cave master

[Nihlaeth]

I'm busy with the cave master challenge. I'm using the same bot as I used in cavern master, I only adjusted it a bit so it would go down faster.

When I checked its progress about 2 hours ago, it was at dungeon level 8, now it is at level 0 again, so I figured it had died. The only problem is that the time is now 3000 steps and my bot is still level 11. And worse, it can't find the stairs anymore...

Is there some way to reset the dungeon? I think I ran into an error...

[tails]

Is there some way to reset the dungeon?

Try this: http://www.hacker.org/challenge/misc/d/cave.php?reset=1

[DaymItzJack]

'You were too slow at 1980 moves!' is incorrect.

'You were too slow at 1937 moves!' is incorrect.

I hate this challenge. My bot works perfectly fine it just gets a little too many moves over.

Can someone give me a hint as to which sword is the strongest/doesn't miss the most? I spend most of my time attacking enemies and in my opinion getting this under 1900 moves is luck.

[bsguedes]

It is a bit of lucky, OK, but it is not so hard to find an 'ideal' way to go... you need only to think about how much time is really necessary to spent in each level of the dungeon...

[DaymItzJack]

I'm not sure how big of a spoiler this is but:

I've been more focusing on my level. My bot will not go down stairs until he is 3 levels above the current level so he is prepared to get to the next boss. So far running the bot about 10 times, he's made it probably 7/10 times and has killed it twice so I'm pretty sure I can't skimp anymore on the levels.

[DaymItzJack]

'You were too slow at 1980 moves!' is incorrect.

'You were too slow at 1937 moves!' is incorrect.

'You were too slow at 1938 moves!' is incorrect.

Starting to get annoyed...

[bsguedes]

Maybe you lose too many cycles searching the stairs. And maybe you can go down a few levels without having 3 levels above the dungeon level.

[Nihlaeth]

I have a tip for you:

You don't have to start searching for the stairs after have leveled up 3 times. Just make your bot look for the stairs constantly and make sure it stays close until you leveled up enough. It saves a lot of time.

[DaymItzJack]

I have. My bot does the following:

Randomly searches for stairs until it finds it. Once it finds it it'll go one direction then the next move it'll go the opposite direction so it's back at the stairs again. It'll keep repeating this until it gets 3 levels above the current dungeon level. I keep it 3 above because it seems like I die every time I don't.

[DaymItzJack]

Code: Select all

Time underground: 1899

I think I just hit the jackpot.

[bsguedes]

I think I got 1900 cycles (as far as I remember). And it was valid.

[laz0r]

This is very simple. You don't need to get it 3 levels higher, by keeping it at 1 level higher will ensure that you have a 95% chance of killing the big monsters on the next level. Maybe.

<EDIT> Complete rubbish, someone else using my account. Punishment has been dealt out

[laz0r]

I got it in 1840 ish moves, but my program failed to get the name of the 'beast' - so I had to restart it. Will I still get the credit for it if I go over the cycle limit this time?

<EDIT> NM, I got it in the time limit anyway.

[FlotterOtto]

So, now that my bot managed Cave Master (1766, weeee), I'd like to know what the magenta, turquoise and lavender potions do (I just stored aquamarine to heal on need, the other potions are just collected and dropped on next occasion). Magenta and turquoise seem wo weaken the monster, lavender seems to make unvincible for a few rounds.

[laz0r]

Supposedly, lavender blocks one blow from the monster and magenta makes your sword more powerful.
You don't need to search randomly for the stairs - you can just go round in a spiral round the walls until you reach the exit (or you've covered all the squares in which case the exit's in the middle).