November 7, the Russian AI Cup 2016 starts. This is an annual artificial intelligence programming championship organized by the Mail.Ru Group. Russian AI Cup is held in the form of a game in order to make it visually, clearly and simply. In short: the participants create an algorithm that describes the game strategy. The resulting bot fights with others the same, and the best of them wins the round. Thus, from a series of rounds the tournament is organized, which takes place in several stages.

On the one hand, the basic mechanics of the game are quite simple and the minimum working strategy can actually be written in a couple of hours (for a quick start in the championship you can look here , there you can find a small tutorial). On the other hand, there are many nuances in the game, and it is possible to sharpen the strategy, climbing up the standings, indefinitely. This year we offer you to become a magician for a month and fight on the medieval battlefield in the CodeWizards MOBA game. However, first things first.

Classic battlefield MOBA-game. The yellow “lines” are highlighted, where the main action of the game takes place; dots mark the “towers” ​​guarding these lines. In the corners - the base of two teams.

Two teams of players fight each other on a special kind of map. Each player controls one character. The ultimate goal of the game is to destroy the main building of the enemy team with the help of computer-controlled heroes and units. Drawing inspiration from the works of Riot Games and Valve, we created our own battlefield, buildings, jungles and textures. But the most important thing in the game is wizard and minion champions.
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Champion (top) and minions (bottom)

New round schedule

This year we added an extra week between the first and second rounds. The rules of the second round are different, and they have to rebuild the algorithm for them. Previously, many participants complained about the lack of time, because they could spend on the championship only a few evenings after work. Now, we hope everyone has enough time.

The final schedule of rounds is:

• the first stage - from November 26, 2016 to November 27, 2016;
• the second stage - from December 10, 2016 to December 11, 2016;
• the third stage (final) - from December 17, 2016 to December 18, 2016.

In the breaks between rounds, the Sandbox works, in which you can hone your strategies.

Rules of the game

The main innovation this year is the cooperative game mechanics. That is, the players' strategies are fighting in teams, which means that it is necessary to take into account not only the actions of the enemies, but also the actions of the allies in the round.

To better understand the mechanics of the process, read the brief rules of the championship. You can view the full version on our website .

The game world is two-dimensional, and all units in it have the shape of a circle. The game area is bounded by a square, the upper left corner of which has coordinates (0.0, 0.0), and the side length is 4000.0. No live unit can leave the game area.

Time in the game is discrete and is measured in "ticks". At the beginning of each tick, the game receives from strategies the desired actions of wizards in this tick and updates the state of wizards in accordance with these desires and limitations of the world. Then, the calculation of the change in the world and objects in it for this tick occurs, and the process is repeated again with the updated data. The maximum duration of any game is 20,000 ticks, however the game can be terminated early if the team goal of one of the factions is reached or the strategies of all participants have “fallen”. The "fallen" strategy can no longer control the wizard.

Detection of units on the map is limited by the fog of war. The participant's strategy will receive data only on those units that are within the range of view of the wizard himself or of any other unit from his faction.

In the world of CodeWizards, there are 6 classes of units, some of which, in turn, are divided into types: wizards; projectiles (magic missile, ice arrow, fireball and dart); bonuses (gain, acceleration and shield); buildings (faction base and guard tower): minions (orc-woodcutter and fetish with darts); trees

Wizards, buildings, minions, and trees are living units. The main characteristics of each living unit are the current and maximum amount of vital energy. In general, when the amount of vital energy drops to zero, the unit is considered dead and is removed from the game world. Wizards are the only living units that have health regeneration. Each tick, they automatically restore a certain amount of vital energy. The regeneration rate is a real number, as a rule, less than one. A wizard is considered lost if the integral part of his vital energy drops to zero.

Every 750 ticks, the base of each faction generates 3 detachments of minions: one for each lane. Each such squad consists of three orcs and one fetish. The detachment immediately rushes along its path in the direction of the base of the opposite faction, attacking all opponents on the way. Wizards use minions as cannon fodder. At the same time, they themselves try to keep in a safe zone and attack the enemy from a distance.

With a certain probability, neutral minions can appear in forest areas. Usually they are not aggressive, but in case of damage to one of them, all neutral minions in the vicinity rush to the offender, attacking anyone who gets in their way.

Every 2500 ticks on the card may receive a bonus. If at least one bonus is already present on the card, then a new one will not be created. The bonus is created at a randomly selected point of the two possible: (1200, 1200) or (2800, 2800). If any part of the bonus appearance area is already occupied by a wizard, then the simulator will try to create a bonus at another point in the list. In case of failure, the creation of a bonus will be delayed until the end of the next interval.

The collision of live units between themselves, as well as with the borders of the map is not allowed by the game simulator. If the distance from the center of the live unit to the center of the projectile is less than or equal to the sum of their radii, then the live unit takes damage and the projectile is removed from the game world. At the same time, the fireball explodes and causes damage to all living units in the vicinity. If the distance from the center of the wizard to the center of the bonus is less than or equal to the sum of their radii, then the wizard acquires a magical status of 2400 ticks, depending on the type of the bonus.

Who can participate

Anyone who knows one of these languages ​​can compete for the prize: these are C (pluses and #), Java, Python (2 and 3), Ruby and Pascal. See our website for more details.

In addition, this time we translated the rules and documentation into English, which means we will announce the championship among English-speaking programmers. We hope that this will add interest in the bouts.

New graphics

This championship is anniversary for us - the fifth. Therefore, we tried to make everything perfect. This year, we brought the visualization closer to Dota2. Last year, we had only two fundamentally different models of machines. This time there are already three characters, each of which has at least five unique animations. We added dynamic lighting, which added vividness and showiness to the picture. Concentrated on the world in which events occur. The championship plunges the viewer into a dark forest inhabited by magicians, orcs and magical towers, which continually flare up and collapse under the pressure of the players' strategy. However, see for yourself.

And for dessert

This year, the first place winner will receive a MacBook Pro. The second and third places are MacBook Air and Apple iPad. In addition, memorable prizes will go to those who take fourth to sixth places in the finals, and to those who, during the championship, show their best in the sandbox. By tradition, all participants of the final will get sweatshirts with the symbols of the championship, and all participants of the second round will get T-shirts.

We put our heart into CodeWizards 2016. We hope that you are interested in our small preview, and you will try your hand at writing a strategy. Go to the championship website , there you will find the full version of the rules, recommendations for creating an algorithm and you can register. See you on the battlefield!