08-15-2022, 03:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-15-2022, 03:26 PM by dale walton.)
I suggest watching the AI play itself some.
The game is straightforward in concept, but hard to explain. - and hard to implement in Ludii. An earlier version stepped out each move, but that made it tedious to play, and the AI was totally incompetent.
I'll summarize the rule concept here in hopes it can help.
Each move has a series of actions. What actions can be taken depend on where the move starts, and in particular, depends on the count of friends vs enemies in the locations around the starting location for the turn. That difference in count gives the number of actions that can be made in the turn.
Turns can start at a friendly piece, an empty location or an enemy piece.
1) At a friendly piece: The piece can move or jump in a straight line to an empty site along a grid direction for a distance up to the number of actions allowed. If it stops before the number is reached, it may change direction and continue, but it may not stop or change direction while crossing over other pieces, only when it has landed on an empty space. It may stop any number of times, and does not need to use all the allowed actions. (Note that when a turn starts at a friendly piece, that piece is included in the piece count that determines the number of actions allowed)
2) At an empty site: One action is taken to add the piece to the board, then the piece may continue to move as in 1) for the remaining actions. (Note that the entering piece itself is not included in calculating the count of allowed actions in this case.)
3) At an Enemy site: Two actions are needed - one action to remove the enemy and one action to enter the friendly piece. Capture is not allowed without entry. (Note that the captured enemy piece is included in the action point calculation for that location.) Afterwards, the friendly piece may continue to move if it has actions still available, but this is not common.
Note that there is an exception to #2 which allows a piece to be entered onto a fully surrounded empty site if the number of each player's pieces around that site are equal.
I hope this helps.
The game is straightforward in concept, but hard to explain. - and hard to implement in Ludii. An earlier version stepped out each move, but that made it tedious to play, and the AI was totally incompetent.
I'll summarize the rule concept here in hopes it can help.
Each move has a series of actions. What actions can be taken depend on where the move starts, and in particular, depends on the count of friends vs enemies in the locations around the starting location for the turn. That difference in count gives the number of actions that can be made in the turn.
Turns can start at a friendly piece, an empty location or an enemy piece.
1) At a friendly piece: The piece can move or jump in a straight line to an empty site along a grid direction for a distance up to the number of actions allowed. If it stops before the number is reached, it may change direction and continue, but it may not stop or change direction while crossing over other pieces, only when it has landed on an empty space. It may stop any number of times, and does not need to use all the allowed actions. (Note that when a turn starts at a friendly piece, that piece is included in the piece count that determines the number of actions allowed)
2) At an empty site: One action is taken to add the piece to the board, then the piece may continue to move as in 1) for the remaining actions. (Note that the entering piece itself is not included in calculating the count of allowed actions in this case.)
3) At an Enemy site: Two actions are needed - one action to remove the enemy and one action to enter the friendly piece. Capture is not allowed without entry. (Note that the captured enemy piece is included in the action point calculation for that location.) Afterwards, the friendly piece may continue to move if it has actions still available, but this is not common.
Note that there is an exception to #2 which allows a piece to be entered onto a fully surrounded empty site if the number of each player's pieces around that site are equal.
I hope this helps.