Teams and swarms · live-coded
The Familiar Swarm
Twenty familiars are yours, and one function moves them all: move(me), in Python or JavaScript, asked for each of them four times a second. They gather moonstones on an open field and carry them home, while the other side's swarm does the same, and a carrier caught among more rivals than friends drops its stone. Simple rules (flock, scatter, guard) make the swarm's behaviour, so a three-line change can turn a match around.
One against one up to three against three, against other players or Xher's bots. The swarm-keepers in the Hall →
How a match is played
- The swarm. Each player has twenty familiars, and one function,
move(me), moves them all: four times a second it is asked once for each familiar, with what that familiar sees, and answers which way it goes,[dx, dy]. Players on one side each keep their own twenty. - Moonstones. They surface in veins about the field: one near each nest, one in each half, and bright ones (worth 3 points) on the middle line. A familiar that touches a free moonstone picks it up, and carries it home at three-quarters of its speed. Brought into your nest, it scores for your side.
- The press. A carrier with more rivals than friends within 5 drops its moonstone where it stands, and its side cannot pick that stone up again for a few steps. So carriers are safest among friends, and hunters work best in pairs.
- The nests. No familiar may come within 7 of the other side's nest.
- Casting. Change your spell whenever you like during the match; each ten-second tick uses your newest. Variables kept outside
movelast the tick. - Win. More points of moonstone brought home when time runs out. Against bots, every player is on the Sun.
Open a match
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