Random Co-Ordinate

So, this game requires the placing of random somethings on the grid even in the endgame when the grid is.. what, more than half full, I assume?

Maybe something like a rule that, when you land on a particular full space, you just move "vertically" on the board, wrapping around at the edge, until you hit an empty square? If the whole column is full, THEN you re-roll.

@Kohlstech If you discard the cards after each pick you are guaranteed at least 30 rounds without overlaps. I am not sure if this is enough.

@jay103 I agree solution 2 is basically the same as what you said, but you managed to get your post out a little quicker then I did. (I had to remember how to embed images)

I also had another thought about this. The picking of coordinates seems to correlate roughly to road closure for construction or maybe traffic accidents. Instead of permanently closing the road I was wondering if you could close it for X turns . To do this you could add X cubes to the spot and remove one each round. That section is closed until all cubes are removed. This when a coordinate gets picked again, you simply add more cubes to it. It represents a delay in construction or another traffic accident. Just a thought.

Good luck with your game.

Okay, so I think you can use a binary search partition to solve this ... I think you need about 11 coins, and a bag.

Algo:

1. Put all the coins in the bag.
2. Shake the bag.
3. Pull all the coins out of the bag, and place them heads up or down (as they came out of the bag) in a row.
4. Start by considering the entire board as the current partition of 30x30.
5. Divide the current partition and divide it into two equal partitions. E.g. 30x30 = Two partitions of 15x30.
6. Look at the first partition - Is there at least one space/co-ordinate left that is free and not taken?
7. Look at the second partition - is there at least one space/co-ordinate left that is free and not taken?
   • If there are no spaces left on either partition, then the board is full.
   • If there are only spaces left on either the first or the second partition but not both, discard the full partition and repeat from step 5 with the remaining partition.
   • If there is space left on both partitions, look at the coin. If it is heads, take left partition, tails, the right.
   • If the chosen partition has more than 1 space remaining, place the current coin in the bag. And repeat from step 5 on the current partition, using the next coin in the list. -- If the partition has only 1 space, you've found your random location.

30x30 -> 15x30 -> 15x15 -> 8x15 -> 8x8 -> 4x8 -> 4x4 -> 2x4 -> 2x2 -> 1x2 -> 1x1

It's a very 'computer science-y' way to solve this ... but I think it would work. It has the nice benefit of when you encounter a 'full' partition, you can simply ignore it and move straight on to the other side, meaning you need less coins to find a location the fuller it gets.

Nick

Um

Sure, as long as your game is about placing these little pieces, and not about anything fun...

I think you fail to understand the solution: you MUST choose a NON-EMPTY ROW... Which means AT LEAST ONE (1) NON-EMPTY COLUMN. It's REAL players doing the choosing...

I don't see how there will be more than 2 CHOICES...!

Alternatively you can use ONE (1) die roll (1d30) and then the Player chooses the COLUMN. Which is 50% random ... Yeah, having a PLAYER choose the ROW "ensures" that there are no "repeats" in terms of the selection mechanic...

But it's just a 1d30 roll in the variant. So you might need to roll it 1 (or may 5) extra times.

I agree the "strategy" is impacted ... but I think in a POSITIVE way. You're ADDING strategy to the game with a selection mechanic. Which sometimes may be limiting (only 1 column left in the row). Fundamentally that's the core of the issue: do you want RANDOMNESS or do you want to ADD a "layer" of strategy in the selection mechanic?!

Both are relatively simple... It just depends how the designer wants his game to play out...

For a random map in position AND random size. We always rolled a number of dice for the X and Y axis. We start from the previous location. And we simply went into that direction and skipped any filled position.
Of course at the end of one of the coördination, you go back to 1 and continieu to count.

First the X was done. Then the Y.

The result was that the new place would more often have a different X than the previous place.

Example:
A board is 6x6.
We use d6 for X and then for Y.
(If the board is 30x30, you use d30)
X5, Y4.
We fill that position.
Then we roll again.
X+3, Y+6. We end up on X2, Y4.
Then we roll again.
X+5, Y+1. We end up on X3, Y5.

Try to follow that to know what I mean.

Of course if an X is completely filled. You do Y+1.
Example: Y4 is filled on all X coördinates. So ypu look for an X on Y5.
Then make sure X is done first before you continu what you rolled for Y.

Good luck with your game.

Well if this is the case, why not one (1) Player chooses the ROW and writes down "secretly" three ROWs of their choosing. At the same time, another Players chooses the COLUMN secretly too!

The the FIRST pair is revealed... If that location is "invalid" (by whatever reasons in your game), the SECOND pair is used. Again similarly IF they cannot use that location the THIRD pair is used.

This could introduce "hidden information" from the two (2) Players doing the tile choosing. This could be another "interesting" selection mechanic which could be GOOD for a "CO-OP" game!

Cheers...