Tips on beating maze algos?

Does anybody have any decent strategies/ideas that they would like to share on beating maze algos?

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There are multiple methods, if the opposing algo is static. mazes start of with an EMP line on third row. So I would first ask the question of: how do you win against EMP lines (on third row)? The previous EMP^ERROR_v1.0 that was in the top spot for a bit directly contested the 3rd row EMP line, but there are other methods that can be effective, like ping cannons. If you want to be the coolest kid take a look at the work of Aeldrexan with his Aelgoo_45c algorithm. That guy has some interesting stuff.

An informative replay of EMP^ERROR_v1.0:
https://terminal.c1games.com/watch/688181

This replay shows the flaws of my and N_Sanders work (back then) pretty well. Anybody who looks at this will be able to find mistakes by both algorithms. The EMP^ERROR_v1.0 algorithm is very old and really simple, but at least the maze was never successfully build and it became an EMP line war. Disclaimer: currently this algo is being beaten blue by more sophisticated mazes, so that is just a starting point for new ideas.

I have two ideas, one of which is theoretical, and the other is more experimental (and somewhat effective). The first possible method (theoretical) could be to make a firewall line on your front row, and run EMPs down it. This would cause your EMPs to cancel, but if you use encryptors to make your EMPs survive, they will lose all of their offensive power. However, this has some disadvantages. Firstly, if they use encryptors as well (which I have not seen often, but it does happen), you might not be able to cancel them out. Secondly, it requires predicting whether they will be a maze algo as well as finding which side their EMPs are spawned on. If you mispredict, or their algo is more adaptive, this might not go well for you. Thirdly, if their algo is quite adaptive, they could place destructors to “snipe” your EMPs, destroying them immediately as they spawn.

The experimental method that I have used is to build the first half of the maze algo, the part with the destructors, but not the front line filters. This means that they can build their back row, but they can’t damage yoy from it. When they create the front row, any EMPs that you send along your back row can destroy it easily. This means that you are constantly destroying their filters, so they aren’t gaining any cores, and in the meantime, you can build a giant block of encryptors to win later in the game.

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here are some ideas i had, they’re probably stupid because i’m new but lemme post them anyway.

could you build your front line out of the range of the shielded emps? this would require that you have the line in the 5th row, which is pretty far back, but if you’re not up against a 1st row maze you could just build walls further forward later on.

the emp attack is pretty predictable because they can’t come out before a certain frame due to the maze blocking the way. could you build your own maze in the back, then put a scrambler or two in it to try to intercept the emps as they exit the maze?

as for attacking the maze, that seems more difficult. your emps are going to be targeted by multiple destructors at once, and their path will lead them through the maze instead of to the potentially vulnerable corners, so unless you can manipulate their path with firewalls it seems like an uphill battle.

The problem with a 5th row defense is that you are not able to attack with an EMP line across yourself, taking away from one of the biggest ways to many cores at once. I personally just created an algo that has a line of filters along the 4th row with EMPs that go across behind it. I like this because no matter if the other algo has firewalls along the first row or not, there are two positive options for you. If they do, you get free damage to their firewalls, because most strategies don’t have filters on the second row due to the ease of destructors destroying them quickly. If they don’t have anything along the first row, you won’t take any damage to your filter wall, and can focus on building up your edges, which won’t be easily broken down by EMPs like a row of firewalls would.

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Attacking the maze only works with a targeted heavy encryptor buffed attack, a very large amount of EMP’s, or an EMP line of your own. A 1st row EMP line can be destroyed really easy by building a destructor on the second row and a filter in front to protect it. Which is why 1st row EMP line strategies are not very successful. The reason a maze is so successful is because the EMP line first destroys the 1st and 2nd row, so no destructors are in range anymore, and then goes to 1st row to reach further down and destroy the rest of the firewalls. Successfully setting up a structure like that is a win condition: once it is up you win almost guaranteed. Easier to prevent the maze from going up than to combat a full maze.

As a static strategy this makes mazes unrivaled, but I am not yet convinced it is the best base to start from when implementing an adaptive algorithm designed to battle other strong adaptive algorithms. I guess we will find that out in a few weeks :wink:

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