Ignoring path finding and using collaborative diffusion

[Darhuuk]

[rossxwest]

If you don't start with a fresh map every turn, how do you remove/move scent from an object, such as food, which has moved or is gone?

[Darhuuk]

[erdman]

Tuning the parameters of the diffusion algorithm (ie relative weights of different scent-producers, pass-thru percentage of agents, the diffusion coefficient to use, number of diffusion steps per turn) seems, uh, tedious. Correct? -- or am I doing it wrong?

Separately, should one track multiple scents separately, or is their a case for keeping separate scents? Specifically, I'm wondering if scents given off by friendly agents (repellent scents, to prevent ants from bunching) should be separate from goal-oriented scents, like for food and enemy hills?

[carlos.guia]

I keep each scent separated, food, explore, enemy hill, etc. And then combine them in a weighted manner when deciding the moves, this gives me the flexibility to use dynamic weights, like some ants are more attracted to food, some to enemy hills, and so on; depending on the state of the game.

[pkmiec]

I also keep scents separated and combine them differently depending on type of ant and the state of the game.

It's interesting to hear that people use diffusion for food. That never really worked for me. Instead, I use A* to find the closest ant for each food which allows me to guarantee only one ant going towards each food. The paths are really short, so there is no time problem.

[codetiger]

I've used diffusion with a small trick.

Am using 2 different diffusion maps. First map will spread source scent only until it sees first ant. And the other map will spread until it becomes 0. So when you need multiple ants to work together for a source (hill), you have to use second map. If you want your source(food, explore) to attract only one ant, you have to add it to the first map. And you have to decide how to use both maps to direct the ants.

Check the performance here... Orange is the new exploration bot.
http://paste.aichallenge.org/i1juJ/

[rossxwest]

My bot uses only diffusion:
http://aichallenge.org/profile.php?user=12139

[agent_smith]

[stupidquestions]

For those of you who are using diffusion for most of the stuff but something else for battle, locally: How do you bring the two together? When, exactly, do your ants switch to "battle mode"?