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Russian AI Cup 2018: CodeBall. Spectacular 3D competition





Since 2012, the Russian AI Cup competition has been held annually to write artificial intelligence and bots, who are fighting fiercely in the virtual world instead of their owners. For all past championships on the platform, more than 40,000 users registered, who sent us more than 150,000 different solutions. Each new championship is a new game task with its own rules, laws and mechanics. We try to constantly introduce new ideas and features so that the games from year to year become even more interesting and entertaining, developing our engine under the hood of the project and doing everything to the glory of our community.



This year is no exception. Mail.Ru Group in collaboration with Codeforces.com officially announce the dates of the Russian AI Cup 2018 Championship, called CodeBall.

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So let's go!



Task



Traditionally, before the championship announcement, we try to keep the community in the dark. We were tortured, scolded, but we, as partisans, did not disclose the secret data of the championship, instead warming everyone up with stuffing the pictures and our thoughts. On an unofficial channel, competitions created a poll, where participants tried to guess from the tips of the organizers of the new RAIC 2018.







Many guys were close, some guessed (but they did not tell about it). Now all the cards on the table, it's time to open.



The task is dedicated to football . We really did not want to repeat the 2014 CodeHockey game . We were inspired by the dynamic game of the Rocket League, as well as the last World Cup.



At this time we decided to make the game not in 2D, but really in 3D (using 3D models).







In Telegram, we posted this screenshot, after which everyone experienced the hard feelings from quaternions. Actually nothing to fear. They will be in the logs, but this is used exclusively for visualization. There are no turns in the game model, everything is quite simple.



First, as before, you will have a documented API and rules, and on the day of the start of the beta test, we will publish another article with a detailed description of all this and a quest. You can write in your favorite language the strategy of the behavior of your robot soccer players in the game world. Two strategies of different participants are launched in one world and fight with each other. Whoever wins - plays on with other players, and who loses - improves his strategy and waits for a rematch.



Secondly, quikstart. We will describe everything in as much detail as possible and share with you. In this championship entry threshold will be lower. We tried to take into account the wishes of the community.



Improved the platform itself and infrastructure. Now the engine is running from Docker. This allowed us to place our instances in the Mail.Ru Cloud Solutions cloud. Now all solutions will be calculated on modern hardware, namely on 200 Intel Xeon E5-2660 v4 cores. Having worked with them through the MCS interface, we felt the full power of this platform, so there should be no lags, and the speed of calculating solutions will be higher than before.







So, what kind of football and why robots ?



The game world is in space, on an asteroid plying the galaxy. It has a stadium and a field on which robots run and kick the ball. The goal is to win the match, i.e. to score the most goals for N ticks (a unit of time in the game world).











The robot, being on an asteroid, can set itself an acceleration in any direction (the objects have no turns in the model, only visually). The robots in the model are balls of a smaller radius than the ball, so you can beat with a canopy :) Just like in real football.







They did it especially for you: you can play football right in the browser.











The championship consists of two rounds and a final.



In the first round, each player will receive the same number of players. The amount until we say.







In the second round, players will be able to use boost (nitro) with a limited supply of fuel, which can be replenished by collecting "tanks" on the field. Boost appears at fixed points and respawn after a while.







In the third round (final) each player will have more players. How much - now, too, do not say.



The result of the game does not depend on random factors. We did not add asteroid shaking, although we wanted to :)



Taking this opportunity, I want to thank Vitaly Kudasov ( @kuviman ), Mikhail Mirzayanov ( @MikeMirzayanov ) and the entire championship team for the game created.



schedule



  1. Sandbox: December 17 - January 5;
  2. Round One: January 5–6;
  3. Second round: January 19–20;
  4. Final: January 26.


At the beginning of any Russian AI Cup competition begins in beta mode. During this time, possible changes in balance, the elimination of errors, optimization of infrastructure. In addition, changes to the rules may also appear before the final (for a week).



Nothing has changed in the principles of the selection of strategies in the first round. From December 17 to January 5, there is a sandbox from which strategies for the first round will be selected by rating. In case of victory, the rating increases, in case of loss, it decreases.



In the first round, the best rated strategies go to the second round, and from the second to the final. In addition, the best strategies from the sandbox get to the second round and to the final, which means there is always a chance! According to the results of the final, we find out who is the best, and give them prizes.



Presents



Compared to last year, nothing has changed, only now it will be possible to replace the gift with an equivalent in value. All winners of the final will receive:





For the top 6 winners of the sandbox, we have WD My Passport Ultra 2TB (but they can also be replaced).



All participants of the second round will get T-shirts, and participants of the final - sweatshirts.



Join the community



Now is the time to go and subscribe to the announcement. We will definitely remind you about the start of the championship.



We are waiting for everyone in the Telegram-chat , Telegram-channel and group in VK . Welcome to the ranks!



useful links
2012 CodeTanks

Articles

The road to victory at Russian AI Cup 2012

The path to the silver medal at the Russian AI Cup 2012

Tank maneuvers on the Russian AI Cup



Video

Strategy writing process

Russian AI Cup. Tactics field

Russian AI Cup. Code of tanks

Strategy example

Strategy example



2013 CodeTroopers

Articles

Russian AI Cup: technical details

Gold Medal at the Russian AI Cup 2013 - how it was



Video

Writing AI for Russian AI Cup



2014 CodeHockey

Articles

Russian AI Cup 2014: winning strategy

Developing a strategy for the game of hockey players in the framework of the competition Russian AI Cup

Results Russian AI Cup 2014



Video

Solit 2015. Ivan Polyakov “Russian AI Cup 2014: creating AI for a real-time game”

Quick start: parsing from a participant

Strategy review

AI Cup 2015 News: Issue 01 , Issue 02 , Issue 03 , Issue 04 , Issue 05 , Issue 06 , Issue 07 .



2015 CodeRacing

Articles

The history of victory at the annual competition Russian AI Cup 2015

History of the 5th place in the Russian AI Cup 2015



Video

Strategy example

Check in example



2016 CodeWizards

Articles

Digest AI Cup. Five strategies for Code Wizards 2016

How to create the best bot for the game in the style of Dota - an interview with the winner of the competition Russian AI Cup

History of participation (and almost victory) in the Russian AI Cup 2016



Video

Deep Learning Agent for RussianAICup 2016



2017 CodeWars

Articles

History 3 places Russian AI Cup 2017

Example of Russian AI Cup 2017 strategy

Russian AI Cup: Participant's Toolkit



Video

Quick start: parsing from a participant

Strategy example

Strategy example

Game from Russian AI Cup 2017 CodeWizards

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/432316/



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