X4WAR(6) GAMES AND DEMOS X4WAR(6) NAME x4war - An X version of the Chinese four-state-war game. SYNOPSIS x4war [options] DESCRIPTION _x_4_w_a_r is a game like the Chinese board game, four-state-war. It involves four players, two players at the opposite posi- tion of the board play an ally and are against the other two. It runs under X Window environment. At First, players deploy their army on their own fields, then a war can be started after all have deployed their army correctly. During the war, each moves one of his/her pieces in turn. The goal of the war is to capture the COLOURS of the opponents. By default, players are named 'PLAYER 0' through 'PLAYER 3', their positions on the board are sequenced counter- clockwise, PLAYER 0 and PLAYER 2 forms an ally and are against the ally of PLAYER 1 and PLAYER 3. Some description about the board and the pieces: There're six rectangular areas on the board in which the pieces can appear. The square at the bottom-left corner is the RIP, where your pieces are originally placed before a war session and is the place to collect dead pieces during a war session. The other five rectangulars are fighting fields (four at the sides and one in the middle). The fighting field at the bottom-middle belongs to you and you deploy your army in this field. In the fighting fields, the circled places are called safe- depots, the two non-rectangular places at each side lines are called base-depots, other rectangulared places are just depots. For the path, the dotted thick lines are railways, other lines are just paths. For the meaning of pieces. If you start the program without -debug option, all pieces will appear in the RIP first. There names in English are: (from left to right, in row order) COLOURS, MARSHAL, GENERAL, M_GENERAL(Major General) (2 pieces), BRIGADIER (2 pieces), COLONEL (2 pieces), MAJOR (2 pieces), CAPTAIN (3 pieces), F_LIEUTENANT (First Lieutenant) (3 pieces), SAPPER (3 pieces), MINE (3 pieces), BOMB (3 pieces). The ranks of some pieces are: MARSHAL > GENERAL > M_GENERAL > BRIGADIER > COLONEL > Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 3-Apr-92 1 X4WAR(6) GAMES AND DEMOS X4WAR(6) MAJOR > CAPTAIN > F_LIEUTENANT > SAPPER No rank for the other pieces. For fighting rules: When two ranked pieces meet, the higher ranked piece will defeat the lower ranked one, or they are removed together if at the same rank. For non-ranked pieces: a BOMB goes with everything; a SAPPER can remove a MINE; except BOMBs and SAPPERs, every piece meets a MINE will die and the MINE is left undestroyed; every movable piece can capture the COLOURS, it goes together with the COLOURS. The object of the game is to capture the COLOURS of the opponents. For moving rules and miscellaneous during a war session: You can move a piece along a path, to an empty depot or onto a piece of the opponent's (which means a fight). You can move several steps along the railway or one step along other paths, pro- vided that there's no other pieces block the path. If you move a SAPPER on the railway, you can change its moving direction. For other pieces moving on the railway, the direction cannot be changed, i.e., the piece can only go straight lines or from the side of one field to the corresponding side of other field. You cannot move a MINE and the COLOURS after a war has started. A piece moved into the base-depot will die. A piece in safe-depots cannot be attacked. If a player's MARSHAL is killed, his/her COLOURS will be shown faced up at other player's board. OPTIONS -p_i _s_t_r_i_n_g Specifies player _i 's name. _i is between 0 - 3, Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 3-Apr-92 2 X4WAR(6) GAMES AND DEMOS X4WAR(6) default to "PLAYER _i". -c_i _s_t_r_i_n_g Specifies the color of player _i 's node. _i is between 0 - 3. -d_i _s_t_r_i_n_g Specifies the display of player _i. -two Game for two players. Then there's no ally. It is set such that PLAYER 0 fights against PLAYER 2, so the com- mand option settings such as name, color, and display of players should be corresponding to PLAYER 0 and PLAYER 2. And the other two fighting fields are not used during a war. -debug A default deploy. -usage Gives the command options. -help Gives the command options. USAGE Press a button on your own piece to move it, release the button at a position and the piece will be placed there if it constitutes a valid move. First you deploy your army from RIP to your own fighting field, some deploy restrictions apply (see below). Then press START WAR to start a war ses- sion. When a war has started, the players take turns to make a move. You can move your piece if an arrow is shown in the upper-left corner of the board. A broken arrow there means that it's not your turn to move. The message box at the upper-right corner of the board shows each move and the fighting result. For a coordinates (_w, _x, _y), it is defined from the view of the player 0's board as follows: _w specifies which field. Player _i 's field is numbered _i (_i _i_n _0-_3), the middle field is numbered 4. _x and _y specify rows and columns in each field, respec- tively, which are in 0-6 and 0-5 for rows and columns in players fields and 0-2 for both rows and columns in the middle field. The four talk boxes can be used for talking purposes. key input is shown in the corresponding box at all players screen. Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 3-Apr-92 3 X4WAR(6) GAMES AND DEMOS X4WAR(6) The functions of buttons at the bottom-right of the board are as follows: NEW GAME Starts a new game after one game of war is over, then players can deploy their pieces to their field for the new war. Some deploy restrictions: . the COLOURS can be deployed only in one of the base-depot; . a MINE can be deployed only at the bottom two lines; . no node can be deployed in the safe-depot. Other restrictions can be set by players. (such as: a BOMB cannot be at the first line) START WAR After you have deployed your army, you press this but- ton to get ready for the war. After all four players have pressed the button, the war gets started and the one in his/her turn can move a node. REDEPLOY Re-deploy your army after you pressed START WAR button and before all players have pressed that button. After re-deploy, you should press START WAR again. PEACE Requesting for peace during the war. Then a dialog box is shown on the other player's screen, the others have to answer the request. If one answered NO, the war will continue. SURRENDER If you surrender, all your pieces are moved and all pieces on your board are shown faced up so that you can watch the rest of the war. (seems not a bad choice to enjoy other players battle tactics at the lose of your dignity) QUIT If you have been defeated, your quit will not affect the battle, otherwise you can only use it in your mov- ing turn, and it will cause every one to quit. A brief example session is like: 1. get four people and four displays. Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 3-Apr-92 4 X4WAR(6) GAMES AND DEMOS X4WAR(6) 2. run the program, set the boards to different displays. 3. each deploys his/her army correctly and then presses START WAR. 4. after all have pressed START WAR, the war began and the first one can move. 5. fight a decisive battle, have fun! SEE ALSO A Chinese guy or anybody who can read Chinese characters and knows the conventional rules about the war game. AUTHOR Xiaobing Chen, xiaobing@cs.sfu.ca Feb 25, 1992 Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 3-Apr-92 5