Tags and team tags
Contents
[hide]Basics
Tags are single-character marks placed on objects on the Gladiabots arena, such as:
- Myself
- Allies
- Enemies
- Allied bases
- Enemy bases
- Resources
Tags
Tags (previously known as bot tags) exist as numerals, the numbers "1" through "5". They can be detected only by the bot which placed the tag.
Team tags
Team tags exist as alphabets, the letters "A" through "E". They can be detected by all bots which are in the same team as the bot which placed the team tag.
Bot action: Tag
The bot action tag is an action that adds a tag on one or more targets.
Bot action: Untag
The bot action untag is an action that removes a tag from one or more targets.
Programming tags
As of Alpha 12, placing or removing a tag does not cost a tick. Thus, one can add/remove many tags, and use those tags to perform an action, all within the same tick. All tagging actions happen from left to right (in the order that they are checked). Once a tagging action is evaluated, this change is visible to all later nodes. This means that the tags a particular node sees aren't necessarily the tags which you can see.
Group tags are evaluated left to right, also, but each bot is evaluated in instantiation order. This means that if you have a leader, it's important that the leader be the highest priority bot (the first in instantiation order). This way, any tags the leader places will be seen in the same tick. If the leader were the lowest priority bot, then the other bots would not see the tag until the next tick.
Remarks:
- It is possible to place multiple tags on the same target, the order does not matter.
- Tags can be used for focus fire
, determining a leader, mark resources and timing actions. They can also be used for more complex choreography. - Note that later tagging actions can override earlier tagging actions. This makes rightmost tagging actions appear to have highest priority.
Examples using tags
Note: Examples are obsolete, since they don't use instant tagging.
Map: Set your priorities
Tagging the resource in the center can help secure a 3-2 score.
Dance choreography
They can also be used for more complex choreography, such as:
The bots are moving to the allied bot that's tagged with the next letter in series, i.e., A > B > C > D > E > A and they are fleeing from the bot that's tagged with the previous letter in series. They are also fleeing from the allied base to prevent clumping up.
