SSA Bot

Just checked a Space Station Assault bot into our private Subversion repository. It actually doesn't play that good a game, but it does demonstrates basic defensive tactics to novice human opponents, which is mostly the reason I built it. I can add more smarts to it later, but for now, mission accomplished.

Also checked in a passel of Perl library patches that this work unearthed. I'll make it all live tomorrow, or maybe Sunday, depending on how soon I can find a block of solid can-reach-a-computer-if-something-explodes time.

This is the deepest bot-writing exercise I've done with Volity and it also showed a lot of weaknesses in the bot library design and documentation. Actually, the docs is what needs the most work.

Anyway, this was the first tech part of the fun mini-scheme I have cooking. Next comes some good ol' social engineering. (And it was earlier shmoozing that launched this project, and there will be more tech to tackle later. Heel, toe, heel, toe.)

Gawr, I owe everyone emails on top of this. And I will have to make a blog post or two to volity.net this weekend as well. So busy! It's all good.

Booom.

OK, the SSA bot's live. If you have Gamut installed, start a new SSA table and you'll notice the "Request Bot" button isn't grayed out anymore. Wowww, look at that. (If you don't have Gamut installed, go git it.)

You'll probably clean its clock, but I'll bet you end up having fun anyway. If nothing else, I just love the sound effects. Boooom. Crunch. Zhoop! And if you get tired of busting the poor bot's shiny metal ass, feel free to challenge me...

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I completed the related social task earlier today. Lots of small Volity tasks to do this weekend. I am looking forward to it, even the release engineering. It's been a long time!

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Am now tackling email while enjoying a glass of wine, using one of my new wineglasses. It is one of the three that didn't explode into hand-slicing shards the first time I washed it. Consumer tip: Avoid the boxes of 4-for-$7 glassware at Tag's.