Advanced T-Robots 3
version 3.03
(ATR3 v3.03)

Copyright (C) 2002, Richard Bartelt, 9bartelt@nw.fmph.uniba.sk
All Rights Reserved

AT-Robots 3 Homepage

AT-Robots 2 Homepage

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CONTENTS:

1. Special Note
2. Introduction
3. Credits & Trademarks
4. Requirements
5. The Basics
6. Programming Robots
6.1. Robot Architecture
6.2. The Robot Computer
6.3. Common Syntax Rules
6.4. Comments
6.5. Directives
6.6. The Program
6.6.1. Program Syntax
6.6.2. Instructions
6.6.3. Interrupts
6.6.4. I/O Ports
7. Robot Design
7.1. Hulls
7.2. Materials
7.3. Engines
7.4. Turrets
7.5. Weapons
7.6. Scanners
7.7. Extensions
8. Troubleshooting
9. License & Disclaimer
10. Final Word

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1. SPECIAL NOTE:

The idea of this game is not mine.
The creator of the original AT-Robots was, is and will forever remain Ed T. Toton III & NecroBones Enterprises.
The original program is ATR2, available at www.necrobones.com/atrobots.
This version, ATR3, brings a lot of fundamental changes to nearly every aspect of the original ATR2, including total reprogramming of all data structures and implementation of an object oriented architecture.
But since the idea is not mine, know this:

This product includes software developed by Ed T. Toton III & NecroBones Enterprises.

Contents

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2. INTRODUCTION:

Hi! Welcome to AT-Robots version 3. If you used ATR2 before, you know what this is all about, altough there are some great changes made to the original, in fact, it's completely overwritten.
You write programs in an x86-assembly-like language to control robots fighting in a simulated arena, and you also equip them with various devices including many kinds of engines, weapons etc.

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3. CREDITS & TRADEMARKS:

Original Concept - Bones (Ed T. Toton III)
New Concept, Design, Programming - Mio (Richard Bartelt)

AT-Robots 3 (c) 2002 Richard Bartelt
AT-Robots 2 (c) 1997 Ed T. Toton III
AT-Robots (c) 1992 Ed T. Toton III
T-Robots (c) 1991 Ed T. Toton III
P-Robots (c) 1988 David Malmberg
C-Robots (c) 1985 Tom Poindexter

Thanx also to RobotWars(R) for a lot of inspiration and motivation.

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4. REQUIREMENTS:

You need a PC with a Win32 operating system, about 1MB of HD space (in fact, it's less...). Well, if you have Win32, you certainly have Notepad or some other text editor to write the robots, but make sure the editor is capable of saving files in ASCII (CR,LF or #13#10) format (I think it's DOS Text Format). The best way to write robots, however, is the integrated editor, which was created by moi, just in case.

Files of the program:
ATR3.exe - the program
ATR3.hlp - program help file
ATR3.cnt - program help contents - I like to refer to cnt files as "cunt files" :)))
ATR3.htm - this file, that is documentation
Updates.txt - text file about all the updates in new versions of the program
config.ats - ATR3 configuration file - see program help for more information
*.at3 - source robot files
*.atc - compiled robot files (something like locked robots in ATR2)
trobots.ico - icon file 1, originally supplied with ATR2, slightly modified
trobots1.ico - icon file 2, used for the registered file types (see ATR3 help file)

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5. THE BASICS:

Here are some commonly used short forms and terms:
ATR - Advanced T-Robots
ID - identification number
devices - external components which you fit onto your robot
unit - is equal to one pixel on the screen
aunit - the angle unit used by the game, 0-255 in particular (as in ATR2)
gcycle - game cycle, a unit of time in which the game is measured
SC - size class
HP - hit points
RP - resilience points
W - weight, in weight points
ACC - acceleration, usually in percent/gcycle
TRN - turn rate, usually in aunits/gcycle
MSPD - max speed, usually in units/gcycle
THR - throttle, usually in percent
SPn - scan property n
SVn - scan value n

Here is the exact meaning of aunits:

     160  192  224 
        \  |  /
         \ | /
    128----+----0
         / | \
        /  |  \
      96  64  32

Some other important notes:

• If a robot dies, it explodes. The maximum damage of the explosion is 1000.
• In a collision, the maximum damage taken by both robots depends on their speed.
• Colliding and pushing against an arena wall also makes the robot take some damage, which depends on speed and velocity.

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6. PROGRAMMING ROBOTS:

Robots are written quite similarly as in ATR2, but there are a few changes.
The robot file with extension .at3 consists of two main parts - the directives and the program.
You can't write directives inside the program part and vice versa.

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6.1. ROBOT ARCHITECTURE:

Robots have a rather complex architecture, but basically they consist of the following components:

• Computer - this is the basic unit of the robot, the core.
• Hull - this determines the looks of a robot, that means the size class and the shape.
• Material - this determines the amount of damage a robot can take, and the resilience against damage.
• Engine - determines the speed and facility
• Turret - this carries weapons and scanners
• Weapons - there are many kinds of weapons a robot can carry, it's obvious what they are for...
• Scanners - these are the eyes of the robots, used to track the enemy
• Extensions - many different useful little devices for additional increase of performance

Except for the computer, you choose each of these components from a set of available ones, limited only by maximum weight.

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6.2. THE ROBOT COMPUTER:

The Robot Computer consists of a CPU, Registers, 3 types of memory, an interrupt controller and an I/O device controller.

The CPU is like the usual CPU of a regular PC, it does all the counting and processing. The CPU works only on signed 16-bit integers. It operates at a speed of 5 cycles per gcycle.

All the registers are 16-bit signed integers. The robot has 6 registers named AX, BX, CX, DX, EX, FX. It also has a special register called Flags, which holds the results of compare and test operations. Flags is also a 16-bit value, but only the lower 3 bits are used for now.

Bit	Flag
0	equal
1	less
2	greater

Main Memory is the memory you can use for your data. Its size is 1024 signed 16-bit integers.
Variables defined via the #VAR directive are stored at addresses 128-255. The rest of the space is the heap - you can use it as you wish.
You address this memory by addresses 0 to 1023.

Program Memory is the memory where the program is stored. Generally you shouldn't mess around with the values stored here.
It can be adressed by addresses 1024 to 4095.

Stack Memory is a LIFO stack. You can't address this memory directly, you can only push values into and pop values off the stack top. The stack is also used by subroutines for storing return addresses. For more details, see 6.6.2.

For Interrupts and I/O Ports, see 6.6.3. and 6.6.4.

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6.3. COMMON SYNTAX RULES:

A basic rule, and one that will probably produce the most errors is that
NO COMMAS ARE USED OR ALLOWED ANYWHERE IN THE ROBOT CODE.
Please remember this.

The compiler doesn't care about uppercase, you can write any way you want.
The number of spaces between any words or numbers is also optional. TABs can also be used instead of spaces.
You can also leave any number of empty lines between the lines of code.

Numbers can be written in decimal or hexadecimal. The syntax of hexadecimal numbers is $hex_number, where hex_number consists of 0 - 9 and A - F.

In the syntax description, "{param}" means that "param" is optional.

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6.4. COMMENTS:

Comments can be placed anywhere inside the at3 file.
The syntax of comments is

//comment

Anything that comes after "//" on the current line is ignored by the compiler.

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6.5. DIRECTIVES:

You start writing your robot with the directive part. The syntax of directives is

#directive_name {param1 param2}

Here is a list of directives:

#NAME name
This defines the name of the robot. The name can be any string, it shouldn't be very long though, in order to be able to display it in the game.
If you want to have spaces inside the name of your robot, use the "_" character instead. The compiler will turn them into spaces. Do not write spaces inside the name!

#COLOR color
This defines the color of your robot - hull and turret. The color parameter can be a decimal number or hexadecimal, written like $BBGGRR, where BB, GG, RR are the intensities (0-255) of blue, green and red respectively. I recommend the hex notation, it is more comprehensive.

#TCOLOR color
The parameter of this directive is the same as in the #COLOR directive.
This directive allows to assign an individual color to the robot's turret.
Note that if you use the #COLOR directive after #TCOLOR, #TCOLOR will have no effect.

#VAR varname
This directive is used to create variables. The created variable is a 16-bit signed integer. It can be referred to in the program like "<varname>". For more details, see 6.6.2.
If you define more variables with the same name, you can only access the first declared one via the name.
Variables are stored in Main Memory, at addresses 128 - 255.
Note that you cannot have more than 128 variables with names, but you can use more memory.

#EQUIP
param_name param_val1 {param_val2}
#EQUIP
This is probably the most important directive of ATR3. This construction is used to equip your robot with all the devices it will be able to use in combat.
In the directive section of a robot, this construction can appear only ONE TIME, if it appears more times, the robot will not compile. Also note that the equip section must end with a #EQUIP directive as well.
Here are all the parameters you can define, for a more detailed description of the devices, see 7..

• HULL id sc
  • equip hull "id" and set the size class of the robot to "sc"
  • this can only be the FIRST parameter between the #EQUIP directives, if you try to define other parameters before this one, the robot will not compile


• MATERIAL id
  • equip material "id", if no hull was defined, has no effect


• ENGINE id
  • equip engine "id"


• TURRET id
  • equip turret "id"
  • any weapons or scanners equipped before the turret are discarded
  • if you change the turret after having some turret equipped with weapons and/or scanners, all previously equipped weapons and scanners are discarded and a new empty turret is the result


• WEAPON id slot
  • equip turret with weapon "id" at slot "slot"
  • if the turret doesn't support "slot", the weapon is discarded
  • if a weapon is already on "slot", the new weapon is discarded


• AMMO a slot
  • equip weapon on slot "slot" with "a" pieces of ammo
  • if no weapon is on "slot" or it doesn't support ammo, has no effect


• SCANNER id slot
  • equip turret with scanner "id" at slot "slot"
  • same restrictions as WEAPON


• ARCD c slot
  • set arc-scanner on "slot" to distance class "c" - for details see 7.6.
  • if "slot" is empty or has not an arc-scanner installed, does nothing


• ARCP c slot
  • set arc-scanner on "slot" to precision class "c" - for details see 7.6.
  • if "slot" is empty or has not an arc-scanner installed, does nothing


• ARCW w slot
  • set arc-scanner on "slot" maximum arcwidth to "w" - for details see 7.6.
  • if "slot" is empty or has not an arc-scanner installed, does nothing


• EXTENSION id
  • equip robot with extension "id"
  • this has to be the LAST parameter between the #EQUIP directives, if you define any parameters after this one, the robot will not compile

#BEGIN
Marks the end of the directive section and the beginning of the program section. The program section end is not noted - the program ends at the end of the robot file.

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6.6. THE PROGRAM:

The robot program consists of lines. Each line holds an instruction and its parameters, that means it's 3x16 bits. The Program Memory of the robot can hold 1024 lines, if a program exceeds this limit, it will not compile.
Some lines can have names, these are called labels. You can also write inline mashine code, but since the opcodes remain undocumented until further notice, this feature is useful only for creating large tables (e.g. target prediction).

6.6.1. PROGRAM SYNTAX:

A line of code looks like this:

{@label_name} instruction {op1} {op2}

or alternatively for inline code

{@label_name} *n1 n2 n3

Important! Lines with labels must contain some instruction, or else the robot will not compile.
Also note that after label_name, no ":" or any other delimiter is used, except for one or more spaces!
Do not forget the basic rule - NO COMMAS!
In the inline version, n1, n2 and n3 are 16-bit signed integer numbers.

6.6.2. INSTRUCTIONS:

The instruction set of the robot CPU consists of 48 instructions. Here is a table of all of them:

Instr	op1	op2	Time	Description
NOP	-	-	1	Does nothing
MOV	rm	rmn	1	Copies op2 into op1
XCHG	rm	rm	2	Exchanges op1 and op2
ADD	rm	rmn	1	Adds op2 to op1, result in op1
SUB	rm	rmn	1	Subtracts op2 from op1, result in op1
MUL	rm	rmn	10	Multiplies op1 by op2, result in op1
DIV	rm	rmn	10	Divides op1 by op2, result in op1, if op2=0 then op1=0
INC	rm	-	1	Increments op1 by 1
DEC	rm	-	1	Decrements op1 by 1
NEG	rm	-	1	Does op1:=-op1
SHL	rm	rmn	1	Bit shift op1 op2-times to the left, result in op1
SHR	rm	rmn	1	Bit shift op1 op2-times to the right, result in op1
ROL	rm	rmn	1	Bit rotate op1 op2-times to the left, result in op1
ROR	rm	rmn	1	Bit rotate op1 op2-times to the right, result in op1
SAL	rm	rmn	1	Same as SHL
SAR	rm	rmn	1	Same as SHR, except preserves bit 15
NOT	rm	-	1	Bitwise NOT of op1
AND	rm	rmn	1	Bitwise AND of op1 and op2, result in op1
OR	rm	rmn	1	Bitwise OR of op1 and op2, result in op1
XOR	rm	rmn	1	Bitwise XOR of op1 and op2, result in op1
TEST	rm	rmn	1	Bitwise AND op1 and op2, don't store result, just set equal flag if result is 0, zero out other flags
CMP	rm	rmn	1	Compare op1 and op2, set all flags
JMP	l	-	0	Jump to label op1
JE	l	-	0	Jump to label op1 if equal flag is 1
JNE	l	-	0	Jump to label op1 if equal flag is 0
JL	l	-	0	Jump to label op1 if less flag is 1
JLE	l	-	0	Jump to label op1 if less or equal flag is 1
JG	l	-	0	Jump to label op1 if greater flag is 1
JGE	l	-	0	Jump to label op1 if greater or equal flag is 1
LOOP	l	-	1	If CX is non-0 then jump to label op1 else proceed to next line
PUSH	rmn	-	1	Push op1 on top of the stack
POP	rm	-	1	Pop out top of the stack and store it in op1
IN	rmn	rmn	3	Take value from port op1 and strore it in op2
OUT	rmn	rmn	3	Send value in op2 to port op1
CALL	l	-	1	Push next line number on top of stack and jump to label op1
RET	-	-	1	Pop top value off of the stack and jump to line with that number
INT	rmn	-	1	Call interrupt number op1
CLE	-	-	0	Clear equal flag
STE	-	-	0	Set equal flag
CLG	-	-	0	Clear greater flag
STG	-	-	0	Set greater flag
CLL	-	-	0	Clear less flag
STL	-	-	0	Set less flag
DLY	rmn	-	op1	Equal to op1 NOPs
SAXF	-	-	1	Store flags register in AX
LAXF	-	-	1	Set flags register to value in AX
LEX	lv	-	7	Set EX to address of op1
MSG	rmn	-	0	Send op1 as a message to the outer world

Operand descriptions:

• r - Register, referred to by its name
• m - Memory location, syntax is:
  • [address_number] or [register] - indirect addressing
  • <var_name> - variable
• n - Absolute number, just write the number down (for decimal) or write $number (for hexadecimal)
• l - Label, has to have a @-character before the name
• v - Variable reference, <var_name>

Note: If you use more labels with the same name, everytime you jump to such a label, the program jumps to the first label of that name appearing in the source.

The Time number is in robot CPU cycles, not gcycles. 1 gcycle has 5 robot CPU cycles.

Some instructions take 0 cycles to execute. They however don't produce an infinite cycle, because if 20 such instructions are executed, the robot moves on to the next gcycle. This is an ingenious idea by Ed T. Toton III, used also in ATR2.

Another important note: if you use CALL, and then mess with the stack, be sure to get it back into the state just after the CALL instruction before you use RET, or teeeeeeeeerrrrrrrible things can happen :-))

Also note that if a robot encounters an error while executing its program, it will not move away from the line the error was encountered in, and it will execute that line over and over again, trying to get it right.

Also note that the program must include some kind of infinite loop in order to function correctly. Otherwise the program will come to line 1024 and stop there.

The MSG instruction can be used for debugging. It outputs any kind of operand to the outer world, that means that number appears on the robot combat simulator during a match.

6.6.3. INTERRUPTS:

The INT instruction calls an interrupt by a number. Interrupts are routines which are wired into the robot or some of its devices. Upon each INT the appropriate routine is executed. Most interrupts do nothing. This mechanism is mainly planned for future developments of ATR3. So far, there are only three interrupts directly implemented.
Each device has two reserved interrupt numbers. These are called Int1 and Int2. For details of these interrupts and what they do, see section 7.
So here they are:

Int	Name	Description
0	Self Destruct	The robot immediately explodes
1	Reset	The robot clears its stack and registers and starts executing program from start
2	Reset Memory	The robot clears and zeroes out its RAM
10	Engine Int1	-
11	Engine Int2	-
20	Hull Int1	-
21	Hull Int2	-
30	Turret Int1	-
31	Turret Int2	-
40	Weapon Int1	-
41	Weapon Int2	-
50	Scanner Int1	-
51	Scanner Int2	-
90	Extension Int1	-
91	Extension Int2	-

Very few of the device specific interrupts are implemented yet.

6.6.4. I/O PORTS:

The Robot Computer communicates and uses the various devices of the robot via ports.
Each port has a unique number. Ports are divided into input (I) and output (O) ports. Some ports can be both input and output at the same time (I/O).
The instructions to access ports are IN (gets a value from a port) and OUT (writes a value to a port).
Each device has in addition to their common ports, two reserved ports, called Prop1 and Prop2. In most cases, these ports have no meaning, but in some cases they are implemented. For their description, see section 7.
Here's a description of all the available ports. ("value" refers to op2 in OUT, see 6.6.2.)

Port	Type	Name	Description
0	I	Random Generator	Generates random numbers in the range of 0-32767
1	I/O	Transponder	Robot ID, used by some tracking devices
8	I	Throttle	Current throttle setting, from -100 to 100
9	I	Compass	Current robot heading, from 0 to 255
10	O	Set Throttle	Set throttle to "value", "value" must be from -100 to 100, negative number means moving backwards
11	O	Turn Robot	Turn "value" aunits to the right, "value" can be any number, negative number means turn left
12	I	Desired Throttle	Throttle robot is trying to achieve, from -100 to 100
13	I	Desired Turn	Number of aunits robot has to turn to achieve desired heading, any number
16	I/O	Engine Prop1	-
17	I/O	Engine Prop2	-
20	I/O	Collision Counter	Incremented by one on each collision with other robot or wall, can be set to any number
21	I	Hull State	Number of Hit Points remaining to death (0 = robot is dead)
24	I/O	Hull Prop1	-
25	I/O	Hull Prop2	-
30	I/O	Aim Turret	Get/Set turret relative heading (0 = front, 128 = back etc.), from 0 to 255
31	O	Turn Turret	Cumulative turret turn (like port 11), any number
32	I	Absolute Turret	Turret absolute heading, from 0 to 255
33	I/O	Turret Shift	If non-0, turret turns with robot, otherwise turret retains its heading
36	I/O	Turret Prop1	-
37	I/O	Turret Prop2	-
40	O	Fire Weapon	Fire active weapon with argument "value"
41	I/O	Active Weapon	Get/Set active weapon
42	I/O	Weapon Argument	Get/Set weapon argument
43	I	Weapon Ready Flag	If non-0, weapon is ready to deal damage
44	I	Weapon Reload	Amount of reload time remaining, 0 = reloaded
45	I	Weapon Ammo	Amount of ammo (or sometimes fuel) remaining
48	I/O	Weapon Prop1	- (used for heat most of the time)
49	I/O	Weapon Prop2	-
50	I	Scan	Perform a scan with active scanner, result is scan value 1
51	I/O	Active Scanner	Get/Set active scanner
52	I/O	Scan Value/Property 1	Get SV1 / Set SP1
53	I/O	Scan Value/Property 2	Get SV2 / Set SP2
54	I/O	Scan Value/Property 3	Get SV3 / Set SP3
57	I/O	Scanner Prop1	-
58	I/O	Scanner Prop2	-
90	I/O	Extension Prop1	-
91	I/O	Extension Prop2	-

Weapon/scanner ports each operate on the active weapon/scanner, set by port 41/51.

The active weapon/scanner is NOT set via the slot number! The weapon/scanner which appeared inside the #EQUIP directive as the first is weapon/scanner number 0, the next one is number 1 etc., of course provided that they obey the restrictions in 6.5. about the TURRET/WEAPON/SCANNER parameter.

Besides weapon/scanner Prop1 and Prop2, some of the common weapon/scanner ports are also device specific, for details see 7.

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7. ROBOT DESIGN:

Well, here comes the description of all the devices you can equip your robot with. Each instance of a device has a unique ID, that is the number you use in the #EQUIP directive to actually fit the device to your robot. Other parameters are also named the same as in the description of the #EQUIP directive, for easier understanding.

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7.1. HULLS:

The Hull is the basic component of all robots. It determines the shape of the robot as well as its size class.
There are 20 different shapes available, with IDs 0 to 19. I won't list them, just find it out for yourselves :-))
SC can be 1, 2, 3 or 4, the greater the SC the bigger the robot. SC also determines the amount of weight a robot can carry, like this:

SC	W
1	100
2	200
3	300
4	400

If you try to equip more than the given limit, the robot will not compile.

Hulls without materials weigh nothing.
No hull type has Prop1, Prop2, Int1 or Int2 implemented.

If you don't choose a hull, then only a small box will cruise the arena. Its SC is 1, and it also is impossible to assign a material to it.

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7.2. MATERIALS:

After you have chosen a hull, you may choose a material of which this hull will consist. Here's a table of materials with their attributes:

ID	Name	DP	RP	W
0	Magnesium	1600	13	3
1	Asbest	1800	17	5
2	Aluminium	1200	19	7
3	Tin	4000	12	9
4	Zinc	3500	16	11
5	Lead	8000	10	14
6	Brass	4600	22	16
7	Titanium	2700	40	18
8	Copper	6000	20	20
9	Silver	7500	18	22
10	Iron	4300	33	24
11	Bronze	5500	27	26
12	Nickel	5700	25	28
13	Steel	4200	36	30
14	Gold	9000	15	33
15	Chrome	3200	60	35
16	Ni-Steel	5000	46	39
17	W-Steel	5200	53	43
18	Platinum	9500	30	45
19	Iridium	10000	43	50

DP means damage points, that is the amount of damage a robot consisting of the material can take.
RP means resilience points. In most cases, when damage is dealt to the robot, the amount is decremented by RP percent of the amount and only the remaining amount is received by the robot.
W is the weight of the material. To obtain the real weight, multiply it by SC (bigger robot = more material).

If you don't assign a material to your robot, it will have DP 1 and RP 0, so one little bump is enough to destroy it.

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7.3. ENGINES:

The engine allows your robot to move around. Again, here's a table of the engines of the so called E-Series and their attributes:

ID	Name	MSPD	ACC	TRN	W
0	ES111	1	1	1	8
1	ES244	2	4	4	17
2	ES266	2	6	6	28
3	ES335	3	3	5	22
4	ES353	3	5	3	20
5	ES355	3	5	5	26
6	ES422	4	2	2	13
7	ES444	4	4	4	24
8	ES466	4	6	6	32
9	ES533	5	3	3	34
10	ES535	5	3	5	38
11	ES553	5	5	3	36
12	ES622	6	2	2	30
13	ES644	6	4	4	40
14	ES777	7	7	7	48

MSPD is the maximum speed a robot can achieve using the engine, in units/gcycle.
ACC is the acceleration, in percent/gcycle.
TRN is the turn rate, in aunits/gcycle.
W is the weight, for the real weight, multiply it by SC (bigger robot = heavier engine).

No engine of the E-Series has Prop1, Prop2, Int1 or Int2 implemented.

If you don't assign an engine to your robot, it won't be able to move (unless another robot collides with it :-)) ).

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7.4. TURRETS:

Turrets are the most important devices of your robot. They carry all the weapons and scanners. They can turn around independent of the movement of the robot.
Each turret has a number of slots where scanners and weapons may be installed, on each slot only one weapon AND one scanner can be mounted. The slots have numbers corresponding to their direction relative to 0 in aunits. Here are the available turrets from the so called T-Series:

ID	Name	Slots	Radius	W
0	TS1	0	3	3
1	TS2	0, 128	3	6
2	TS3	0, 64, 192	3	9
3	TS4	0, 64, 128, 192	3	12
4	TS5	0, 64, 96, 160, 192	3	15

Slots are the numbers of slots available on the turret.
Radius is the base radius, in order to calculate the real turret radius, you have to add 2*(SC-1) to Radius.
W is the weight of the turret, the real weight is calculated by adding SC of the robot to W (bigger robot = heavier turret).

In the program you refer to the weapons and scanners on the turret not via their slots but rather via their numbers, which start from 0. Weapons/scanners are numbered by these numbers in the order of appearence inside the #EQUIP directive, provided that they obey the restrictions. During execution of the program, only one weapon and one scanner is the so called active weapon/scanner. All the weapon/scanner ports affect only the active weapon/scanner.

No turret of the T-Series has Prop1, Prop2, Int1 or Int2 implemented.

If you don't equip a turret, your robot will have no turret and will not be able to carry weapons and scanners.

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7.5. WEAPONS:

In order to win battles, your robot will usually need some means of attack. And that's what weapons are all about.

Weapons can be divided into four categories.
Impact weapons use some sort of impact to damage an opponent. These can be e.g. hammers, pikes, saws, etc.
Shooter weapons shoot some projectiles, and those projectiles deal the damage. These are e.g. guns, cannons, lasers etc.
Single weapons attack only once, when you access port 40. These are hammers, guns etc.
Permanent weapons attack until you don't switch them off. For example saws, chainguns etc.

Weapons have quite a few common properties:

• type is the type of the weapon, Impact|Shooter/Single|Permanent (see earlier description).
• arg is the weapon argument, each time you access port 40 to fire a weapon, the value you output is stored as arg.
  Usualy it is used for angle correction (those who know ATR2, know what I'm talking about, those who don't will figure it out later...)
• reload is the remaining reload time for the weapon, in gcycles. If reload is non-0 and you access port 40, usually nothing happens.
• ammo is not only the amount of shots you have left, some weapons use it also as a fuel gauge (e.g. the chainsaw)
• ready this is the flag that tells you if the weapon is ready to deal damage (0 = not ready to attack, non-0 = ready to attack)
  You won't need to access this property often.
  Example: A hammer is ready if it's pulled back. If you attack, it becomes not ready because it executes the attack. Some time after that it automatically pulls back and becomes ready again.

In the program you refer to the weapons on the turret not via their slots but rather via their numbers, which start from 0. Weapons are numbered by these numbers in the order of appearence inside the #EQUIP directive, provided that they obey the restrictions. During execution of the program, only one weapon is the so called active weapon. All the weapon ports affect only the active weapon.

The weight of the weapons is the same for all size classes.

The Size property featured below has the format x1/x2.
x1 is the base size, to get the real size multiply it by 1+(1/2)*(SC-1).
x2 is the attack bonus size, to get the attack size, add x1 (after the multiplication above) and x2.
Maybe you'll find it good to know the distance where the robot does the damage, although that still isn't the actual distance, that one is a little larger (it is exactly Real_Turret_Radius+x1*(1+(1/2)*(SC-1))+x2, see 7.4. what Real_Turret_Radius is).
For shooting weapons, size is the point where the projectile exits the barrel and enters the arena.

Well, here's the complete list with all the functions:

0: Pike
Just a regular pike. Access port 40 to attack, retracts automatically.

Type	Impact/Single
Weight	10
Reload	10
Damage	150
Size	10/+30

1: DPike
This works just as a regular pike, only it does twice the damage.

Type	Impact/Single
Weight	25
Reload	10
Damage	2x150
Size	10/+30

2: TPike
This works just as a regular pike, only it does three times the damage.

Type	Impact/Single
Weight	35
Reload	10
Damage	3x150
Size	10/+30

3: Hammer
This is a little hammer, access port 40 to hit (or not), retracts automatically.

Type	Impact/Single
Weight	15
Reload	16
Damage	200
Size	30/+0

4: BBat
The one and only baseball bat couldn't be missing here. Use it just like the hammer.

Type	Impact/Single
Weight	30
Reload	20
Damage	400
Size	26/+0

5: Scissors
Cut a big hole into your opponent. Access port 40 to cut, opens automatically.

Type	Impact/Single
Weight	20
Reload	20
Damage	250
Size	25/+0

6: Gun
This is the good old gun from ATR2, although it's slightly different.

Type	Shooter/Single
Weight	20
Reload	0
Ammo	Meaning ammo Damage 100 Explosion Radius 5 Speed 15 Amount unlimited Weight / piece 0
Arg	Meaning shooting angle correction Value -3 to +3 aunits Description modifier added to weapon angle for next shot without turning turret or robot
Prop1	Meaning heat Increment / shot +20 Decrement / gcycle -1 Criticals 500+ robot explosion 300+ get damage (heat-300)*5 / gcycle no RP modifier
Size	15/+0

7: Cannon
This is a big baby, does a lot of damage, but has limited ammo.

Type	Shooter/Single
Weight	30
Reload	50
Ammo	Meaning ammo Damage 500 Explosion Radius 30 Speed 10 Amount limited Weight / piece 2
Size	13/+0

8: Laser
This can be pretty destructive, but also to its owner...

Type	Shooter/Single
Weight	40
Reload	5
Ammo	Meaning ammo Damage 300 Explosion Radius 20 Speed 20 Amount unlimited Weight / piece 0
Arg	Meaning shooting angle correction Value -5 to +5 aunits Description modifier added to weapon angle for next shot without turning turret or robot
Prop1	Meaning heat Increment / shot +30 Decrement / gcycle -2 Criticals 600+ robot explosion 300+ get damage (heat-300)*10 / gcycle no RP modifier
Size	20/+0

9: Magic Wand
A funny little wand, with big destructive power! The ammo serves as a charge gauge. Via the arg property you define the intensity of the shot. Recharges itself. By each shot starts recharging from the beginning.

Type	Shooter/Single
Weight	35
Reload	10 for recharging 1 ammo
Ammo	Meaning current charge Damage 40*Arg Explosion Radius 24 Speed 15 Maximum Charge 10 Recharge +1 / 10 gcycles (see reload) Weight / piece 0
Arg	Meaning shot intensity Value between 0 and Ammo Description determines damage and ammo loss see also Ammo
Size	20/+0

10: DGun
A double gun with limited ammo and optional fire modes.

Type	Shooter/Single
Weight	25
Reload	20 (double mode), 10 (single mode)
Ammo	Meaning ammo Damage 150 / shot Explosion Radius 8 Speed 12 Amount limited 1 piece = 2 shots Weight / piece 1
Prop1	Meaning fire mode Values 0 = double mode non-0 = single mode
Size	15/+0

11: SGun
This gun shoots 4 shots at a time, with angle corrections -3, -1, 1, 3.

Type	Shooter/Single
Weight	27
Reload	20
Ammo	Meaning ammo Damage 150 / shot Explosion Radius 8 Speed 12 Amount limited 1 piece = 4 shots Weight / piece 1
Size	15/+0

12: Pneumatic Rammer
A permanent weapon, access port 40 to start ramming and again to stop. Works with pressurized air. Ammo property is used as a pressure gauge. Stops automatically if pressure is 0, then it needs to repressurize. Once it stops it can start ramming again only on maximum pressure.

Type	Impact/Permanent
Weight	16
Reload	2 (ramming frequency)
Ammo	Meaning pressure Maximum Pressure 30 Increment / gcycle +1 (if not ramming) Decrement / ram -1
Damage / ram	20
Size	13/+15

13: Drill
Drill holes into your opponents with this. When it operates, it warms up, and at a critical value it automatically stops working and has to cool down.

Type	Impact/Permanent
Weight	20
Reload	4 (turn rate)
Prop1	Meaning heat Increment / turn +10 Decrement / gcycle -2 (if not drilling) Criticals 1000+ = doesn't work
Damage / turn	40
Size	14/+20

14: Circular Saw
This is a rotating circular saw. It gets hot just like the drill, and at a critical heat it stops working and has to cool down.

Type	Impact/Permanent
Weight	24
Reload	2 (turn rate)
Prop1	Meaning heat Increment / turn +25 Decrement / gcycle -5 (if not sawing) Criticals 2000+ = doesn't work
Damage / turn	50
Size	20/+15

15: Chain Saw
This is a chainsaw, just like the ones lumberjacks use, but specialized on metal. It operates on gas (ammo property). If the gas is gone, it stops working for the rest of the match. Gas is enough for 2000 gcycles non-stop sawing.

Type	Impact/Permanent
Weight	28
Reload	2 (turn rate)
Ammo	Meaning fuel Maximum Fuel 1000 Decrement / turn -1 Criticals 0 = doesn't work
Damage / turn	60
Size	10/+20

16: Lawn Cutter A nice weapon again, but also runs on gas (ammo property). If it runs out of gas, it acts just like the chainsaw. Gas is enough for 3000 gcycles non-stop cutting.

Type	Impact/Permanent
Weight	32
Reload	3 (turn rate)
Ammo	Meaning fuel Maximum Fuel 1000 Decrement / turn -1 Criticals 0 = doesn't work
Damage / turn	70
Size	15/+12

17: Shock Rod
Why not take the shock rods from the bastards using them on animals and mount them onto your robot? This thing has a rechargable battery, which is recharged by an alternator only when you are moving at at least 10% throttle, either forwards or backwards.

Type	Impact/Permanent
Weight	36
Reload	5 (recharging 1 ammo, shock frequency)
Ammo	Meaning electric charge Maximum Charge 1000 Recharge +1 / 5 gcycles (see reload) if not activated and THR<=-10 or THR>=10 Decrement / shock -10 Criticals <10 = doesn't work
Damage / shock	40
Size	30/+0

18: Chain Gun
This chain gun is pretty fast, doesn't need any ammo, but it can kill you easily by overheating, so watch it! Note that you'll be able to shoot faster with the regular gun, but this baby can fire 50 shots without damaging you.

Type	Shooter/Permanent
Weight	30
Reload	2 (shooting frequency)
Ammo	Meaning ammo Damage 100 Explosion Radius 5 Speed 15 Amount unlimited Weight / piece 0
Arg	Meaning shooting angle correction Value -1 to +1 aunits Description modifier added to weapon angle for next shot without turning turret or robot
Prop1	Meaning heat Increment / shot +30 Decrement / gcycle -1 (if not shooting) Criticals 3000+ robot explosion 1500+ get damage (heat-1500) / gcycle no RP modifier
Size	20/+0

19: Kalasnikov
The world's most famous automatic gun on your robot! Needs ammo though. Ammo is provided in cases of 40 shots. Prop1 tracks the shots left in the current case. Takes a long time to exchange cases. If an ammo case is exhausted, it stops shooting and automatically reloads if any more ammo cases are left.

Type	Shooter/Permanent
Weight	35
Reload	100 (exchange ammo case)
Ammo	Meaning ammo cases left Damage 150 / shot Explosion Radius 8 Speed 12 Amount limited 1 piece = 40 shots Weight / piece 5
Prop1	shots left in current ammo case
Size	16/+0

20: Mine Layer
This allows you to lay mines on the battlefield. You can carry only a limited number of mines. You can vary the intensity of the laid mines - intensity classes 0-20. You can also extract and retract the mine layer arm to be able to lay the mine as you want.

Type	Special
Weight	25
Reload	10
Ammo	Meaning mines Damage (Prop2+10)*30 Explosion Radius Prop2+10 Speed 0 (mines are stationary) Amount limited Weight / piece 1
Prop1	arm extension 0-20
Prop2	mine level 0-20
Size	20/+Prop2

Contents

7.6. SCANNERS:

Scanners are the eyes of your robot. You use them to track down enemy robots in order to effectively destroy them.
Currenly there are 3 types of scanners implemented: radars, locators and arc-scanners.
If you use port 50 to do a scan, this sets all the values the scanner returns, and then returns SV1 to you. Reading the SV ports doesn't do a scan, it only returns the values of the last scan.

In the program you refer to the scanners on the turret not via their slots but rather via their numbers, which start from 0. Scanners are numbered by these numbers in the order of appearence inside the #EQUIP directive, provided that they obey the restrictions. During execution of the program, only one scanner is the so called active scanner. All the scanner ports affect only the active scanner.

As in weapons, weight remains constant no matter what SC the robot has.

Radars:
Radars scan the whole arena and return information about the nearest or the furthest robot in the match.

• SP1 is implemented as a flag, where
  • 0 = find nearest target
  • non-0 = find furthest target
• SP2 and SP3 are not implemented in any radar scanner.

Here's a table of the available radar scanners: (numbers behind "/" mean the value if no target was found)

ID	Name	SV1	SV2	SV3	W
0	D-Radar	distance[units] / -1	-	-	25
1	A-Radar	angle[aunits] / -1	-	-	70
2	DA-Radar	distance[units] / -1	angle[aunits] / -1	-	100
3	DSH-Radar	distance[units] / -1	target speed[units/10 cycles] / 30000	target heading[aunits] / -1	35
4	ASH-Radar	angle[aunits] / -1	target speed[units/10 cycles] / 30000	target heading[aunits] / -1	120
5	T-Radar	transponder / owner transponder	-	-	10

D-Radar is an equivalent of the radar in ATR2, A-Radar is something like the sonar.

Locators:
Locators return information about the nearest or the furthest robot with a certain transponder setting. Use them to track down a concrete enemy robot and keep on its trail.

• SP1 holds the desired transponder number
• SP2 is implemented as a flag, where
  • 0 = find nearest target
  • non-0 = find furthest target
• SP3 is not implemented in any locator.

Here's a table of the available locators, with their return values: (numbers behind "/" mean the value if no target was found)

ID	Name	SV1	SV2	SV3	W
6	D-Locator	distance[units] / -1	-	-	20
7	A-Locator	angle[aunits] / -1	-	-	70
8	DA-Locator	distance[units] / -1	angle[aunits] / -1	-	100
9	DSH-Locator	distance[units] / -1	target speed[units/10 cycles] / 30000	target heading[aunits] / -1	30
10	ASH-Locator	angle[aunits] / -1	target speed[units/10 cycles] / 30000	target heading[aunits] / -1	120

Arc-Scanners:
Arc-scanners are the most commonly used ones. They provide the most efficient way of tracking other robots.
They can be divided into fixed-arc and variable-arc scanners. Variable-arc scanners are heavier than fixed-arc scanners.
Arc-scanners scan only inside a certain arc with some width and to some distance and return information about the nearest robot inside the arc.
They have the following common properties, which can be set inside the #EQUIP directive:

Distance class (DC) - determines how far the scanner can see.

DC	Visibility[units]
1	200
2	400
3	600

Precision class (PC) - some arc-scanners return a precision number, which is useful in finding the exact position of the target. 0 means right in front of the scanner, negative numbers mean that the target lies to the left and positive to the right.

PC	Precision value range
1	-1 - +1
2	-2 - +2
3	-4 - +4

Maximum arc width (MW) - use this to determine the arc width (fixed-arc) or the maximum available arc width (variable-arc). The arc width is actually -MW - +MW, so it's double the defined MW. Therefore MW can be in the range of 0 and 64.

• SP1 is implemented in each arc-scanner as the current arc width. If you have a fixed-arc, it has no effect.
• SP2, SP3 are not implemented in any arc-scanner.

Here is a table of all the arc-scanners with their respective formulas to calculate weight:

ID	Name	Arc-Kind	SV1	SV2	SV3	W
11	D-F-Arc	Fixed	distance[units] / -1	-	-	2+MW/4+5*(DC-1)
12	P-F-Arc	Fixed	precision / 256	-	-	5+MW/4+2*(DC-1)+12*(PC-1)
13	DP-F-Arc	Fixed	distance[units] / -1	precision / 256	-	10+MW/4+7*(DC-1)+10*(PC-1)
14	DSH-F-Arc	Fixed	distance[units] / -1	target speed[units/10 cycles] / 30000	target heading[aunits] / -1	5+MW/4+7*(DC-1)
15	PSH-F-Arc	Fixed	distance[units] / -1	target speed[units/10 cycles] / 30000	target heading[aunits] / -1	8+MW/4+3*(DC-1)+14*(PC-1)
16	D-V-Arc	Variable	distance[units] / -1	-	-	12+MW/4+5*(DC-1)
17	P-V-Arc	Variable	precision / 256	-	-	15+MW/4+2*(DC-1)+12*(PC-1)
18	DP-V-Arc	Variable	distance[units] / -1	precision / 256	-	20+MW/4+7*(DC-1)+10*(PC-1)
19	DSH-V-Arc	Variable	distance[units] / -1	target speed[units/10 cycles] / 30000	target heading[aunits] / -1	15+MW/4+7*(DC-1)
20	PSH-V-Arc	Variable	distance[units] / -1	target speed[units/10 cycles] / 30000	target heading[aunits] / -1	18+MW/4+3*(DC-1)+14*(PC-1)
21	T-Arc	Fixed	transponder /owner transponder	-	-	5+MW/4+2*DC

Contents

7.7. EXTENSIONS:

Extensions are a totally optional improvement of your robot. This is the device which will evolve the most in the near future. I have a lot of ideas. Here's a description of the extensions available so far:

0: Wall Detector
This is a simple device, which tells you the distance and angle to the nearest wall.

Weight	15
Prop1	IN = perform scan and return distance[units] to nearest wall
Prop2	IN = angle to nearest wall from the last scan, doesn't perform a scan itself

1: GPS
This little device is capable of memorizing one exact location and at any time returning your distance and angle to the memorized position. In the beginning, the location is (0,0).

Weight	15
Prop1	IN = return distance to saved location
Prop2	IN = return angle to saved location
Int1	save current robot position as the saved location

2: Communication System
This system allows robots to send each other 16-bit signed integers. If you used ATR2, it is similar to the Com System featured there.
The comm system has a message queue where it recieves messages. The queue is a regular FIFO queue, capable of keeping 255 values. If the queue is full, no more values are received until there's room again. Receiving a value removes that value off the queue.
The comm system operates at a frequency, which is a signed integer. Robots tuned to some frequency don't recieve messages sent on a frequency other than their own.

Weight	10
Prop1	IN = receive and remove message from the queue (if queue is empty, returns 0) OUT = broadcast message to other robots with Comm Systems tuned to frequency Prop2
Prop2	IN = returns current frequency OUT = set frequency to another value
Int1	empty the entire queue

3: Energy Bomb
This is the first offensive extension. It deals damage to all robots nearer than 150 units. The damage amount is 6*(150-distance) points, decremented by the corresponding RP bonus. After each use this device has to reload 2000 gcycles.

Weight	40
Prop1	IN = returns remaining reload time in gcycles
Int1	activate (see description), works only if Prop1 = 0

Contents

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8. TROUBLESHOOTING

Remember, the best way of learning to create robots (learning any programming language) is to look at some examples.

The best way of solving problems concerning the game is emailing me. But before you do that, here are some tips what to do if your robot will not compile:

1. Check if you haven't put any commas into the robot code, if so, delete them.
2. Check if there aren't any lines with just a label and no instruction, if so, remove them or put some instruction after the label name
3. Check if you haven't put a ":" after some label name, if so, remove and just leave one or more spaces instead.
4. Check the weight of your equipment. Remember to apply all the modifiers resulting from your SC. If the weight limit is exceeded, reequip.

If the robot compiles, but doesn't work as it should, try using the MSG instruction for debugging.

If you don't find out what the problem is, email me at 9bartelt@nw.fmph.uniba.sk.

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9. LICENSE & DISCLAIMER:

Original AT-Robots, version 2 Copyright (c) 1999, Ed T. Toton III & NecroBones Enterprises, All Rights Reserved.

AT-Robots, version 3 Copyright (c) 2002, Richard Bartelt

This software is freeware, and may be freely redistributed provided that it retains all the original files.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

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10. FINAL WORD:

Well, have a lot of fun!

Richard Bartelt (Mio)
9bartelt@nw.fmph.uniba.sk

AT-Robots 3 Homepage - http://www.nw.fmph.uniba.sk/~9bartelt

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