Overview

This API is used when creating bots for the Robocode Tank Royale programming game. The API handles communication with a game server behind the scene, so you can focus on the fun part of controlling the bot.

The Bot API is available here:

A good way to get started with Robocode Tank Royale is to head over to the general documentation for Tank Royale to learn about the basics first:

Another good way to get started is to look at the source files for the sample bots.

The bot classes

The first primary class that you should know about is the Bot class and perhaps the BaseBot. The BaseBot class provides all the base and minimum functionality of a bot and deals with the communication with the server. The Bot class is based on BaseBot, but provides more convenient methods like e.g. blocking methods for moving and turning the bot, and firing the gun.

Code example

Here is an example of a simple bot using the Bot API written in Python and should run as a regular application.

MyFirstBot.py:

from robocode_tankroyale_botapi import Bot, BaseBot, BotInfo
from robocode_tankroyale_botapi.events import ScannedBotEvent, HitByBulletEvent

# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# MyFirstBot
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# A sample bot originally made for Robocode by Mathew Nelson.
# Ported to Robocode Tank Royale by Flemming N. Larsen.
#
# Probably the first bot you will learn about.
# Moves in a seesaw motion, and spins the gun around at each end.
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
class MyFirstBot(Bot):
    # Constructor, which loads the bot config file
    def __init__(self) -> None:
        super().__init__(BotInfo.from_file("MyFirstBot.json"))

    # Called when a new round is started -> initialize and do some movement
    def run(self) -> None:
        # Repeat while the bot is running
        while self.is_running:
            self.forward(100)
            self.turn_gun_left(360)
            self.back(100)
            self.turn_gun_left(360)

    # We saw another bot -> fire!
    def on_scanned_bot(self, evt: ScannedBotEvent) -> None:
        self.fire(1)

    # We were hit by a bullet -> turn perpendicular to the bullet
    def on_hit_by_bullet(self, evt: HitByBulletEvent) -> None:
        # Calculate the bearing to the direction of the bullet
        bearing = self.calc_bearing(evt.bullet.direction)

        # Turn 90 degrees to the bullet direction based on the bearing
        self.turn_right(90 - bearing)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Start the bot and join a battle
    MyFirstBot().start()

The above code describes the behavior of the bot. In Python, the entry point is guarded by if __name__ == "__main__":. Using the bot API, we need to start the bot by calling the start() method, which will tell the server that this bot wants to join the battle and also provide the server with the required bot info.

With the bot’s constructor (__init__) we call the BotInfo.from_file(str) method that provides the bot info for the server, like e.g. the name of the bot, and its author, etc.

The run() method is called when the bot needs to start its real execution to send instructions to the server.

The on-methods (for example, on_scanned_bot and on_hit_by_bullet) are event handlers with code that triggers when a specific type of event occurs. For example, the event handler on_scanned_bot triggers whenever an opponent bot is scanned by the radar. The event instance (e.g. ScannedBotEvent) contains the event data for the scanned bot.

JSON config file

The code in this example is accompanied by a MyFirstBot.json, which is a JSON file containing the config file for the bot, and is used by the booter to start up the bot on a local machine.

MyFirstBot.json:

{
  "name": "My First Bot",
  "version": "1.0",
  "authors": [
    "Mathew Nelson",
    "Flemming N. Larsen"
  ],
  "description": "A sample bot that is probably the first bot you will learn about.",
  "homepage": "",
  "countryCodes": [
    "us",
    "dk"
  ],
  "platform": "Python",
  "programmingLang": "Python 3.x"
}

You can read more details about the format of this JSON file here: https://robocode-dev.github.io/tank-royale/articles/booter.html#json-config-file.html

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