What's New in Version 2

• Somebody gave them guns! But before shooting the actors must learn the basics of life. If they survive for 200 steps, it's time for some serious shooting madness.
• You can punish the actors by dropping bullet bombs! Just aim and click the left mouse button. You will notice when the bullets hit the targets..
• Much improved status log (well, at least more annoying comments)

Basics

• Artificial creatures called "actors" compete against each other in a simulated world. The initial generation of actors is a completely random one. A new generation of actors is bred when the number of actors reach a threshold value (currently 40). Existing actors provide the genetic material for the next generation, so they are called parent actors. Each actor of the new generation is either a copy of a parent actor (they deserve to survive!), a mutated parent, or a crossbred offspring of two parents. Not all parents produce as many descendants: More healthy parents are more likely to take part in the cross-breeding process.
• Actor's genetic material  is 320 bytes long array. These genes describe the maximum of 120 cells of a living actor. There are three main cell classes: Sensors, Nerves, and Actuators. Sensors are the only way for actors to collect data about the world, like "Am I touching an energy zone?". The sensor data is fed into nerves which process the data. Each nerve either passes data forward to other nerves or to actuators. Actor uses actuators to affects the world or it's own state (turn, move, shoot, hit).
• The color of an actor indicates its fitness. Actors full of energy have very bright green color while those close to death are very red indeed. The color changes gradually, white color indicating "middle energy state".
• Actors can obtain more energy by finding and consuming energy zones (green stuff).
• Actors will lose energy if they touch death zones (brown stuff), world boundaries or central death zone (brown rectangles in the middle of the world). Note that the basic idea behind the center death zone is to force actors to do at least something. But the worst thing is to get hit by a flying bullet.. Actors do learn to shoot each other, but you can also drop bullet bombs just by clicking the left mouse button.
• The number of death zones is increased if actors survive for more that 400 steps. The initial death zone count is 400 and the maximum count is 800. Also the number of energy zones is adjusted according to the actor performance. Initial number of energy zones is 600, and the minimum is 200. These adjustments together will keep the world competitive enough for evolving actors.

Details

• JuhasWorld requires Java 1.1
• I will add more stuff here soon, especially if somebody requests it!

Version History

1.0    (1999-08-01)

• Still available here

1.01  (1999-08-07)

• Minimum number of energy zones increased to 40 (5 in 1.0)
• The number of energy zones is reduced twice as much as in 1.0 if actors survive more than 300 (was 500 in 1.0). 1 energy zone is reduced after the threshold and then one more for each extra 50 steps. Increasing the amount of death zones has been adjusted accordingly.
• Strict number of energy/death zones: 1.01 never creates an energy or death zone on top of existing zone. Previously it was possible to have slightly different number of energy or death zones on screen than what the status display told.

1.02 (1999-08-08)

• Minimum number of energy zones increased from 40 to 50
• Energy zone reduction threshold increased from 300 to 400 steps. The same adjustment was done for death zone adjustment threshold. Now if there are only non-moving actors the world doesn't become more difficult (non-moving actors can't live this long, at least it seems to be so...)
• Each energy zone contains initially 20% more energy
• Cost of existing increased by 20% to make non-moving behavior less favorable
• Still available here

2.00 (2001-06-13)

• Somebody gave them guns! But before shooting the actors must learn the basics of life. If they survive for 200 steps, it's time for some serious shooting madness.
• You can punish the actors by dropping bullet bombs! Just aim and click the left mouse button. You will notice when the bullets hit the targets..
• Much improved status log (well, at least more annoying comments)
• Slogan adjusted slightly: "Yes, it's alive!" became "Yes, it's dead or alive!"
• Death zone count changed: Initial 400, maximum 800
• Energy zone count changed: Initial 600, minimum 200
• Energy zone and death zone adjustment threshold is now 400 steps

Contact Information

•  juhakaki@yahoo.com

Copyright Note

• Copyright © 1999-2002 Juha Käki, All rights reserved