Planet Wars – Google AI Challenge
The Computer Science of the University of Waterloo is organizing its second Google AI Challenge. The challenge is a competition between computer programs that control the artificial intelligence of the players in a video game.
This time, the game is set in space, and features a symmetric configuration of planets, each containing a fleet of defending spaceships. Each turn, new ships are created, with larger planets creating more ships. At the beginning of the game, each player controls one of the planets and a hundred ships; the AIs issue orders to the ships to send them to conquer planets by outnumbering the local defense. The goal of the game is, of course, to eliminate all of the enemy forces.
This video shows an example game between my first AI (green) playing against DualBot (red), one of the bots included in the starter package; the number floating around represent the fleets commanded by the AIs:
The competition is open to everybody, and it is possible to write the AI in basically any programming language. If you plan to use Python, I recommend not using the official starter package, which is un-pythonic and not very sophisticate, but rather this un-official client. The alternative client offers in particular the possibility to log debug information to a local file.
Also, it can be quite frustrating to wait for the official server to match you with some other program, which can take up to an hour. There is an alternative server that lets you play with another opponent straight away.
The submission period ends November 27, good luck!
