Main reason why this was botted is because of these fall-thru maps. Bots probably just find these maps and then play them looking several seconds into future and choosing actions that will move them closer to the coin.
It is funny you should mention this. Yesterday I was actually playing with some "try to always move toward coin" type heuristics and found that it actually *significantly* decreased production!
I believe, it is much harder to complete usual map with bot because sometimes you need to actually move in opposite dirrection from the coin.
The F6 key is very important for both humans and bots.
What can we do to prevent bots?
You can do nothing to prevent them, only mitigate them. On a long enough curve, bots will out-think us on
anything we throw at them.
Welcome to the new age.
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
1. Change level generation algorithm to prevent fall-thru maps. This is the main countermeasure against bots.
Changes to map generation semantics will have less effect than you might intuitively think. The best changes to map generation will be ones that make TargetTime more relevant.
2. Increase map size.
Actually does practically nothing to hamper the bots, on its own.
3. Use some sort of Scrypt/X11 in map generation to prevent fast map enumeration.
This is kind of "the litecoin argument" I guess. Scrypt has ASICs now, X11 will not be far behind. You'd need to make map generation in-feasibly difficult for this to really "matter" - and it would significantly hamper human play in the process. (Imagine waiting 5-10 seconds each time you pressed F6?)
This will definitely take some time to implement.
Here we get to the crux of the matter. We are facing an asymmetry with each-other. You will spend days/weeks implementing changes to deter the bots, and might even knock the more basic ones out of the running, but the good AIs will adapt within minutes/hours of your hard forks, in perpetuity. This is not a bad thing! THIS is why I say coins like these will offer direct incentive for AI research.
GAME ON!