The earliest memory I have of ‘programming’ is in the early/mid 90s when my father brought home a computer from work. We could play games on it … so of course I took the spreadsheet program he used (LOTUS 123, did I date myself with that?) and tried to modify it to print out a helpful message for him. It … halfway worked? At least I could undo it so he could get back to work…

After that, I picked up programming for real in QBASIC (I still have a few of those programs lying around), got my own (junky) Linux desktop from my cousin, tried to learn VBasic (without a Windows machine), and eventually made it to high school… In college, I studied computer science and mathematics, mostly programming in Java/.NET, although with a bit of everything in the mix. A few of my oldest programming posts on this blog are from that time.

After that, on to grad school! Originally, I was going to study computational linguistics, but that fell through. Then programming languages (the school’s specialty). And finally I ended up studying censorship and computer security. That’s about where I am today!

But really, I still have a habit of doing a little bit of everything. Whatever seems interesting at the time!

AIGS 2009 Update

2009-11-12

Bug fixes:

Flag respawning is more solid (not completely guaranteed though, because I haven’t actually been able to duplicate the issue).
Should cause an error if you try to capture your own player.

Thanks to Chris Covert for testing the problems that I was having.

AIGS 2009 Update

2009-11-07

New version uploaded. Bug fixes: Fixed swapping players bug. Potential fix for not your turn bug (not sure if this one will work). Sending ‘Unsolvable’ as a move can be used to prematurely end a game (and will output the game log). Fixed/removed extra YourTurn packets sent on failed move. Fixed capturing, players can now capture correctly and wil respawn at their bases. Fixed returning flags. Flags were returning at (0, 0), now the return to their spawn points.

AIGS 2009 Update

2009-11-02

Here are the most recent fixes:

Added logic to allow the second player to continue after the first player is done (thanks Eric Reed).
The flag spawn logic was preventing you from moving off of spawn points, not onto them (oops).

Downloads

AIGS 2009 Update

2009-10-30

Updated with almost everything necessary to play the tournament. I still need to implement the game timer per side. I will have the up before AI class meets Monday.

All of the changes that are mentioned in the Tournament Rules document have been completed with the following notes:

Always 3 players per team
Not guaranteed to be solvable (though I haven’t seen an unsolvable one yet).
You can only capture flags on the other side of the board
Flags respawn at random locations on your side of the map
You can only see your flags when they have not been captured
Non-wall squares you cannot see will be sent as a ‘*’
Captured players will spawn adjacent to their home base
If no location is available, they will try further out in concentric circles

AIGS 2009 Update

2009-09-30

New version of the server is available:

Changes

Added RemainingFlags message.
MoveMade packets will be sent for each move. Periodically checking for the server for sync is suggested.
It should now be possible for players to move past each other (swap places, etc).

AIGS 2009 Update

2009-09-22

The new version of the server has been updated.

Changes:

Added a rudimentary AI player to play against for the next assignment.
Added scenarios for assignment 3.
Fixed typos in previous assignments.
Added an argument to the protocol for YourTurn messages to tell you who you are (update your CTFProtocol file).

AIGS 2009 Update

2009-09-17

Ok, so the new server is up. I can almost guarantee that there are some problems (so goes the life of a CS), so go ahead and hammer away at it and see what you can do.

One major thing, the game string format has changed:** **

Players are represented by lower case letters from ‘a’ to ‘j’
Players carrying flags are represented by upper case letters from ‘A’ to ‘J’
Bases are represented by numbers ‘0’ to ‘9’
Players will immediately score if no bases are present but must return a flag to a base if one is present
Players must step on flags to pick them up, but only must be adjacent to a base to drop it off
Players can only carry one flag

AIGS 2009 Update

2009-09-09

Initial upload of the server. There was a pre-release version emailed to the class (that I no longer have), thus the ‘updates.’

All versions of the server should run correctly with .NET installed in Windows or with Mono on Linux or OSX. I’ve tested the Windows and Linux versions and both seem to work perfectly.

Updates

Sequential games are possible. You can not join two games at the same time, but once one game is complete you can join another.
You can send “Unsolvable” as a move string (see CTFProtocol). If you are correct, you win. If you are incorrect, you lose. I suggest that you are completely sure before you send this message. ;D

AIGS 2009 Overview

2009-09-01

Despite what I said last year, I started the AIGS over this year. To shake things up a bit, I’m implementing this year’s version with .NET in C# (the previous two years used Python and Java respectively). This year, the game will be Capture the Flag. Hopefully, we can have a more complex game without overdoing it and avoid the problems with low branching factor that we had last year with Hex.

AIGS 2008 Update

2008-10-31

This version of the AI Game Server includes several minor updates to documentation (mostly to reflect the changes outlined below in the server) and a few changes (including one major change) to the server.

First, the server has been changed to send the final move along with GameOver moves, primarily for bookkeeping on the part of the clients.