Outside view suggests it might be more like a year. (Ants was originally planned—at least by one of the contest’s officials—for about 6 months after planet wars.)
I’m not too unhappy with my #326 finish, considering that life intervened and I basically didn’t work on it at all for the second half of the contest. Percentage-wise, it’s an improvement over the last one, anyway. I was also struck by how mundane the winner’s strategy was (http://www.xathis.com/posts/ai-challenge-2011-ants.html). It seems he didn’t beat it with just a few overarching principles, but rather a lot of little pieces done well.
I have some more postmortem thoughts that I’ll try to write down in a bit.
Outside view suggests it might be more like a year. (Ants was originally planned—at least by one of the contest’s officials—for about 6 months after planet wars.)
I’m not too unhappy with my #326 finish, considering that life intervened and I basically didn’t work on it at all for the second half of the contest. Percentage-wise, it’s an improvement over the last one, anyway. I was also struck by how mundane the winner’s strategy was (http://www.xathis.com/posts/ai-challenge-2011-ants.html). It seems he didn’t beat it with just a few overarching principles, but rather a lot of little pieces done well.
I have some more postmortem thoughts that I’ll try to write down in a bit.
I look forward to reading your thoughts. Ants looked like a fun problem.
My life is looking crowded for the next few days, but I will try not to forget.