MOB-BOT

Church Co. MOB-BOT

Turing Inc. MOB-BOT

As you work for the companies (unpaid), you will be coding and upgrading your very own MOB-BOT. MOB-BOT is a friendly, cute, and efficient robot designed to mine in The Quarry forever! How lovely.

Here are some important notes about MOB-BOT that will help you to improve its functionalities.

MOB-BOT Attributes

Your instance of MOB-BOT is passed into your base_client.py or base_client_2.py files. The object is listed as avatar. There is a list of attributes MOB-BOT will have that will help your coding endeavors.

Tech Tree

MOB-BOT can undergo a myriad of upgrades that will make it an amazing, mining machine. This tree structure shows the available upgrade paths and how you can improve.

Structure

Here’s a description of each Tech:

Tech Name	Tech Description
Improved Drivetrain	This tech will increase your movement, allowing MOB-BOT to move up to 2 tiles per turn!
Superior Drivetrain	Grants an additional increase in movement, allowing MOB-BOT to move up to 3 tiles per turn! How wonderful!
Overdrive Drivetrain	The ultimate movement upgrade. MOB-BOT can now move up to 4 tiles per turn! Burn rubber!
Improved Mining	A decent upgrade from basic Mining Robotics. MOB-BOT will now gain 2 pieces of ore when you mine!
Superior Mining	This upgraded mining technology brings MOB-BOT’s efficiency to a new level. MOB-BOT will gain 3 pieces of ore when mining! Sensational!
Overdrive Mining	MOB-BOT has become the mining machine it was always meant to be. MOB-BOT will now gain 4 pieces of ore when mining! Bring in the money!
Dynamite	Become more efficient with your mining! Dynamite explodes 2 turns after being placed, mining multiple ores at once!
Landmines	The other company keeps taking valuable ores, so start setting traps for them… >:D When a landmine detonates on an opponent, each item the opponent carries has a 50% chance of being stolen.
EMPs	EMPs are the rich Bot’s landmine! EMPs steal 100% of an opponent’s inventory when detonated. Phenomenal! NOTE: once purchased, Trap Defusal CANNOT be purchased.
Trap Defusal	Fight back against the traps that are set against you. Trap defusing will deactivate ALL traps placed by you and the opponent in a range of 3 Manhattan tiles. NOTE: once purchased, EMPs CANNOT be purchased.

For more information on Dynamite, Landmines, and EMPs, go to Placeables.

Make sure to upgrade the Tech Tree as time goes on. Not only will you gain upgrades, but each unlocked Tech will provide extra game points. Visit Scoring for an overview of how points are accumulated.

Unlocking Techs

To unlock these Techs, you must mine Ancient Tech, which will yield science points. These do not count toward your total game points.

To unlock these Techs, MOB-BOT must end the turn on top of its respective company’s base. When there, it can also purchase a new Tech (assuming it has enough science points). To do so, use the Enums that are provided, and Taking Action will explain how to implement it in more detail.

Remember - the Tech Tree is… a tree. You must unlock techs in order based on their branches. That means you cannot buy Dynamite without first buying Improved Mining. You can, however, buy Improved Mining and then Improved Drivetrain, and vice versa.

This also means that any branching paths can only access one Tech. More specifically, After purchasing landmines, there is the choice to purchase either EMPs or Trap Defusal. Only one can be purchased. After it is purchased, the other cannot be purchased.

To view the cost of all Techs, please visit Scoring for more information.

Game Score & Science Points

To know your total game points at any given turn, type

score = avatar.score

to access it.

To know how many science points you have, type

science_points = avatar.science_points

to access it.

Inventory

Each MOB-BOT comes with its own, standardized inventory system. The inventory has a max capacity of 50 ores. Once capacity has been reached, MOB-BOT will no longer be able to collect when mining. Make sure to go back to base and make a deposit!

Each time you mine, your drop rate will determine how many ores are added to your inventory. For example, if Overdrive Mining (drop rate = 4) was unlocked and there is an empty inventory, the inventory will have 4/50 slots filled after mining.

To view your inventory, a method called get_my_inventory() is provided in either base_client file. It requires the world object to be passed in, and you will receive the inventory for your company’s MOB-BOT. Remember that it is a list of the different Ores & Ancient Tech you can mine.

As more Techs are unlocked, they will either be considered a Passive or Active Ability and behave differently.

Passive Abilities

All Drivetrain and Mining Techs will be passive. Once you unlock them, they will apply to MOB-BOT. When a Drivetrain Tech is unlocked, it simply allows for more movement actions to take place in one turn. Movement and other implementations to note while coding are explained in Taking Action.

Active Abilities

What Are They?

There are 4 active abilities: Dynamite Active Ability, Landmine Active Ability, EMP Active Ability, and Trap Defusal Active Ability. These all have cooldown effects and must be called using Enums, preventing them from being used all the time. The cooldown will represent how many turns it takes until the ability can be used again. Manage your resources properly, and you can get the upper hand!

Ability	Cooldown
Dynamite Active Ability	3
Landmine Active Ability	4
EMP Active Ability	4
Trap Defusal	2

Dynamite, Landmine, and EMP Active Abilities

As listed in the Tech Tree Structure, these abilities allows MOB-BOT to place dynamite, landmines, and EMPs on the ground respectfully. Each of these are explained more in depth in Placeables.

Trap Defusal Active Ability

This ability is the most unique one that MOB-BOT can acquire. Instead of placing a Landmine or EMP on the ground, MOB-BOT can instead remove Landmines and EMPs. This allows for it to fight back against any selfish, stealing MOB-BOTs. The audacity of them.

This is briefly explained more in Taking Action, and the enums are provided in Enums.

When Using Active Abilities

When using active abilities, as long as they are available to use, they can be called whenever. Please note that when you use an Active Ability, that will be the only action you can do for that turn.

For example, say MOB-BOT has the Dynamite and EMP Active Abilities, and they can both be used. MOB-BOT could place dynamite one turn, and then place an EMP the next turn. The same applies in the other order. As long as the cooldown is no longer active, an ability can be used.

When an ability is usable, it is shown on the Visualizer by showing the ability’s icon colored in.