Automatic base building

Automatic base building is the process of finding, claiming and, building up a claimed room without using the UI and direct user input. For many fully a fully automatic bot is the end-goal and automatic base building is a large step.

Types

There's a few types of automatic bases, depending on method used.

Bunker

The easiest by far is to have a pre-defined 'bunker' containing all structures you are intent on using and simply finding an open area to place it. The 'center' of the bunker ancor and from there you can generate the structures of your pre-determined bunker based on their relative position to the ancor. As long as the space is there, there should be no conflicts in the generation.

Stamp/Tilesets

Normally using a core tile/stamp, you can then determine locations for other pre-defined tilesets/stamps to be placed around your ancor dependent on the terrain in the room.

Dynamic/Pattern Generation

Using a given open area, you can generate a structure or set of structures grouped together based on some basic rules.

Useful Algorithms

There are several useful algorithms to take into consideration when automatically building your base.

Distance-Transform

Using the Screep's terrain, you can use Distance Transformation to have natural walls be barrier pixels and swamps/plains to be allowed. Using this, you can then create a matrix/object/array of all positions with a score of how much open space is available around a given roomPosition. This is direly useful to know how much you can fit in an area, without having user input.

Flood Fill

Flood Fill is useful for defining or testing areas to make sure they are secure (like walls around a base) or defining areas into groups. Filling an area and gathering room positions allows you to use these positions later, for whatever purpose you see fit.

Minimum Cut

Minimum Cut is useful for rampart / wall placement.