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Protocol description & support package |
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We are happy to announce that the MASSim-software-package has been released! You can access it here:
If you have any problems please contact us immediately. Although we tried hard on making the software package as bug-free as possible we cannot be absolutely sure and therefore would be grateful if you would report us any bugs.
The package contains:
- the scenario-description,
- the protocol-description that explains the communication-protocol,
- the MASSim-server itself,
- two maps for testing your agents,
- the cow-monitor that lets you inspect the state of the simulation,
- a rudimentary level-editor,
- rudimentary dummy agents, and
- shell-scripts for starting things.
This is everything you need to dive headfirst into developing your solution for the contest.
The tournament will be held in September. In order to register to the tournament you have to submit a *short description* of your solution in August. In July we will publish a template for that short description, so that you will have enough time to write.
After the registration-deadline we will start the official *testing-phase*. During that period we offer you the
opportunity to test your network-connection to our infrastructure. During that phase we also intend to calibrate the time-outs of the simulation. The time-out is the time that the server allows your agents to deliberate and act.
Additionally we offer to host test-matches. That is matches under tournament-conditions. As soon as at least two teams have a stable solution and ask, we can start a server here in Clausthal and run some matches. The whole thing of course depends also on our resources here. We cannot offer that service 24/7, but we will make sure that you can use the service when needed.
Also, we would like to ask you to submit SVG-videos of the performance of your team on a regular basis, starting when your solution is stable. We would like to do some reviewing on the difficulty of the maps and the performance of the cows. We intend to adapt our maps based on these reviews. Note that we will treat your submissions confidentially. We will not make anything about your teams available to the others.
This year you have several choices on how to get started. You could use the dummy-agents that are included in the package. Also you can create a connector completely from scratch respecting the
protocol-description. Of course you can reuse your previous solution if you have already participated.
Finally you can support the EIS-project and use its own connector:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/apleis
This year we offer the rudimentary level-editor right from the beginning. Feel free to use it for level-editing. Feel also free to extend the editor if necessary, the sources are included in the package. Please let us know
if you have created any maps. We want to review them and maybe make them available to others.
Note that this year the submission of your solution's source-code is *obligatory*. We expect every participant
to submit their source-code right after the end of the tournament. Note however that submitting the source-code is a precondition to winning the contest. No source-codes, no prize! :D
Speaking of which. Most probably there will be again a prize of 500 EUR worth in Springer-books. And maybe there is a cup again.
Good luck!
The Multi-Agent Programming Contest Organizers
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Agent Contest 2010 News 
Download massim-2010-07-29.tar.bz2