Dynamic turtle creation in netlogo 2 [contd..] - dynamic

Question

In the interface tab i have a slider whose value ranges between 2 & 10. Depending on the value defined by the user using this slider, that many number of turtles should be created.
I tried using multiple if statements but there is a problem in the succeeding steps.
if (slider-value = 2) [create2]
if (slider-value = 3) [create3]
if (slider-value = 4) [create4]
if (slider-value = 5) [create5]
After creating the turtles using the above if conditions, i have to assign additional rules to each individual turtle like co-ordinate position, rules for how they should move etc. and i tried again using multiple if statements. But it doesn't seem to work.
for example the sub-query for create is as follows
to create2
create-challengers 2
ask turtle 0 [set color blue set label-color blue set size 2
set xcor party1-left-right ]
ask turtle 1 [set color red set label-color red set size 2
set xcor party2-left-right ]
ask turtles [ update-rule set old-mysize 0 set shape "default"]
end
for creating 3 turtles:
to create3
create-challengers 3
ask turtle 0 [set color blue set label-color blue set size 2
set xcor party1-left-right ]
ask turtle 1 [set color red set label-color red set size 2
set xcor party2-left-right ]
ask turtle 2 [set color green set label-color green set size 2
set xcor party3-left-right ]
ask turtles [ update-rule set old-mysize 0 set shape "default"]
end
so on and so forth.
The main problem is even though program works irrespective of how many turtles the user has defined, all the 10 gets created but only user defined number of turtles move, i.e. if the user has assined 3 then when i run the program 10 turtles are created but only 3 move.
Is there a way to get around like in other programming languages where one can simply use an if-else statement.
Can someone suggest a way, would really appreciate the help.
Thanks in advance!
After the turtles are created i assign certain rules for them to move:
to update-rule
if (slider-values = 2) [update2]
if (slider-values = 3) [update3]
if (slider-values = 4) [update4]
if (slider-values = 5) [update5]
end
And once again i create multiple sub-rule for update2, update3 which are basically for the each turtle depending on how many the user has defined:
If there are 2 turtles:
to update2
ask turtle 0 [set my-rule party1-rule]
ask turtle 1 [set my-rule party2-rule]
end
in case of 3 turtle:
to update3
ask turtle 0 [set my-rule party1-rule]
ask turtle 1 [set my-rule party2-rule]
ask turtle 2 [set my-rule party3-rule]
end
Below are the movement rules
to adapt
if (my-rule = "hunter") [hunt]
;;NB stickers do nothing
if (my-rule = "aggregator") [aggregate]
end
to hunt
ifelse (mysize > old-mysize) [jump 1] [set heading heading + 90 + random-float 180 jump 1]
set old-mysize mysize
end
to run-general
create2 create3 create4 create5 create-voters update-support
ask challengers [adapt] update-support
end
to go
run-general
tick
end

Answer 1

As noted by Seth, the problem is likely to be in the move part of the code since the turtles are being created. Just as general comments, it looks like your code for creating 3 turtles is identical to that for creating 2 turtles except for the additional turtle. If this is generally true, your code would be much easier if you used a format like:
to setup-challengers
create-challengers 1 [set color blue set label-color blue set size 2
set xcor party1-left-right ]
create-challengers 1 [set color red set label-color red set size 2
set xcor party2-left-right ]
if slider-value >= 3
[ create-challengers 1 [ set color green set label-color green set size 2
set xcor party3-left-right ] ]
if slider-value >= 4
[ create-challengers 1 [ <whatever you want number 4 to look like> ] ]
ask challengers [<do stuff>]
end
This way you only need the code for each turtle to be written once so if you change your mind about colours or something, it is much easier to change.

Answer 2

Okay, try editing your code to look like this:
to adapt
type "Hunters: " print count turtles with [my-rule = "hunter"]
type "Aggregators: " print count turtles with [my-rule = "aggregator"]
if (my-rule = "hunter") [hunt]
if (my-rule = "aggregator") [aggregate]
end
This is a standard debugging trick. It will print the number of hunters and aggregators to the Command Center (bottom of the interface tab). This allows you to work out where code is going wrong. For example, in your case, it will let you know if the problem is with the movement code or with the code that assigns rules to turtles.
Another trick is to have something like print "Got to hunt procedure" if you are not sure whether a procedure is even being reached.

Answer 3

this if-else thing for a slider based setup is very nasty looking.
an alternative is to have a set of (global) lists for all properties that are set seperately for each individual.
then you can use the following code
;assuming global_list1 and global_list2 exist
to setup
let index 0
create-turtles slidervalue [
set turtle_value1 item index global_list1
set turtle_value2 item index global_list2
set index index + 1
]
end
then you only need to make sure that each turtles will know what to do when asked to do something
Geerten