Odd by Nick Bentley (with variant options)

[thorsilver]

Odd is one of my favourite games by Nick Bentley -- it's incredibly simple, yet mind-bending and deep at the same time.  The current implementation in Ludii works well, but because I like the game so much I decided to make a more expansive version.  If the Ludii team sees fit to expand the included version of Odd in a similar way, that would be great, but if not, any other fans of the game may like to use this version if they like the additional features.

New stuff:

• As discussed by Nick here, Odd can be modified to play on larger boards or with different minimum group sizes.  In this implementation, players may now choose board sizes from hexhex-3 to hexhex-12, and minimum group sizes from 3 to 12.  The recommended minimum group size for a given board size is the same as the length of one of the board's hex-sides (so, minimum group size of 8 on hexhex-8, etc.).
  
• The default 'Standard' ruleset is defined as in the current implementation: hexhex-5, group size 5.  Nick specifically mentions an advanced variant on hexhex-7 with group size 7, so that's included now as the 'Expert' ruleset.
  
• On larger boards it can be easy to lose track of how many groups have actually formed.  Now, after every move the mover's score is updated to show the current group count.
  
• I updated the description and rules text to reflect these additions. 
  

That's it!  Just a few simple changes, but IMO the game is more playable with the group count shown after each move, and I enjoy the option to play on larger boards.  The 'Expert' variation is very challenging and well worth trying, if you like the standard game.

Unfortunately, the Odd AI doesn't seem to work with this -- the graphics go a bit mental and things don't quite work properly if I leave the name as "Odd" and specify the Odd AI.  Also, if I tried to update both player's scores after each move (with (set Score Each)) the whole game went crazy, and moves couldn't be made at all.  So I settled for just updating the score of the player that just moved as my way of displaying the current group count.


Enjoy! :) 

[Eric Piette]

Hi,

Ok yes, no problem to update the game with more options.
I also modified a bit your description to update the score of each player as you wanted.
Just a minor thing, for the moment, we keep the rulesets for our uses because we use them for our DLP project and so only for the DLP games.
So for the moment I commented them, until we can allow them for any users.

Regards,
Eric

[thorsilver]

Hi,

Ok yes, no problem to update the game with more options.
I also modified a bit your description to update the score of each player as you wanted.
Just a minor thing, for the moment, we keep the rulesets for our uses because we use them for our DLP project and so only for the DLP games.
So for the moment I commented them, until we can allow them for any users.

Regards,
Eric

Thanks Eric, that's great news!  I'm happy that Odd will have some more options :)

May I ask how you updated the score of each player in this instance?  I'm very new to Ludii so I'm interested to know what I did wrong.

Thanks for letting me know about the rulesets issue, I'll keep that in mind for future games.

[Eric Piette]

Hi,

Just in adding that to the consequences:

Code:

(then
    (forEach Player
        (set Score Player "GroupCount")
    )                
)

Regards,
Eric

[thorsilver]

Hi,

Just in adding that to the consequences:

Code:

(then
    (forEach Player
        (set Score Player "GroupCount")
    )                
)

Regards,
Eric

Ah, I see!  Simple and effective.  Useful to know for next time, thanks!