Puzzle Codename: Messmate

Contact
Username:	Cady36
Additional contact info:	Kaidi on Midnight, PM in forums for email address and MSN Messenger handle
Project forum thread:	Messmate Forum Thread

Game concept

A Cooperative game for 2-8 (might be better for 4) players, in which planks with holes are adjusted to allow various building stones to fall through for construction purposes. I got the idea thinking about the 1971 board game "Stay Alive", in which players tried to drop their opponent's marbles through holes in two overlaid grids.

Objective

To sort rocks into "pure" piles of single stone types for construction.

Gameplay

Metaphor

In real life, then and now:

Quarry stone used in construction is sorted according to what it is appropriate for: Walls, flagstones, steps, gravel, ornamental, etc.
To sort stones by size, you use a device called a "separator" or a "classifier", which has mesh of diminishing sizes so that the largest stone remains on top, the next largest in the next level, etc., all the way down to the sand and tiny gravel at the bottom.
We're sorting by stone variety rather than size and shape, but I think we can stretch the metaphor this far. Think of it as "grading" the stone, using a special separator.

Initial Game Setup

The following description is based on a four person game.

Conceptually, the grid of rocks and all the boards are "stacked". Player boards can be envisioned as one atop another. The player always sees his or her board as the "top" of the gameboard stacks. The order of board colors cycles consistently, regardless of which board is "on top." (This images is for visualization only, not for gameplay.)

Each board contains seven planks, arranged either horizontally or vertically. At random intervals, the planks are "drilled" with holes.

"Above" all the player boards is a single grid of various types of building stone, which is replenished a piece or three at a time from the ship after the planks have been moved. The frequency and number of stones dropped will be determined during playtesting. The grid can be turned on and off at each player station.

How to Play

Players specify a movement value for the planks using the arrows shown either at the sides (for a horizontal board) or top and bottom (for a vertical board) of the board. The arrows correspond to the number of "cells" (hole or undrilled plank) that are currently unseen. Clicking a notch will move that cell to the edge of the board, once all players have set their moves and clicked the "Ready" button.

Players attempt to line up the holes in their planks with the holes of the player "below" them and with particular stones in the grid. When all players have made their adjustment by choosing the notches, and signaled their completion by pressing the "Ready" button, all of the planks will move automatically. The stones will then fall through the holes that line up througout the player boards.

Suggested stone type in order of value:

Marble
Limestone
Granite
Basalt
Mudstone (PENALTY - see scoring)

Nudging: A player can choose, if he or she wishes, to "Nudge" a stone one space, in one direction, instead of moving the planks. (This, along with Drills and Patches will help correct unsolvable boards. Nudging may not actually be necessary, but I'm trying to think of everything.)

Special Pieces

Special pieces appears above the planks on individual game boards for one turn. If, when the player moves the planks the special pieces ends up over a hole *in the player's* plank (whether or not it falls through) the special piece is activated. The chance for the appearance of a special piece is based on the "purity" of the most recent drop, the speed which the team was "ready". Possibly tie certain events to certain special pieces, e.g. when you drop all of a single color stone, there is a percentage chance that WATER will appear on the board. The larger the single color drop, the higher the chance. Or the faster a player is "ready" the more likely a player special piece will appear.

Water: When you drop all of a single type of stone, there is a percentage chance that WATER will appear on the board. The larger the single stone-type drop, the higher the chance. Water causes mudstone to swell for a single movement turn, so it won't fall through the holes.

Drills: Add a hole. Worth a bonus to player if unused at end of game.

Patches: Fill a hole. Worth a bonus to player if unused at end of game. (Note: Experienced players will learn to memorize the unseen portions of their board, as they are exposed, then hidden again. This will enable them to save the Drills and Patches for individual bonus points at the end of the round.)

Points: Bonus points for the player only.

Since 3 out of four of these mostly help the player's score, we've got a risk/reward scenario going here. If he adjusts his board to get a special player piece, he might cause rocks not to drop, or the wrong kind of rock to drop, unless he's carefully memorized the hidden parts of his board.

Storyboard

Note about this walk through: As I was writing this I realized that we need a lot more holes on the boards. Strategy-wise, the undrilled portions are more important. I think you'll get the idea by reading this, though, and if not I'll create a new series of boards with more holes.

This walk through is from the point of view of one of the players, Kaidi.

The game starts and each of the players gets a gameboard.

Kaidi clicks the Toggle button for the grid to see what types of stones the board is starting with, and where they are placed. The team agrees to go for the granite, since that's what there is the most of, and choices are limited this early in the game.

Kaidi can tell by looking at the holes on her board where some of the holes on the other players boards are.

Kaidi sees more green through her holes than any other color, because Lorenor's green board is directly below hers, blocking her view of some of the other colors. She sees the least of gold, Zagnut's color, because there are two game boards between her and Zagnut. (Familiarity with your teammate's boards becomes more important later in the game as the board get's crowded…"Zagnut, don't move column 3 if you don't have to!")

If she can see all the way through (to black) then everyone has a hole in that position.
If she can see gold, then Teeg and Lorenor have a hole in that position, but Zagnut does not, because she sees his board.
If she sees purple, then Lorenor has a hole in that position, Teeg does not. Zagnut may have a hole, or may not.
If she sees green, then she knows that Lorenor does not have a hole in that position. She can't tell whether Teeg or Zag does.

To align the holes to the pieces of granite, Kaidi needs to make the following moves. (From the top)

Line 1 doesn't have any stones on it (this will definitely change as the game progresses) so it doesn't need to be moved. However, a tactic would be to go ahead and move this line all the way one direction or the other, so she can see if the hidden area includes any holes. Kaidi clicks the arrow to move the plank three places to the right.

Line 2 has a piece of granite, but also has a piece of mudstone. She doesn't know what is hidden on the right, so she doesn't know if moving the pieces left will allow the stone to drop. If she moves the plank to the right the one, two, or three spaces that are allowed, the mudstone will be over a hole on her board. This will require some discussion. She moves to the next line.

Line 3 has no stones, so Kaidi marks it to move it to the far right.

Line 4 has a piece of marble, and it's currently positioned over a hole. Rather than discuss it (because speed = higher score) she simply marks it to be moved to the far right. This will show her what's hidden on the left AND prevent the marble from falling through.

Line 5 has a piece of basalt, and also a piece of granite. There movement choices for this line. She can move the plank one space to the right, once space to the left, or two spaces to the left. Moving one space to the right will place the basalt over a hole. Moving two spaces to the left would show more of the hidden area, but would also place the basalt over a hole. Again, in the interests of saving time, she chooses to move it one space to the left, freeing the granite and blocking the basalt. Line 6 has a piece of basalt. Moving the plank all the way to the right to see the hidden areas would put the basalt over a hole. Moving it all the way to the left *might* put the basalt over a hole. She marks the line to move two spaces to the right, so she can at least see part of the hidden area.

Line 7 has a piece of granite AND it's over a hole, so she could just leave it alone. However, Kaidi marks it to be moved two spaces to the left, to expose part of the hidden area.

All the lines are properly set except line 2. She *could* use a patch to patch one of the holes to the left of the stone, but patches and drills are very important later in the game, and the game is not that complex yet. She turns the stone grid off so she can clearly see the colors of the holes.

She confers with her teammates, and Lorenor moves his fifth column down one space, which will block the mudstone, block the basalt, and free the granite on his board. Kaidi sets line 2 to move 3 spaces to the right which places the hole below the granite, and shows her the hidden portion of that plank.

Everyone clicks their Ready button, the planks shift and all of the granite drops and is scored. More rocks are dumped onto the board from the ship, and the game continues, until there are no free blocked spaces available.

The scenario described in for line 2 will need to be repeated for almost every row and column as the board gets crowded (especially since we are adding more holes), and it will be common for situations to happen such as this: Player A moves a plank to drop a stone but at the same time places 3 unwanted stones over holes. Player B can safely block one of the stones. Player C can safely block the other two.

Scoring

Specific scoring depends on playtesting.

The total team score is divided among all players. The individual scores are added to this.

Team Scoring

Certain types of building materials will be more valuable than others.
One type of stone, mudstone, should not be dropped in ANY batch. Heavy penalty. Possibly will ruin the entire batch.
Stones that have been nudged are worth less than those that have not.
Batches of stones that are dropped that include a second kind of stone will be docked.
Batches of stones that drop that are all the same color will be given a bonus.
Teams get a bonus depending on how quickly the entire team is "ready". This will need to scale according to team size. There is a lot more complexity with more players. Need to find a way to give experienced players a benefit for helping inexperienced players.

Individual Scoring

Bonus for Patches left at end of round (only one per round)
Bonus for Drills left at end of round (only one per round)
Points as described in gameplay.
Players receive an individual score for the time it takes them to click "ready". Changing the set up after they have clicked "ready" will cost the player. (Risk/reward: Player clicks the "Ready" button sooner to raise his own score. If he hasn't communicated properly with his team, he may have to change his moves to allow the proper rocks to fall. Possibly, it should simply reset the players individual score for their ready time then ding the TEAM score. This might prevent abuse.)

I don't know whether more holes or less holes will be more difficult. My guess is that the fewer holes the player has to deal with, the easier the board will be. Having a more difficult board type will adjust the score up. "Patching" or "Drilling", therefore, will also affect the score. Players with a higher standing will automatically receive the more difficult boards.

Variability

Holes are randomly distributed each game. Rock mix and order is random (though percentages of each will only change slightly.)

End criteria

All blocked holes on the board become completely full of building stone.

Difficulty scaling

It's difficult to determine specifics without play testing! Part of the scaling will come from the number of holes available (as I said, we still don't know if more holes or less holes is more difficult). The number of holes in each players board will be determined partly by their standing in the puzzle.

For example, with pretend numbers, if we had an average of 20 holes per board * 4 players = 80 holes total. Assuming that fewer holes is the easiest, and we have players of four different skill levels, the most experienced player would get more of the total (say 28-36) while beginners would get less (8-12). If all the players are beginners the average number of holes per board would be reduced. If they were all ults, the average would be increased.

Also, the more people in the puzzle, the harder the puzzle is, because there are more "layers" to take into consideration when dropping the stones.

As a guess for a starting place, assuming that fewer holes makes for an easier board:

Individual Level Scaling

Level 1: 40% of the average number of holes for all boards; extra Drills and Patches to start, but less of an opportunity to get new Drills and Patches.
Level 2: 80% of the average number of holes for all boards; a few extra Drills and Patches to start; some opportunity for more Drills and Patches.
Level 3: 120% of the average number of holes for all boards; the base amount of Drills and Patches to start; a good opportunity to earn more Drills and Patches.
Level 4: 160% of the average number of holes for all boards; very few Drills and Patches to start; many opportunities to get bonus pieces.

Team Level Scaling

This puzzle should also be scaled for the team.

Four Ultimates playing together will generate a much more difficult set of boards than four greenies playing together. Most games would fall somewhere between these two extremes.
Four Ultimates playing together will generate a lot more mudstone and more valuable stone types than four greenies playing together. Most games would fall somewhere between these two extremes.
The number of stones dropped at one time, and the frequency of the stone drop (every 1, 2, 3 or moves) would be determined initially by the strength of the team, and possibly accelerate/increase as the game progresses. (This allows people to do fairly safe test moves at the beginning of the round to determine where the holes are on their planks.)
The better the team, the more mudstone they get at the outset, and the more mudstone that is dropped when stones are added to the board.

Crafting type

Construction, I think - though I'm not using wood! Perhaps adaptable for another use.

Known problems

Notes

Is not machine solvable because some grids will be impossible until the special pieces randomly appear.
Adequate number of Risk/Reward factors
A perfect score isn't very likely, since the player doesn't know from the beginning whether the hidden sections of the board are holes or plank.
Multi-client players could play this game, but it would be difficult to get a high score because they would have to work quite a bit slower than a team.
Another possibility, rather than having the stone value vary, would be to create "orders" requiring specific quantities of a particular stone type. Then these orders were filled, they would contribute toward actual construction.

Risk/Reward factors:

Keep the Patches and Drills for a higher individual score at the end, or use them to make it easier to drop the stones that you want?
Attempt to move the planks to gather the bonus pieces, which may prevent you from dropping a larger group of the same color or cause you to drop undesired stones into the mix, or ignore the bonus pieces and hope for the best?
Whether or not to nudge a piece: Nudging prevents you from moving any planks, renders your time score null for that round, and reduces the score for the group of stones, but it can help create a larger group or prevent a bad piece from falling. (Note: This is a good reason for ults to include greenies in their game...they can be the "nudgers" until they learn how to play; nudging will have a much milder affect on a greenie score than on an Ult score.)

Images

Example of a player's turn, using Kaidi's initial board.

GCPP:Proposal-Messmate