Bot

Bot is a JavaScript conversion of a decades-old paper-and-pencil game I played as a child. You probably shouldn't take it too seriously.

To play, just download the code locally using your favorite method and point your browser at index.html, or visit https://uakotaobi.github.io/bot/ to play the online version.

A full list of credits can be found in about.html#credits.

Sprites too small when the game starts?

This is a known problem. Click on a bad guy or click on a weapon to resize the sprite images.

Fun with the JavaScript Debugger

After you start a game, hit F12 or whichever key combination enables the JavaScript console on your web browser.

1. Make the computer play for you:

   1. Create a stateless AI player object:

      a = new AiPlayer(g.controller(), g.view());

   2. During your turn:

      a.play(AiPlayer.PlayStyleNormal, 1);

      You can, of course, pass in a higher value than 1 if you want the AI player to control the next few turns of the game. Pass in 0 to make the AI player play each side until the end of the game.

2. Ask the computer whom to shoot:

   1. Create a stateless AI player object:

      a = new AiPlayer(g.controller(), g.view());

   2. During your turn:

      response = a.chooseBestAttack(g.controller().getCurrentRobot())
      
      response.weaponName     // The internal name of the weapon that you should fire
      response.enemy.longName // The name of the robot to shoot at
      response.reasons[0]     // The AI summary in plain language (there can be more than one entry)

   The computer player's okay, though it tends to treat damaged Bots the same way a hungry shark treats blood in the water.

3. Ask the computer to gaze into the future with its crystal ball:

   1. Create a stateless AI player object:

      a = new AiPlayer(g.controller(), g.view());

   2. During your turn:

      result = a.play(AiPlayer.PlayStyleMonteCarlo);
      faction = g.controller().getCurrentRobot().faction
      
      result.statistics.victoryProbability[faction]       // What the computer thinks your chances of winning are, between 0 and 1
      result.statistics.survivalProbabilities[faction][0] // What the computer thinks your first robot's chances are of surviving the match
      result.statistics.averageDamageTaken[faction]       // How much damage the computer thinks you'll take (compare to your total hitpoints.)

      There are other interesting data in result.statistics that you may wish to examine.

      The faster your browser's JavaScript engine, the more games will be played before the timeout. If you're willing to wait for a more accurate measure, increase AiPlayer.MonteCarloSimulationTimeMilliseconds.

4. Test an explosion sequence: First, choose a robot.

   robot = g.controller().getCurrentRobot()                     // The robot whose turn it currently is
   robot = g.controller().getGameRobots()[0]                    // The current game's first still-living robot
   robot = g.controller().getGameRobots()[1]                    // ...second (and so forth)
   robot = g.controller().getGameRobots("The Star Alliance")[0] // That faction's fastest still-living robot

   Then choose a Bot class and the timing parameters:

   fireDurationMilliseconds = 10 * 1000;
   explosionDurationMilliseconds = 3 * 1000;
   g.view().explode(robot, "medium", fireDurationMilliseconds, explosionDurationMilliseconds);

   You can also pass the special string "jump" as the second argument to make the robot jump rather than explode.

5. Give yourself unfair reinforcements:

   robot = new Robot("scarab")
   g.controller().addRobot("The Star Alliance", robot)
   g.view().addRobot(robot)
   g.view().updateRobots()

   You might want to give yourself something more useful than a Scarab.

   • Unless, of course, you give the Scarab itself an unfair weapon:

     robot.arsenal.push(new Weapon("emf"))
     g.view().updateRobots()

   • Or just make up a damage string for an existing weapon:

     robot.arsenal[0].shortName = "BB GUN"
     robot.arsenal[0].damage = "5d20"
     g.view().updateRobots()

     You may find that giving a robot a powerful weapon makes that robot seem a lot more interesting to computer opponents than it was previously.

License

This program is released under the GNU GPL, version 3 or later.