Bot Battle is a programming competition that forces students to systematically solve a video game with an automated solution while competing with other students. The goal is to challenge student’s programming ability and devise clever solutions to complex problems in a competitive and fun environment.
The game is heavily based on the video game Super Auto Pets (If you’d like to check out the original game in your spare time, it is very fun and free! More importantly, it will definitely help you with getting a stronger feel of the game and the strategies involved). https://teamwood.itch.io/super-auto-pets
The game is an auto-battler that has players field a team of pets that will battle each other. As the rounds progress, players lose lives based on the performance of their team and gain access to more pets. A player’s goal is to be the last one standing.
There are 2 stages per round.
- A player starts off with a set income of 10 coins, which will determine the extent of actions they can take.
- The player is then presented with a shop that has a random selection of pets and food. The options change as the rounds progress with stronger and more varied options unlocked.
- The shop can be rerolled to refresh the pet and food selection at the cost of one coin.
- Elements within the shop can be frozen to be kept in subsequent refreshes or rounds
- Buy pets will have three requirements
- You have enough coins (3) to buy the pet
- You have an empty slot to place the new pet into
- You have a duplicate of the pet that you will put in to level up.
- Pets are levelled up through buying copies of the same pet, giving stats and enhancing their abilities.
- Buying pets will trigger
- A buy trigger
- A friend summoned trigger
- Selling a pet will give you their level back in gold
- This will also activate any ability with a sell trigger
- All food must be bought with enough currency
- For food that can be targeted
- Has to be given to a valid pet in the team
- For food that can be targeted
- Given a valid index, two pets can be swapped in position
- If a pet is moved into a duplicate of another step, the pets will merge and increase sub levels
- A refresh will generate new pets and food in the shop
- All pets have an equal change to appear regardless of tier
- Valid items can be frozen
- Frozen items and pets will remain in the shop after new rounds and after refreshes
- You can keep track of pets and food between turns using their ids!
- The pets attack each other simultaneously based on their respective attack values and are knocked out once they run out of health.
- The player who has the last pet(s) standing wins, and their opponent loses lives.
- If both players have no pets, the round is drawn and no one loses a life.
The engine will conduct the battle stage abilities in a fixed order:
- Round start abilities are activated
- A scan is done to check for hurt and fainted pets
- While both teams have at least one member
- Trigger before attack abilities
- Both pets at the front of each team will attack each other
- The pets lose health respective of the attack of the other pet
- Trigger any after attack abilities
- Trigger any friend ahead attacked abilities
- Trigger any knockout abilities
- Trigger any faint or hurt abilities
- Note that after the ability triggers there will be a clean up of dead pets
- Pets who have hurt or faint triggers will not be removed until they have their ability triggered
- Note that after the ability triggers there will be a clean up of dead pets
For ability priority within the ability activations
- Level of pet > sub-level difference > stat total (sum of health and attack)
Out of the cast of pets available to be bought, all have an ability that is triggered through different mechanisms.
- All pets have a flat cost of 3 coins
| Ability types | Context |
|---|---|
| Hurt | During battle, when the pet is hurt from any form of damage. Also triggers when a pet faints. |
| Faint | During battle, when the pet faints |
| Buy/Sell | When a pet is bought or sold. |
| Level Up | When a pet levels up. |
| Friend Ahead Attacks | During battle, when the friend in the position in front of them attacks. |
| Buy Stage Start/End | When the buy round begins, and after the player declares the end of their own buy round. |
| Friend Summoned | When a pet is summoned into the team line up. Note that this also triggers when a pet is bought and introduced into the line-up after the shop. |
| Battle Stage Start | Before the pets begin to attack each other. |
| Before/After attack | During battle, before and after an attack. |
| Knock-out | During battle, when the pet manages to knock out an opposing pet after attacking them |
| Friend eats food | When a friend is given food or has their stats increased based on a food purchased. |
- Levels are determined by the sub-level
- Sub level 2 (1 pet + 2 duplicates) == Level 2
- Sub level 5 (Level 2 pet + 3 duplicates) == Level 3
Abilities are enhanced through the level of the pet. The scaling is denoted by L where L is their level.
| Pet | Trigger | Ability |
|---|---|---|
| Ant | Faint | Give L attack and health to a random friend |
| Fish | Level up | Give 2 (random) pets +1L health and +1L attack |
| Pig | Sell | Give L gold |
| Mosquito | Battle stage start | Deal 1 damage to L enemies |
| Cricket | Faint | Spawn a zombie cricket with L attack and health |
| Horse | Friend summoned | Give L attack until the end of combat |
| Beaver | Sell | Give 2 (random) pets +L attack |
| Pet | Trigger | Ability |
|---|---|---|
| Crab | Battle stage start | Gain 0.5L health from the healthiest friend |
| Swan | Buy stage start | Gain L gold |
| Hedgehog | Faint | Deal 2L damage to all |
| Peacock | Hurt | Gain 4L attack |
| Flamingo | Faint | Give L health and attack to two nearest pets behind |
| Spider | Faint | Summon a tier 3 pet with 2L health and attack |
| Kangaroo | Friend ahead attacks | Gain L health and damage |
| Pet | Trigger | Ability |
|---|---|---|
| Dodo | Battle stage start | Give 0.5L attack to the nearest friend ahead |
| Badger | Faint | Deal 0.5L attack damage to the adjacent pets. Includes your own pets |
| Dolphin | Battle stage start | Deal 3 damage to the lowest health enemy. Triggers L times |
| Giraffe | Buy stage end | Give 1 health and attack to L friends in front of it |
| Camel | Hurt | Give nearest friend behind 2L attack and health |
| Elephant | After attack | Deal 1 damage to the friend behind L times |
| Bunny | Friendly eats food | Give them +L health |
| Dog | Friend Summoned | Gain 2L attack and L health until end of battle |
| Sheep | Faint | Summon 2 rams with 2L health and attack |
| Pet | Trigger | Ability |
|---|---|---|
| Skunk | Battle stage start | Reduce the highest health enemy's health by 0.33*L |
| Hippo | Knock Out | Gain 3L health and attack |
| Bison | Buy stage end | If this has a level 3 friend, gain L attack and 2L health |
| Blowfish | Hurt | Deal 3L damage to one random enemy |
| Squirrel | Buy stage start | Discount all shop food by L coin |
| Penguin | Buy stage end | Give two level 2+ friends L health and attack |
All pets have a limit of 50 health and attack that cannot be surpassed
The round progression will determine the pool of pets/food available.
-
Pets and Food are sorted into tiers 1 to 4
-
Round 1 (starting round) will only have tier 1 available
-
Round 3 will introduce tier 2
-
Round 5 will introduce tier 3
-
Round 7 will introduce tier 4
- As of version 1, tier 4 is the final tier and all corresponding rounds will no longer iterate
-
For each slot in the shop
- EVERY AVAILABLE PET/FOOD ITEM WILL HAVE AN EQUAL CHANCE TO APPEAR IN THAT SLOT
- Foods can be split into 2 categories
- Consumed food
- Disappears post effect
- Held items
- Given as an attribute of the pet, and will persist across rounds
- Will be gone if the pet is sold
- Consumed food
- Unless specified, all food will need to be given to a target pet
- Foods will have a flat cost of 3 coins
| Food | Held/Consumed | Duration | Targeted | Ability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | Consumed | Permanent | Yes | Increase the health and attack of a pet by 1 |
| Honey | Held | Permanent | Yes | Spawn a 1/1 bee after faint |
| Food | Held/Consumed | Duration | Targeted | Ability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meat Bone | Held | Permanent | Yes | Non-ability attacks will now deal +3 damage |
| Cupcake | Consumed | Temporary | Yes | Give target pet +3 health and attack until end of battle |
| Food | Held/Consumed | Duration | Targeted | Ability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garlic | Held | Permanent | Yes | Pet will take 2 less damage from all sources |
| Salad Bowl | Consumed | Permanent | No | Give 2 random pets +1 health and attack |
| Food | Held/Consumed | Duration | Targeted | Ability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canned Food | Consumed | Permanent | No | Give all current and future shop pets +1 attack and health (will not need target pet) |
| Pear | Consumed | Permanent | Yes | Give target pet +2 health and attack |
- Repeated hurt effect actions will not occur in some circumstances
- Elephant and Dolphin upgrade abilities are notably affected
- The pet roster is reduced compared to the normal game.
- Sleeping pill has been removed via executive decision
- All hurt and faint effects can only occur during battle
- Applications of animal abilities will not be exactly like the game, but will consistently occur
- Can be clarified through exploring game engine for specifics