Grobots - Documentation - Glossary

Grobots has developed (or borrowed) a bit of jargon.

Economy

autotrophy: Getting energy from solar cells. (This is a standard biological term.)
biomass: A side's value, including cells, fetuses and stored energy.
doubletime: How long it takes a side to double in value.
early death: When a side goes extinct in the first 4500 frames (a quarter of a round).
gatherer: A cell that moves around collecting food.
heterotrophy: Getting energy by eating other cells. (This is a standard biological term.)
late death: When a side survives the first 4500 frames, and goes extinct later. Late death rates are expressed as late deaths / (total rounds - early deaths).
seed: The cells a side starts with.
theotrophy: Getting energy from manna. (This is not a standard biological term.)
shadow: Area around a stationary side where it has eaten all the food. A large shadow is usually considered good, because the food would attract enemies.
sterile: Having no constructors left.

combat fraction: The fraction of a cell (or a side) that's spent on weapons, armor, and other combat-related hardware. This is a size-independent measure of how heavily armed a cell is.
defense: Fighting in order to stay alive.
offense: Attacking other sides to reduce their biomass and increase your fraction. Usually works only if your fraction is already high.
predation: Attacking in order to eat the dead.
missile: A cell with a bomb, which runs up to a target and explodes. Good for taking out large groups.
decoy: A small cell, possibly shielded, that distracts attackers from more vulnerable or valuable targets. Good against missiles, and in other combat if you can get it to work.
flyswatting: Using a forcefield to make a target conform to a prediction, so it's easier to hit.
plucking: Using force fields to pull an unsuspecting enemy to somewhere you can kill it easily.
swarming: Bringing previously scattered fighters to a battle.