Wator.py

Wa-tor is a simulation of sharks and fish waging an ecological war on the torodial world of Wa-tor. It was first proposed by A. K. Dewdney in the December 1984 issue of Scientific American.

Environment:

1. The world is a toroid that is displayed as a rectangular grid.
1. The top and bottom edges are joined to each other: moving off the top edge puts a shark or fish on the bottom edge.
2. The left and right edges are joined to each other: moving off the right edge puts a shark or fish on the left edge.
2. An initial number of shark and fish are randomly placed in the world.
3. Sharks and fish have a gestation period which is the number of turns before reproduction.
4. Sharks have a starvation period which is the number of turns must eat before the shark dies.

Behavior Rules (each round):

1. Fish
   1. A fish moves in a random direction: north, south, east, or west if the location is clear.
   2. If a fish moves and gestation period has expired then a new fish is left in the previous location.
   3. If a fish reproduced then the gestation clock is reset.
2. Shark
   1. A shark randomly chooses a location to move first from locations that have fish, and if no fish from empty locations.
   2. If the location has a fish then the shark eats the fish and the hunger clock is reset.
   3. If a shark moves and gestation period has expired then a new shark is left in the previous location.
   4. If a shark reproduced then the gestation clock is reset.
   5. If a shark's hunger clock expires then the shark dies.

References:

• A. K. Dewdney. Computer recreations: Sharks and fish wage an ecological war on the toroidal planet wa-tor. Scientific American, 251(6):14–22, Dec. 1984. ISSN 0036-8733. Description of program for simulating predator-prey dynamics.

wumpus.py is © 2006, Lance Finn Helsten.

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