AI Programming Compo Case

2400 AD.
As the confederate empire is crumbling, scavengers, delinquents and other criminal scum is fighting over the sparsely remaining resources scattered amongst the free-drifting skyports.

Meteor showers are blazing from the azure stratosphere, as the airship fleets of the largest tribes converge towards the final battleground.

In this competition, you are chosen to create the perfect battle droid to annihilate your enemies in a ferocious furnace of lasers, explosions and automated fighting drones. Gather resources to upgrade your war-machine, and dominate the battlefield.

This competition is about creating the perfect AI to win in a turn-based strategy-game, inspired by RTS- and TBS-legends such as DOTA and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. There are three basic weapon types and three basic resources you can use to upgrade your weapons. But choose wisely –  you can only take two weapons with you into the battle, and not all resources may be distributed equally. Win points by inflicting damage and exterminating your enemies, or choose to stay hidden, gathering resources and upgrading weapons until it is time to strike.

To get started, you need the development kit, which you can download from http://amadiro.github.com/Skyport-SDK/index.html. The development kit includes the server, which you can run to test your AI, several example maps, a simple 2D-GUI for visualizing to aid with development and debugging, as well as easy-to-use interfaces for several languages. The docs/ folder contains documentation in both norwegian and english, detailing the game-rules and the protocol.

Make also sure to check out the forum thread, AI Programming (tidligere Hardcore Programming), at forum.gathering.org. Here you can also request an interface for your favourite programming-language, or post your own interface if you make one.