Re: [s-d] RFC: The Grid

[Nicholas Avenell <Nicholas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Another nomic, in a land far far away, had a grid based thingy for  
which I coded a PHP script to build a current state of the board from  
a text file, which could equally be grabbed from a wiki page. If  
something like this goes though, I can modify that code to keep track  
of our own grid automatically/by wiki.

On 29 Nov 2006, at 08:32, Jake Eakle wrote:

> I love it! I really like the starting map framework - this could  
> even allow
> us to have multiple, widely varying sorts of Grid game at the same  
> time.
>
> It would probably be good to have each starting map define its own  
> timing
> rules, and team divisions, too - for some games, you might want to  
> be able
> to have one-move-a-day free for alls, and in others you might want  
> one team
> moves once every nweek.
>
> It looks like it will take some work to make it happen, but if we  
> start
> simple until we get the hang of it I think it'll be great.
>
> On 11/29/06, Daniel Lepage <dpl33@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> The Grid failed not only because it was hard to maintain, but also
>> because it was hard to follow. The display became very difficult to
>> read once lots of objects and properties started piling up in
>> different squares, and it was irritating to re-count squares all the
>> time to make sure you were taking the action you thought you were.
>>
>> I would like to suggest a smaller gridlike game, one that I suggested
>> a long time ago but never followed up on. Being short on time, I'm
>> not going to write a new description of the idea, but instead I'm
>> going to copy from my original message:
>>
>> 1) It's a partially cooperative game. The players would be divided
>> into three teams, and various aspects of the Grid would encourage
>> cooperation between the teams and within the teams, while other
>> aspects would encourage competition between teams and between
>> individuals within a team.
>>
>> 2) It's round-based: we define a 'starting map' for each round, which
>> is an initial state of the grid, plus a list of 'goals'; when all the
>> goals are completed, the round ends, and a new starting map is
>> selected; the next round then begins.
>>
>> 3) It doesn't change suddenly. New objects, concepts, and abilities
>> could be proposed, but unless special measures were needed, it
>> wouldn't be possible to do anything with the new things until the
>> next round (and then only of the starting map incorporates them).
>> This means that everyone has a bit of time to consider what new
>> things do before they get used, and gives anyone who might be trying
>> to automate chunks of this a chance to code up objects before they
>> need to handle them.
>>
>> So, for example, we might do something like this...
>>
>> We define the following objects as Grid Objects:
>>
>>   * Spawn Points (S): this is where players can put themselves on the
>> Grid if they're not on it. Players can only spawn at these points.
>>   * Walls (W): this is just a space that can't be moved through.
>>   * Blocks (B): These are walls, except that a player can push one
>> out of the way if the space behind the block is vacant.
>>   * Laser Death Trap (L): if a player enters one of these, e Dies and
>> is removed from the Grid. If another object is pushed in, it gets
>> destroyed.
>>   * Gold Coin (G): if a player moves into a square containing a coin,
>> e automatically picks it up.
>>
>> When the round ends, each player gains 5 points for every coin
>> possessed by a member of eir team, and an additional 8 points for
>> every coin e possesses.
>>
>> With those objects, we make a map like this:
>> S - G B - B G - S
>> - W W - W - W W -
>> G W G G L G G W G
>> B - G - B - G - B
>> - W L B G B L W -
>> B - G - B - G - B
>> G W G G L G G W G
>> - W W - W - W W -
>> S - G B - B G - S
>>
>> We define the following as the goal:
>> The round ends when all Gold Coins have been collected.
>>
>> Then the game for the round would be a race to get all the coins,
>> pushing through the blocks to reach them before other players do. You
>> want the members of your team to get all the coins; but you also want
>> to get more coins than the rest of your teammates. By pushing players
>> into Laser Traps, you can cause them to die (perhaps they lose a coin
>> every time this happens?). OTOH, it's also possible to get a
>> situation where the only way to get a certain coin (and thus to end
>> the Round) is to die and respawn at a different point. In such a
>> case, each player would want somebody on their team other than emself
>> to die and do this, so you'd have fights within teams to see who can
>> force a member to go after the last coins first.
>>
>> While all this was happening, we'd also be proposing new Grid Objects
>> and new levels with those objects, maybe using some of the objects
>> from earlier levels as well.
>>
>> When the level ended, we'd vote on which of the proposed levels to
>> begin next, and so forth.
>>
>> Does this interest anyone?
>>
>> If we also add the restriction that each square can contain at most
>> one object, then we could easily use MediaWiki's template system to
>> generate images of the current grid. It would require one square
>> image for each object, and then we'd do the same thing that the chess
>> macro does to make the image (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
>> Template_talk:Chess_position for info on this).
>> --
>> Wonko
>>
>>
>> On Nov 27, 2006, at 10:29 PM, all players wrote:
>>
>>> Back in the First Era of B Nomic, a major part of gameplay was the
>>> Grid - a rectangular grid of spaces in which players and all  
>>> manner of
>>> other entities roamed looking for buried treasure (or, more  
>>> commonly,
>>> performing elaborate scams centered around the alchemic  
>>> properties of
>>> gnomes). The Grid eventually fell apart, having become far too  
>>> complex
>>> for a single person to keep track of all game activity. Now that we
>>> have a wiki, however, perhaps the grid can be ressurected - with the
>>> important change that each player is responsible and required to
>>> recognize their own grid actions on the wiki.
>>>
>>> A basic proposal to start us off might be something like:
>>> {{
>>> Create the following rule:
>>> {{
>>> __The Grid__
>>>
>>> There exists a game object known as The Grid. The Grid consists of a
>>> 20x20 cartesian grid of spaces known as Grid Squares. Squares may be
>>> unambiguously referred to using the notation (x, y) where x and y  
>>> are
>>> integers in the range of 0 to 19, inclusive.
>>>
>>> Each Grid Square may contain zero or more Grid Objects.
>>>
>>> The portion of the Game State referring to The Grid or Grid  
>>> Objects is
>>> the Grid State.
>>> }}
>>>
>>> Create the following rule:
>>> {{
>>> __Grid Actions__
>>>
>>> Any Game Action which alters the state of The Grid or any Grid  
>>> Object
>>> is known as a Grid Action. Unless otherwise explicitly stated in the
>>> rules, when a player performs a Grid Action, e must also  
>>> summarize and
>>> recognize all changes to Grid State on a Public Forum, as well as
>>> providing a summary of what Grid Objects are on The Grid and where,
>>> and any state pertaining to them.
>>> }}
>>>
>>> Create the following rule:
>>> {{
>>> __Avatars__
>>>
>>> Avatars are Grid Objects. Each player may possess at most one  
>>> Avatar,
>>> and each Avatar is always possessed by a player. Should the player
>>> possessing an Avatar cease to exist, eir Avatar does as well.
>>>
>>> A Player may destroy eir Avatar at any time, as a Grid Action.
>>>
>>> If a Player does not possess an Avatar, e may create an Avatar at  
>>> any
>>> empty Grid Square, provided the following conditions are met:
>>> * Eir Avatar has not been destroyed in the past three bdays.
>>> * The destination Grid Square does not contain an Avatar.
>>>
>>> A Player may, as a Grid Action, move eir Avatar from its current  
>>> Grid
>>> Square to any adjacent Grid Square, provided that the following
>>> conditions are met:
>>> * Eir Avatar has not been created or moved in the current bday.
>>> * The destination Grid Square does not contain an Avatar.
>>> }}
>>>
>>> }}
>>>
>>> At this point we'd declare a wiki page to be the public forum for  
>>> the
>>> grid state or something along those lines...
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> spoon-discuss mailing list
>>> spoon-discuss@xxxxxxxxx
>>> http://lists.ellipsis.cx/mailman/listinfo/spoon-discuss
>>
>> Daniel Lepage
>> dpl33@xxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>
>>
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- --
Aquarion
Nicholas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx / http://www.aquarionics.com
The only way to play is not to win


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