Game count...

[Zedenstein]

Thanks to ChrisH for the explanation of a few bots getting more games than others.

I'm wondering what's up now. The image below is for U of I, a random-ish sample. It seems most bots have gotten at least 11 games, but there are a few stuck at 6 or 7...

[swordfishBob]

Speculation: maybe it assigns a bunch of games to a player. Before the finals, I saw a number of bursts of ~4 games in quick succession. Perhaps as a way of saying "lets check out this bot: a few different map types, and wide and narrow spread of competitors".
I'm waiting too.. currently 4th in my language rankings with 6 games, and almost everyone else on that page has ~12 games.

[ChrisH]

Several of us have been discussing the distribution of games to bots with the devs on IRC and the suggestion was made to change the order that game seeds are handed out. Up to this point a game seed has been given to the bot that hasn't had a game in the longest time, but that may not always be the bot with the fewest number of games. So the suggestion was to give seeds to bots with the fewest games first and break ties based on the least recent game.

The devs have agreed to make this change on a trial basis at least until every bot has 7 games (there are currently around 600 bots with only 6 games). If this change goes well then they may keep the rule even after all bots have 7 games.

This change will make sure that at least one bot in every game is drawn from the pool of bots with the least games. The rest of the bots in the game will still be determined as always based on match quality.

If the change works as intended the bots that haven't been getting games should get them a little sooner, and the point in time where enough games have been played by everyone to start implementing the cut-offs will arrive sooner as well.

[Zedenstein]

Awesome. I do appreciate that the devs are working on it. (Maybe I should swing by irc next time I feel like ranting ). Nice to know I'm one of 600 now XD.

Anyway, the fix sounds like it should help, and makes the 12/22 deadline seem a bit less daunting (maybe I will get 10 games in by then)

EDIT: Once I finish this post, I go to refresh my page and "Playing in a game right now". Me likey.

[ChrisH]

Update: The change to the seed queue order has been very successful at leveling out the number of games per bot, so the devs have made this change permanent.

At the time I'm typing this all bots have had at least nine games, and there are only ~200 of those left.

[Janzert]

Sorry I haven't posted any information around here. As you've probably noticed I've unfortunately been distracted by a number of problems since finals started. ChrisH has been doing a great job of relaying the little blurbs I have said in IRC here.

Regarding the cutoff. I was hoping for at least 10-15 games for everyone before starting it. The first cutoff will go up to whatever rank the starter bots end at. More important than game number though I want to make sure that nobody is unfairly left down in the mass of starter bots. I'm working on checking that now. Beyond that it depends on game numbers and time left but the cutoff will be raised to assure the top ranks are accurate. The cutoff will eventually probably end up around rank 500 and pretty certainly not above 250.

EDIT: To clarify the initial cutoff will be aimed at only cutting off bots that perform at or below the starter bot level. So will be below 3000, maybe as far down as 5000 to start with.

[KyberPrizrak]

Sorry I haven't posted any information around here. As you've probably noticed I've unfortunately been distracted by a number of problems since finals started. ChrisH has been doing a great job of relaying the little blurbs I have said in IRC here.

Regarding the cutoff. I was hoping for at least 10-15 games for everyone before starting it. The first cutoff will go up to whatever rank the starter bots end at. More important than game number though I want to make sure that nobody is unfairly left down in the mass of starter bots. I'm working on checking that now. Beyond that it depends on game numbers and time left but the cutoff will be raised to assure the top ranks are accurate. The cutoff will eventually probably end up around rank 500 and pretty certainly not above 250.

"15 games" - it is not enough!

[bluegaspode]

"15 games" - it is not enough!

What place are you right now? I expect there to be multiple cutoffs until we reach the 500 or 250 final players.
Right now looking into rank 6000+ (and even higher) it looks like most starter bots have gathered there already in the meantime. Some starter bots (just quick random check) are found at rank 4400, like http://aichallenge.org/profile.php?user=8600)

One of my friends who essentially used the starter bot and just added pathfinding (for each pair of ants-food like in the tutorial) and timeout handling and no more sophisticated stuff is around rank 1500 already.

Thanks a lot for fixing the game-count issue. While there is still a huge gap, I had some games this night at least.

[KyberPrizrak]

What place are you right now? I expect there to be multiple cutoffs until we reach the 500 or 250 final players.
Right now looking into rank 6000+ (and even higher) it looks like most starter bots have gathered there already in the meantime. Some starter bots (just quick random check) are found at rank 4400, like http://aichallenge.org/profile.php?user=8600)

One of my friends who essentially used the starter bot and just added pathfinding (for each pair of ants-food like in the tutorial) and timeout handling and no more sophisticated stuff is around rank 1500 already.

Thanks a lot for fixing the game-count issue. While there is still a huge gap, I had some games this night at least.

Starter bots begin from rank 3000+
But rank 500-3000 have normal bots, and delete them on 15 games - is wrong!

[BenJackson]

Guys you are misunderstanding him. Read the first part:

Regarding the cutoff. I was hoping for at least 10-15 games for everyone before starting it. The first cutoff will go up to whatever rank the starter bots end at. More important than game number though I want to make sure that nobody is unfairly left down in the mass of starter bots.

That means starter bots get 10-15 games. Everyone else gets more games. Later there will be another cutoff and bots above 500 will get even more games. I assume if you are in the forum and interested you are not a starter bot and will not be affected by the first cutoff.

If for some reason you think you are so low that you are at risk: Speak up!