Every other Langton's Ants

[Hunting]

This thread is dedicated for Langton's Ant rules other than the standard one.

[Hunting]

LLR contains almost nothing but a simple highway, but random soups are extremely long-lived due to interactions between highways.

In LLU there's a common two-cell-thick orthogonal highway, and can produce very very very very very behaviour:

Code: Select all

x = 2, y = 80, rule = LangtonsAnt_LLU
C79$.C!

It also supports a wide variety of drifters, billard tables and adjustable oscillators:

Code: Select all

x = 1, y = 31, rule = LangtonsAnt_LLU
A15$C15$A!

In LLN a single ant is a two-cell-thick trinary counter but larger soups tends to halt. There is also a 2-ant highway:

Code: Select all

x = 24, y = 3, rule = LangtonsAnt_LLN
NC22B$2B$.A22B!

LRL is fun and generates trippy scribbles but two ants fills the universe with completely random stuff.

LRU probably qualifies as an interesting rule.

LangtonsAnt_LRU tends to produce super-high-period oscillator, or possibly, patterns that explodes, but with a hilariously slow speed.

Those oscillators have a single engine containing ants and purple ashes it throws off. They looks like they are restricted to a certain bounding box, I don't know why.

For example, a single ant is a p276 oscillator:

Code: Select all

x = 1, y = 1, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRU
C!

If you add one green cell to it, it becomes a p25212 oscillator:

Code: Select all

x = 2, y = 1, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRU
AC!

I don't even know if these two patterns stabilizes:

Code: Select all

x = 31, y = 2, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRU
30.A$CA28.C!

Two-ant patterns tends to produce methuselahs with temporary oscillator engines. Here's a ~49800M:

Code: Select all

x = 2, y = 1, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRU
2C!

I don't know what exactly is the lifespan since it ends with emitting a p30 c/15 wickstrecher:

Code: Select all

x = 3, y = 11, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRU
3B$3B$3B$3B$3B$3B$3B$3B$3B$BC$BE!

I challenge people to come up with either a spaceship or a proof that spaceship cannot exist. (With arbitrary number of ants of course.)

Two ants can also form a spacefiller, similar to the Langton's Ant space non-filler. It can decay, but not as reversible as Langton's Ant:

Code: Select all

x = 38, y = 39, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRU
37.A37$C$C!

The above pattern demonstrates that, unlike usual LangtonsAnt rules, there are fuses. That particular one travels at p64 c/16:

Code: Select all

x = 11, y = 31, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRU
2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$
2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$2.B$BLD6.CB$.2B6.EB$8.3B$8.3B$8.3B!

To end this post, here is a p132 oscillator, currently the lowest period known (which is rather unusual again). I challenge everyone to come up with an oscillator with period less than 100.

Code: Select all

x = 2, y = 2, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRU
.C$A!

EDIT: Oh I forgot to mention this bizarre counter(?):

Code: Select all

x = 1, y = 4, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRU
C3$E!

Now I wonder about the behaviour of the counter.

Only in xxN rules the highways are real "highways" because once they are built other ants can travel on the highways at lightspeed. The width of the highway is also adjustable (!) I think this might be the first adjustable speed highway in any Langton's Ant rule

Code: Select all

x = 1, y = 40, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRN
C39$C!

LUL is pretty boring despite the name pretty similar to LOL. It has a glider and some adjustable oscillators with some delay options:

Code: Select all

x = 2, y = 20, rule = LangtonsAnt_LUL
.A10$.C4$AB$BA$2B$2A2$.A!

LUR is identical to the standard Langton's Ant except that it's bi-colored and ants sometimes temporarily get stuck. That does not affect the trail though

In LUU patterns cannot escape its bounding box+1.

In LUN there's a bi-colored highway and a higher-period wickstrecher based off it:

Code: Select all

x = 22, y = 84, rule = LangtonsAnt_LUN
10.A$9.B.B2$9.2A2B$7.3BA.2A$5.A.B3.3A$5.BA.B.2AB2.B$6.2A2.BA.B.A$11.A
.A.B$9.2BAB.2A$10.2A2.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$
10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$9.B.B2$9.2A2B$7.3BA.2A$5.A.B3.3A$5.BA.B.2AB2.B$6.
2A2.BA.B.A$11.A.A.B$9.2BAB.2A$10.2A2.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$
10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$9.B.B2$9.2A2B$7.3BA.2A$5.A.B3.3A$
5.BA.B.2AB2.B$6.2A2.BA.B.A$11.A.A.B$9.2BAB.2A$10.2A2.A$10.A$10.A$10.A
$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.A$10.
A$10.A$10.2AK$10.2A2BH$11.AB.A$10.BA$11.2A!

LNL is an explosive counter rule

[yujh]

RUL is LR?(just slower)

Code: Select all

x = 1, y = 1, rule = LangtonsAnt_RUL
F!

LN is strange

Code: Select all

x = 1, y = 1, rule = LangtonsAnt_LN
E!

LRN has this wide version

Code: Select all

x = 2, y = 3, rule = LangtonsAnt_RLN
F2$.C!

[gameoflifemaniac]

...

...
I don't even know if these two patterns stabilizes:

Code: Select all

x = 31, y = 2, rule = LangtonsAnt_LRU
30.A$CA28.C!

...

...

The first pattern is p50234250.
Strange counter:

Code: Select all

x = 2, y = 1, rule = LangtonsAnt_URL
2F!

[wwei23]

That appears to be four binary counters, slightly offset in time from each other.