Course web page: Introduction to Computer Science for non-majors II James Tam Return to the course web page

 

 

CPSC 219: Full Assignment 1

Due Monday Feb 9 at 4 PM

New concepts to be applied for this assignment

Creating a fight simulator

Write a simple a fight simulator (in case you have never seen a "2-man" kombat sequence here is a video). Your program will have two opponents: an attacker (that only launches attacks) and a defender (that can only defend against the attacks). There's three types of attacks categorized by height: high, medium and low. (For stylistic reasons you should use class constants for constant attributes (i.e.., final static int HIGH = 1;) such  as these but because this is your first Object-Oriented program this requirement is waived for this assignment and won't be required until later ones).

There's three types of defenses: high, medium and low. If the heights of the attack and defence match then the attack is blocked. Otherwise the attack is counted as a 'hit'. The simulation runs a fixed number of attack-defenses sequences (from 1 - 100 'rounds' of attacks and defenses). The user can determine the number of rounds at runtime. If a value outside the range is entered then the default number of rounds (ten) will be executed (no re-querying needed).

Also when the program is first run the user can determine the proportion of attacks that originate at the three different heights (e.g., high = 50%, medium = 30%, low = 20%). These three proportions must sum to 100% otherwise the program will use the defaults (equal probability of each type of attack - you don't have to have percentages that sum exactly to 100 in this case).

The defender will be entirely controlled by the computer. The 'unskilled' defender has an equal chance of employing one of the three types of defenses. A program that implements an 'intelligent' defender will analyze the pattern of attacks and adjust the probability of each type of defense being employed over time. (For example if the attacker always throws high attacks then the defender will eventually extrapolate the pattern and use high defenses more frequently). It is up to you to decide how many rounds are needed before the defender begins to adjust to  the pattern of attacks. And the value determining the adjustment period can be hard-coded (fixed) into the program (no user input needed at run-time). The minimum number of rounds needed should be one (with zero attacks thrown there is no pattern to analyze). Prior to analyzing and determining the pattern of attacks the defender should have an equal probability of employing each type of defense.

Exactly what constitutes 'intelligent' for this assignment? Because this isn't a formal class in Artificial Intelligence the definition is fairly broad: as long the program demonstrates the ability to adapt to the pattern of attackers and the marker can clearly see the pattern as the program executes (the display of statistics each round will be very useful for communicating this). If for instance the attacker throws only medium attacks, after the learning period is over the defender should eventually employ only medium height defenses (or at least have an extremely high probability of employing this type of defense). You can choose how many rounds will pass before the defender begins to adapt to the pattern.

Note: it is important that your printed output statements clearly demonstrate to your marker that features are working (e.g., that the attacker and defender generated something ( an attack/defense) and how that combination produced a result). Consequently your output must not only present the needed information but must also be reasonably formatted. The program output is even more crucial when you have implemented an intelligent defender. The marker must be able to see the effects of the defender adapting to the pattern of attacks otherwise you may not get credit for your work. He/she won't have the time to trace through your program.

You can either come up with your own algorithm for the defender or you can freely research algorithms online. In the latter case make sure you clearly cite all your sources. (Failing to list a source may be regarded as academic misconduct).

The program will tally a number of statistics and display them during each round *and* at the end of the simulation.  Here is the minimum amount of information to display:

Statistics displayed each round: the round number, the type of attack and defense chosen, the result of the attack-defense combination (hit or block).

Statistics displayed when the program ends:  the total number of successful attacks and blocks and the probabilities of each type of attack-defense at the end (the values for the attacker won't change but an intelligent defender's proportions should go from equal values to more closely reflect the proportions of the attacker).

In the assignment directory you can find a [text file] that are records of the output of the program. As you will see my 'intelligent' defender is not particularly 'intelligent' but it's sufficient for this class. Note however how the defender adapts after round 20, quite dramatically in this case because the probability of attacks is 100% for one of the 'heights'.

Program design [Click here for overview]: the program will consist of 3 Java source code files (Attacker, Defender, Manager). Each class definition must be in it's own file and that file name must match the class name.

Using pre-written Java code

You will need to use the built in code class Random. Beyond that (and common sense operators and functions such as those for input/output and mathematical operators), unless you told otherwise, you will need to write your own code and cannot use other pre-written Java classes or operators.

Submitting your work:

  1. Assignments (source code/'dot-java' files) must be electronically submitted according to [the assignment submission requirements] using [D2L].
  2. As a reminder, you are not allowed to work in groups for this class. Copying the work of another student will be regarded as academic misconduct (cheating).  For additional details about what is and is not okay for this class please refer to the following [link].
  3. Before you submit your assignment to help make sure that you haven't missed anything here is a [checklist] of items to be used in marking.