Question and suggestion.
I have run the Creatures.tz simulation for many hours today and followed it rather closely. It appears to me that the distance is measured not to the closest brick, but to the farthest or somewhere in between. The consequence is that "falling far" right after the initial stabilization has been a very successful tactique. I would call it "cheating the system". What happened was that already within the maybe twenty first generations, the following concept evolved:
A high tower of bricks of decreasing size from bottom to top. Stable in standing position, and then falling straight to 10 units after beginning to move. And then continuing with varying success.
Every other "design" that is not built on this model will have a serious initial disadvantage because of the 10 units the tower has almost instantly from the start.
I suggest that the distance rather be measured from the starting point and to the closest brick. I can see no disadvantages with this approach, but if there are some, I would be happy to hear about them. :-)
Further evolution. Incredible.
I let the evolution continue over the night, and when I looked at it, it had a record of 229 units. The creatures are incredibly fast, so I cannot actually explain well how they look. But I think they are three "balls" of bricks connected by two long and flat ones. They shake and rotate really fast and thus jump forward. I just saw one doing 80 units.
This is a funny evolutionary change. To beat the "falling towers" model, a new model has to get just as far as it some times in even the first generations, and then start beating it hard. I think this new "design" fills these criteria. And, best of all, I think it would have taken much longer to get to this step if it weren't for all the "towers". It may, however, be a "cheating" design. It does not look natural. On the other hand, I would like to see it as the evolution from dinosaurs to birds. :-)
What is the world record? Or then.. highest reported score.
Here
I think it is a design difficult to tune, except, maybe, if it somehow evolves into a wheel. Else it just wins being best on average even though it just wriggles like random.
EDIT: Best distance now, reported by my mother, 495 units.
yikes
Looks like the latest version of the Creatures sim has a bug -- the tumbling/shaking is definitely not right.
- jon