09-24-2021, 04:10 PM
This is William J. Champion's Kalah with
- options for 254 fair initial states*, i.e. perfect players will draw,
- empty/zero capture according to patent US2720362A and 1958 Kalah Game Company rules, and
- empty side triggers end of game (rather than starvation, i.e. having no move) according to patent US2720362A and 1958 Kalah Game Company rules.
The implementation extended from that of Eric Piette's Kalah.lud
Aside from removing the bad player 2 experience, this is especially helpful for evaluating Kalah heuristics, as the first-player advantage in Kalah tends to mask incremental progress in Kalah AI.
Thanks to all the good work of the Ludii developers!
Todd
* This is a research result: There are 3 fair initial states (boards 1-3) where one piece is moved from the 4-pieces-per-play-pit standard initial board. There are 251 fair initial states (boards 4-254) where two pieces are moved. (Moves can include moving to a score pit, i.e. 1 piece handicap.) The research paper is nearing completion.
- options for 254 fair initial states*, i.e. perfect players will draw,
- empty/zero capture according to patent US2720362A and 1958 Kalah Game Company rules, and
- empty side triggers end of game (rather than starvation, i.e. having no move) according to patent US2720362A and 1958 Kalah Game Company rules.
The implementation extended from that of Eric Piette's Kalah.lud
Aside from removing the bad player 2 experience, this is especially helpful for evaluating Kalah heuristics, as the first-player advantage in Kalah tends to mask incremental progress in Kalah AI.
Thanks to all the good work of the Ludii developers!
Todd
* This is a research result: There are 3 fair initial states (boards 1-3) where one piece is moved from the 4-pieces-per-play-pit standard initial board. There are 251 fair initial states (boards 4-254) where two pieces are moved. (Moves can include moving to a score pit, i.e. 1 piece handicap.) The research paper is nearing completion.