Problem: At 25% spawn radius (5 tiles from center, 10 tiles apart), bots
were too far apart. The zone started at radius 10 (maxDist + 5) and shrank
by 2 tiles/turn. By turn 13, zone radius was 4, killing bots at distance 5
before they could reach attack range (5 tiles). Result: 0 combat deaths,
only zone deaths.
Solution: Reduce spawn radius to 20% (4 tiles from center, 8 tiles apart).
Now zone starts at radius 9, shrinks to 5 by turn 12. Strategy bots (gatherer,
rusher) move toward center, reaching attack range within 2-5 turns, ensuring
combat before zone kills them.
Results with 20% spawn radius:
- Strategy bots: 100% combat deaths, 0 zone deaths, 2-5 turn matches
- Random bots: 0% combat deaths, 100% zone deaths (expected per plan §3.7.1)
- Achieves >65% combat density target with strategy bots
This balances avoiding turn-1 mutual destruction while ensuring combat occurs
before the zone kills bots. The zone serves as a forcing function per plan
§3.7.1: aggressive bots fight, passive bots die.
Closes: bf-5nmx
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
eba5d90a6d