This is the combat simulator for a programming game, played through a Discord bot in the Cylon server. Spaceships are programmed in the Yolol language and then the bot automatically runs ships against each other to generate rankings.
Fleets are defined by a specific folder structure:
> RootFolder
> ShipName
> script1.yolol
> script2.yolol
> data
> somefile.txt
ShipNamedefines a new ship. The local simulation supports an unlimited number of ships, but the online competition only supports single ship fleets.ShipName/script1.yololis a script which will run on the ship. Every*.yololfile in this folder will be turned into a Yolol chip. Every chip will execute every tick of the sim.data/somefile.txtcontains a string of text, it will be loaded into the:somefilevariable when the sim starts.
To run the simulation locally you should download SpaceShipCombatSimulator.exe and pass to it two arguments:
./SpaceShipCombatSimulator.exe -a path/to/fleet/1 -b path/to/fleet/2
To submit a fleet to complete against other fleets you should submit it to the Referee bot by dragging and dropping the zipped folder into discord with the message:
>fleet submit name goes here
If you submit a fleet with a name that already exists your new submission will replace that fleet.
The game includes many devices which run on ships and missiles. Most ships will not need to interact with all of these devices!
Certain fields are read-only (R), other fields are write-only (W), some fields are both readable and writeable (RW).
- Yolol Chip (one per script)
- Radiation Sensor
- Clock
- Gyroscope
- Positioning Device
- Fuel Tank
- Engine
- Momentum Wheels
- Turret (x4)
- Missile Launcher
- Radar Scanner
- Radio
- Navigation Lights
- Captains Log
- Math Helper
- Yolol Chip (just one)
- Clock
- Gyroscope
- Positioning Device
- Fuel Tank
- Engine
- Momentum Wheels
- Warhead
- Radar Scanner (Fixed)
- Radio
- Math Helper
Every ship and missile has a unique ID. A ship/missile can read it's own name from the :name field.
The Yolol chip device runs a Yolol script, line by line. On ships every chip is run every single tick. On missiles there is just one chip.
Space is filled with deadly radiation which slowly kills the crew of the ship. Radiation gets worse the further away the ships travels from the middle of the battle zone.
:cosmic_radiation(R) - reads the current radiation level.
Measures the time in seconds.
:clock- elapsed time since entity was created (in seconds).:clock_dt- Amount of time that passes per tick (in seconds).
Measures the orientation and angular velocity. The forward vector of the ship can be found by transforming (0, 0, -1) by this quaternion. Also measures the angular velocity.
:gyro_w(R) - w component of quaternion.:gyro_x(R) - x component of quaternion.:gyro_y(R) - y component of quaternion.:gyro_z(R) - z component of quaternion.:angular_vel_x(R) - x component of angular velocity (radians/second * 10000).:angular_vel_y(R) - y component of angular velocity (radians/second * 10000).:angular_vel_z(R) - z component of angular velocity (radians/second * 10000).
Measures the acceleration, velocity and position. The origin (0,0,0) is in the middle of the battlefield.
:accel_x(R) - x component of acceleration.:accel_y(R) - y component of acceleration.:accel_z(R) - z component of acceleration.:vel_x(R) - x component of velocity.:vel_y(R) - y component of velocity.:vel_z(R) - z component of velocity.:pos_x(R) - x component of position.:pos_y(R) - y component of position.:pos_z(R) - z component of position.
Stores fuel which is burned by the engines. On space ships fuel also serves as "health" - hits explosions will remove fuel and when the ship is out of fuel it dies. Missiles do not die when they are out of fuel.
:fuel(R) - total amount of fuel currently in the tank.
Pushes the entity forward and consumes fuel.
:throttle(W) - A value from 0 to 1 which sets the engine power.
The space ships and the missiles use momentum wheels to turn in place without using fuel.
:torque_x(W) - A value from -1 to 1 indicating how much torque to apply around the X axis.:torque_y(W) - A value from -1 to 1 indicating how much torque to apply around the Y axis.:torque_z(W) - A value from -1 to 1 indicating how much torque to apply around the Z axis.
The space ship has large turret mounted guns capable of firing nuclear warheads, each nuclear warhead has a timed fuse which sets when it will detonate. Turrets can turn left/right on their base (bearing) and point up/down (elevation). When the turret target angles are changed the turret takes some time to move around to that position. The ship has four turrets, each turret variable has the index of the turret (0 to 3) added to the end.
:gun_bearing_0(R) - current bearing of gun 0.:gun_elevation_0(R) - current elevation of gun 0.:gun_fuse_0(W) - fuse time (seconds) to use for shells fired from gun 0.:gun_ready_0(R) - indicates if gun 0 is ready to fire.:gun_trigger_0(RW) - sets how many shells should be fired from this turret. Every time a shell is fired this value will decrease by one.:tgt_gun_bearing_0(W) - set the target bearing for turret 0.:tgt_gun_elevation_0(W) - set the target elevation for turret 0.
The space ship has a missile launcher with a limit number of missiles. Missiles are capable of independent flight and can detonate themselves instantly.
:missile_ammo(R) - The number of unfired missiles remaining.:missile_code(W) - The code to execute on the next missile to fire.:missile_ready(R) - Indicates if the missile launcher is ready to fire.:missile_trigger(RW) - Sets how many missiles should be fired. Every time a missile is fired this value will decrease by one.
Ships and missiles have an active radar scanner which can detect other things in space. On space ships the radar scanner can be steered to look in any direction and with any beam angle up to 90 degrees. On missiles the radar is a fixed forward facing 15 degree beam.
:radar_beam_angle(W) (Ship Only) - Set the beam angle in degrees.:radar_bearing(W) (Ship Only) - Set the bearing of the beam.:radar_elevation(W) (Ship Only) - Set the elevation of the beam.:radar_beam_range(W) (Ship Only) - Set the range of the radar scan.:radar_dir_x(R) - X element of the direction of the radar beam (world space).:radar_dir_y(R) - Y element of the direction of the radar beam (world space).:radar_dir_z(R) - Z element of the direction of the radar beam (world space).
:radar_filter(W) - Filters out items from the results. Any detected items whoseidortypeare contained in the filter string will be removed from the results list.:radar_trigger(RW) - trigger a new scan when truthy. Field will be set to zero.:radar_count(R) - Number of items detected in the previous scan.:radar_idx(W) - Index of the item to fetch information for.:radar_out_dist(R) - Distance to the item selected byradar_idx.:radar_out_type(R) - Type of the item selected byradar_idxas a string. Possible types are:- "SpaceBattleShip"
- "SpaceHulk"
- "Missile"
- "Shell"
- "Asteroid".
:radar_out_id(R) - Unique ID of the item selected byradar_idxas a string.
Every team has a perfectly secure radio channel which can transmit strings - there is no way for enemies to eavesdrop or even interfere with radio messages.
:radio_tx(W) - If set to a non-empty string the string will be sent to other radios. If several radios try to sent at once all messages will be added to a queue and received on subsequent frames.:radio_rx(R) - Received messages are put into this field, overwriting whatever value was there previously.
Missiles are fitted with a nuclear warhead which instantly destroys the missile when detonated.
:self_destruct_prime(W) - Activate the warhead. The trigger does nothing unless this is set to a truthy value.:self_destruct_trigger(W) - Instantly detonate the warhead when set to a truthy value. Does nothing unless the trigger is primed.
The space ship is fitted with a large forward facing light.
:light(W) - Boolean value indicating if the light is on or off.
The space ship is fitted with a black box that stores the captains log. This log is written out to a text file (alongside the replay), it is only available in the local simulator.
:log(W) - String to write to the log.
The ship can draw a sphere in space (only when running the sim locally, will not be visible in online replays). This can be useful for debugging.
:debug_sphere_pos_x(W) - X pos of sphere.:debug_sphere_pos_y(W) - Y pos of sphere.:debug_sphere_pos_z(W) - Z pos of sphere.:debug_sphere_rad(W) - Radius of sphere.:debug_sphere_r(W) - Red component of colour (0 to 1).:debug_sphere_g(W) - Green component of colour (0 to 1).:debug_sphere_b(W) - Blue component of colour (0 to 1).
Spaceships and missiles are fitted with an accelerator for calculating certain mathematical functions. The device has several registers (:mathhelper_a, :mathhelper_b etc) and a mode register. When the mode is set the device will perform a calculation on the other registers and then set the mode to an empty string.
:mathhelper_mode(RW) - Set the mode.:mathhelper_a(RW) - A register for input or output.
Each function reads from some registers and then puts the result into some registers. For example d=a+b+c means :mathhelper_d is set to the sum of :mathhelper_a, :mathhelper_b and :mathhelper_c).
"reset"- Set all registers to zero."add"-a=sum(all_registers)."world_dir"- Given a bearing (a), an elevation (b), a bearing axis (cde) and an elevation axis (fgh) calculate a world direction vector and store it intoabc."mulqq"- Multiply a quaternion (abcd=WXYZ) by a quaternion (efgh=WXYZ). Store result intoabcd."mulqv"- Transform a vector (efg=XYZ) by a Quaternion (abcd=WXYZ). Store result intoefg."qaxisangle"- Create a quaternion (abcd=WXYZ) from a rotation axis (abc=XYZ) and an angle (d=degrees)."qypr"- Create a quaternion (abcd=WXYZ) from yaw, pitch and roll (abc=YPR) expressed in degrees."qinv"- Invert a quaternion (abcd=WXYZ). Store result intoabcd."dotvv"- Calculate the dot product of a vector (abc=XYZ) and a vector (efg=XYZ). Store result intod."dotqq"- Calculate the dot product of a quaternion (abcd=WXYZ) and a quaternion (efgh=WXYZ). Store result intoi."crossvv"- Calculate the cross product of a vector (abc=XYZ) and a vector (efg=XYZ). Store result intoijk=XYZ."shuffle"- Rearrange items in mathhelper registers. Takes a string inmathhelper_zand interprets each character as a command. e.g."cba01_def"would:- Copy registers
CBAinto registersABC. - Write numbers
0/1into to registersDE - Do nothing to
F - Copy registers
DEFinto registersGHI. - All other registers remain unchanged.
- Copy registers
Various values are made available to code running on ships. These values are constant for a single fight but may be changed between fights for game balance reasons.
:const_SpaceShipThrust:const_SpaceShipFuelConsumption:const_MissileThrust:const_MissileFuelConsumption:const_TurretMinElevation:const_TurretMaxElevation:const_TurretElevationSpeed:const_TurretBearingSpeed:const_TurretBearingAxisX:const_TurretBearingAxisY:const_TurretBearingAxisZ:const_TurretElevationAxisX:const_TurretElevationAxisY:const_TurretElevationAxisZ:const_TurretMinFuse:const_TurretMaxFuse:const_TurretShellSpeed:const_TurretRefireTime:const_MissileRadarMinRange:const_MissileRadarMaxRange:const_MissileRadarMinAngle:const_MissileRadarMaxAngle:const_RadarMinRange:const_RadarMaxRange:const_RadarMinAngle:const_RadarMaxAngle:const_MissileRefireTime:const_ShipLocalForwardX:const_ShipLocalForwardY:const_ShipLocalForwardZ:const_ShipBaseMass:const_MissileBaseMass:const_ShipWheelTorque:const_MissileWheelTorque:const_ShipRadius:const_MissileRadius