[Kde-games-devel] KReversi opening play rules

[Dennis P]

Monospaced message

Yeah, KReversi gets a KDE4 overhaul. Could it be renamed Kreversi that looks 
nicer in a logo.

When the game of reversi was commercialized by a boardgame manufacturer they 
limited, and intellectually protected, the opening position to centered:

 xo
 ox

or

 ox
 xo

Easier to get into a fair game and easier to protect from competition. Why 
would we want to copy that when we have a computer that can guide the opening 
play to start a fair game?

So here is my idea for an opening play:

	Player one position your two chips
Player one places two chips in one turn.
The second placed chip must be diagonally placed on the board and be connected 
to the first.
The two outer rows and columns may not be used.

	Player two position your two chips
Player two places two chips in one turn.
The first of which must be placed on one of the four sides next to a chip of 
the first player (left, right, above or below).
The second of which must be placed diagonally on the board and be connected to 
your first chip.

	Now try to conquer; all your opponents chips, or most positions on the board


This creates similar but more varied opening positions like:

  ox
  xo

   x
  xo
    o

  x
   xo
     o

  xo
   xo

   o
  o
  x
   x

Still the ingrained % opening position can be accessed by:
setting your chips in the % location will cause the computer to set its chips 
in the % position also, instead of picking a random legal opening position. 
When asking for two hints during opening play the hint will always suggest 
the % positions.

Blue and red chips
And why not capitalize on this more original game. Keep the blue and red 
default and sell it as merchandise for KDE e.v. There are bound to be people 
who want to have the game they learned on their KDE computer in a real wooden 
box featuring a wooden cover with the K reversi logo on the front and soft 
blue lining on the inside of the cover which keeps the glass chips in place 
and allows you to empty the board. 

Why not place a big K logo and the word reversi underneath on the empty board 
in Kreversi when there is no play.

On second thought maybe black and white is a good idea as you would only need 
to get the box made and buy a bag of painted Go chips, we don't know yet how 
many people want to buy KDE merchandise like this.

Also could we count the empty spaces remaining in the hundreds. 8x8 means 
there is a maximum score of 64 but 60 and forcing an early defeat should give 
a higher score. So when two opponents chips and two empty fields remain 
unchangeable the final score should be 260 vs 2.

Rules of opening by Dennis Pennekamp released under the GPL 2 or up 
redistribution licence.

Greetings,
Dennis Pennekamp