vindinium-client

Write a vindinium.org bot in node.js!

Install

npm install vindinium-client

Example bot

This guy walks in a random direction each turn:

var dirs = 'nesw';

function bot(state, callback) {
    var i = Math.floor(Math.random() * 4);
    var dir = dirs[i];
    callback(null, dir);
};

module.exports = bot;
if (require.main === module)
    require('vindinium-client').cli(bot);

Put this in a new directory somewhere.
Make it executable: chmod a+x bot.js
Install the client here as well: npm install vindinium-client
Put your key in a JSON file: echo '{"key":"..."}' > config.json
Run it! ./bot.js -t 1 config.json

The bot function

The bot function signature is (state, callback).

The state object is what's parsed as-is from the server.

However, for each game an empty object is created, and set on the context property of all state objects for that game. You can use this to track additional state between turns for a single game.

The callback signature is (error, direction).

Errors abort the game. The bot function is also executed within a try-catch, so that errors thrown by non-asynchronous bots are also handled.

For convenience, all of n, north, e, east, s, south, w, and west are acceptable directions. These are also case-insensitive. Anything else is interpreted as a 'stay' command.

Full CLI usage

Run a single training match on map m1:

./bot.js -t 1 --map m1 config.json

Run 3 training matches, for 50 turns each:

./bot.js -t 3 --turns 50 config.json

Run 8 training matches total, parallel in 2 workers:

./bot.js -t 2,8 config.json

Run 20 arena matches, in 4 workers, queue only 1 at the same time:

./bot.js -a 1,4,20 config.json

Run arena matches indefinitely, in 4 workers, queuing 2 at a time:

./bot.js -a 2,4,INF config.json

Same as above, but queue in groups of 2. This is to attempt team strategies, but the game offers no guarantee that you'll actually end up in the same game.

./bot.js -a 2,2,4,INF config.json

At any point, the bot can be interrupted with Ctrl + C. This will finish any running arena matches. Press again to stop immediately. Training matches are always immediately stopped on interrupt.

The CLI uses forking to do parallel processing. However to make debugging and profiling easier, a single worker won't use the forking code.

Errors currently do not stop the CLI from queuing more games. (This will likely change in the future.)

Private servers

Private servers are specified in the config JSON.

{ "key": "...", "serverUrl": "http://..." }

Custom logging

The standard logging is very basic. You can override it using a second parameter to cli:

var cli = require('vindinium-client');
cli(bot, function(ev, arg) {
    if (ev === 'turn')
        console.log('Turn ' + arg.game.turn);
    else
        cli.defaultLog(ev, arg);
});

The function is called on several events:

queue: Called right before the first request. This request may take a while until enough players are in the server queue to start a match. arg is empty.
start: The game has started. Called before the bot function. arg is the first state from the server.
turn: Called after the bot function, and before the next request. arg is the current state.
end: The game has ended. arg is the last state from the server.
error: An error has occurred. arg is the error.

In addition, the CLI adds the following events:

graceful: The user interrupted the bot, and it is gracefully finishing running arena matches. (A second interrupt will abort matches.)
abort: The user interrupted the bot, and running matches were aborted.

The cli.defaultLog method is the default logging function, and can be called as a fallback, if you only wish to override certain events. There's also cli.ranking(state), which generates just the ranking string (WIN - P1 ...) used in the default logger.

Usage from node.js

If you'd like to take manual control, that's possible too. The main export of vindinium-client is a function to run a single game:

var vindinium = require('vindinium-client');

function bot(state, cb) {
    /* ... */
});

vindinium({
    key: '...',
    bot: bot,
    mode: 'arena',  // or 'training'
}, function(err, lastState) {
    /* ... */
});

The above parameters are required. Additional optional parameters are:

log: a log function taking state, called after each response.
context: an initial context object.
serverUrl: an alternative server to use.
turns: the number of turns to play, only for training mode.
map: the name of the map to play on, only for training mode.

Credit

Based on ozten/vindinium-starter-nodejs

BSD licensed.

vindinium-client