Mating Actions

The survival of a species in this simulation is determined by natural selection (see [6,9]). As with eating and attacking, the mate action has a range specifier, but its targeting is different. Associated with the action is a waiting list of agents. When an agent selects the mate action, it is randomly paired with an in-range agent from the waiting list. If there are no available agents, it is then placed on the waiting list. The waiting list is emptied at the end of each cycle. This mechanism was used so that all mating interactions are consensual.

When two agents mate successfully, an offspring is generated with a mixture of its parents genes. This process is described in section 3.9.