Re: [s-d] And speaking of Grids....

["Mark Walsh" <flutesultan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 12/14/06 1:17:43 AM Antonio sent:
> Subject: Re: [s-d] And speaking of Grids....
>
> The game of life and cellular automata in general are always a classic.
>
> just some random thoughts
> 1) how do you manage generation cycles ? one per nweek or even per nday 
> goes nowhere fast. maybe 100 per nday could be intresting
>
> 2) i am supposing that you mark each cell with a colour or letter to 
> match a player, what happens when cells from player A and player B meet 
> and reproduce ? do AB cells come out ?
>
> 3) if a player were to construct one of the "intresting" shapes that 
> take hundreds of cells to make, it would be very easy for a second 
> player to wreck it completely by adding just one of two cells, that's 
> not very much fun
>
Input most appreciated.
At this point I'm still hashing out a set of limitations.
I was thinking more along the lines of each player on
their own individual grid.
You start with three live calls to be placed as you will.
Let's say you start with:

***

This pattern is a period 2 oscillator, 

 *
 *
 *
so you get 2 animation points.

Or say you start with:

*
**

This becomes

**
**

and is static, so you gain 1 growth point.
Or perhaps you now have 4 cells to use your next turn.
Now say you use a couple of animation points to move
two of your cells on your next turn:
*
**
*

This grouping will become 12 cells, grouped as 4 period 2
oscillators described above, repeating after 11 unique
generations.So maybe some points for longevity, growth
and animation.

Eventually, using some combination of rewards for various
accomplishments, increasingly complex constructions can
be assembled.

Then you have patterns that grow chaotically and tend to
last many generations (even in a finite grid area). Perhaps
a reward for the total number of cells that were ever alive
on the grid before the life stablizes in some way.
I've got an 8 cell construct that stablizes after 610 generations,
creates gliders that form 2x2 blocks when they contact a
border, and ends with 40 cells and animation on a 40x40 grid.

In a (pseudo)infinite space, a Gosper Gun will expand by
emitting gliders indefinitely, so I'm thinking a finite grid space
will probably have to be required, and perhaps a reward for
some combination of feats can be for a player to define the
dimensions of their grid to their advantage.
Also, perhaps a reward might be to allow players to
set an alternate set of live/die parameters than Conway's
original 2/3 scheme. I futzed with this at one time in the
distant past, with interesting results.

I can see lots of ways to go with this, but it might be
intriguing to watch players manipulate their own gamespaces
and see the patterns that evolve (so to speak).

Triller



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