Skylords Reborn PvP AI programming contest - Phase 1

[Metagross31]

The Skylords Reborn PvP AI programming contest - Phase 1

Hello fellow Skyladies, Skylords and other Sky-beings!

We're thrilled to introduce a one-of-a-kind event that combines the thrill of PvP gameplay with the ingenuity of programming. Get ready for the AI Programming Tournament, where your submitted programs will face off in an epic showdown to find the ultimate AI strategist!

Format
The event will consist of three separate phases, with phase 1 starting now!

1. In phase 1, we ask all of you, who are interested in participating in this event, to fill out a questionnaire about your previous programming experience and programming language of choice.
2. After the questionnaire closes, we will use this information to prepare an API (Application programming interface) and document it according to your programming skills, such that everyone who is interested will be able to compete! Once the API is ready to be presented to you, phase 2 starts, in which you will have enough time to write and test your programs.
3. Once phase 2 ends, phase 3 will be a tournament, in which all entries we received battle if out to find the best of them all!

More information about the technicalities will be presented when phase 2 starts.

Event Details

• Deadline for phase 1: 31.12.2023
• Start of phase 2: Not yet determined
• Link to the questionnaire: *CLICK*
• Link to the event Discord: *CLICK*

 Why participate?
Participating in this tournament offers a unique opportunity to not only showcase your programming skills but also demonstrate strategic thinking in a dynamic gaming environment. Beyond the thrill of competition, there are fantastic prizes at stake. The specific prizes will be disclosed at the start of phase 2.

In our effort to make PvP more approachable for newer players, we would love to add the option to play and practice against AI opponents. We are currently exploring our options, and your entry could serve as the foundation for this!

Whether you're a seasoned programmer or just starting out, this tournament welcomes all skill levels. We will provide enough documentation, such that everyone can participate with at least a basic program.

Please note...

We are aware, that this is not a gameplay event and that only a minority of the community will likely be interested in competing. For those of you, who are looking for more gameplay-oriented events, don't worry, we will still have those in the future!

For those of you, who will participate, please be patient during phase 1. We want to make sure, that everything works and all technicalities are figured out by that time, so expect a delay between the end of phase 1 and the start of phase 2. Do not expect phase 2 to start at the beginning of next year, please allow us enough time to prepare everything, which might take some time!

Special Thanks

Big thanks to @Kubik for providing all the technical stuff necessary to make this happen!

Questions
Reply in this thread if you have questions, we will answer them as soon as possible.

Best regards,
The Skylords Reborn Team

[Hrdina_Imperia]

Perhaps, for unskilled labourers like me, some basic concept could be provided, where we only copy/change some stuff to create the AIs 🧐

[Kubik]

🤔didn't @Metagross31 promissed working example in all "not obscure" (or whatever the formulation was) languages people will ask for it?

[Metagross31]

1 hour ago, Hrdina_Imperia said:

Perhaps, for unskilled labourers like me, some basic concept could be provided, where we only copy/change some stuff to create the AIs 🧐

Just as Kubik said, we will provide some very basic examples, such as an AI that just spawns a single unit and gives an attack command, so participants know where to start.

[Dutchy]

I am willing to give it a try, but I have no idea where to start? any tips?

[Metagross31]

2 hours ago, Dutchy said:

I am willing to give it a try, but I have no idea where to start? any tips?

Fill out the survey 😛

It depends. If you don't know any programming yet, start learning some basics (functions, conditions, loops etc.) In some language (e.g. Rust or Python). If you already know some programming, you can start by modifying the example programs we will provide.

[Metagross31]

To all the participants thus far:

We have created a Discord server for communication between organizators and participants, which you are welcome to join:
https://discord.gg/2WNd4FbGVq

In there you will also find links to preliminary implementations of the API, thus far for Rust and C#.
Note, that these repositories are still unstable and subject to change! There will most likely be modifications before Phase 2 starts!
You can also test your AI in-game already, but the API is still very much unstable and bots written now will most likely run into breaking changes in the future. But you are welcome to provide feedback to the current state of the API and wishes you have for further development.

[Thingol]

I'm looking forward to participate! I have literally zero exp with PvP but imma give my best.

Some question: Are there specific rules for the approaches to choose? Like e.g. ML reinforcement learning would be allowed? ML approaches most probably require CUDA and dedicated hardware, that could be a problem. The programs during the tournament will run locally in the competitor's machine or in your server?

[Metagross31]

1 hour ago, Thingol said:

I'm looking forward to participate! I have literally zero exp with PvP but imma give my best.

Some question: Are there specific rules for the approaches to choose? Like e.g. ML reinforcement learning would be allowed? ML approaches most probably require CUDA and dedicated hardware, that could be a problem. The programs during the tournament will run locally in the competitor's machine or in your server?

More info about the technicalities will follow when a post for Phase 2 will be made, but it will probably all be run on my Desktop PC.
If you manage to use some fancy algorithm like reinforcement learning with the API, I think that would be fine, but please wait for Phase 2 for more concrete info.

[Kubik]

🤔do you think people would be much more interested in providing feedback on the API, if they would be able to also test it, not just read it?

[Kubik]

We are testing the above theory... partial examples available for Rust, and C# (Python soon?) So feel free to join the discord to check it out.

Lets hope, that there will be a lot of useful feedback 🙂

[MrGuzman]

I came back to the game and saw this. Looking forward to this, and hoping to learn alot!

Im terrible on pvp, maybe some AI's to make new players train would be appreciated too

[Thingol]

On 11/3/2023 at 12:03 PM, Kubik said:

We are testing the above theory... partial examples available for Rust, and C# (Python soon?) So feel free to join the discord to check it out.

Lets hope, that there will be a lot of useful feedback 🙂

I'd gladly help once the Python API is ready 😄

[Devilzwirn]

On 10/27/2023 at 11:05 AM, Metagross31 said:

To all the participants thus far:

We have created a Discord server for communication between organizators and participants, which you are welcome to join:
https://discord.gg/Ypb8jmBm

Hi, 

the link doesn`t work anymore. Could you send a new one?

[Kubik]

😮 Oh @Metagross31 made only temporary link. Here is a new one https://discord.gg/2WNd4FbGVq (Will try to edit the old post).

[Kubik]

@Thingol the python versin is almost ready to be tried out, but the problem is, we have no python expert to finish it 😢 and python just complains without am useful error

[Kubik]

🤔 45 people filled the questionnaire, but only 13 14 participants on discord so far.

What is working:

• Rust, C#, python, have full API
  • with 2 examples for both Rust, and C#, and only 1 for python.
  • These 3 languages are tested with every version. (at least a bit)
  • Types are mostly documented.
• Typescript (javascript) have the required types generated for each version, but no testing is done.
• Participants are already trying to make their bots.

What is still missing:

• More documentation.
• More examples.
• Improvements are prioritized based on requests from participants.

Can I ask what are the reasons to not join yet?

Edited November 18, 2023 by Kubik
update number

[Eirias]

16 hours ago, Kubik said:

Can I ask what are the reasons to not join yet?

Link to the discord is not advertised? I didn't get a manual invitation to the discord, and no notification that the forum post was edited.

I had no idea the discord even existed until I stumbled onto your comment on another channel. Came here to check if it was public or staff-only.

[Kubik]

6 hours ago, Eirias said:

I had no idea the discord even existed

That was my assumption, I wanted to confirm that, without biasing the question in that way. The link is in featured comment, but my assumption is that not many people read the forum. 😢

[Thingol]

On 11/18/2023 at 7:20 AM, Kubik said:

🤔 45 people filled the questionnaire, but only 13 14 participants on discord so far.

What is working:

• Rust, C#, python, have full API
  • with 2 examples for both Rust, and C#, and only 1 for python.
  • These 3 languages are tested with every version. (at least a bit)
  • Types are mostly documented.
• Typescript (javascript) have the required types generated for each version, but no testing is done.
• Participants are already trying to make their bots.

What is still missing:

• More documentation.
• More examples.
• Improvements are prioritized based on requests from participants.

Can I ask what are the reasons to not join yet?

I thought you were using the same usual discord server. I am joining now, thanks!

[Kubik]

10 hours ago, Thingol said:

I thought you were using the same usual discord server. I am joining now, thanks!

Thanks for the reply, that is actually a good point, I got the invite link on discord, where it shows the server, so there no confusion that it is a different server.

@Metagross31 you should also add the information, that it is different server, because people that already are on SR discord might not notice, and not click on the link.

[Kubik]

I wonder, if all participnts are going to use discord or not.

[Metagross31]

Hey everyone,

thank you already for the great interest in the event! We already had many people fill in the survey and join the Discord.
The formal deadline set for phase 1 is over and we are currently working on making Phase 2 (the actual programming phase) happen as soon as possible. There will be a separate Forum post once it goes live. The survey will still be available for a while, so if you did not fill it in yet, now is your chance!

In the meantime, please be a bit more patient. If you want something interesting to do while waiting, feel free to join the event Discord (https://discord.gg/2WNd4FbGVq) to take a first look the example bots and check out the API thus far.

[Kubik]

You could say 55 instead of "many"  😛

[Alishmass]

hi, i know very little about programming and etc having just recently switched from electrical to computer engineering, and its been a long time since phase 1 ended(i just found out about this whole thing through the February update), but im interested and think i would like to challenge myself. can i join the discord server and see how things are and whats going on?

Edited February 17 by Alishmass