Re: Solo: A solitare game for PP -

["david_bruce_cousins" <david.cousins@...>]

--- In piecepack@y..., <hexchex@i...> wrote:
> David
> I have a question, well actually two questions.

> Question One.
> I am not sure what you mean when you say("You may now move a number 
of coins from tiles that have multiple coins 
> onto an adjacent orthogonal tile that has no coins") as far as 
movement direction goes.

You pick a number of coins to reposition (I suggested 4 to start as 
that will let you cover up half of the eight uncovered tiles).

You then move coins (one at a time) from any tile which has a stack of 
coins onto an empty tile that is next to it (no diagonals). You 
probably don't want to move more than one coin to the empty stack, but 
that is just a hypothesis of mine. You can move coins from different 
tiles.

Here is an example of the rule.
Before: [ 5 3 coins] [ ace 0 coins]
after:  [ 5 2 coins] [ ace 1 coin ]

The intent of this rule was multifold:
- To distribute the coins a bit more across the board without breaking 
a simple to remember distribution rule (#-2)
- to let the player adjust the random layout somewhat, giving them 
some control to get out of a poor initial layout (though what that 
might be is open to interpretation)
- to adjust the difficulty of the game by adjusting the number of 
coins you move at the beginning. If you move no coins, then there are 
8 spaces that will retire your first pawn. If you move 8 coins you 
should be able to cover all the tiles, though there are cases where 
that would be impossible ( 5 empty tiles in the shape of a cross comes 
to mind).  I haven't figured out what a good starting number was, so I 
 split it and suggested 4, and adjust up or down to taste.

Hope that answers the question. Can you propose text to clarify the 
rule? Rules are always a balance between verboseness and clarity!
> 
> Question Two
> 
> Can you move throught the board on the first version?
> I came across this move while I was playing and there is no legal 
move If you can't.
> 
> [ ][ ][ ][ ]
> [ ][ ][ ][ ]
> [ ][5][ ][ ]
> [ ][ ][ ][ ]
> [ ][ ][ ][ ]
> 
Ah the dreaded five! You got it. There is no legal move here. I should 
add this case to the section on retiring pawns. My oversight.

Interestingly enough, when you play this a short while, you realize 
that legal moves always fall on diamond shapes of increasing size, and 
you can quickly recognize when you are stuck.

1:
  []
[]1 []
  []

2:
    []
  []  []
[]   2  []
  []  []
    []
3:

      []
    []  []
  []      []
[]     3    []
  []      []
    []  []
      []
etc.

Fives *are* pretty tough, but I really liked that aspect.  
This is also one of the reasons I started fiddling with different 
layouts. 


> Tim Schutz
> 
> Still love the game though. I plan to play it some more.
Thank you very much. That means so much to me. My attitude towards 
ideas and designs is summed up in the phrase (SW)^3 N, which 
translates to: "Some win, some won't, so what! Next!" . It is great 
when one wins (i.e. people like it).

Dave Cousins