| Author |
Message |
Kerin Schiesser (Kerinbot)
| | Posted on Friday, October 12, 2001 - 1:39 pm: | |
I have been looking through the language reference, trying to figure out if the game I want to program is possible with zillions. If there is a solution (especially if someone can suggest ways to solve it) I will be very grateful. Here is my problem:
The game has two win conditions. One of them is simply number of pieces (10) on the board. The other condition is a smaller number of pieces (8) in a "group." I define a "group" as any arrangement of pieces such that each piece in the group is adjacent to at least one other piece in the same "group" ( ie, in a chessboard space which is n, ne, e, se, s, sw, w, or nw from the present piece's space).
The pieces do not have to be in any kind of line - forking, circles, blocks, all are fine - the requirement is just that there must be 8 in a group as described. There can even be a spare piece not connected (more than 1 spare piece is immaterial, as 2 spares will hit the other win condition of 10 pieces).
So far the only way I have figured out to solve this is the brute-force method of describing ALL the placement patterns which 8 pieces could make within the confines of a chessboard grid. I haven't calculated how many of these there could be, but I am guessing that that would be an impractical method.
Can anyone help? |
Kerin Schiesser (Kerinbot)
| | Posted on Friday, October 12, 2001 - 1:46 pm: | |
Incidentally, I should add that each side has 15 pieces total - 5 each of 3 sizes (small, medium, large). The "group" can be made of any possible subset of these 15 pieces. The game is played by drops, no movement.
the game is somewhat loosely based on Conway's "the game of life" only with "freewill" added. Generation of pieces is volitional, not automatic, though dying is according to the number of neighbors, as in Conway's cellular automata. The 3 sizes tolerate a different range of neighbors.
I just thought I should mention that, as it could affect any test designed for the win condition, if there are 3 kinds of pieces. Your opponents pieces count for evaluation of the "number of neighbors" but NOT for the win condition - the "group" must be made up of only your pieces. So far as the win condition is concerned, the opponent's pieces are invisible. |
Patrick S. Duff (Pduff)
| | Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2001 - 11:30 pm: | |
Kerin, I've sent you a draft version of my current Lines of Action rules file, which will show you how to count things in ZRF, how to find groups of connected pieces, and how to implement your 8-way win-condition logic using a dummy goal position.
For any of you who have been waiting patiently for LoA.zrf to be released, I have everything working except for moving Key pieces and the goal-conditions for wins involving Key pieces or Isolated pieces. Unfortunately I haven't had time to work on it for the last few months. I hope to get back to it soon. |
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