Boulder Dash Forum

[Dr Guru]

Biters have been introduced in fan games early on (I guess in the 80s by Prof. Knibble?). They can also be used in the Crazy Light Construction Set. I am a bit puzzled by them, as their behavior always seemed rather unpredictable to me. Can someone help me?

1. What is the algorithm by which they move/eat?

2. Is there a *good* cave (that is fun to play/solve) that demonstrates that they are interesting elements and that hence there is a reason for their existence?

[Dustin]

Hi Dr. Guru,
I've made one cave using biters so far (which isn't released yet). As far as I can tell, they behave as follows (on GDash):

1. They can move into space, dirt and diamonds, eating the latter two in the process.
2. Their first priority is to eat dirt, secondly a diamond, thirdly moving into space.
3. If 2. still gives them a choice where to move, their priorities are: forward > turn left > turn right.
4. They can not move backward, If they have no other choice, they wait for 1 fram in the dead-end.
_________________
Boulder Dash X Rock, Paper, Scissors:
ROCKFORD collects DIAMOND, digs DIRT
DIAMOND outvalues DIRT & BOULDER
DIRT carries BOULDER, blocks FIREFLY
BOULDER kills FIREFLY & ROCKFORD
FIREFLY kills ROCKFORD, guards DIAMOND

[Dr Guru]

Thank you, Dustin, for this information about the movement algorithm! Maybe I will try to play around with biters in CLCK somewhen in the future.