PlaneShift
Development => Development Deliberation => Topic started by: Kerol on September 17, 2006, 04:12:51 pm
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As all of you probably know already, the minigame infrastructure is available ingame.
I hoped to have octarch's chess playable with that, but there are little problems with the board, so no OC yet.
For testing reasons there was a small board .. and as we wanted to have it available for players, we named it Groffeltoe and made up some simple rules.
This is what this thread is about.
I need people to test out those rules and give feeback on the game and even more importantly on eventual bugs with the infrastructure.
The game can be found by rightclick on one of the tables near the entrance in 'The Broken Door', the tavern in Akkaio.
Here are the rules:
The players take turns alternating.
Each turn, the player places one piece on the board, on any free field.
The game ends when the board is full.. and the player wins with the most pieces on the board.
Now there are some variations on how to capture pieces:
variant A:
if there is one or more opponent piece(s) in one line next to each other and you have one piece at each end of the line - surrounding the opponent pieces - the pieces in the middle are removed. it looks like
[piece of player A][piece of player B][piece of player A]
or
[piece of player A][piece of player B][piece of player B][piece of player B][piece of player B][piece of player A]
but not
[piece of player A][free field][piece of player B][piece of player A]
nor
[piece of player A][piece of player B][free field][piece of player B][piece of player A]
That only works for lines up and down.
variant B:
Everything like variant A, but it only works for lines diagonal.
variant C:
It works for up and down AND diagonal.
If you test out these rules, please also take into consideration possible movement of pieces, not only setting them on fields.
You also may try to combine the /roll command with the given rules or experimentate with different pieces (just doubleclick on a piece to change it to the next available symbol).
You can freely experimentate with all these functions as no rule is enforced by the server.
To set a piece of the opposing color, just rightclick. To remove a piece, drag and drop it outside of the fields, on the rim of the board.
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Ok, I played Variant C with a friend, and we came across a problem
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v481/Demarthl/shot08.jpg)
I am black, the otherp layer is white. If white was to place a checker piece inbetween my two black ones, what would happen?
A) white rmoves the black piece in between its pieces, as it is the latest move, a most plausible move
B) Black automatically removes the white piece in the middle, this is a problem, makes the game impossible to finish.
me and my game partner decided on using A as part of Variant C rule set and are about to start a new game to test.
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[ Can someone please explain to me why it's called Groffeltoe? o_O ]
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Looks like fun, gonna have to try it out today :)
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I've played Groffel's Toe a couple of times now. But with slightly different rules that you stated, Kerol. Instead of removing the captured pieces, the pieces when captured are changed into the colour of the one who captured it. This speeds the game up a bit. But it's stilll great fun! May I say that this is a most enjoyable addition.
However, with the original rules you stated, I tried a match with a friend of mine and after an hour and a half we just called it a draw. We could have gone on till the end of time.
Edit - Corrected spelling error.
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Keyaz: I'd have said solution A as well.
Karyuu: Because. :P
However, with the original rules you stated, I tried a match with a friend of mine and after an hour and a half we just called it a draw. We could have gone on till the end of time.
What was the problem?
What do you think about the different variants? Was there one you liked/disliked most?
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We started of with an A and the remove rules. However it never came to an end no matter how we tried it, made obvious loses just to see if we could resolve the game with a few openings again. But that didn't work, we just kept on going and going and going et cetera, et cetera. We did very much enjoy it at first though after about an hour playing still playing the same match with seemingly no way of ending it in anyones favour it got a bit boring really. We ended up in the same situtions several times. That's when I suggest playing it slightly different, instead of removing the pieces they change colour, black to white or white to black depending on the one who captures it. This leaves a limited number of moves, as many moves as there are squares. We found this variant more enjoyable than the other, seeing you actually got to finish a match.
Concering the A, B and C variants. As I said we started out with an A, which we found a good way to start and learn the basics. After that we tried out the C variant a couple of times. All very enjoyable, a great addition, really. You really start to learn to think ahead better after a couple of matches. Personally I liked C the most because you have more options, but A is definatly the best way to start. We haven't had the chance to try out the B variant though... Seeing we did want to give others the chance to play. We taught them our "change colour rules" and the basic rules described in your original post, and they all seemed to enjoy it very much indeed. The variants are great way to add variaty, so those are a good part of the game. Though as I said before not a fan of the "remove rules", though replace those with "change colour rules" and you've got yourself a thouroughly enjoyable minigame. So thank you and congratulations.
:)
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This looks good. Haven't Tested it for myself yet. Is it worth it?
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Always :] Even if just checking out this new thing.
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It's a fun thing to play with thats for sure, either suing Kerol's idea, or simple checkers (putting the board at an angle)
can be enjoyed with frieds for hours
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Just so I'm understanding things, it's this game: http://www.rainfall.com/othello/rules/othellorules.asp
only with a different name? I love Othello, but I never have anyone to play with. :(
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i played with the board and didnt know the rules so i made my own up.
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Great fun to play and experiment with...can see a host of variants springing up. Is there a possibility of including a "player turn flag". In a busy place like a tavern there are always conversations going on around the board [a good thing] and it is very easy to forget whose go it is. Never been a fan of games within games but this is growing on me. A couple of standard checkers/drafts boards around the plaza would be great. Thankyou.
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leave the groffeltoe to oja and wateva the other game is keep it there too. reason to go to oja. also make all the tables have the game on them. or atleast 2 more.
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hmm played the game with the othello rules exept that you were allowed to play your pieces anywhere. seemed to work although a bit small board ;)
Would definately have to vote for replacing and not taking the pieces away. Not even sure it would be possible to win that way if both know the game a little. Or you get a very boring game I guess.
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The remove variant requires one exception.
When the board is full except on one field and it looks like that, for instance:
[black piece][black piece][free field][black piece][white piece][white piece]
And it's white's turn, the black piece is removed, and the situation is mirrored.
The game won't come to an end this way.
So the rule:
The very moment the board is full, the game ends, no further pieces are removed.
That is necessary only for the remove variant.
Could you guys please test out following rules:
Game ends when board is full.
Player with most pieces wins.
Players take turns alternating.
At the beginning of each turn, the player /roll 1 2. -> the result determins whether he may move once or twice.
A move can be either to drag&drop an own piece to any other free field or set a new piece in a range of 2 fields coming from your own pieces that are on the board already.
If you place a piece of yours next to an opposing piece, the opposing piece gets converted to your color (that works in the full circle around the own piece, radius 1 field).
Note: If you move twice, each move is independant from each other. You can convert an enemy piece in the first move, and move the enemy piece in the next move.
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[ Can someone please explain to me why it's called Groffeltoe? o_O ]
[ Another question What do you think the gaming pieces are made of? ... :whistling: ]
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[ Skulls and candy. ]
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oh jeeze... [theres almost always nobody in Oja when I'm online...] hah I had to play against myself! it was fun for a bit... I lost... ::)
[ Skulls and candy. ]
[a mixture of the two?... or are some pure skull and the others pure candy?]
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[ Can someone please explain to me why it's called Groffeltoe? o_O ]
Perhaps a new name could be thought about ?
Whenever i see the name, I think of another "--------toe" name (an animal with humps that can go without water for a long time) :D
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[ Skulls and candy. ]
I told you to stop stealing things from my backpack ¬_¬
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Can someone please explain to me why it's called Groffeltoe? o_O
The book on groffeltoe I'm writing on will give you the answer..
I will finish the book once I have two or three variants that work out really well.
The sooner the research on rules finished, the sooner you'll get your answer..
... So.. what about testing out the rules and telling which ones are best? >o)
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Perhaps a new name could be thought about ?
Whenever i see the name, I think of another "--------toe" name (an animal with humps that can go without water for a long time) :D
Haha. Its understandable.
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Ive played 2 games and enjoyed both, the 1st was a solo game using the solitaire rules (board game not card game)
just fill the board with any colour pieces but leave the middle blank, then you move one piece over another and when a piece has been 'moved over' the one that was crossed gets removed, the aim being to have one piece left. I lost by the way :)
The other was with a friend and we just basically played Reversi (think thats the right name) with the board both worked quite wel, I won that one :D , i doubt it was your aim for us to play RL games on it though :innocent:
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Here is another variant played by many farm kids and inspired by an tale:
2 farmers only have 1 field and 1 groffel each.
One is covered with coal (black) the other one with floor (white) and each time they move, all the groffels around are covered the same (converted into the moved piece color). Groffels can lay eggs that are of their color and that hatch and change the color of groffels around. Or they can make short jumps changing the color of groffels around the place they land.
Starting positions
X..
.....
.......
.......
.......
.....
..O
Each turn the groffel can lay an egg next to him or make a short jump.
.....
.ooo.
.oOo.
.ooo.
.....
in this diagram O represent the groffel, o a possible place for an egg and . a place to jump to.
-If the groffel jumps the O position is freed (the piece moved)
-If it lays an egg, a new piece is added
Converting oponent pieces:
All the oponent groffels (pieces) around an egg (adjacent in 8 directions) are changed to your color.
Or, for a jump, it's the oponent groffels (pieces) around the landing square.
Pass: If there is no free place to jump to or lay an egg you must pass your turn. Groffels can't jump farther that 2 quares in each direction.
The winner is the one with most pieces of his color when there is no more empty quare.
If all the pieces of a player are converted at once, he lose and is forced to offer free drinks at everyone :)
Tactics:
For defense, add eggs to cover the field, the ones surrounded by your own color can't be converted in 1 turn. 2 lines of your color are impossible to jump over. So use the field border to
Attack ; Don't let the other create such strong positions and jump out of them before being surrounded. You will leave an empty space he might need to fill, leaving you the advantage of attack on your next turn. Don't attack too soon or you can lose all your groffels at once.
I only tested once, it give good reversals of positions and scores. Each party is not too long.
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While playing at the game board with a friend in Brado's tavern, we thought it would be good if there was some way to see what the last move was, so you can easily see what has been done, even if you were not watching too closely (for example because you were reading the chat window).
I thought of something like a red background on the field where the last piece was set/changed/taken away.
A different idea would be some blinking signal, but i think that would be too annoying (i remember some complaints about the blinking chat tabs).
Also, there could be a little checkbox, so you can decide if you want this visible effect by putting a hook into it.
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VMann, merged your suggestion to the thread already about the mini-game's developement as it fits better here. :)