can't think of a reason that a movement algorithm would require that much memory!  Congrats on getting back to #1 so quickly again!  David and I had a bet going, and he won. :P -- [[nano]]

David knows how Paul works a little better than you, I suspect ;-) -- [[Kawigi]]

I'm looking at the memory leak now - hopefully I'll have a fix for it soon - as for speed I'll see what I can do - but I do expect it to be slow (if you want to see it run really slow (and beat shadow) try running with the hiseg gun option set in the properties file.  --  [[Paul]]

If you found the memory hole you'd get rid of the gradual grind to a halt that is the biggest problem. Just generally slow execution isn't that big of a deal, it's the slowdown to a near standstill after some time that's an issue. -- [[Kuuran]]

Exciting with a DT 2.61! Do you have any prediction for it? -- [[PEZ]]

If it gets close to 2K I'll be pleased (I don't know because I did not test it well) - it should be top of the general 1v1 table - (the PL table won't be so good as I know it does not do well against PM's and good movers). --  [[Paul]]

Looks good so far, 1990 points! I tried "milking" the weak bots with Shadow 2.41, but must have done something wrong... Anyway, congrats, the crown is yours again. I won't be updating Shadow anytime soon, since I decided to do some major restructuring. -- [[ABC]]

Amazing movement. Impossible to hit! I feel frustrated. Although isn't it vulnerable to pattern matching? -- [[asm]]

It's not vulnerable to anything. You're not alone in your frustration. =) It should really be named SandboxHT instead. -- [[PEZ]]

Nice details sheet on DT 2.71 1-v-1!!! It's insane actually. This must surely be the strongest bot ever. -- [[PEZ]]

It seems to be struggling to reach the ranking of the last version... I'm sure it will get there, but it seems strangely slow to increase... -- [[Tango]]

It's early days yet - but I have concentrated on performance against the better bots, and hopfully not lost performance against the weaker bots - in the long term I think DT beats all bots (although DT vs Lacrimas is unstable - usually DT wins, but sometimes Lacrimas gets and keeps the upper hand).  Hopefully the rating will break 2000 when DT starts fighting opponents it has already met).  --  [[Paul]]

Best of luck! -- [[Tango]]

Do you think luck has anything to do with it?  :) -- [[Paul]]

Of course it does.  If you start off cornered in every single round, you don't really stand a chance, do you?  As long as there is a random element, luck plays a part.  Nevertheless, I have the greatest confidence that you will do it! :-) -- [[Tango]]

"Momentum = -23.400000000000006"  That can't be good, can it?  It's currently 10 points lower than the last version finished at... -- [[Tango]]

In the long run luck will have nothing to do with it. I think we will have to wait for DT to start meeting the same bots twice before we can see where it'll go. But, at least for DT 2.61 the saved data file grew too large. If 2.71 has the same problem this might get in the way. -- [[PEZ]]

I did not realise that 2.61's data overran - it should keep the enemystats.dat file to less than 190000 bytes - there should not be a problem unless there is another file other than the standard DT.properties file.  [[PEZ]] can you give more information? --  [[Paul]]

Yes, that thing works, don't worry. I just mean it hit the 190K ceiling which must mean you can't fit all enemies in the file. I'm not sure how many you can fit though, so it might not be a problem. -- [[PEZ]]

Wow. Now DT doesn't have a single loss on its detail sheet! And looking at the LRP graph I strart to doubt I can make a bot that brings me the crown. It looks very balanced and the school of enemies are well contained. If one doesn't look close enough it looks like you don't collect those easy points from the head-on-targeters. There are no outliers up there like on [[Aristocles]] and other bots graphs. But looking closer you can see that it nails those bots with 99% and such. Which must mean you beat most other bots with the same relative ease. Incredible. Truly well done [[Paul]]. You really deserve that crown. -- [[PEZ]]

We've had problems with DT fighting older versions of itself, but now it's fought the current version of itself... that can't be right, can it? -- [[Tango]]

I bet it wins those fights too. =) -- [[PEZ]]

FYI DT can store full information on around 60 opponents and partial information on the rest (partial info at 70 bytes per opponent, full info at 3000 bytes).  --  [[Paul]]

Ah, I'll have to remember that possibility. -- [[PEZ]]

Paul, I don't think that you want to hear it, but I'm still not able to run any team battles with your monster. I'm allway getting java.lang.OutOfMemoryError. Is this my fault or is 256MB ram simply not enough. -- [[rozu]]

David said last night that he needed to set it to a GB of memory to run the team RR@H client, and that with DTTeam, it peaked at 950 MB of memory. -- [[Kawigi]]

Gets worse than that Kawigi... I left it running overnight and this is what happened: 
http://davidalves.net/robocode/dt_team_memory.gif

That's the RR@H process on very bottom... Apparently a gigabyte of RAM isn't enough. I only have 1.5 GB, and I refuse to give it any more! >=( --[[David Alves]]

It's almost certainly my fault - I have not run a team round for many months now - presumably the more battles DT plays the grater the memory (memory leak) or is it like my last memory problem: the more bots in the enemyStats file the more massive the memory (lazy programming)?  --  [[Paul]]

More bots would use more memory, that's unavoidable, the problem certainly increases with more battles, so it must be some leak (and one that remains after the match, as RR@H only runs 35 round matches, which it can certainly handle).  I think there is a workaround, simply set the client not to iterate, and it will loop round using the batch file's loop, restarting java every time, so the leak is tidied up.  It will run slower, but won't crash. -- [[Tango]]

he's back!

He always is. Nobody's managed to beat DT for more than a few weeks. :-P --[[David Alves]]

And with a new Cigaret-style movement! Can't wait to see where it ends up. :) -- [[ABC]]

1965 after 147 battles with low momentum... 2.81 may actually be weaker than 2.71 --[[David Alves]]

wow 1975 rating or so with momentum of over 300!--andrew

Don't get too excited, its rating won't start stabilizing until at least 100 battles are in and we're only at 29. (1943/+260)

I'm glad you are all watching :) --  [[Paul]]

1997 with 73 battles, looking good! :) -- [[ABC]]

The heat is on (3.01). I'll start my client again. -- [[PEZ]]

It seems to be struggling against simple bots of the low-rated micro and nano variety (Kakuru, Aurora, etc). As David has pointed out, those are going to bring you down fast. -- [[Kuuran]]

Expected % vs Aurora is about 80%, and he's only underperforming by 3.7%. It's not enough to be a problem. I was refering more to the extremely low ranked bots, say 1400 and below. Case in point: a bug caused [[David Alves/YALT|YALT]] 1.0 to crash sometimes vs. 3 bots, all ranked 1350 or below. Since I was getting about 60% instead of the predicted 90+%, my rating vs. those three bots was a good 400+ points lower. Even when diluted by the results from all the other bots, it was dragging my score down. Fixing the bug, with no other changes, was worth 27 rating points. A good rule of thumb is that any bot that has an expected score over 90% and PBI of -5% or worse is trashing your rating. --[[David Alves]]

Here's a better candidate: 
 dans.Cinnamon_1.2	74.2	2	9-3-2004:18:22	86.4	-12.2 
Actual rating difference: 493.7 
Rating difference from %: 282.1 
Rating damage: -211.6

Ouch! --[[David Alves]]

(edit conflict)
Err I think I misread the PBI of Virgin as the PBI of Aurora. Kakuru, Cinnamon, Predator, BiggerDeath are all really big problems, though. Around 70, 80 or so expected and PBIs through the roof. Most importantly, there's no reason for a bot historically as rock solid as DT to be underperforming to any of them. Nor is that loss to Smoke encouraging :p -- [[Kuuran]]

What happened here:

radnor.RamRod_1.0	32.0	4	9-3-2004:18:51	79.1	-47.0

It's over 4 battles, so isn't a fluke.  Something wierd must have happened... -- [[Tango]]

I think it's a dynamic distance problem - from the name of the bot I think I'm not running away from the bot because I only select from distances I have sufficient results from - It's a simple fix - maybe tomorrow. --  [[Paul]]

I would guess that one bot is dragging down your rating quite a lot.  I'd fix it ASAP, it could be the difference between 1999.9 and 2000. ;-) -- [[Tango]]

It also seems like virtually every pm in the rumble has DT's number. -- [[Kuuran]]

good old ramrod. i know exactly why it's working so well against sandbox and musashi. but i'm not about to tell. you can figure it out yourselves pretty easily anyway. new radnor bot similar to ramrod (but a lot better) coming out soon to draw down so more ratings! --[[andrew]]

Hi there - I'm glad to see you all are doing a grand job - ratings are gradally moving higher.  I'm also glad to see DT still gives a few headaches to the top bots I'm particularly pleased with its ranking in the PL.  I'm still not in a position to do anything new but recently I've found myself thinking of new ideas and wanting to test them out - perhaps after Christmas I'll be back.  --  [[Paul Evans]]

And I'm glad to know you still visit in on us! And of course to hear that you have started getting those ideas... Given enough time they will force you back. =) -- [[PEZ]]

What is the state of play with DT against the top bots - I can't believe the ratings are a true reflection of it's abilities - the state of the art must have progressed. --  [[Paul Evans]]

Great to hear from you again! I suspect DT could reach the top simply by optimising (special casing) it's strategy against headOn guns. The state of the art these days is WaveSurfing, it excels in crushing simple guns (99.9% scores) and fooling most GF guns. Fyi, [[Shadow]]'s current version beats DT by 52% over 1000 rounds. -- [[ABC]]

Of course the rating is a true reflection of its abilities. At least it's the reflection we have agreed on to use. If you find it hard to interpret ELO score figures (hehe!) check out this table instead: http://rumble.robowiki.net/servlet/PremierLeague?game=roborumble&table=2 it shows the raw percentage average DT gets against the full range of RR bots. It also shows that DT is strong against the strong. It usually fights with [[Shadow]] for the PL crown. -- [[PEZ]]

Btw. DT is a WaveSurfer, in'it? Special casing against [[HOT]] shouldn't be necessary. Neither [[Pugilist]] nor CassiusClay does it. Does [[Shadow]]? -- [[PEZ]]

I turn off the flattener if all the enemy bullets fall in the same GF interval, I think it qualifies as special casing. I'm yet to make it more dynamic, my idea is to somehow detect the enemy's learning speed and adjust the flattening/dodging behaviour. -- [[ABC]]

DT is not a true WaveSurfer as I understand it - From memory it attempts to be hit equally across all guess Factors - it has a similar effect to wave surfing but not quite as efficient. On the other hand it will not fall victim to the first anti wave surfer gun.  Is 52% the best that can be done to DT over 1000 rounds.  --  [[Paul Evans]]

That sounds like WaveSurfing to me. And. Version 1.9.6.01 of CassiusClay collected 57% over 500 rounds. Never tested 1000 rounds though. -- [[PEZ]]

It sounds like only the 'flattening' part of wavesurfing. The 'other' part (what is that called anyway?) would make it a true wavesurfer, wouldn't it? --[[Vic]]
* Well it depends on what we mean by wave surfing i guess. To me it's the technique of surfing the incoming wave with hit/visit stats as your guide. It could be used to avoid hits or flatten the curve or even collect hits. I beleive the 'other' part is called "avoiding hits". =) -- [[PEZ]]

My gun is relatively weak against DT's movement, the best I ever scored (in 1k rounds) was 54%-56% a few versions ago, but that version ranked lower in the rumble. I believe Shadow would score close to 60% with PEZ' gun. DT's movement is probably more like an adaptative random movement. Anti wave surfer gun? Mine does pretty well against most of them... ;) -- [[ABC]]

Please test what [[Shadow]] scores against DT with my gun! In any case we were talking about state of the art above. I think the current DT is behind in both movement and targeting. The state of the art is harder to pinpoint in targeting though. Both carefully selected segmentations on top of a simple FloodMini style gun and [[Shadow]]'s monster PM/stat hybrid seems to work. Shadow both has the RRGunChallenge crown. That might be it's anti-wave-surfer qualities, it's only a one point lead and the number of wave surfers are 15 or so. But since the RR is what counts I would say the Shadow gun is the most state-of-the-art. Though I'm not rocket scientist enough to understand what it's about. =) -- [[PEZ]]

I think my lead int the RRGC is probably because a PM gun is better against simple movers, 15 wave surfers are not enough to make a difference. Maybe an AWSGC is in order? :) Anyway, your gun is way ahead of mine in both the TCs, and is state-of-the-art for sure. -- [[ABC]]

I disagree. If a gun is best in the lab doesn't count. The real world is what counts. -- [[PEZ]]

Clarification: As i started out by stating I think my style of gun is too state-of-the-art. Just not ''as'' state-of-the-art as your gun. -- [[PEZ]]

More reason to come back, there is no way you should ever see this.
<pre>
1st: jekl.DarkHallow	84878	27450	5490	45845	6092	0	0	550	451	0
2nd: pe.SandboxDT 3.02	71009	22550	4510	39439	4509	0	0	452	549	0
</pre>

Good enough for a %54.45 winning 54.9% of the rounds. Please come back [[Paul]]. Where ever you are you seem to bring excitement to this game :) Bring [[Kawigi]], [[David_Alves]], [[Jam]], and [[iiley]] with you. -- [[jim]]

I utterly agree! We all miss these people... But [[David]] is pretty active, and i would include in this list [[ABC]] too (although i think that he is just waiting for someone to dethrone him)... -- [[Axe]]

Well I've been active for the past week anyway... before that, nothing since my YALT/JALT frenzy in March I think. I feel obligated to tie up a few loose ends... fix RobocodeGL and become #1 in 1-v-1. ;-) --[[David Alves]]

Well, i was away too for two monthes, only returned last week also... And also i wanna that crown! :) -- [[Axe]]

I don't care about that crown all that much these days. But outranking the soon ancient RaikoMX is so hard that  it almost drives me nuts! Or if it already has driven me nuts... Maybe if I ever succeed with that I will shift focus and join you crown contenders. -- [[PEZ]]

Look what the latest [[CassiusClay|CC]] does to [[DT]] over 1000 rounds! Hyaiii!
<pre>
57.99%	1st: pez.rumble.CassiusClay 1.9.9.06 86750	30350	6070	44105	6224	0	0	608	393
	2nd: pe.SandboxDT 3.02 62857	19650	3930	35545	3732	0	0	394	607
</pre>
-- [[PEZ]]

It's just a scratch - I can still fight.  --  [[Paul]]

<pre> 
BLACK KNIGHT:
 Come here!
ARTHUR:
 What are you going to do, bleed on me?
</pre>
-- JohnDoe

[[Paul]]'s remark made me laugh my ass off. That movie is one of my big favourites. English humor at its very best! -- [[PEZ]]

Latest CC vs DT 3.02:
<pre>
60.917%	1st: pez.rumble.CassiusClay 1.9.9.96m	91521	33200	6640	44874	6807	0	0	665	336
	2nd: pe.SandboxDT 3.02	 58718	16800	3360	35364	3193	0	0	339	664
</pre>
Sweeet!

-- [[PEZ]]

That's nice!
Not as good but decent I guess:
<pre>
57.105% 1st: pulsar.PulsarMax 0.8	86509	29900	5980	44344	6280	4	0	599	402	0
 2nd: pe.SandboxDT 3.02	 64981	20100	4020	37062	3798	0	0	404	598	0
</pre>
-- [[Pulsar]]

<pre>
62.8%	1st: pez.rumble.CassiusClay 1.9.9.96n 93158	34400	6880	44941	6936	1	0	691	311
	2nd: pe.SandboxDT 3.02 55069	15550	3110	33528	2881	0	0	315	688
</pre>
-- [[PEZ]]

<pre>
64.1% 1st: pez.rumble.CassiusClay 1.9.9.96z 103467	36200	7240	51769	8258	0	0	725	276
 2nd: pe.SandboxDT 3.02 57888	13800	2760	38343	2984	0	0	277	724
</pre>
Yes, you are reading correctlty, that's a 72.5% survival for CC. =)

-- [[PEZ]]

I can't help but notice that 3.02 has a tendency to die in some melees, especially against a group of SittingDucks. Good ole null pointer exceptions ;)

-- Jokester
* i am not shure about the reason, but Paul released both a 1-vs-1 and melee version of Sandbox DT (pe.SandboxDT 2.71m). It is possible that only the latter can be used for melee battles. P.s. i get the same nullpointer exceptions when i use v3.02 and not only against SittingDucks. --[[Loki]]

I certainly can not help noticing this, but 3.02 never works against my robots. I tried it with sample.Fire and it worked fine but there is this null pointer exception after reading in the data and it is disabled every round I try with it. Maybe you could fix it up and let my try beating it :). (The robot I tried against it has not been released but it also does not work against my ScanFire.) -- [[Kinsen]]
* did you observe this in melee or 1-vs-1? --[[Loki]]
* have you checked the [[JRE_1.4.2_SecurityException_Bug]] page? --[[GrubbmGait]]

It occurs in melee and 1-vs-1, and I don't think that it is the mentioned bug.  -- [[Kinsen]]
* i agree, it's not the [[JRE_1.4.2_SecurityException_Bug]]. I haven't observed it in 1-vs-1 yet (and b.t.w., it still wins with a large difference from my bots...). --[[Loki]]

I wish that it would beat my robots... it does not do anything besides turn its radar 360 degrees. -- [[Kinsen]]

Interesting, I tried it again, and it worked. However, it did not work before although I am at a different location that where I had usually tried it, but I think that I had tried it here before... so I am really mystified about why it did not work for so long. -- [[Kinsen]]

Here is the output:
<pre>pe.SandboxDT 3.02: Exception: java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
 at pe.a.l.<init>(Unknown Source)
 at pe.a.i.int(Unknown Source)
 at pe.a.i.else(Unknown Source)
 at pe.SandboxDT.run(Unknown Source)
 at robocode.peer.RobotPeer.run(RobotPeer.java:633)
 at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)</pre>
-- [[Kinsen]]
----

I downloaded DT, just for the fun of it, even though the source seems to be unavailable. However, when I run him in MeleeBattles, sometimes if he destroys the third-to-last bot and the other bot is out of his radar, DT will just roll to a stop and get stuck. Hence other bots will beat him handily in Melee when they shouldn't. Does this happen with anyone else's version?  --[[Pfvicm]]

I don't do much melee, so I haven't experimented with it, but I do know there's a separate version of DT in the melee rumble. [http://www.robocoderepository.com/BotDetail.jsp?id=2008 SandboxDT 2.71m] -- [[Voidious]]

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