u/groezelgeel

I posted Battle-Lines here before once. In the time since, I've made a version that's playable online.

https://mimasgames.itch.io/battle-lines-demo-web-version

Main rules:

• Capture neutral (grey) lines by connecting them to one of your own lines.
• Capture enemies' lines by connecting each end to a longer line you own.
• You get points for each line, with bonuses for longer ones.
• Loops are worth double.
• The global longest line is worth double, and this can stack with the loop bonus.
• You can rotate a tile on the board instead of placing a piece.

The winner is the first one to reach the victory score.

There's an in-game tutorial where you can experiment with these rules.

Game types

You can have from 2 to 4 players - personally, I think 3 creates the most interesting games.

There are 3 different piece sizes (2 hexes, up to 4 hexes and up to 8). Bigger pieces have different victory scores.

7 AI difficulty levels. The demo only has the 3 lowest and the top one. The full version has an Adaptive AI option, too.

Victory score is adjustable, too.

Also, there are two one-player 'puzzle modes' in the game.

Complexity and skill

As you can see from the second image, the game can get quite complex. Fortunately, it builds up gradually. Piece size impacts the complexity a lot, as does player number.

Decisions usually come down to three options: maximizing line-capture, improving the value of your lines, or sabotaging opponents. Which is best depends on the state of the game, and that of your opponents. It also gets more difficult to figure the best move, and late-game moves can be more powerful than early-game ones. This gives opportunities to catch up until the end.

Anyway, I hope you have fun with it! This demo is mostly the same as the full version, with the only differences being the missing difficulty levels and missing online play. I'm hoping to have the full version finished sometime this year. When it is, you can get it here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3438600/BattleLines/

https://mimasgames.itch.io/battle-lines-demo-web-version

This is my line-connecting strategy game, Battle-Lines. Making a move both creates new lines and has a chance to change the ones on the board. You can take over both neutral lines and those owned by other players. A cool outcome of these rules is that moves get more powerful as the game goes on, and this creates opportunities to catch up to leading players.

I spent a few months porting my demo to the web. There's a tutorial, settings to play with different-sized pieces, and the first 3 AI levels. I also unlocked the maximum AI level, for showing off. Plus, a couple puzzle modes.

Here are the rules (they're also explained in the game):

• Every player's score is the sum of their line-values.
• You take over neutral lines by connecting them to your own. You take over an enemy's line by connecting it to two longer lines you own. (or enclose it in a loop)
• Line-value equals length, with bonuses at 4 and 8. Loops double the value of a line.
• The longest line on the board has double value. It's doubled again if it's also a loop.
• On your turn, you either place a piece or rotate a tile on the board.
• First player to get enough points, wins.

Skill in the game is mostly learning to deal with the complexity of the board, and gaining intuition for where to look. Depth comes into play when you're able to see good moves for opponents, and you can start deciding between sabotaging them (mainly by blocking their lines) or improving your own position (many ways to do this).

Let me know what you think of it! I'm satisfied with the ruleset, but the game's features are a little under-tested.

A while back, I was looking for the name of a poem, so I googled the first sentence. The Google AI reacted in a weird way. The 'small one' addressed me as Clark Ashton Smith, the writer of this poem, while AI mode first identified the poem, and then offered to start a roleplay set in one of CAS's fantasy worlds!

I then got curious how ChatGPT would reply. It did by writing a poem! What's especially interesting is that it's actually quite good. I've prompted it for short poems before, and those were all terrible.

I've been trying out other sentences that have an effect like this, but haven't found any others that work.