Project 5: The Truel

This project requires you to write a component for a program that will interact with the rest of the program using the "message-passing" analogy for understanding methods.

Introduction

A truel is a fight involving three parties--- like a duel, but with three people instead of two. Imagine three people, each with a gun and the same number of bullets, shooting at each other until either (1) at most one is still survives, or (2) all survivors are out of bullets. The winner(s), if any, of the truel are those who survive til the end.

There are various ways truels can be set up. Here are the variables we will recognize in our definition of a truel are the following:

• Marksmanship. Each player has a real number from 0 to 1 indicating the probability that it will hit its target on a given shot.
• Firing rules. In what order to the players take turns shooting at each other? There are three possibilities of what happens in each "round" of the truel.
  • Simultaneous firing: Each round consists of each surviving player shooting at the same time. In this case, if players A and B intend to shoot at each other, they potentially could both hit each other.
  • Fixed, sequential firing: Each round consists of each surviving player shooting, but one at at time. In this case, if players A and B intend to shoot each other, but A goes first, B might be hit and not be able to shoot.
  • Random, sequential firing: Each round consists of one player, chosen at random among the survivors, shooting. In this case, the same player might shoot twice in a row.
• Number of bullets. Each player is given a certain number of bullets (the same number for each player). In simultaneous and fixed sequential firing, everyone will run out of bullets at the same time. In random sequential firing, however, one player may run out before the others. We also will consider the case when all players have an unlimited supply of bullets, and they keep firing until there is at most one survivor.

In each round, each player (called a trueller) must choose which other trueller to shoot at. (The trueller may choose to shoot a no one-- that is, fire into the air-- but it must shoot and use up a bullet at each turn.) The strategy is to choose a target that will increase its chance of survival.

Writing a Trueller class

Make a directory for this project and copy all files from the directory /homeemp/tvandrun/pub/235/truel

cp /homeemp/tvandrun/pub/235/truel/* .

Your task is to write a class that implements the interface Trueller. This means you have to write two methods:

    public void enterGame(int number, TruelStatus game);
    public int shoot();

When the method enterGame() is called, this indicates to an object of your class that a truel has started and your object is one of the truellers. The parameters tell your object what number trueller it is (0, 1 or 2), and it also gives your object a reference to another object of type TruelStatus which gives information about the current status of the truel. More on that later.

When the method shoot() is called, this means that it is your object's turn to shoot, and it must return a number indicating at which other player to shoot this round--- 0, 1, or 2. If you return a number other than 0-2, that will be interpreted as shooting into the air. Your object may choose to shoot itself, but this is not advisable. (An object never misses if it shoots at itself.)

Your shoot method is what implements whatever strategy you come up with. It must calculate which player to shoot at.

The interface TruelStatus has the following methods:

    public boolean isAlive(int truelerNumber);

    public double marksmanship(int truelerNumber);

    public boolean isFixedSequential();

    public boolean isRandomSequential();

    public boolean isSimultaneous();

    public boolean hasShotAt(int shooter, int target);

You can use this to find out if, at a given point in the game, another player is still alive. You can also use it to find out what the marksmanship level is of each and what the firing rules of the current game are. You can also find out if a certain trueler has shot at another certain trueler (for example, if someone has shot at you).

Use instance variables to keep track of information between method calls. For example, in the method enterGame(), you are given a TruelStatus. You are going to need that later, in shoot().

To test out your Trueler, run the java program Truel. This allows you to make up three players, pick which kind of trueler they will be (ie, what class to instantiate for them), pick which kind of truel, and choose the number of bullets. Each trueler will be given a marksmanship quotient at random, but you can decided whether that quotient is normally (ie, on a bell curve) or uniformly distributed. I have already provided three trueler classes: Hero, which always shoots at the opponent who is a better marksman; Bully, which always shoots at the worse marksman, and Crazy, which picks an opponent at random.

See Kilgour and Brams, "The Truel", Mathematics Magazine, vol 70, no 5, December 1997 for reference. It's available in the Brandt room.

3. Tournament

I recommend experimenting with various strategies. Write several trueler classes and see which ones work better. Remember, your goal is to increase the changes of survival. The best trueler won't always survive, but better truelers will survive more frequently.

Give your trueler class a name that includes your last name or some way to identify yourself as the author. Copy the classfile to the directory /homeemp/tvandrun/pub/235/truelers.

cp PercianteTrueler.class /homeemp/tvandrun/pub/235/truelers

The trueler classes in that directory will be used in a tournament in lab on tuesday. Things to note:

• You may submit more than one trueler class to this directory.
• You may copy classes from this directory to your own and test yours out against them.
• Consequently, if you don't want anyone else to test their trueler against yours, then you should wait until Monday night or Tuesday morning to submit it.
• However, it would be a nice service to the class to submit some of your discarded trueler classes as you go along, as a way to help each other test your truelers out. If you submit a trueler that you do not want included in the tournament, just let me know.

4. Turn-in

Hand in a hard copy as usual. This will be separate from the submissions to the directory.

DUE: Tues, Mar 20, at 5:00 PM.

Note: to be in the tournament, you must have your trueler(s) submitted by lab time on tuesday.