kuviman's blog

AI Cup 2020
By kuviman, 3 years ago, In English

Hello everyone!

AI Cup 2020 — the annual artificial intelligence programming championship by Mail.Ru Group is already running.

AI Cup — open artificial intelligence programming contest. Test yourself writing a game strategy! It’s simple, clear and fun!

This year's theme is — RTS. We are waiting for you on our site! The site is already open, you can start implementing your strategies.

Ninth AI Cup championship is named CodeCraft. You are to program an artificial intelligence to control a number of units, gather resources, build your settlement and attack your enemies. Your strategies will compete with each other in the Sandbox and the championship. Currently availiable programming languages: C++, C#, F#, D, Go, Java, Kotlin, Scala, Python, Rust. The Sandbox is already open. Good luck!

Schedule

  • Sandbox: already open for everyone.
  • Round 1: December 12-13.
  • Round 2: December 19-20.
  • Finals: December 26-28.

Prizes

In the past years, the winners have received prizes, like MacBooks, iPads, watches and hard drives. In addition, we presented 60 hoodies and 360 T-shirts.

Unfortunately, the participants of the previous AI Cup received T-shirts only almost a year later (we delivered the prizes). In a pandemic, we were powerless and not ready.

In this regard, we thought to cancel the merch in this competition, but a the community did not receive this news well. “No promo codes or other virtual prizes needed, we need T-shirts and hoodies” — quote from the community.

Change 1: the prizes are now not physical, but cash. This year's winners will receive:

  • 1st place — 250,000 rubles (about $3364).
  • 2nd place — 200,000 rubles (about $2691).
  • 3rd place — 150,000 rubles (about $2018).
  • 4th place — 125,000 rubles (about $1682).
  • 5th place — 100,000 rubles (about $1345).
  • 6th place — 75,000 rubles (about $1009).

Sandbox winners (also 6 people) will receive 10,000 rubles each (about $135). Amounts are after taxes. We have significantly increased the prize pool.

Change 2: T-shirts and hoodies will be available, but delivery will not be until February. If you don't want to wait, you can exchange your promotional gift for a promotional code in Mail.ru Group services (cloud, etc.).

All participants in Round 2 will receive T-shirts, and the finalists will receive hoodies.

Begin from the Quick start guide. Writing a simple strategy is not hard at all!

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Comments Comments (15)
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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

Thanks

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

Ok, I actually did it last year, so let's make it a tradition: I still didn’t get the t-shirt from 2018. Is there any way to contact somebody responsible for this?

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it

Can someone link the keyboard controls for the app?

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    Were you able to find something? Is there a way to give commands besides 'build'?

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

      Yes, it's in Russian in the comments section — you select the building, then hover over the spots adjacent to the building and press "R" to build units, and press B+H after selecting any builder unit to build bases.

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        3 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

        Thanks, I understood those commands but as you start out with 0 resources, the build commands don't do anything(after path-finding). How would I give a command to attack a target/resource?

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          3 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

          Click the builder unit, then right click on resource (btw, thanks to Redux for figuring all of this out)

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it

Are the Entity properties going to change according to round or stay constant throughout the competition?

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

I have not received the t-shirt from last year. Is there anyone I can contact about it?

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3 years ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

Can someone explain In order to build a new entity, the sum of population provided by all current player’s active entities should be greater than or equal to the sum of population used by all current player’s entities, including newly built one. a bit more clearly? I understand that it's a way to limit the number of entities in a game.

Does population provider mean the builders and population user mean the destroyers?

Edit: Never mind, I think I get it now. It's a separate variable/stat.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Houses and bases provide population, and units (movable entities) use population, i.e. their number is limited by population provided

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

In case anyone else is wondering,

Keyboard Controls:

1) Move Unit:

-> left-click unit(s)

-> right-click any square on the grid(destination).

2) Gather Resources(for Builder Units)/ Attack(for Melee and Ranged Units):

-> left-click Builder Unit(s)

-> right-click on any square containing resource/enemy

3) Build a Stationary Entity:

-> left-click a Builder Unit(s)

-> press B key

-> pick option (B, M, R, H, W, T) by pressing key

-> choose (empty)location on grid

-> left-click to confirm

4) Build Unit:

-> left-click a Base(Builder, Melee, Ranged)

-> hover mouse over an adjacent square

-> press R key

Thanks TheOneYouWant and Redux for your help.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

BTW, in case anyone else also got confused — it seems that Round 1 started on December 11 (not 12 like written in this post). I just realized this after I submitted my strategy and it wasn't considered :(

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