[Kde-games-devel] [PATCH] Change to KNetwalk move counting

[Fela Winkelmolen]

> Hello all,
>
> The attached patch is a rather simple change to KNetwalk to change how
> it counts "moves". It implements the behaviour requested in bug
> 167592. [1]

It looks good, I couldn't test it as I have some problems with the KDE cmake 
files (after updating to kubuntu intrepid). But if you commit it I'll test it 
as soon as I can. I also tend to agree with your points below. I'm not sure if 
the new way of counting moves is more intuitive to a new user, but it may be.

> Instead of calculating the optimal number of clicks needed to solve
> the puzzle, it now calculates the number of pieces that have to be
> moved. Instead of counting each 90 degree rotation of a piece as a
> move, it now considers all consecutive clicks on a single piece as a
> single move.
>
> With the current implementation, a game showing great highscore
> potential can easily be ruined by a single click of the wrong button
> or an extra click of the correct one. The patch generally makes the
> game less frustrating without making the puzzles easier to solve. I
> think most would agree the KNetwalk is about geometric thinking, not
> about visual-motor skills.
>
> There is one situation where this change is less forgiving, but I'm
> not sure if it's common enough to worry about.  With the existing
> implementation, if a piece needed to be moved 180 degrees and the
> player moved it 90 degrees, moved some other pieces, and then move the
> first piece the second 90 degrees, they wouldn't be penalised. With
> the patch, the piece will be considered as moved twice, but if the
> clicks had been consecutive it would have only been considered one
> move.

I think the new behavior is better actually. You should move only if you know 
the new position.

> I realise that I've missed the soft feature freeze with this. I've
> been running this patch locally for about a month, but had actually
> forgotten about it. I just noticed it this morning when doing an "svn
> status" on kdegames. I'm not really proposing this as a must-have
> change, but more as an alternative implementation that I happen to
> think is nicer, so comments are welcome.
>
> Parker

- fela


> [1] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=167592