Mini-Games

[davewb]

I have been developing the Mini-game feature in PS.

On top of the basic mini-game, the following features have been added (all optional):

Basic Rules
Basic rules that can be specified:

• whether moving pieces in turn are enforced or not
• type of move: can only place new pieces, only move existing pieces, or both
• whether player can move their own pieces only
• whether a player can move their piece to vacant squares only or not

End Games
Simple end-games can be specified so the PS server can determine a winner. It currently looks at simple patterns of pieces played. Progression scripts can also be triggered by winning. In NPCRoom on SVN there is a game of tic tac toe on Box09 which has strict rules, can determine a winner automatically, and will hand out a few tria and exp to the winner. Next to that on Box08, is a simple one-player puzzle whereby placing pieces in a simple 'r' shape causes a one-minute rain downpour!!

So, a two player game could be setup in a tavern, with rules & end-game configurations, that can award prizes, which may entice more players to have a go.

Also, with the one-player games (i.e. puzzles), I can see the potential for them to be used as devices such as opening doors, or as steps in quests, for example. Puzzles can be configured as "personal" whereby each session is personal to the player, so that where they are devices as described each player has their own instance of 'solving' the puzzle.

Where to go with this next?

Should we expand the basic rules? How to deal with complicated rules (e.g. chess??? Possible??? Scares me!)? Maybe for complicated rules, a GM is allowed to oversee and enforce rules during a game, being able to veto players moves, etc, rather than allow the Server to compute such stuff.

At the moment, game-pieces are restricted to 8 white & 8 black designs; I think this can be expanded, maybe even a player collecting pieces that can be brought into a mini-game from their inventory, esp for the puzzle-device concept. With enough potential pieces, they can be organized into patterns/pictures (you know, like the little kids plastic puzzles you can get on a 4x4 or 5x5 frame with 15/24 sliding squares - with one empty square - which can be slid around to make a picture).

Reading the forums, it seems also players like to come along and play their own rules, etc, so I think it may be an idea to allow a GM to turn endgames/rules on and off on specific games to save doing via the DB and await reboots.

Any other ideas?
Dave (Acissej)

[Tuxide]

Added schema for gameboards and action_locations tables on acraig's documentation wiki for stable (not trunk), if anyone wants to read the schema or fill in the blanks or whatever.

[Illysia]

If the rules for chess invokes a "e.g. chess??? Possible??? Scares me!" response I take it that this puts any non (chess like) board game mini games at a much lower priority huh? 

[Caarrie]

two of the games we have in svn are [the scripts to put them in the db]
 INSERT INTO `action_locations` VALUES (11,0,'Tic Tac Toe','NPCroom','Box09',0,-1.69,0.89,-217.21,4,'SELECT','EXAMINE','<Examine><GameBoard Name=\'Tic Tac Toe\' EndGame=\'Yes\' Script=\'minigame_win\' /><Description>Tic Tac Toe Board Game with $$$ prizes $$$.</Description></Examine>','Y');
INSERT INTO `action_locations` VALUES (12,0,'Rainmaker game','NPCroom','Box08',0,-9.00,0.79,-217.21,4,'SELECT','EXAMINE','<Examine><GameBoard Name=\'Weather game\' EndGame=\'Yes\' Script=\'rain\' /><Description>Magic puzzle that makes it rain. Make a simple r shape with the game pieces.</Description></Examine>','Y');

i think just reading them gives you an idea of what can be done now.

[Illysia]

I like the idea of the rain puzzle. 

[Prolix]

Anyone want to work up  a game of Battleship? You could say it is megara dung bombing ...

[Formula1]

Making Time a Variable that can be used when creating games
-some people want moves to be done within a minute

Other Uses of time as a real minigame are
-reaction time-Do you know that hand slapping game, On person has their hands below the other persons? Its a test of reaction time (THe person defending realizing their opponent is striking) and speed (The person striking and the Person defending) in the same manner, you could have something like it where there is .5 seconds time to react to something, then .25, etc etc etc
-Another Good Example of a Minigame is DDR, Where timing is what the game is all about.
-One last thing is an "Arm wrestling" type minigame where people press a single button as fast as they can. For every time they press it, it goes 1x(strength) in the direction of their choice. This would be a fun little minigame because maybe while Struggling you can drink special brews that gives you extra strength, and could potentially become a Gambeling oppertunity.

I think the 3x3 Board grid is a great idea.

I would also say you could create a card game using a system of
"Visible/Hidden"-Some cards will be able to be seen by people some cards will not be able to be
"Stacked/Singled"-Sometimes people will be allowed to count how many cards are in a particular pile, sometimes they wont
"Playable/Unplayable"-Some cards can be played, some cards will not be
And then form there, the way a person scores points, the turn patterns and playable moves are all based on the cards.
THis could potentially allow for many different types of games like magic the gathering to the normal 52 card poker

I'm glad I saw this
I love this Idea!
I would be the guy playing chess while everyone else is outside Fighting battles

[miadon]

How hard would it be to allow 3/4 player games? As could invent games where 2 people work as a team or all against each other.

[davewb]

Thanks for the responses 

I'm looking at allowing more players to join in. And then to see if it can be expanded to cover card games.

Being as these are fundamental, these will be addressed before other issues, such as rule expansion, etc.

[Formula1]

One last thought is Paper Mario

Theres more use for minigames then for 2nd hand games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akdIXYZn11o&feature=PlayList&p=039C6B82CA51BD7B&index=33

[davewb]

Now come on! We don't want mini games to outshine PlaneShift itself 

[davecornell]

I was impressed with and surprised by the mini-games in Oblivion, namely "increase disposition" and "pick lock".  They are great examples of engaging mini-games that fit fluidly into the overall main game, and are used a lot in regular gameplay, making the effort to code them worthwhile.

[enderandrew]

If you're roleplaying in a fictional world, then overtly familiar games that you associate with modern day society in the real world might take you out of game.  To that end, if you do something like Battleship, I'd like to see it renamed, and perhaps altered a bit.  How about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Men%27s_Morris

Hardly anyone has heard of this game today.  It is fun, different, challenging, and shouldn't be overtly difficult to code.

[davewb]

Thanks for the ref enderandrew. thats certainly an interesting direction a mini game could head in.

I don't believe there is any intention to introduce well-known earth games into PS. Don't take my reference to tic tac toe above to imply otherwise. Thats just a well known easy game I picked for testing purposes.

[Riaan]

Nine-Men Morris...

I don't know about not many people knowing of it.  I used to play it alot.  I know it more commonly as WindMills ( In Dutch it's called Muele).  But yes, its a very, very old game. 

And regarding Chess, you can always implement the old card-style of playing chess.  The Indian's used to play it with a bunch of cards...  If I remember correctly from stuff I read a long long time ago (Might be mixing up some facts I think), it worked something simullar to today's Magic the gathering.  Just alot simpler.  You place your cards in a patern and then the battle begins so strategy was the aim of the game back then...  And people swapped cards between each other which was highly prized...