Patent Application
20220401822
The present invention relates generally to board games and board game devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to a device, called a plot compass, that coordinates the placement of tiles in a particular way to create a gameboard of terrain spaces that is customized for every game, and playable on any flat two-dimensional surface, such as a tabletop or floor, or else displayed on a computer-monitor image of such a flat surface. Once a gameboard is created, whether via the invention or via other means, the plot compass device may be used to direct any piece from its resident tile to a targeted tile. By using this plot compass, the game can avoid employing any element of chance to determine any game event, from the creation of the gameboard to the movement of pieces on the gameboard, thus enabling the game to achieve standing as a contest of pure strategy, from start to finish.
What exactly is a strategy game? A strategy game is defined by Wikipedia as a “game in which the players' uncoerced and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the [game's] outcome (search for “Strategy Game” from within the Wikipedia.org website). The encyclopedia discussion goes on to state that most strategy games “require internal decision tree-style thinking, and typically very high situational awareness.”
For the purposes of this application, a pure strategic board game may be simply defined as a game between two or more players, involving the manipulation of board game spaces and/or pieces, where the situational decisions of one player versus that of other players solely determines victory. If an intervening element of random chance (as when contested outcomes are determined by a throw of dice) instead tilt such individual board game outcomes, then that board game loses its stature as a pure strategy game.
Given these precepts, one may make a search of the prior art of popular strategic board games, from ancient times to the present day, only to discover that all such games suffer from at least one of three critical defects, and frequently suffer from all three of these defects.
The first strategic board game defect is 1) an nth-mover potential advantage as a first (or second, or last) turn-taking advantage, which introduces a random element (who takes a turn when?) into the game that can tilt one player with an undeserved advantage in an alleged strategy game that should only reward pure skill. Turns (one player following the most recent player) are frequently presumed to provide such advantage because one player has developed an evolved position that is ahead of all others. As we will see, Chess and Go are prime and proven examples of games suffering from this defect, as well a tile-based game named Hive. Also, every tile-based game discovered in the patent search list provided herein also suffers from such an nth-mover potential advantage.
The second defect is 2) the replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves. Because of this defect, advanced players must memorize and play rehearsed openings, up to a certain number of moves, because the effectiveness of such openings is so well known to the advanced-play community. Because of this design defect, advanced players initially face a very familiar strategic situation until a gross number of twenty or forty player individual player turns later, when the game transitions into what is frequently called the “middlegame.” For any strategic board game suffering from this defect, players who refuse to memorize nuances of standard openings are at a crippling disadvantage against advanced players. Again we will find that Chess and Go, and a game called Diplomacy, suffer from this defect.
The third defect is 3) the introduction of a random chance to determine various game outcomes between opposing parties, such as by rolling dice to see who wins a battle. The more often this random element is introduced into the game, the less strategic skill is needed to win the contest. We will find that many war games, like Risk, and Russian Campaign and Wooden Ships and Iron Men, suffer precisely from this flaw.
A review of the most notable strategic board games (from Ur—dating from the days of Ancient Babylon—to Hive in the 21st Century) reveals that, often by common consensus, when at least one of these three defects exist, players longing to employ their strategic talents to eke out a win enjoy that game less, because the winning side cannot solely attribute success to smart decision making. Rather than exhaustively review all such games for the purposes of this application, we will examine the most popular board game designs in strategy, namely Chess, the universal Chess variant called Fischer Random Chess, Go, Risk, and some war games from Avalon Hill, including Diplomacy. We will also briefly examine some tile-based games known from their patent application filings.
Arguably Chess is one of the most popular strategic board games today. The modern rules of Chess were first developed in India and Europe around 1000 CE and evolved during the Middle Ages up until the present day.
Unfortunately, Chess suffers from the first and second defects of most strategy games. (As we recall, the first defect is nth-mover potential advantage.) As to the very first flaw, players indeed do take turns, with White going first, therefore providing a substantial first-mover advantage to White. But does this provide an advantage?
According to statistics provided by Wikipedia, during the year 2015, on the top chess website Chessgames.com, 37.5% of all online classical games between human players were won by White, only 27.6% of such games were won by Black (an edge to White of almost 10% of all games), and the remaining 34.9% of such games resulted in draws. In a test tournament between chess engines on computers in 2009 at CEGT (Chess Engines Grand Tournament), classical games had a similar ten percent edge for White, where White won 34.7%, Black won 24.0%, and Draws were at 41.3%. See (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-move_advantage_in_chess.) This 10% edge is also evident among advanced players. In all of the World Championship games played in classical time (rather than speedier time versions) on a tabletop, from 2010 to 2018, 17% were won by White, only 7% won by Black, with the rest (more than 75%!) as Draws. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Chess_Championships.
Chess also suffers from the second defect, which is the replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves. Chess features a standard placement of pieces that oppose each other on a horizontally and vertically symmetric gameboard, with an 8×8 grid of 64 squares of two alternating light and dark colors as moveable spaces for opposing White and Black pieces. Because all pieces are initially placed into a single standard position, the best opening move sequences need to be memorized by advanced players. In advanced play, sophisticated chess does not begin to be novel until the middlegame. Sometimes opening move sequences are so lengthy that they persist until most pieces are captured, and players are left only to calculate their drawing chances in the endgame. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, a whopping 75% of the 80 classical games played for the world championship from 2010 to 2018 ended in draws, due to the top contenders having memorized many “safe” neutralizing sequences of long, unfolding openings. See (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Chess_Championships.)
Thus Chess suffers greatly from both 1) nth-mover potential advantage, resulting in a disproportionate and true advantage to White, and 2) the replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves, resulting in standard openings favorizing only those with prodigious memory. These standard openings endure for ten, twenty, or many more moves, or even past the “middle” game. These two flaws greatly reduce the enjoyability of chess for both beginner and advanced players.
Standard chess has been modified over many centuries to create chess variants. The most popular recent chess variant is Fischer Random Chess, invented by Bobby Fischer, which is now played as a top tournament among the best players. In Fischer Random Chess, there are almost 960 viable variations of the standard position of starting White and Black pieces. Wikipedia remarks that “the random setup makes gaining an advantage through the memorization of openings impracticable; players instead must rely more on their spontaneous talent and creativity over the board.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_random_chess.)
Thus the second defect in standard chess, namely 2) the replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves, is removed in this variant. Unfortunately, the first defect of 1) nth-mover potential advantage, remains very real. According to the most recent survey of 1.4 million Fischer Random Chess games between various chess engines alternatively acting as White and Black, running on computers, White won 41.6% of the time, Black won 36.5% of the time, and Draws took place 21.9% of the time, with White thus maintaining a 5% winning advantage overall. See https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/16344/winning-percentage-in-chess-960.
Another popular strategic board game, Go, originated in ancient China, and in its most advanced form, displays a 19×19 grid of 361 points, as spaces for the placement of black and white stones. The players take turns with Black going first, therefore conferring a 1) nth-mover potential advantage, to Black. Thus Go suffers from this first defect. The first-player turn advantage to player Black in a championship or advanced player game is very high, worth about 5 to 7 White stones captured, which requires in Korea and many surrounding countries a handicapping compensation, counted in stones, locally called komi, that are awarded to player White, only because White goes second.
Go presents a horizontally and vertically symmetric board, but without antagonistic pieces already set up on the board in a starting position, as in Chess. In each game of Go, the individually-placed stones of one player are coordinated in such a way so as to surround and capture the stones of the opposing player. Because of the structure of the gameboard, there are symmetric, mirrored, and balanced openings to Go that are well known, frequently guiding predictable, reactive play regarding the placement of stones. While this defect in Go is not as heavily deterministic as in games like Chess, Go still requires memorization of opening move “patterns” by advanced players, which shows the persistence of the second defect, namely, 2) the replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves.
Thus Go, in its pure form, like Chess, suffers greatly from both 1) nth-mover potential advantage, and 2) the replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves, which, though starting out empty of any and all pieces, nonetheless results in predictable opening patterns of moves.
Strategic games played on replicated gameboards displayed as asymmetric maps of the Earth are much less popular than Chess or Go. Such gameboard asymmetry is most often found in war games. A most popular example of a war game is the game of Risk, from Hasbro, where the gameboard displays various continents that are separated further by arbitrary borders separating out different “nations.” During combat, battles are resolved by throwing dice, with attackers typically having built-in disadvantages compared to defenders. The element of pure chance for the resolution of conflict in Risk is so strong that most adult players disdain Risk as a strategic board game, because skillful strategy does not trump luck as the determining factor in intermediate or final outcomes of the game. Thus Risk suffers greatly from the third defect, namely 3) the introduction of random chance to determine various game outcomes between opposing parties.
Situation or scenario war games like those published by the Avalon Hill company in the 1970s and 1980s, like the discontinued two games Russian Campaign, and Wooden Ships and Iron Men, have irregular maps that are divided into uniformly latticed hexagons of land or water. Land spaces in such vintage wargames are sometimes differentiated by different types of terrain, which can confer special advantages or disadvantages in either piece movement or piece combat capabilities when engaged in either offense or defense. Players with pieces engaged in combat can seek advantage, by choosing to make combat when random odds improve, resolving such conflict by rolling dice. Thus these games suffer, just like Risk, from the third defect, namely 3) the introduction of random chance to determine various game outcomes between opposing parties. Thus, by reason of the shared flaw in design in resolving battlefield outcomes, these sophisticated adult war games are in some ways very similar to the more primitive game of Risk.
The multi-player game of Diplomacy, first published in the US in 1959, and as of this patent application filing date a trademarked game of the Avalon Hill division of Hasbro, is very close to a completely pure strategic board game—not only a war game, but a game of tenuous relationships of short- and long-term cooperation, competition, transaction, guile, honesty, betrayal, and cut-throat diplomacy among up to seven players, before, during, after individual battles of navy fleets and army infantries. The map in Diplomacy is an accurate geographic and political map that is centered on Europe, and truly asymmetric, with Russia and the Balkans on the east side, North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea on the south side, Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, Ireland, and Iceland on the west side, and Norway, Sweden, and Finland on the north side. Unlike Risk, there is no randomized luck by the roll of dice in Diplomacy to resolve conflicts. To eliminate first-turn advantage, the players in Diplomacy all follow their written logged orders to move armies or navies simultaneously during each round of Spring or Fall for each year starting in 1901. Thus none of the players suffer from any opponent having a turn-taking advantage. Yet, because the map and the initial placement of pieces is standard in every game, there is still a great deal of predictability as to the best openings by each of the competing countries, which is memorized by top players. Thus Diplomacy suffers greatly from the second defect, namely 2) the replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves, as discussed here on this Diplomacy website:
http://uk.diplom.org/pouch/Online/Openings/interactive.html.
One way to remove the second defect, namely 2) the replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves, is to lay down connective tiles in unpredictable ways, that, over time, establishes an irregular gameboard that is novel for every game, so that the starting arrangement of pieces on spaces is almost always brand-new.
A popular tabletop game that uses hexagon tiles to create potentially a different irregular board in every game is Hive, created by John Yianni, first published in 2001. In this game, the hexagon tiles serve as spaces, and some tiles double as pieces for elevated piece movement on top of those tiled game spaces, a movement performed by players moving one tile on top of other tiles. Each tile represents an insect with certain attack, defense, and movement capabilities and constraints.
However, new tiles are placed and moved on a turn-taking basis with one arbitrary color (either White or Black) going first. Thus Hive suffers from the first defect, namely 1) nth-mover potential advantage, here specifically first-mover advantage, because, in the standard game, and also in expansion set games, the first moving player, regardless of the color of that player, wins more often than the second. To counter this, a new expansion set, featuring another piece, was added to assist the second player in winning, or in manipulating agreed-player draws. Even with the option of using this expansion set, according to the international online game system Steam, as of Dec. 14, 2020, out of 34,872 recorded games, 45.9% of all Hive games were won by the first mover, and 40.1% of all Hive games were won by the second mover, which is almost a 6% advantage.
Other examples of games using modular tiles on a tabletop, discovered by the inventor's extensive patent searches, include U.S. 2014/0131949, U.S. Pat. No. 9,333,417, U.S. 2005/0206081, U.S. Pat. No. 6,893,020B1, KR 2004/0062612A, U.S. Pat. No. 9,931,564 B2, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,363A. These games can, with or without modifications, facilitate a different irregular array of placed pieces or tiles onto a regular symmetric gameboard, but they all also suffer from the first mentioned defect, namely 1) the nth-mover potential advantage, almost always a first-mover advantage.
Thus the prior art in the most popular (and most recent) strategy board games, including tile-based games, suffers greatly from at least one of the three identified defects. To express the problem in another way, the prior art in board games has not found a game whereby two or more players compete with each other by making only simultaneous moves, during each round, thus eliminating defect 1) nth-mover potential advantage; while also creating a customized gameboard that, over time, is highly likely to be irregular in shape or irregular in its distribution of marked spaces, thus ensuring that a standard opening theory cannot be a useful guide for moving pieces, thus eliminating the second defect 2) the replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves, while also ensuring that all game outcomes, no matter how significant or insignificant, are determined solely by player skill, rather than any intervening element of random chance, thus eliminating the third defect 3) the introduction of random chance to determine various game outcomes between opposing parties.
In sum, the field of strategy board games is in dire need of a game driven by a novel, non-obvious, and greatly useful game device that, by process and method, first, enables a gameboard to be created and conquered competitively by players moving simultaneously, preventing any nth-mover potential advantage; that second, enables players to create a new customized gameboard in almost every game; that third, prevents any random element of chance being introduced into the game to tilt any game outcome; that fourth, resolves every conflict between enemy pieces only according to the relative strengths of the moves in a battleground; so that fifth, certain pieces move onto certain spaces on the gameboard, to win the game for the side demonstrating the greatest decision-making skill.
Such a revolutionary game device is the plot compass, introduced to the public in this patent application for the first time. In all presented embodiments, as demonstrated in the evolving claims and the unfolding illustrations, the plot compass indeed facilitates a game of pure strategy that rewards only shrewd decision-making in all situations of uncertainty.
The invention at the heart of this patent application is a single device, namely a plot compass, that is duplicated and then provided on an individual basis to every player, so that every player can serve as a cooperative/competitive mapmaker. Later in the game, after such a map is completed (by means of the plot compass invention or otherwise), a plot compass is provided to every moveable piece that is placed on any tile (which by definition includes any spaces that are enclosed and allows a piece to stand inside or move upon it) on the gameboard. Some of these tiles may be houses painted with the designated color of a given player, or painted with the designated color of an opposing player. Other tiles may be a volcano named Chaos, a hole, a plain, a mountain, or a lake. The pieces, called starbugs, are moved by players using starbug plot compasses so that the starbugs can conquer and connect a specified number of houses together into a super-territory, called a dominion. The first player to connect a specified number of houses into such a dominion wins the game.
There are two phases to the game. The first phase is Gameboard Creation. Claim 1 through claim 12 relate to this first phase of the game. The plot compass of this phase is individualized to each player.
The second phase of the game is Gameboard Piece Movement, when conquest occurs. Claim 13 through claim 23 relate to this second phase of the game. The plot compass of this phase is individualized to each player piece.
The Gameboard Creation phase of the game in all embodiments starts with a special tile, called a seed tile, which, in later embodiments, is re-named as Chaos. The sides and corners and extra-dimensional aspects of this seed tile is overlaid by a “frame compass” that designates certain empty spaces that are either adjacent to, or, existing just above or below such a seed tile, as available spots for placing a new tile of land during each round of play. Each placement of a new tile of land is called a “plot.” For example, the frame compass may indicate an empty spot directly North or directly Southeast, of such a seed tile. If only one player selects such a particular direction by circling it on one's plot compass, that player plots the “terra” of a house in the empty spot there.
In the featured embodiment (realized at the completion of two dependent claims, namely claim 12, and claim 23, that are complete evolutions of two independent claims, namely, claim 1, and claim 13), the gameboard begins by choosing a template of a single polygon shape (a choice by player agreement of being either a square or regular hexagon) featuring a single solitary volcano, called Chaos, sitting on top of an ancient caldera, or cratered “hole.” Chaos, at the very beginning of the game, is thus surrounded on all sides and corners by a formless void of ocean.
In the featured embodiment of Gameboard Creation, an advanced compass of plotting action belongs to each player, and an advanced compass of plotting reaction belongs to the volcano Chaos. These advanced compasses are, respectively, called a player plot clock, and a Chaos reaction clock. These clocks do not keep time, but do have numerals, assigned to each direction originating on the compass. A plot clock facilitates the placement by players of new tiles next to Chaos, and a reaction clock facilitates the reaction of Chaos to that plotting, by dictating how Chaos moves.
Let us say that we are constructing a gameboard of square tiles. Thus the frame compass around Chaos can facilitate players plotting the same square shape in different places near Chaos, for example, at the empty spots for sides, corners, and extra-dimensional aspects above and below Chaos. Two sides, top and bottom, are North and South. Two other sides, left and right, are West and East. And four corners are Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. Two extra dimensional aspects are Up and Down. Any one of these ten directions can specified by a player plotting new terras of land upon empty spaces adjacent to the Chaos volcano.
Each plotting of a new terra by each player is indicated by selecting a unique number, corresponding with a unique direction, from each player's plot clock. In a Basic Plot Clock, the Northeast direction, with the arbitrary numeral 2, is at the upper right corner of Chaos. The South direction, with the arbitrary numeral 5, is at the bottom side of Chaos. Chaos reacts to the sum of these player plots by shifting its physical position, and traveling by its discovered sum (2+5=7) in a dictated direction located where the numeral 7 is, which is West, leaving other already-formed terras behind in its wake. Round by round, each player dictates new numerals of new directions to a plot clock, which then dictates to an order log (within a notebook, or onto a computer interface) that selected numeral and its corresponding direction, whose plotting of a terra is executed simultaneously by the players and/or computer. After the final round of Creation, when all player plot clocks have been purposely terminated, Chaos rests, and a customized island, constructed with of contiguous terras of land, is completed.
In the featured embodiment, every type of terra designates a particular terrain. One such terra is a house, created when only one player plots onto a unique empty space adjacent to Chaos during a round of play. Each such house displays a distinctive making, like the color of the plotting player. For example, the player Black will plot a black house. White will plot a white house. A house may start off as a humble one-story hut, after just one plot on an empty spot. But extra stories of a house can also be built up by subsequent plots during later rounds, transforming that house from a hut into a multi-story tower.
Any complete set of connected houses on the island (from an isolated solitary group of one house to a connected group of many houses) sharing the same mark of a given player, qualifies as territory allied to that player. Every allied territory gives birth to exactly one allied player piece, called a starbug. Thus allied houses are very important to each player. In the featured embodiment of a square-terra gameboard, any player connecting a plurality of nine or more allied houses into a super-territory called a dominion wins the game.
Other types of terra can be created from the different circumstances of plot compass process and method. A mountain is a neutral terrain created when both players plot onto the same empty space near the island formation at the same time. Other neutral terrains, like plains, lakes (which qualify as both terras of land and as aquas of fresh water), a cratered hole, and the Chaos volcano, contribute other spaces of land to this island, all under different process and method circumstances. Every tile of the island gameboard is created 1) by the game at the beginning of Gameboard Creation, 2) by players selecting their moves on player plot clocks, or 3) by the Chaos volcano's deterministic yet surprising shifts via its reaction clock.
After the last round of the Gameboard Creation phase, the island is populated by starbugs, with a starbug born to each territory. The island is then surrounded on all sides and corners by aquas of salty sea. Other features of the island may optionally be added, such as canals and/or boats. After this Gameboard Population, the Gameboard Piece Movement phase begins. In every round of Piece Movement, each player selects a direction from the starbug's plot clock, to move that piece from its resident terra to a targeted terra on the island.
To review, in the very first embodiment of the Gameboard Creation phase of the invention, derived from the very first claim, a plot compass (a device that has compass directions without the substituting numerals) can be responsible for the creation of many hundreds of unique gameboards. Such a first embodiment is quite satisfying for beginner players wishing to play simple games of pure strategy, which resembles in many respects a tic-tac-toe game, but with no first-player movement advantage. Such games are ideal for the developmentally challenged, or for children, or for beginners wishing to be acquainted with the game.
In the very last and featured embodiment of Game Creation, the plot compass, now a very sophisticated plot clock, can be responsible for two players creating what is estimated to be many billions of unique gameboards. The estimate is roughly based on 9!×9!×9! combinations of the two plot clocks and of the Chaos reaction clock.
In all faithful game embodiments, that is, in the various embodiments that follow the claims of the invention wherever possible, the inventor believes that the previously-identified “Three Major Flaws” of strategy games have been vanquished.
Thus it is an object and an advantage, in every faithful embodiment of the invention, to have a plot compass that ensures, that there is 1) no nth-mover advantage, thus removing the very first identified defect of many strategy games in the prior art.
It is an object and an advantage, in every faithful embodiment of the invention, to have a plot compass as a game device that ensures that there is 2) no replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves, thus removing the second defect of many strategy games in the prior art. Thus the plot compass facilitates strategic thinking oriented around a customized gameboard, which does not require advanced players to memorize and play lengthy predictable opening sequences in offence and defense before arriving for the first time at a novel strategic situation.
It is an object and an advantage, in every faithful embodiment of the invention, to have a plot compass as a game device that ensures that every game outcome always originates from strategic selections made from plot compasses controlled solely by players, thus removing the third defect of many strategy games in the prior art, namely 3) the introduction of random chance to determine various game outcomes between opposing parties.
It is an object and an advantage, in every faithful embodiment of the invention, to have a plot compass as a game device in a game that ensures that all three of the “Three Major Flaws” in the prior art are removed at the same time, so that players are instead compelled to rely on always improvising their best moves, where the directions of these moves are expressed solely through the device of a plot compass.
How these moves are selected by various players in always-novel situations alone determines game outcomes, thus updating, with this patent application, the modern meaning of a true and pure strategy game.
During Gameboard Creation, describing two neighboring tiles, that share a side or corner. During Gameboard Piece Movement, describing two neighboring tiles or tiles at the two extreme ends of any landstrand, that share a side or corner. Introduced in Independent claim 1, and Dependent claim 16.
Any house or any starbug that is under the control of a given player. Compare to “enemy.” Introduced in Dependent claim 2 and Independent claim 13.
A tile or enclosed space of water that can be sometimes created by the game under the special circumstances of process and method of two different claims, as becoming either a lake tile or a sea tile, respectively during Gameboard Creation or Gameboard Population. Compare to “terra.” Introduced in Dependent claims 9 and 11.
About a naming or illustrating decision: the discretionary labelling of an element of the game, that can be altered by choice by any user of the game, without changing in any way the process and method expressed in the patent claim that indisputably created that element, and without limiting the expansive coverage of any claim. Introduced in Independent claim 1, and in Independent claim 13.
A series of non-negative integers, starting from the 0 digit and counting by 1 up to a final maximum digit, whose total number of unique numerals exactly matches the number of unique directions found on a frame compass, to which such digits are assigned. Introduced in Dependent claim 6, and in Dependent claim 22.
A starter plot clock for the featured embodiment of the invention, where numerals are assigned to a terra shaped as a square, with four sides and four corners (clockwise from North to Northwest) pertaining to the respective four cardinal and four ordinal directions of a compass, with two additional directions for two extra-dimensional aspects (Up and Down). A total of 10 digits from 0-9 are assigned to these 10 directions: 1-8 for North clockwise to Northwest, 9-Up, and 0-Down. The directions of numerals 1-9 are selected for plot clock construction of new moves; 0-Down is selected for plot clock termination for ending further moves. Introduced in Specification,
A Chaos reaction clock whose numerals are assigned identically to directions in the same arrangement as numerals assigned to directions in the Basic Plot Clock. Introduced in Specification,
When a starbug supporting an allied starbug plotting a landing onto a targeted terra has its own support cut off by the plotted landing of an enemy starbug onto its own standing terra, its support is broken, and the supportive starbug must either retreat to a safe haven or be removed from the gameboard. Introduced in claim 20.
An arbitrary name first given to the seed tile in later claims of Gameboard Creation, when the seed tile begins to react to plot sums from all participating player plot clocks. Chaos is arbitrarily illustrated as a polygon of selected shape with a thick X centered inside. Introduced in Dependent claim 6, and in Dependent claim 16.
During Gameboard Creation, the response of Chaos to the sum of all plotting actions by players on their respective plot clocks, manifested by Chaos moving or not moving in accordance with a found compass direction equal to the last digit of that sum. Introduced in Dependent claim 6.
During Gameboard Creation, a reaction compass assigned to Chaos that first duplicates all of the unique directions of the framing compass, and second assigns a unique numeral to each such unique direction, allowing Chaos to respond by moving or not moving to the sum of all player plots during the most recent round of play. Introduced in Dependent claim 6.
About polygons: identical in size and shape, so that if any one was to be superimposed on top of any other, the two would not reveal any gaps or overlaps between them. Introduced in Independent claim 1, and in Independent claim 13.
Of any two tiles: attaching at a common side or corner, or attaching at the two extreme ends of any landstrand. Introduced in Independent claim 1, in Independent claim 13, and in Dependent claim 17.
The second period of gameboard development during which players maneuver pieces to plot landings onto terras, or else to plot supports of such landings from adjacent terras, each of which can sometimes be followed by plotted retreats. During this phase the over-riding goal of each player is to be the first to connect a specified number of allied houses together into a dominion. Also called a Piece Movement Phase. Introduced in Specification.
During the phase of Gameboard Creation, any plotting in a direction that leads to the possibility of new land being formed. During the phase of Gameboard Piece Movement, any plotting that leads to the possibility of a piece landing, a piece providing support, or a piece moving in retreat. An example is plotting in any direction but Down on a Basic Plot Clock. Compare to “Destructive.”
A terra that is the site of two or more players plotting landings during a round of Gameboard Piece Movement, resulting in conflict that needs to be resolved. Compare to “uncontested terra.”
Of a set of tiles: in contact with one another at any side or corner location. Introduced in Independent claim 1, and Independent claim 13.
The first period of gameboard development during which the game creates or players plot various terras onto the gameboard so that one or more players can gain particular advantages going into the second period of gameboard development, namely the Piece Movement Phase. During Creation Phase it is possible to be the first player to connect a plurality of a specified number of allied houses together into a dominion, and win the game. Introduced in Specification.
During Gameboard Piece Movement, the most recent terra on which a player's piece is sitting during an unfolding round of play, from which there is vantage to plot a landing, or to plot a support, or to plot a retreat. Also called a Standing Tile. Introduced in Dependent claim 20.
During any phase of Gameboard Creation or of Gameboard Piece Movement, any plotting in a commonly designated direction that terminates a plot compass, for example by plotting 0-Down on a Basic Plot Clock. Compare to “Constructive.”
A term in the game given to a direction, drawn from upper left to lower right, or from Northwest to Southeast. Contrast with Diogonal. Introduced in Specification,
A term in the game given to a direction, drawn from lower left to upper right, or from Southwest to Northeast. Contrast with Diagonal. Introduced in Specification,
A cluster of a specified number of allied houses connected into a single territory whose number of houses is also greater that of any other player, to thereby win the game. For example, in the featured embodiment, a player must connect a plurality of nine or more houses together before any other player to win the game. This means that if two or more players connect nine houses during the same round of play, then the player who gains a plurality of houses above nine that is also greater than that of any other player wins the game. Introduced in Specification, before
During Gameboard Creation, any allied house that can be legally accessed via a single slide or chain of such slides from Chaos to create a new terra from that current terra. During Gameboard Piece Movement, any allied house or Chaos that can be legally accessed via a single slide or chain of such slides from a starbug's resident terra to land a piece on a terra from that current terra. Introduced in Dependent claim 5, and in Dependent claim 16.
Removing an original plot direction as no longer selectable for plotting from a player plot compass during the Creation Phase of the game, or from a piece plot compass during the Piece Movement Phase of the game. Introduced in Dependent claim 4, and in Dependent claim 14.
Any house or starbug that is under the control of another player. Compare with “allied.”
For the expressed purpose of executing slides, any original direction of the frame compass is immune, and therefore exempt, from plot compass eliminations. This means that players in any round may use any original direction on the plot compass for sliding, without regard as to whether it has been used previously in any plotted action. Introduced in Dependent claim 5, and in Dependent claim 16.
During the Creation Phase of the game, an arbitrary subset arrangement of the set exhausting all of the unique cardinal, ordinal, and all other directions surrounding the perimeter of the seed tile. During the Piece Movement Phase of the game, an arbitrary subset arrangement of the set exhausting all of the unique cardinal, ordinal, and all other directions surrounding the perimeter of any representative connective tile of the gameboard. Introduced in Independent claim 1, and in Independent claim 13.
Synonymous to the Creation Phase. In a complete game, the earlier of two phases of gameplay, when players select directions from their individual plot compasses, to simultaneously plot down tiles to fabricate a customized map of connected, congruent, and contiguous terras, upon which pieces are born during Gameboard Population, and can later move, during Gameboard Piece Movement. Introduced in Independent claim 1.
In a complete game, the name for the later of two phases of gameplay, when players select directions from their piece plot compasses, to simultaneously plot the landings of one or more of those pieces onto tiles. Introduced in Independent claim 13.
An intermission between the two major phases of the game: Gameboard Creation, and Gameboard Piece Movement. In a complete game, after players have destroyed their player plot compasses, during Gameboard Population one starbug is born into each territory, and a sea aqua is placed to touch every outer side or outer corner of every terra of the created gameboard. Boats and canals can also be added to the gameboard at this time. Introduced in Dependent claim 11.
A round indicator to a newly plotted terra on the gameboard, that surrounds the terra in the terra's background immediately after it is plotted. Introduced in Specification
An arbitrary name (sometimes capitalized) given to a tile created by the game process and method as a neutral terra under a special circumstance: the hole lies beneath Chaos upon the very beginning of Gameboard Creation, only to be exposed when Chaos vacates its first space by reacting to player plots on plot clocks. A hole is arbitrarily illustrated as a white polygon of selected shape with a shaded circle centered inside. Introduced in Dependent claim 8.
An arbitrary name given to a tile created by a player as an allied terra as a process and method of the game under a special circumstance: when only one player plots a terra onto an empty space during a round in the Creation Phase. A house can be a one-story hut or a multi-story tower, and is arbitrarily illustrated as a polygon of selected shape with a house inside bearing one or more roofs, each roof representing its exact number of stories, with the exterior of the house marked with the colored indicia of the player. Introduced in Dependent claim 2.
An arbitrary name given to a tile created by a player as an allied terra as a process and method under a special circumstance: when only one player plots a terra onto an empty space during a round in the Creation Phase. A hut is arbitrarily illustrated as a polygon of selected shape with a house inside bearing one roof, representing its number of stories, with the exterior of the house marked with the colored indicia of the player. Introduced in Dependent claim 10.
During the Creation Phase, the location of a space for a player to place a tile as a plot based on a directional pathway originating from the seed tile selected by the player from one's own plot compass. Introduced in Independent claim 1.
Between the two phases of Gameboard Creation and Gameboard Piece Movement is the Gameboard Population Intermission, during which an allied starbug is born to each allied territory on the gameboard, and an aqua is added to touch every outer side and outer corner of every terra of the gameboard. Compare to “phase” and “round.” Introduced in claim 11.
An arbitrary name given to a tile, as a neutral terra framing a smaller aqua within, created by the game as a process and method under a special circumstance: when an empty space is surrounded on all sides by terras during any round during the Creation Phase. A lake is arbitrarily illustrated as a polygon of selected shape, representing the terra of land, wholly surrounding a smaller polygon of selected shape, representing the aqua of water. Introduced in Dependent claim 9.
During a round of Piece Movement, the action by one starbug to move into a targeted terra and attempt occupation. Introduced in Independent claim 13.
The maximum extension of a continuous chain of terras along any side-to-side, or corner-to-corner single axis of direction, whose extreme ends are coastally bracketed by sea aquas. A landstrand allows any starbug to plot or slide a departure from one extreme end of such an extent of terras only to arrive at the other extreme end of those terras, as if these two far ends were adjacent to each other, thereby sharing a common side or corner. Introduced in Dependent claim 17.
Taking all of the allied starbugs controlled by the same player landing into the same terra during the same round after winning that terra and combining them all into a single starbug inheriting only once each surviving direction of all of those landing starbugs. Introduced in claim 18.
An arbitrary name given to a tile created by the game as a neutral terra as a process and method under a special circumstance: when two or more players plot a terra onto the same empty space within the same round during the Creation Phase. A mountain is arbitrarily illustrated as a polygon of selected shape with a lightly shaded triangle centered against a white background. Introduced in Dependent claim 2.
During Gameboard Piece Movement, the selected procedural order of every direction of a given piece selected from that piece's plot compass coupled with the number of spaces traversed for each such selected direction. Introduced in Independent claim 13.
Rendered to have no effect. Introduced in Dependent claim 20.
During Gameboard Piece Movement, the tile on which a player piece is sitting at the very end of any given round of play. If the game continues to a next round, the occupied tile automatically turns into the resident tile of that player piece at the very beginning of that next round. Introduced in Dependent claim 18.
The complete recorded detail of a player's move involving the plotting of a new terra during Gameboard Creation, or, alternatively, involving plotting a new landing by a starbug, a new support by a starbug, or a new retreat by a starbug, during Gameboard Piece Movement. An order log includes all directions of any slides and plots selected from a plot compass and the number of spaces chosen for each such direction during that round of the game. Introduced in Specification,
Any direction on a framing compass that is directly inherited by a player plot compass, Chaos reaction compass, or piece plot compass, regardless as to whether or not such a direction has been eliminated later by a plot on a player plot compass, or on a piece plot compass, during a round of play. Introduced in Dependent claim 5, and in Dependent claim 16.
One of two largest divisions of time of the invented game: the first being the Gameboard Creation Phase, the second being the Gameboard Piece Movement Phase. Sometimes the two respective phases are called first the Creation Phase and second the Piece Movement Phase. Each phase in turn is divided into numbered rounds. In between each phase is the Gameboard Population Intermission. Compare to “intermission” and “round.” Introduced in Specification, before
A generic name for a mobile unit that can be placed on tiles on the gameboard during Gameboard Population, and moved from its resident tile to a targeted tile by selecting one or more directions to plot a landing from a player's piece plot compass. Introduced in Independent claim 13.
In a complete game, the name for the later of two phases of gameplay, when players select directions from their piece plot compasses, on a round by round basis, to simultaneously plot the landings of one or more of those pieces onto targeted tiles. Introduced in Independent claim 13.
An arbitrary name for a tile created as a neutral terra by the game process and method under a special circumstance: a plain emerges from beneath Chaos if Chaos vacates an empty space to move to another empty space. A plain is arbitrarily illustrated as a polygon of selected shape that is shaded medium grey. Introduced in Dependent claim 7.
A human or computer competitor in the game allowed to plot tiles as gameboard spaces during the Creation Phase of the game, and later allowed to plot landings of pieces onto those tiles during the Piece Movement Phase of the game. Introduced in Independent claim 1, and in Independent claim 13.
A plot compass assigned to each individual player that is based on the template of the frame compass. Introduced in Independent claim 1.
A distinctive name, color or some other sensed indicia that identifies plot compasses, terras, or pieces allied and controlled by a given player. Introduced in Dependent claim 2.
During Gameboard Creation, placing a new terra onto the gameboard. During Gameboard Piece Movement, landing a piece onto a terra, or retreating a piece from one terra to another terra, or supporting the landing of an allied piece onto a terra adjacent to such support. Introduced in Independent claim 1, and in Independent claim 13.
During Gameboard Creation, a device that places a new terra onto the gameboard by allowing a player to specify a unique number assigned to a unique compass direction that surrounds Chaos, or else surrounds a terra found by sliding from Chaos. During Gameboard Piece Movement, a device that lands a piece onto a terra by allowing a player to specify a unique number assigned to a unique compass direction that surrounds the piece's resident terra, or else surrounds a terra found by sliding from Chaos. Introduced in Dependent claim 6, and in Dependent claim 22.
During Gameboard Creation, a device that places a new terra onto the gameboard by allowing a player to specify a unique direction that surrounds the seed tile or that surrounds a terra found by sliding from Chaos. During Gameboard Piece Movement, a device that lands a piece onto a terra by allowing a player to specify a unique direction that surrounds the piece's resident terra or that surrounds a terra found by sliding from Chaos. Introduced in Independent claim 1, and in Independent claim 13.
Placing a starbug onto a targeted terra in an attempt to occupy it. Introduced in Independent claim 13.
Making a starbug depart from a terra after it loses a contested terra and moving it to an empty allied house as a safe haven, all during the same round of play. Introduced in Independent claim 13.
Reinforcing an allied starbug that is landing on a terra adjacent to this reinforcement during the same round of play. Introduced in Dependent claim 20.
When calculating numerosity, any number of a game element consisting of two or more. When calculating the winner of a dominion, any number that is greater than that of a comparable number of another player. Introduced in Dependent claim 18.
A movement compass assigned to Chaos that is based on the template of the frame compass. Introduced in Dependent claim 6.
About a tile: an example that exhibits the properties of other tiles forming a gameboard. Introduced in Dependent claim 13.
During Gameboard Piece Movement, a tile of land occupied by a piece at the very beginning of a round of play. Introduced in Independent claim 13.
During Gameboard Piece Movement, the plotted movement away from a lost contested terra from a plotted landing, or from a current terra sited where plotted support was broken. Introduced in Dependent claims 19 and 20.
A numbered division of time during which players decide how to manipulate individual plot compasses to plot a terra into the gameboard during the Gameboard Creation Phase, or to plot piece movement during the Gameboard Piece Movement Phase. Compare to “phase” or “intermission.” Introduced in Specification, before
A house that is empty and allied to the player directing the movement of a retreating starbug. Introduced in claim 19.
Taking the unique directional arrangement of all the numerals of a plot clock or of a reaction clock and replacing it with a different directional arrangement of those same numerals. Introduced in Specification,
The first tile of a gameboard, created by the game under the process and method of a special circumstance: placed down surface-wise onto a flat plane, then bounded by directions on a frame compass surrounding it, around which other tiles can be plotted, by each player in possession of a plot compass that is based on that same frame compass. Introduced in Independent claim 1.
A four- or six-sided regular polygon that is chosen to be the polygon outline of the seed tile, and of subsequent tiles created from that seed tile. Introduced in Independent claim 1, and in Independent claim 13.
During the Creation Phase, the act of a player selecting from the original directions of the plot compass from the seed tile thru allied houses to arrive at a vantage terra from which to plot a new terra upon an adjacent indicated spot of either an allied house or an empty space. During the Piece Movement Phase, the act of a player selecting from the original directions of the plot compass from its resident terra thru any combination of Chaos and/or allied houses to arrive at a vantage terra from which to plot a landing upon an adjacent terra or to plot support of an allied starbug landing upon an adjacent terra there. Introduced in Dependent claim 5, and in Dependent claim 16.
The arbitrary name given to any player piece equipped with an individual plot compass. Introduced in Independent claim 13.
During a round of Piece Movement, the action by one starbug to plot strength in the direction of an adjacent terra, to buttress an allied starbug there plotting a landing. Introduced in Dependent claim 1, and in Independent claim 20.
During Gameboard Piece Movement, a tile selected by a player to be occupied by an allied piece if a successful plotted landing takes place there. Introduced in Independent claim 13.
Ending any future use of a plot compass, by selecting an unused plot direction that indicates such a closure, during either the Creation Phase or the Piece Movement Phase. Introduced in Dependent claim 4, and in Dependent claim 14.
A tile or enclosed space of land created under different special circumstances of process and method during the Creation Phase of the game. During the Piece Movement Phase, an arbitrary name used to describe a landing space for pieces. Compare to “aqua.” Introduced in Independent claim 1, and in Independent claim 13.
Any complete set of connected houses sharing the indicia of only one player on the gameboard. Introduced in Dependent claim 11.
In gameboard creation, a shape that can be placed down onto a flat surface and connected to other such shapes so as to create a gameboard map upon which pieces may stand or move. In gameboard piece movement, any enclosed space on any gameboard allowing a piece to stand inside or move upon, that can possibly allow its appearance to change based on game events. Introduced in Independent claim 1, and again in Independent claim 13.
An arbitrary name given to a tile created by a player as an allied terra under the process and method of a special circumstance: when the same player plots onto one's own same allied house one or more additional times during different rounds of the Creation Phase. A tower is arbitrarily illustrated as a polygon of selected shape with a house inside bearing more than one roof, the number of roofs representing its number of stories, its exterior marked with the indicia of the player. Introduced in Dependent claim 10.
A terra that is the site of only one player plotting one or more landings during a round of Gameboard Piece Movement, resulting in no conflict there that needs to be resolved. Compare to “contested terra.” Introduced in Dependent claim 18.
The position on the gameboard from which a plot is launched. Introduced in Dependent claim 5, and in Dependent claim 16.
During Gameboard Creation, a player plot compass direction that is both available on the plot compass and also available on the gameboard map as an eligible space for plotting an action that targets that space, for the creation of a tile. During Gameboard Piece Movement, a piece plot compass direction that is both available on the plot compass and also available on the gameboard map as an eligible space for plotting an action that targets that space, for example a landing, a support, or a retreat. Introduced in Dependent claim 4 and Dependent claim 14.
Ending the existence of a moving piece, by pulling off a destructive direction from its plot compass. Introduced in Dependent claim 19.
The invention relates to a game system that firstly uses a game device, called a plot compass, to enable two or more players to create a custom gameboard composed of tiles of a particular regular polygon shape. The game system secondly uses the game device of a plot compass to maneuver mobile pieces on that custom gameboard, or on any gameboard that consists of tiles, whose definition includes any enclosed spaces, comprised of that particular regular polygon shape.
More specifically, the gameboard is always composed, in part or as a whole, of connected, congruent and contiguous tiles drawn from the set of single regular polygons consisting of either a shape of a) four, or b) six sides. These shapes are, more specifically, a square, or a regular hexagon. The two are never mixed.
Each such tile can be made of cardboard, wood, plastic, or some other lightweight hard and unbendable material, that can be laid down on a flat plane surface, like a floor or table. The game begins by players first creating a gameboard map of tiles, with each player aided by an individual plot compass. The game continues by players conquering that same gameboard map of tiles, or, alternatively, a gameboard map comprised of unmovable enclosed spaces, but this time, aided by a plot compass for each mobile piece. A shorter version of the game can begin with such a gameboard map already created (by any means), so that players faced with an arrangement of enclosed shapes are only engaged with conquering that gameboard map, without first needing to create the gameboard map from scratch.
Every embodiment of the game is viable for strategic play, with attractions for different audiences. The earliest embodiment stems from the very first two independent claims taken together, and can appeal to children or adults who enjoy simple play. The featured embodiment is based on the most advanced dependent claims taken together, based on those two independent claims, and can be explored on a highly advanced basis by theoreticians, game-masters, and even computer players aided by artificial intelligence.
There are two phases of the game, with different names. The first phase is called the Creation Phase. This phase is based on round-by-round simultaneous interactions of players to competitively create various tiles on an emerging gameboard map of an island. Each player creates one's own tiles on the gameboard, attaching them to a seed tile at the center of a flat plane like a table, floor, or the screen of a computer display.
The second phase is called the Piece Movement Phase. This phase is based on round-by-round simultaneous interactions of all active players with mobile pieces on the gameboard to competitively conquer various tiles (or enclosed spaces) on an already-constructed map of that island.
In both phases of the featured embodiment, involving square tiles, the object is to connect a plurality of nine or more “houses” together into a single territory called a “dominion.” If two players gain nine houses during the same round of play, then each must reach to connect a plurality of nine or more houses compared to any other player to win the game.
The Creation Phase of the game in all early embodiments starts with a special tile, called a seed tile. The center of this seed tile is overlaid by a framing compass designating empty spaces adjacent to the seed tile. If, during a particular round of play, only one player selects a particular direction adjacent to the seed tile, that player then plots one's own colored tile in the empty space there. The first embodiment of the Creation Phase of the game is represented by the first independent claim, claim 1.
The first embodiment of the Piece Movement Phase of the game is represented by the second independent claim, claim 13. This part of the invention relates to each player using a plot compass assigned to each mobile piece, to move player pieces from their resident tiles to targeted tiles on a gameboard map so as to connect certain player-allied tiles (called houses) together in a large enough territory (called a dominion) to win the game.
To repeat: the over-riding goal as a player, is to utilize this plot compass device, first to plot new land as new spaces of different terrains, and second, to plot new land-ings of moveable pieces upon those same land spaces, so as to convert certain tiles into your houses, and then connect your own houses together into a super-large territory called a “dominion,” and thus win the game.
Each player has a distinctive marking, such as a color, to help identify “allied” houses (either one-story huts or multi-story towers in alliance with a sponsoring player) and “allied” player pieces, called starbugs. For the sake of ease and convention in illustration, in a two-player game we name the players Black and White (we remark that the US Patent Office presently disallows in most cases the use of chromatic color to illustrate inventions, thus the requirement for the highest contrast in light and dark shadings possible to illustrate the game requires the frequent usage by the inventor of solid Black versus solid White images). In every embodiment of the game, whether the rounds of play are that of early Creation (tiled mapmaking) or of later Piece Movement (piece movement on top of those tiles), the players log their moves first, and then execute their logged moves, all together, simultaneously.
The tiles in the game represent terras of land and aquas of water, forming a gameboard that resembles in simplest form, a tic-tac-toe game, or in more complex form, the irregular map of a fictional island, as might be discovered by wooden sailing ship explorer of an exotic ocean island of Micronesia. The key terra in the game is the house, whose height can be short, as with one-story huts, or can be tall, as with multi-story towers. Black and White try first to create and, later, during piece movement, to convert these houses, into ones that are colored with their own black or white paint. Such houses are called “allied” when they display the painted color of a given player, and “enemy” when they display the painted color of an opposing player. A Black house (and Black piece) is thus allied with Black the player. A White house (and White piece) is allied with White the player. These houses are initially created in empty spaces adjacent to the swift, ever-shifting volcano called Chaos.
Other terras besides Chaos and houses can be created by the game or by players before or during various rounds of the Creation Phase, such as a cratered hole, mountains, plains, or lakes, all of which can be occupied or traversed by pieces born during the Piece Movement Phase. When a mobile piece of one color occupies a house painted with another color (that is, when an enemy piece occupies a house allied with another player), the house color is immediately flipped to the color of the conquering, occupying piece. The object of the game in the preferred embodiment is to shape the gameboard during the Creation Phase with your own houses and various terras in an advantageous way, to maximize either connectivity of such houses or maximize the number of new starbugs that will be born to such houses, and then to move your pieces during the Piece Movement Phase to conquer and connect at least nine of your allied houses together first.
The initial embodiment, and evolution to the featured embodiment, of the game are best described by discussing and illustrating the specific claims of the invention, which evolve to the featured embodiment at the end of the invention. Such an evolving description can help those acquainted in the craft of game design to understand the best ways to provide the most enjoyable versions of the game for years to come, to different audiences. Thus the various simple and more complex embodiments are all presented in evolving order, appropriate for different audiences, from the first embodiment for little children and developmentally-challenged adults of the simplest games, to game-masters of any background to enable the creation and piece movement over the more complex ones.
The invention uses a plot compass to place regular polygon tiles, made readily from wood, plastic, or some other hard material, down upon a flat two-dimensional space, like a tabletop, 101, or floor. Alternatively, such tiles can be represented as resting on a plane parallel to a flat computing display, 102. Tiles can thus be physical, or they can be virtual, as long as the surface of the gameboard display appears to be flat and two-dimensional at the start of the game.
The object of the game, in all embodiments, is to be the first player to connect some specified number of allied houses together, like nine, into a single dominion. By way of example, in the featured embodiment of the game, which uses the two dependent claims numbered claim 12 (for the end of claims regarding the Creation Phase) combined with claim 23 (for that regarding the Piece Movement Phase), the overall object is to be the first player to connect a plurality of nine allied houses together into a single dominion. “Plurality” in this context means a local majority, that is, if two or more players in the same round are the first to reach nine simultaneously, that is, during the same round, the game is not won until any one player is the very first to reach the very highest connected number of nine or more among all players, in any subsequent round.
In the featured embodiment, the gameboard resembles a single island of contiguous terrain spaces, called terras. If the tiles of the gameboard map were not required to be contiguous, but rather, could sometimes be separated into different disconnected islets, a dominion of nine houses may be in some cases impossible to connect. Thus it is critical for players to employ a game device that can deliver a single custom gameboard map whose terras are guaranteed to be connected together in a single contiguous network of tiles at the end of any round of either phase of Creation or Piece Movement.
To reiterate,
To reiterate, the very first claim, claim 1, begins with the preamble for a “game of gameboard creation whose plot compass enables two or more players to create a custom gameboard made from connected, congruent, and contiguous tiles of a single regular polygon shape,” followed by a process of steps. The first step, “selecting one shape from the list of either a 4-sided regular polygon, or a 6-sided regular polygon, thereby creating a selected shape,” is demonstrated with
Only one of these two polygon shapes is provided for such replicated tile selection because a gameboard map that features any mix of these two n-sided regular polygons, even when cleverly joined together at the sides, corners, or even via some other extra-dimensional aspect, will suffer from clumpy gaps or overlaps in gameboard maps when consisting of more two or more rows (or two or more columns) of connected sides (or connected corners), used for such a clumsy agglomeration of tiles. Any two congruent tiles can be placed on top of one another, with no gaps or overlaps in shape, as per the Glossary entry for Congruent.
In our featured embodiment of the invention, in
After “selecting one shape from the list of either a 4-sided regular polygon, or a 6-sided regular polygon, thereby creating a selected shape,” and “placing one surface of that selected shape face up upon an empty plane of space, thereby creating a seed tile” fulfilling claim 1 Step a) and Step b), we proceed directly to
For everyday guidance on the word “subset,” Wikipedia at the beginning of its listing of the definition of subset states that “in mathematics, a set A is a subset of set B if A is contained in B . . . [yet] A and B may be equal.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subset)
Taking this definition in hand, we have assigned a unique compass direction to every side, corner, and extra-dimensional aspect of the seed tile that we can subjectively imagine as if we were all players of the game in consensual agreement, without any concern as to whether such a set of assigned directions is truly mathematically exhaustive of all possible directions, because we only require a “subset” of that elusive exhaustive set.
To demonstrate the flexibility of the subset clause of claim 1 Step c), we shift to
Next we move to
We now move to claim 1 Step e), which allows “each player, during each round of simultaneous gameboard creation, to select a direction of plotting from one's own player plot compass, thereby creating a pathway from the seed tile to an indicated spot.” In
And thus we come at last to claim 1 Step f) where the game plots “a new tile of selected shape onto that indicated spot, creating what can be arbitrarily called a terra of land.”
The inventor points out that the patent claim of claim 1 Steps a-f) is designed to cover the specified circumstances under which a new tile of selected shape is created and placed in a designated position relative to the seed tile, as a novel, non-obvious, and useful process and method of round-by-round gradual gameboard creation. The arbitrary nomenclature for any interim or final outcome of a claim, such as “terra of land,” is meant in no case to be limiting to the coverage of such claim, which is a precisely specified process and method of gameboard creation.
Note that the two tiles next to the seed tile could be called any noun that signifies a gameboard space, such as “block,” “square,” “landing,” “neighbor,” “innocent bystander,” or even “planet,” and that the term “terra” is only an arbitrary label of a metaphorical terrain for the purposes of describing more richly a space of “land” in the game invention. The process and method of terra creation under these specific circumstances of a plot compass is what counts. The arbitrary labels (here and in later claims) are useful metaphors for the gameboard being created, which unfolds, in later claims and embodiments, as a small island of connected terras, representing different earthy terrains, such as: houses in the form of one-story huts or multi-story towers, mountains, plains, cratered holes, lakes (as bodies of water surrounded on all sides by terras), and a shifting volcano named Chaos. Such an island, composed of various terras of land, by force of later claim language, is always surrounded on all sides by aquas of water, representing the surrounding sea, as if the island were an island in Micronesia. Other themes or metaphors may be usefully provided by players or game designers for other embodiments. These themes or metaphors describing gameboard map spaces are in no way intended to limit the scope of different tiles created under different circumstances by the claims describing the plot compass process, method, or invention.
Did the steps in the claim 1 fulfill the aim and purpose of the claim's preamble, so that two or more players could “create a custom gameboard made from connected, congruent, and contiguous tiles of a single regular polygon shape?” The answer is yes. No matter what compass directions are selected by Black and White, or else selected by three, four, or even more players during this first round of Creation, the tiles would all connect together as contiguous game spaces, and the resulting game board, after this first round, would also be indeed custom-made for this game.
This independent claim 1, when taken alone, with no other supporting claim, over a few rounds of play, creates one custom gameboard out of many hundreds of differently spaced gameboards, that, when combined with independent claim 13 for the basic movement of placed pieces on such a gameboard, together fulfill the promise of a player plot compass serving as an essential tool for the player acting as both map-maker and as piece-mover. Many different strategy games can be created from these two independent claims (with some possibly including additional rules) to ensure that, so far: 1) no player has a turn-taking advantage, that 2) no player suffers from the replicated placement of starting pieces on the same designated spaces, and 3) no player suffers from the introduction of random chance or whimsical caprice to determine uncertain game outcomes. As a result, any embodiment that faithfully follows these two independent claims with other dependent designs can indeed produce a pure strategy game.
Such a capability is most beneficial when it comes to creating small-scale strategy games for very youthful or very casual players. How is simultaneous play enabled by independent Claim 1? In each round, during claim 1 Steps e) and f), precisely when players first select directions to signify where, relative to the seed tile, they wish to plot new landings of a tile, before moving to plot those tiles, arbitrarily named terras, onto a gameboard. Players may optionally log such moves on a notepad, called an Order Log, which can be simulated on a computer screen, and then via announcement execute those moves simultaneously, after all such logs by all players are completed.
Thus we now move to the first dependent claim of claim 2. First, at claim 2 Step a) the game makes “a distinctive mark for each player, thereby creating a player's mark.” Player marks can be any indicia that displays to any human sense which player is which, and thus reveal which plot compasses, terras, or pieces belong to which player. In games for the blind, for example, a tactile Braille symbol or sonorous indicator of sound can “display” a player's mark to another player. Here, for the purposes of this visual document, we will provide simple shades of color: black for the player Black, white for the player White. We arbitrarily decide, for now, that the mark for player Black is a dark color, and for player White a light color, on all such allied elements of the game.
Second at claim 2 Step b), the game creates and displays “that player's mark on each terra plotted exclusively by only a single player during a given round, thereby creating what can be arbitrarily called a house allied to that player.” We demonstrate this situation by moving to
We identify in
To complete the Order Log, which is generated by either the player on a notepad or on a computing device from the plot compass direction so selected, the seed tile, 609, is the vantage from which Black will plot a terra Southwest, 610, with a plot arrow indicating a question mark around a new terra, 611. The order log, as written out, reads the imperative “Black: From seed tile/plot a terra on the empty space Southwest,” 612.
In
But claim 2 also includes a Step c) “displaying a distinctive neutral mark on any terra that is plotted jointly by two or more players during a given round, thereby creating what can be arbitrarily called a mountain.” We introduce
Notice that the circumstance of this new neutral terra creation is based solely on the process and method of the claim, and does not stem from whimsical rule making on the part of the inventor. Instead it illustrates an integral part of the risk of plotting terras on a simultaneous basis between two or more players during the same round of play. This is a helpful indicator that the plot compass as a game invention is not just novel, non-obvious, and useful, but also has its own integrity as a tool with respect to unexpected, but wholly necessary, terra creation outcomes. We will encounter more organic terra outcomes from different circumstances in future claims. Again, the inventor emphasizes that the arbitrary naming and illustrating of the new neutral terra as “mountain” is only designed to assist understanding of the gameboard by way of metaphor, and in no way limits the applicability or scope of this claim, which reveals a novel, non-obvious, and useful outcome to the process and method of gradual gameboard creation by means of a plot compass utilized by two or more players.
Claim 3 is simply a rule that disallows any player from placing a terra on top of any existing terra that was not exclusively created by that player. Claim 3 requires no illustration, because a rule of prevention is nearly impossible to illustrate. Claim 3 states a dependent claim on claim 2, “preventing any player from plotting a terra on top of any terra that is not either an allied house or the seed tile.” We will indicate the importance of this claim in later illustrations, when gameboard development is more advanced, and question marks will be placed in every potential place where a player may plot a new terra, thus illustrating the applicable scope of this important claim in context.
Claim 4 Step a) allows the game to eliminate “each selected compass direction that plots a terra from the player plot compass, so that the selected direction is not able to be used again in any later round for plotting.” In
In
Finally, in
We have seen the evolution of plot compasses from direction selection to slash indication of elimination to the actual elimination of those directions for plotting in claim 4 Step a) as shown in
For this to be properly illustrated, we must introduce two figures that respectively illustrate a player's plot compass before and after a specified round of creation.
To illustrate this step, we must go forward a few more rounds of Gameboard Creation, to Round 6, where five selected directions are already eliminated from each player's plot compass, as found in
Black is unable to plot Northeast, South, or West due to existing terras in those locations that are not black houses. White is unable to plot North, Northeast, Southeast, South, or West due to existing terras in those locations that are not white houses. The legend for the Gameboard is shown in 904, indicating that we are still in Creation Round 6 before any selection to plot in a new direction. The gameboard shows the seed tile, 905, in the middle of eight terras, surrounding the seed terra at every side and corner. A mountain is North, 906, and Southeast, 909 of the seed tile. A black house is East, 908, Southwest, 911, and Northwest, 913 of the seed tile. A white house is Northeast, 907, and South, 910, and West, 912, of the seed tile. The conundrum is that neither Black nor White are able to plot any more houses. Thus the two players may resort to the benefit of claim 4 Step c) which requires that “any one extra-dimensional aspected direction of a player plot compass to be a selectable instruction to terminate that device.” For this game, the setting is the extra-dimensional aspect of the direction Down, which shuts down the plot compass for both players. And, indeed, in
Looking back to claim 1, onward to claim 4, we have shown that the invention is very useful for the purposes of custom mapmaking. As we move closer and closer to the featured embodiment of the invention, we note that the displayed gameboard will begin to appear far more irregular in shape, and far more irregular in its distribution of houses, mountains, and other terras that have yet to be created. Under the next three dependent claims, the gameboard will gain capability to vastly grow in complexity.
In claim 5, we depend on claim 4, discussing two possible contingencies. Claim 5 Step a) allows “each player in each round the repeatable option to engage in a series of one or more slides by selecting any original direction from the player's plot compass, whether that direction has been eliminated by a previous plot or not, to shift that player's plot compass away from the seed tile to frame anew an allied house, as an eligible terra adjacent to that seed tile, and from there, if desired, to frame anew another such eligible terra that is so adjacent to that of the previous one, and so on, until, from that vantage, after all slides are completed, the player either,” serving as a preamble to two mutually exclusive substeps, greatly adding flexibility to player plotting. Arriving at the end of Step a), from such a vantage point, the player may then, under Substep i, plot “a terra of a new allied house, if no other player plots in the same selected empty space during that round,” or plots under Substep ii: “a terra of a new mountain, if more than one player plots in the same selected empty space during that round.” In claim 5 Step b), this part of the claim directs “the designated purpose of selecting a direction for sliding, exempting any original direction of the plot compass from elimination, or from being affected by any previous elimination; but maintaining such eliminations for the designated purpose of selecting a direction for plotting.”
With this second step we now see why the hollowed-out forms of various original compass directions are preserved at all costs. The original directions of a plot compass must always be available to players for the purpose of cost-free slides, because such slides act as prefix moves to plotting, that is, they serve as moves that precede the plotting of a terra from any arrived vantage point in any given round of Creation.
In
First, in
For White as well, 1005, we see a plotted direction East, 1007, but this is also prefixed by a slide Northeast, 1006. To aid our understanding, we will rely on an Order Log to help us understand the ordering of the prefixing slide before the plotting of a terra.
Moving to
From
At the opposite corner of the gameboard map, White slides from the seed tile Northeast to a white house there, and then plots East, to make a new white house at 1021, with a halo again around the white house, signifying a new terra on the island.
Without sliding, we can see that Black and White would be trapped into selecting Down to terminate their respective plot compasses, as in the case of
We move to
Moving down to
Claim 5 Step b) prevents any slide from causing the elimination of a plot direction from a player's plot compass, or from being affected by any previous elimination of a plot direction from that player's plot compass. The language is very specific: “for the designated purpose of selecting a direction for sliding, exempting any original direction of the plot compass from elimination, or from being affected by any previous elimination; but maintaining such eliminations for the designated purpose of selecting a direction for plotting.” We note that the previous elimination of West from the Black plot compass, and the previous elimination of Southwest from the White plot compass, did not hinder slides moving in those directions. But to make the point further, we emphasize that if Black wanted to slide in a direction that is available as a plot direction from the Black plot clock, that direction would not be eliminated just because it was used in a slide. Slides, unlike plots, are cost-free, and can be used on an unlimited basis, as long the designated directions are directed from points on the plot compass that were there originally there at the time of plot compass creation, indeed, inherited directly from the frame compass.
Claim 6 is a very important dependent claim in the invention, because it creates an innovative new form of the plot compass, called a plot clock.
A plot clock is not a time-keeper. It is a special kind of plot compass. In a plot clock, unique numerals are assigned, on a one-to-one basis, to the unique directions of a plot compass. With this dependent claim 6, and its adjunct dependent claim 7, we are getting much closer to the featured embodiment of the invention for the Creation Phase of the game, where many billions of unique gameboard maps can be created. Indeed such a featured embodiment, can, for most playing audiences, serve as the preferred embodiment of the invention.
All of the methodical steps in claim 6 take place “before the first round of gameboard creation,” where Step a) substitutes “a new neutral terra for the seed tile, where such a terra can be arbitrarily called Chaos.” In
We next move to claim 6 Step b) where we count “all of the unique compass directions of the frame compass, starting with 0 for the first such counted direction, to 1 for the second, and so on to a highest numeral for the last, whereby the entire range of ascending numerals from lowest to highest is expressed in the single digits of a created base numeral system that ends at that highest numeral.” In the bottom of
In
We next move to claim 6 Step c), where the game assigns “a unique numeral from that base numeral system to each compass direction on each player's plot compass, thereby creating each player's plot clock, where each unique clock numeral serves as a substitute for each unique compass direction.” In
The Basic Plot Clock is a “starter” plot clock that by convention rather than by rule all players registering with the game will use to begin a tournament or to start their professional careers. A Basic Plot Clock starts with 1 for North, and goes clockwise around the sides and corners of a plot compass, until finishing with 8 for Northwest, and then assigning 9 to Up (a new direction from our shared Frame Compass), and with 0 assigned to Down. Up and Down together serve as the two extra-dimensional aspects (neither a lateral side or lateral corner) of Chaos, one plotting above Chaos, one undercutting the plot clock from below. (There are no duplicates of numerals in this range 0 thru 9, nor are there any gaps of any numerals.) The unique positions of the numerals of the Basic Plot Clock are used until they are scrambled, either randomly, or deterministically. One deterministic method is discussed in a later claim. This completes
Before we continue with the remaining steps of this claim, let us examine where we are in game device development. In
In
We turn to
We then turn to
Claim 6 Step e) states that the game next assigns “a unique numeral from the base numeral system of the frame compass to each compass direction on that Chaos reaction compass, thereby creating a Chaos reaction clock, where each unique clock numeral serves as a substitute for each unique compass direction that Chaos may move.” And as we move to
(We skip
We now move to claim 7, which fulfills the preparation of claim 6, whereby claim 7 has steps taking place “during each round of gameboard creation.” As we move through claim 7, we will begin the creation of a permanent gameboard, while adding new claims, and adding new plots.
Claim 7 Step a) allows each player to “each player to select a numeral from one's own player plot clock corresponding to a compass direction for a selected empty space that plots a terra that has adjacency either to i. Chaos or to ii. any allied house that is framed via one or more slides away from Chaos.”
We show this with
The next step in claim 7, Step b) has the game “plotting a new terra onto each selected empty space of such adjacency.” To illustrate this we move to
In this middle figure we see the legend for the un-named “Gameboard,” 1606, where we are in Creation Round 1, “after player plots/before Chaos reaction,” 1606. We see on the gameboard, to the right, where Chaos sits 1607, with a black house plotted Northeast of Chaos, 1608, newly created and surrounded by a halo, as would be expected from the 2 position on the plot clock, 1609. The white house is 1610, also freshly created with a halo, 1611, at the Southeast corner of Chaos. Finally, we see a gameboard map compass showing all of the directions of the frame compass, 1612, to help orient players. (This gameboard compass will become standard for all future gameboard maps, and thus will in time be ignored.)
But the game is not yet finished with these plots. There is far more to come.
In claim 7 Step c) we find the game “collecting each selected single numeral from each player plot clock, and adding all such numerals together to create a sum in the common base numeral system whose last digit is saved.” We show this in
In claim 7 Step e), we note that “for that found compass direction:” Substep i. “if indicating a pathway along a particular side or corner of Chaos, then moving Chaos in that found compass direction thru terras of every kind until stopping at the first empty space so discovered,” is the first among multiple directives. Another directive can be found in claim 7, Step e) Substep “if indicating a pathway along any extra-dimensional aspect of Chaos with any numeral greater than the least numeral among all such extra-dimensional aspects, then leaving Chaos stationary in its place.” A third directive can be found in claim 7 Step e) Substep iii.: “if indicating a pathway along any extra-dimensional aspect of Chaos with either the least or the only numeral among all such extra-dimensional aspects, then:” followed by two sub-sub-steps. Claim 7, Step e) Substep ii Sub-sub-step a. states “if the compass direction is found during the first round of gameboard creation, then leaving Chaos stationary in its place,” and Sub-sub-step b. states “if the compass direction is found in any round of gameboard creation following the first round, then repeating the reaction of Chaos from the most previous round.”
In claim 7, Step e) the coverage of every contingency relating to the number of extra-dimensional aspects to Chaos are covered. Thus it becomes obvious that in the case of two or more extra-dimensional aspects to Chaos, every pathway would be covered under both claim 7, Step e) Substep ii. (for having any numeral greater than the least) and Substep iii. (for having the numeral that is the least, or the only numeral among all extra-dimensional aspects). In the case of one extra-dimensional aspect to Chaos, claim 7, Step e) Substep iii. In the case of no extra-dimensional aspects to Chaos, no Substep ii. or Substep iii. would be needed.
Finally claim 7 ends with Step f) where the game creates “a new type of neutral terra, in the first empty space vacated by Chaos if it has moved in a found compass direction along a side or corner of Chaos, whereby that neutral terra can be arbitrarily called a plain.”
As we examine our Basic Chaos Reaction Clock of
Under our contingency outcomes of claim 7, then, we know that claim 7, Step e), Substep i. pertains to the eight sides and corners from 1-North clockwise to 8-Northwest. Claim 7, Step e), Substep ii. pertains to 9-Up. Claim 7, Step e), Substep iii. pertains to 0-Down.
All three substeps are illustrated very strongly with
We thus re-examine the
The final step of this claim is claim 7 Step f) where the game creates “a new type of neutral terra, in the first empty space vacated by Chaos if it has moved in a found compass direction, where that neutral terra can be arbitrarily called a plain.”
In
This near-final step of creating a new neutral terra in the previous place of Chaos is necessary to the utility of the invention guaranteeing a single connection of all tiles, a utility that is maintained from the very first claim 1, because with Chaos moving in reaction to player plot clocks in every round, many spaces of past Chaos occupation will indeed likely be vacated. Without a new neutral terra being created in the empty space beneath Chaos in early and later rounds, clusters of regular polygon tiles after some rounds could sometimes be disconnected into separate “islets,” lacking the “glue” that is needed to connect all terras together, thus defeating one of the game's purposes, of guaranteeing that the gameboard tiles remain connected and contiguous.
One detail relating to this claim 7 is when a player with a Basic Plot Clock under the featured embodiment selects the direction of 9-Up to plot a landing on top of the current Chaos position, the space that is suddenly vacated by Chaos is suddenly populated by a new house. Thus, under this circumstance, Chaos does not leave behind a plain, but a house. But, if a new house is plotted 9-Up on the Chaos position, and the Chaos reaction for that round is static, that is, resulting 9-Up, or else resulting 0-Down repeating 9-Up, the new house falling onto the volcano Chaos is destroyed.
We will thus create a series of evolving tables, labelled Table 1a-j, to show the development of this gameboard (an island here fictionally to be named Corsicana, in homage to the Italian island of Corsica) on such a round-by-round basis. For reasons of notation convenience, the number/letter abbreviated descriptions can used by players to plot landings of terras with a player plot clock, and to show any “summary” responses from the Chaos reaction clock. The super-simple notation begins with a numeral, and ends with the found compass direction for that numeral. For example, the numeral 2 on the Basic plot clock for Black, represents the direction of Northeast. The notation for the mapmaking move by Black is “2” (for the numeral selected), followed by a dash “-” followed by the compass direction the numeral represents: “NE” for Northeast. White's plots, and Chaos's reaction is described in the same way, as shown below:
In the table above, Black plots 2-NE, White plots 4-SE, and Chaos reacts 6-SW. With such terse notation, the logging of plotted landings of terras, and the logging of Chaos reaction onto the gameboard is simple.
We now move to claim 8, which creates, “before the first round of gameboard creation, creating a new type of neutral terra, which can be arbitrarily called a hole, already residing beneath Chaos, revealed only when Chaos vacates its initial position for the first time by moving by side or corner reaction in a found compass direction.” Thus a new terra sitting beneath Chaos is created by the game, which is revealed when Chaos moves away from its initial position in the game. The emerging plain will have to wait!
We can see the “official” creation of the Hole in the Gameboard in
In
In
We now move to claim 8, where we find a new step, where “immediately before and immediately after every Chaos reaction, examining the gameboard for any empty space of any size or shape surrounded on all sides by terras, and filling that empty space completely with a new type of neutral tile, which can be arbitrarily called a lake, which further can be arbitrarily considered to be a terra of land surrounding an aqua of lake water.”
In
In
The reason an empty space surrounded by land is filled with an aqua of water is due to the logic of claim 8, which is coincidental to the metaphor of the gameboard as an island borne of a volcano in the middle of an ocean, where terras are landed from the vantage of the volcano (or, via sliding, from the vantage of a allied house).
For this featured embodiment of the invention, where all tiles are squares representing either terras of land and/or aquas of water, being surrounded on “all” sides means being surrounded on “all four” sides: on the east, south, west, and north sides. (For the other selected shape of claim 1, a regular hexagon, a lake would be created after an empty space is surrounded on all six sides with water.)
Notice that there is a shoreline of land surrounding the aqua on all four sides, 1913. This means that the lake is, for various rule purposes, not just an aqua of water, as shown at the center of the tile, as shown in 1912, but also a terra of land. (We will see later how this dual property of water-within-land fully operates when we arrive at a later claim 17, involving the connections of extreme ends of strips of land extending in single directions, called “landstrands.”)
A lake, as a body of water of any size and shape conforming to an empty space surrounded on all four sides with land, does not need to be composed with a single tile. There are many ways that a larger number of empty spaces can be suddenly surrounded on all sides by terras. For example, in
Finally, we update our table for building the gameboard Corsicana, by showing the first two rounds of Creation, in Table 1b.
We now move to claim 10, which extends the invention more closely to the featured embodiment. This claim adds a starting step for “a player to plot a terra upon a selected space of adjacency that is already occupied by an allied house of one story, arbitrarily called a hut, thereby changing that hut into what is arbitrarily called a tower, of two stories.”
We illustrate this claim with a new page of
We see the location of Chaos, at the southern cape of the island, 2002, and we see a white house as a hut of one story, directly Northeast of Chaos. How is player White able to reach this house to build an extra story on top of it?
One way that White is able to build on top of the existing white house is to plot a landing Northeast from one's plot clock. (Because Chaos has been moving in reaction to all players plotting terras, different vantages from Chaos toward existing houses on the island are now possible.) We look to
Let us now examine where the players have plotted their terras, as shown on the gameboard in
White plots from that same Chaos position at 2012 in a Northeast direction, which is where the white house of one story already resides. The first step of claim 9 expressly facilitates the creation of an additional story on top of that one story, 2013, and we see a small numeral 2 above the second roof of the white house to emphasize the two stories there. A halo also appears around the new white tower.
Chaos reacts by moving North. Remember that, according to claim 7 Step e), Substep Chaos must travel in a Northerly direction (as a side direction) until finding the first empty space of what is arbitrarily called ocean void beyond any terra. The first space North of where Chaos was positioned is a lake, which is not empty, but filled with a terra (although centered around an aqua). This is not an empty space! The second space North from Chaos is the hole, which is also not empty, but filled with a terra. But the space North of the hole is indeed empty, and there Chaos travels and stops. We see the progress of Chaos moving through terras that are lined up along a northerly strand of land, 2014, to create a new position one space north of the northernmost extent of that northerly strip of land, 2015. The path Chaos takes is “curvy” north, for illustration purposes, so as to reveal the kinds of terras otherwise underneath.
We again update our table showing the progress of building the gameboard named Corsicana, as shown below.
We move on in claim 10 Step b) which allows “every such additional plot of a terra on top of a tower to add one additional story to that existing tower.” Thus, under the featured embodiment, with a total of nine directions that can be potentially plotted from different vantage points of Chaos on top of the same space (with one direction designated as a termination of the plot clock) a player can potentially build a tower up to nine stories high if the rare opportunity of advantageous vantage continually presents itself, round after round after round.
In order to better illustrate how combining these first 10 claims can create elegant irregular gameboards that resemble islands of Micronesia, we will continue to build the gameboard Corsicana until it is completed. As we build Corsicana, we will sometimes cite the specific claims that utilize the plot clock and Chaos reaction clock capabilities for players, in order to demonstrate to those familiar with the prior art of gameboard design how powerful the plot compass device, as provided in the claims, can dynamically create various features of the gameboard, with just a few short notations of plot clock and reaction clock direction.
In
In
The player White also has some empty spaces that are available, as shown by the white question marks, such as 2108. White can also plot a landing onto the Chaos position itself, hoping that Chaos will vacate the space, by plotting 9-Up, 2109. Notice that if Black and White plot a landing 1-North onto the same empty space at the same time, as shown with 2109 and 2110, then another mountain at a new northern cape will be created, with Chaos shifting 2-Northeast. Thus with increased familiarity with the plot clock and reaction clock mechanisms and probabilities, players can anticipate various dual-plotting-and-Chaos-movement scenarios and exploit them for possible winning advantage.
So what will Black and White do? Remember that the objective is to be the first player to connect nine houses of your color together into a single territory called a “dominion,” so positioning your houses in small clusters that can be easily connected into larger clusters during rounds of conquest is a good beginner strategy. Let us look at the table below to see the strategic decisions made by Black and White, and how Chaos reacts. Look at the bottom row for the most recent player moves, and most recent Chaos reaction.
Here Black chooses to slide East onto one's own house, to reframe the plot clock, and then plots a landing 4-Southeast from there, eliminating the 4. White, on the other hand, plots a landing 6-Southwest, to create a hole west of the hole.
Notice the notation for sliding is slightly different than that for plotting a landing onto the mapmaking gameboard. Since a slide, when utilized, always arrives as a prefix to a plotted landing, and the slide is not dependent on Black having a particular compass direction available on the plot clock, a slide uses only the compass direction, such as “E” for East, followed by a vertical bar “|” followed by the normal plotted landing instruction of a numeral, hyphen, and the direction the numeral represents: “4-SE.” Thus a slide East before a plotted landing 4-Southeast from the new vantage point would read in notation as “E|4-SE.” The various embodiments of the invention, of course, do not need to follow this exact style of notation—the example only seeks to show that one customary terse description of the slid direction(s) of the framing compass can be always followed by the plotted numeral and plotted direction of the plot clock.
In
How did we arrive at this repeated reaction? For the repeat, we look up the table one row up for the previous round, which is Round 3, and find the cell under the column for Chaos to find the direction for the previous round, which was North. (In the computer version of the game, the game is to perform this action automatically.)
In
We now move to Round 5, which provides one player with more positional choices to plot a house, and one player with fewer. First we examine the plot clock situation, before player plots, as shown in
By the fifth round, the two players face new constraints and new capabilities. When we examine the gameboard in
The expanding reach of Black is due in part to Black's potential ability to slide. For example, Black has the ability to plot a tower on the house directly Southeast of Chaos, 2310. Yet a quick glance at the Black plot clock shows that Black has no Southeast plot capability—the 4 that was there in the previous round was at that time eliminated. But Black has the ability to slide from that Southeast house into the house further Southeast, 2311, and then double-back by plotting a landing 8-Northwest to, again, 2310. The move would read: SE, SE|8-NW. Also, a more verbose order log can be written out that expresses such a move for Black. “Black: From Chaos slide Southeast to a black house, and Southeast again to another black house, then plot 8-Northwest to the most previous black house, to plot the second story of a tower there.” The computer takes care of the verbosity as long as the player Black takes care of the terse plot clock notation: again SE, SE|8-NW.
With so many allied and empty spaces to choose from for plotting, Black can be very creative in clustering black houses together, in ways that White is presently unable to do. Below in Table 1e we find that Black has decided to slide Southeast twice, to a distant black house, but instead of doubling-back, Black plots a landing 3-East! White has conservatively chosen to plot a landing 1-North from Chaos. Chaos has reacted by moving 4-Southeast. How does this change the gameboard map? Let us examine the table below, first.
We now turn to
In
After five rounds we can see that an emerging irregular shape to the Corsicana gameboard, along with an irregular distribution of different types of terras. Except for the creation of the Hole and of Chaos at the beginning of the game (creation by the game as a persistent feature in all later embodiments), all of the features without exception were wholly created by player plot selection of directions on their plot compasses, and the Chaos reaction to those plotted selections. All of this from two Basic Plot Clocks, and one Basic Chaos Reaction Clock! And we have potentially four more plots left remaining to both Black and to White, before the required terminations of clocks.
We now move to the sixth round, and
In
We find out the Black and White decisions by looking at the very last row (so far) of the table below.
In the last row of the table above, we see that Black has selected a simple plot landing of 5-South, and White one of 3-East. Adding those two player plots together gain us a sum of 8, whose last digit is (of course) 8, and therefore 8-Northwest is selected for Chaos reaction.
In
In
We now move to Creation Round 7, as illustrated by
In
We see the choices of the two players in the bottom row of the table below.
Looking at the table above, Black performs a simple plot of a terra 8-Northwest of Chaos. White slides East one space and then after that slide plots a terra 9-Up, in the position of Chaos, hoping that Chaos upon reaction will vacate its space, leaving a white house behind. We sum up the two player plots from their respective plot clocks, 8+9=17, and we retain the last digit, 7, corresponding to the found direction 7-West, for Chaos reaction.
In
In
We now move to the 8th round of the Creation Phase, and
In
We look above to the last row of Table 1h to see that Black has slid North one space, to a black house there, and then plotted a landing of another black house 6-Southwest of there. White has simply plotted a landing of a white house 5-South of Chaos. Adding these two numbers up into a sum yields 6+5=11, and we retain the last digit 1, to find the compass reaction of Chaos, which is 1-North.
We now go to
We now move to the island Corsicana to view the effect of these plots and reactions to the gameboard, in
White on the other hand, has simply plotted a white house just south of Chaos, 3007. A halo appears around the white house.
The old position of Chaos, 3008, now has a plain left behind in the wake of Chaos reaction movement 1-North, just past the black house there, to the first empty space beyond all the land of the island, 3009. (The curvature of reaction movement is simply to reveal all of the terras beneath the traversed path.) This concludes Round 8 of Creation.
We now move to the 9th round, to
In
The black question marks, like 3107, shows where Black may plot a final black house into the gameboard during creation. There are three black question marks, for three empty spaces to plot a house. For example, a house may be plotted on top of Chaos, 3106, hoping that Chaos will move in a direction along either a side or corner, and therefore instead of a plain remaining in its wake, a black house will be successfully plotted there. That would be enabled by a slide S, and then a plot 1-North. Also a double slide South and Southwest to the black houses adjacent to the plain and then plotting 1-North will create a new black house there, 3107.
White on the other hand, lacking any ability to slide, has only one constructive plot opportunity, which is a simple landing 8-Northwest of Chaos to 3108. But White may also choose to terminate the white plot clock with 0-Down.
What will Black and White each choose? Remember, that each player will make selections on their respective plot clocks any choices they individually make, without letting the other player know until such commitments are both irrevocably made.
We see from the last row of the table above that Black simply plotted a landing 1-North of Chaos, and White also simply plotted a landing 8-Northwest of Chaos. We add the two plot clock selections as 1+8=9, which makes Chaos stay in place, as per claim 7 Step e) Substep ii.
We see the results of the plot clock choices in
In
We now move to Creation Round 10, with
In
The table shows that 0-Down was selected by both Black and White, and the sum of the two clocks was 0+0=0, and thus 0-Down as a Chaos reaction repeats the previous round of Chaos reaction: 9-Up. With 9-Up Chaos remains in place, and then falls dormant.
In
In
Table 1j shows that 10 simple plot compass actions of each player, for a total of 20 between Black and White, along with 10 simple Chaos compass reactions, can create an island with the terrain variety of
Let us review the various terras that make up the Corsicana island, as shown in
Looking at
Finally, we surround the island found in
Due to the different claim languages of claim 9 (for fresh-water lakes) and claim 11 (for salt-water sea), we illustrate two different kinds of aqua. A good rule of thumb for islands created with the featured embodiment of a square—is that aquas of salt water always surround the island on all four sides, whereas aquas of a lake are always surround-ed by terras of the island on all four sides.
Before we shift our attention away from the beginner's Basic Plot Clock, whose configuration was first introduced in
For example, Table 2, shown below, shows every plotted landing of terras by Black and White, and every resulting Chaos reaction, used to create a gameboard called Beatty, as shown in
In the legend of
We move to Table 3, and
In this table, there are three repeats of Chaos reactions of previous rounds, during Rounds 4, 7, and 10, and the construction of three towers at D6, D7, and H8. If the Creation Phase between two players ends with both terminating their plot clocks in the same round, Chaos will then repeat a reaction from the previous round, and will frequently end up at the very end of a cape or peninsula. This is what has happened with both Beatty and Cambysis at the end of the Creation Phase. We will again see this phenomenon in the islands of Crivitz, Farragut, and Flicka as the remaining completed islands, all the way up to
We next move to Table 4, and
We notice that there are no repeats of Chaos reaction in this gameboard during the Creation Phase, until the tenth round, involving double termination, but many reactions in the direction of 6-Southwest (a total of six reactions in that direction), helping to explain the long diogonal stretch of the island (from lower left to upper right). Indeed, after Round 10, Chaos rests in dormancy at grid location M2, but in Round 2 Chaos was as far away at B11.
We next move to Table 5, shown above, and
Finally we move to Table 6, above, and
After viewing these gameboards, we can estimate that the plot compass, in all embodiments, including the featured embodiment version of the plot compass called the plot clock, is able to create either many hundreds (immediately after claim 1) or many billions (immediately after claim 11) of custom gameboards, with each embodiment offering a rich variety of unexpected shapes and/or configurations of terrain. Such estimates are based on a rough reading of permutation theory over 9 constructive rounds, with 1 terminating round, for each player.
Having demonstrated the sheer variety of gameboards available to players wielding only Basic Plot Clocks, we now move to showing how to scramble the numerals of any plot clock in a way that, rather than being random, is purely strategic and caused solely by players, and yet has the apparent effect of a randomized substitution.
Thus we move to claim 12, which can followed more closely by examining the rows and columns of Tables 7a through 7e below, placed between
Recall that the configurations of player plot clocks and Chaos reaction clocks in claim 6 Step c) can be any arrangement of numerals that allow for the assignment of a unique numeral to each compass direction.
Thus strategic players, when selecting a plot clock direction during a round of gameboard creation will be cognizant not only of the immediate implications of such a selection, but also of the future implication of creating a different plot clock, with a different assignment of numerals to directions during Piece Movement (if a scrambled plot clock is to be first used for the moving all player pieces) or for the very next game's Creation Phase (if a scrambled plot clock is to be first used upon making a the next game's gameboard).
In
We next examine some of the numerals that are uniquely paired to specific directions on the Basic Plot Clock. The numeral for direction Down is 0, 4204, for direction North is 1, 4205, and for direction Northeast is 2, 4206. Purely for orienting a reader of the patent disclosure, we mark the instruction “See Table 7e Column 4 to get substitutions . . . ” with 4207.
We now turn to this Table 7, and read the language of claim 12, to learn how these initial numerals of the Basic Plot Clock are changed to obtain the numerals of a new scrambled plot clock, via a method that maintains the standing of the game disclosed by the patent as one of pure strategy.
Claim 12 starts with a preamble: referencing itself as a dependent claim to claim 11. Claim 12 takes place “after the last round of Gameboard Creation, before the use of a different configuration of a plot clock.”
When might this claim be used? Tournament directors may utilize this claim when providing a new plot clock to each player between a Creation Phase (when a plot clock is provided to each player to help make a gameboard) and a Piece Movement Phase (when a plot clock is provided to each player's piece for movement) in the same game. Or, a tournament may utilize this claim when providing a new plot clock to each player for each new game, in between the end of the Piece Movement Phase of the last game, and the Creation Phase of such a new game.
After the preamble, claim 12 then moves to the first Step a), which is “for each player plot clock already used to create a custom gameboard, creating a table whereby:” a step followed by four substeps.
The starting manifestation of such a table is created later in claim 12 Step a), as we follow the first Substep i: “in each new row of the first column, listing in ascending order from first to last, the maximum number of rounds that could have been played during the most previous session of gameboard creation.”
In our Basic Plot Clock (which was re-introduced in
Thus there are a maximum of ten rounds that can be conducted by any player using this plot clock. We list in the leftmost first column of Table 7 below, where indeed all 10 rounds that are possible (also knowing also that each plot clock numeral ranging from 0 to 9 can be selected exactly once in each round, the maximum number of rounds is 10). We thus list each Round Number in each row, starting with 1 for the 1st, and 10 for the 10th.
See Table 7b below.
We then move to Substep ii.: “in each row of the second column listing in order from lowest to highest, all of the numerals of the given plot clock, starting with 0 for Round 1, and ending with the highest numeral for the final round.” In our second column in Table 7c below, the highest numeral of course is 9, so that is assigned to the 10th round.
See Table 7c below.
We then move to the third Substep iii: “in each row of the third column, for each round of play where a numeral of the plot clock was selected, recording that selected plot clock numeral, and for those remaining rounds where no numeral of the plot clock was selected, recording the smallest among the remaining unselected plot clock numerals, thereby in both cases together obtaining a unique plot clock numeral.”
We look at the second column denoting Black, to find the round-by-round order of Black plot clock choices, and find that in the first round, for example, 2-NE was selected, so for our first row and third column of Table 7d we place a 2. We also note that Black terminated the player plot clock in the 6th round, which is denoted with a 0-D, and so for the 6th row we place a 0. The seventh round is the first round where no plot clock selection was made by Black, and so the smallest among the remaining unselected plot clock numerals is the numeral 3, and thus the seventh row gets a 3. The tenth row gets an 8, which is the only unselected numeral after smaller numbers were selected for the seventh thru ninth rounds.
See Table 7d below.
We now move to the fourth column of Table 7 with Substep iv.: “in each row of the fourth column “putting” the alternate plot clock numeral of the third column “in the position” of the old plot clock numeral of the second column.” Thus the first row states “Put 2 in 0 position.” The second row states “Put 1 in 1 position.” The sixth row states “Put 0 in 5 position.” See Table 7e below.
After all of the substeps of Step a) are completed, then we move to Step b) “for that player plot clock, replace the position of the old plot clock numeral with the substituted plot clock numeral.” We thus take the substitute numerals of each round, and create a new player plot clock, as shown in
In
With the application of claim 12 as a final enhancement to the featured embodiment of the plot clocks during either the end of the Creation Phase, or the end of the Piece Movement Phase, we can again estimate that the number of different gameboards of square tiles created by scrambled plot clocks of two players as approximately 9! (“nine factorial” for permuted plots by Black) multiplied by 9! (“nine factorial” for permuted plots by White) multiplied by 9! (“nine factorial” for permuted reactions by Chaos), equaling 4.77e+16, or more than 47,000,000,000,000,000 (that is 47 quadrillion) different ways to construct a single gameboard. (This estimates that, for any one player, any extra permutations available through sliding, are themselves cut off at other times by lack of sliding vantage to all such additional extended adjacent spaces. The inventor estimates that the extra permutations will about equally compensate for the loss of vantage, leaving on average 9 factorial as the number of options available for each player, and for Chaos.)
Now we finally move away from a time that is after Gameboard Creation, and even after Gameboard Population, to enter Gameboard Piece Movement, also enabled by a plot compass. To start, we move to our second independent claim, claim 13 (claim 1 was the first independent claim of the invention), involves a “game of Gameboard Piece Movement whose plot compass for each piece allows players to make piece landings on a gameboard made from connected, congruent, and contiguous tiles, each a single regular polygon shape.” We note that a valid-seeming gameboard can be provided to players who did not create that gameboard. Many valid-seeming gameboards can be created randomly, without any of the benefits of the previous 10 or 12 claims. On the other hand, any and all gameboards created with help from the very first claim 1 to any consecutive set of claims are always eligible for all of the steps of claim 13.
We follow the already-mentioned preamble of claim 13 with Step a) where the game determines “whether a 4-sided regular polygon, or a 6-sided regular polygon, is used in the gameboard as a representative connective tile.” We notice that the term Tile in the Glossary uses the term “any enclosed space” to define a tile in this phase of the game, because such spaces on printed gameboards, whether displayed as a flat map on a tabletop, or else on a computer screen, can be hard-printed or otherwise displayed as an enclosed space, that for physical or computer-programming reasons cannot be removed by peeling off, or adjusted in position, like a tile or simulated tile can.
We look to
We move to claim 13 Step b) where the game assigns “a unique compass direction to a subset of the set exhausting every side, corner, and extra-dimensional aspect of such a tile, thereby creating a frame compass as a template surrounding that tile.”
Note that we have gathered a subset of 10 directions out of an exhaustive possible greater number of directions that can be assigned. For example, such exotic directions as “Far East,” or “Middle-tile,” may be additionally specified to make a total of 12 directional assignations. On the other hand, as with claim 1, a subset of fewer than 10, even only 1 direction, may also be so provided. Not every side or corner of a selected square need become an assigned direction to become a valid framing compass.
Repeating our caution in claim 1, with respect to everyday guidance on the word “subset,” Wikipedia at the beginning of its listing of the definition of subset states that “in mathematics, a set A is a subset of set B if A is contained in B . . . [yet] A and B may be equal.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subset)
We have assigned a unique compass direction to every side, corner, and extra-dimensional aspect of the seed tile that we can subjectively imagine as if we were all players of the game in consensual agreement, or accepting the game's determination of such, without any concern as to whether such a set of assigned directions is truly mathematically exhaustive of all possible directions, because we only require a “subset” of that exhaustive set.
In claim 13, the very next Step c) provides “to each piece an individualized version of that template of frame compass, thereby creating apiece plot compass.” In
A more constrained subset for the framing compass, and thus the inheriting piece plot compass is shown in
Going back to the first set of ten directions on the first Piece Plot Compass of
And in fulfillment of the logged sequence of moves, we find
We see that
Claim 13 Step e) Substep i. provides that “any player's piece can be arbitrarily called a starbug.” Substep ii. provides that “any starbug controlled by a given player can be arbitrarily called an allied starbug to that player.” Substep iii. provides that “any starbug not controlled by a given player can be arbitrarily called an enemy starbug to that player.” Substep iv. provides that “any possible landing tile for any starbug can be arbitrarily called a terra of land.” Finally, Substep v. provides that “any terra created by a given player and displaying that player's mark can be arbitrarily called an allied house to that player.”
Such arbitrarily named conventions for various player pieces and landing places are important insofar as they provide clarity to those well-versed in game design or game playability, where more generic terms such as “player's piece,” or “resident tile,” as found in the independent claim 13, can seem flavorless in repetition. Thus “starbug” richly describes just one arbitrary description of a player piece, but any other name for any piece exhibiting the behaviors of the claim, even if called silly names like “Spiky Virus,” or “Sea Urchin,” would still be covered under this claim 13, and thus covered under any and all subsequent dependent claims. This ends discussion of independent claim 13.
We now move to the dependent claims 14 and 15, which both depend on claim 13, but takes some steps further. (Some illustrations will wait until we are finished citing both claims in their entirety.) We start with claim 14 Step a) where the game eliminates “any one or more compass directions from a starbug plot compass whose sequence of one or more plots land a starbug onto a targeted terra.” In claim 14 Step b) the game prevents “any starbug from plotting any action in any specific compass direction that was eliminated from its plot compass.”
But for now we move to the next claim 14 Step c) which allows “any one direction of an extra-dimensional aspect of a piece plot compass to be a selectable instruction to terminate that device.” This termination can take place on a pre-mature basis, that is, in an early round, when there still are viable directions for plotting new landings on new targeted terras. Or the termination can take place on a maturing basis, that is, in a later or the last possible round, when there are fewer or zero viable directions so available.
Finally we move to claim 14 Step d) which states that the game “prevents any starbug from plotting any action at all when every viable compass direction has been eliminated from its plot compass, thereby requiring starbug removal from the gameboard.” We will soon see an illustration providing for this part of the claim, but we need to recite all of claim 15 before doing so.
In claim 15 the physical structure of the starbug is described in detail to aid those players who use tangible game equipment, such as physical tiles and pieces made from a hard substance, like wood, metal, ceramic, or plastic, placed on a tabletop or on the floor, with the pieces placed on top of the tiles, or wish to see a virtual starbug with pegs on a computer image of the gameboard. Such physical detail can be enlisted to aid the virtual display of such a starbug on a computer screen.
In claim 15 Step a) the detailing of the game begins by “constructing each starbug with detachable body parts matching, on a one-to-one basis, all of the original selectable directions of its plot compass.” In claim 15 Step b) the detailing goes further, by “pulling off a detachable body part from a starbug for each plot compass selection that results in a starbug's plotted action.”
Recall that the framing compass of the Piece Movement Phase was first established from claim 13, step b), with ten original directions put into place. In the earlier claims for the game regarding plotting terras from a seed tile, the direction Down was selectable as a direction for termination due to player agreement at the beginning of the game. If we copy this approach, we can see the initial effect of this claim step on the Down selection from the plot compass of Wa in
In
In this illustration the explosion is contained within the generic terra C8 of the residing starbug Wa. Again, the explosion destruction can be more widespread (if spreadable only to adjacent terras, or spreadable to connected allied houses within the same territory), as may become enabled from later rules.
We now move to illustrate claim 14 Step d) which prevents “any starbug from plotting any action at all when every viable compass direction has been eliminated from its plot compass, thereby requiring starbug removal from the gameboard.” This situation would arise if players decide on a variant of the game not to select a particular direction as a termination selection of their starbug plot compasses. After all, claim 14 Step c) only “allows” players to make a termination selection, and does not require it.
In
In
We assume, however, that by player agreement in the featured embodiment, every round of Piece Movement requires at least one plot direction to be selected and eliminated from the plot compass, and so Down must be selected if no other directions are available. Thus, after the selection of Down, or under circumstances covered in the claims, the starbug is to be removed from the gameboard.
In
In
We now move to
In
We now move to claim 16, where slides are introduced to rounds of piece movement. First is claim 16 Step a) where the game allows “each starbug in each round the repeatable option to engage in a series of one or more slides by selecting any original direction from the player's plot compass, whether that direction has been eliminated by a previous plot or not, to shift the player's plot compass away from its resident terra to frame anew either an allied house or Chaos, as eligible terras adjacent to that resident terra, and from there, if desired, to frame anew another such eligible terra that is so adjacent to that of the previous one, and so on, until that starbug, after all such slides are completed, plots a landing from that vantage upon a targeted terra.” Claim 16 Step b) states that the game will exempt “any original direction from the plot compass from elimination, or from being affected by any previous elimination, for any sliding purpose.”
It is clear from the claim language that a slide can be selected by a player to move a starbug from a resident terra thru any number of connected slide-eligible terras, namely Chaos or any allied house, before moving to that starbug's plotted landing. It is also clear that a plotted direction, once committed, does not eliminate any original direction for sliding, but only for plotting. Thus that already-plotted direction can still be displayed, albeit in altered form, to aid players wishing to slide in that direction. We provide that altered form by means of hollowed out lettering of the original directions.
After we identify an underline beneath a black-lettered SE 5403, we also notice an underline beneath a hollow-lettered E, 5404, and, finally, a circle and diagonal slash for the direction SE, 5405. But in order to tell us which underline of which slide came first, the Southeast or the East, we require an Order Log, which is what the player creates as the ordered movement sequence requirement of claim 13 Step d). The plot compass of course informs this ordered movement sequence.
The order log, generated by players making indications on the plot compass, is a reliable playbook, generated by the plot compass, and followed by players to move their pieces simultaneously during rounds of Piece Movement. (Note that the word “tile” has been altered to “terra” when indicating a tile of a landing space, as per claim 13 Step e).
Finally, we move to the gameboard of Corsicana itself, in
The legend of the map, 5415, states that we are looking at Corsicana, during “Conquest Round 5/Bi slides and plots landing/onto targeted terra.” Bi starts on the residential terra of G6, 5416, and slides Southeast and then East thru two black houses until plotting a landing Southeast on the white house on I9, 5417. If the plotted landing is successful, the white house will be converted by repainting into a black house, and a total of four black houses, at G6, H7, H8, and I9 will be connected together for the first time as allied black territory.
We now move to claim 17, where the game starts with Step a) to define “a landstrand on the gameboard map as the maximum extension of a continuous chain of connected terras, along any side-to-side, or corner-to-corner, single axis of direction.” Claim 17 Step b) shows the significance of landstrands to the player using a plot compass, because it allows “any player to move an allied starbug to plot a landing, or alternatively, to slide, from a terra at one extreme end of a landstrand to the terra that lies at the opposite extreme end of that same landstrand, as if the two extreme end-terras were directly adjacent to each other, either on a direct side-to-side connected basis, or direct corner-to-corner, connected basis.”
We find that, indeed, every terra made of squares is in fact always part of four landstrands: two axes from corner-to-corner: 1) diogonal, (from lower left to upper right), and 2) diagonal, (from upper left to lower right). And two axes from side-to-side: 3) horizontal, and 4) vertical.
In
Starting from the “diagonal” where the hole at arrow 5503 begins and where the arrow 5504 ends, there is one landstrand, which is also isolated by
In
Back to
Finally, the vertical landstrand containing Wa in the white tower, 5502, begins at the arrow of 5509, at bottom where an empty black house is located, and ends at the top at 5510, where the occupied black house holding Ba resides. This landstrand is also replicated in
Besides the starbug Wa, 5502, there are three other starbugs that are shown to reside within one of the four landstrands occupied by Wa. For Black, there are two other starbugs: Ba at 5511, and Bi at 5512. Both starbugs reside in Black houses. White has one other starbug, in the plain at 5513.
Terras that are part of Chapela, but not part of one of the four landstrands of starbug Wa, are shown in light grey, as in the far northeastern cape example of 5514, or the far southwestern cape example of 5515.
The significance of landstrands is obvious once we repeat the second Step b) of claim 17, which allows “any player to move an allied starbug to plot a landing, or alternatively, to slide, from a terra at one extreme end of a landstrand to the terra that lies at the opposite extreme end of that same landstrand, as if the two extreme end-terras were directly adjacent to each other, either on a direct side-to-side connected basis, or direct corner-to-corner, connected basis.”
One can envision that these portals, like wormholes, exist at the opposite ends of these landstrands, so that when a starbug moves beyond the end-side or end-corner of one extreme end of such a landstrand, it instantly arrives, as if by gateway, at the opposite end of that landstrand.
For example, we turn to
In
In
We now move into claim 18, where we inherit the game of claim 17, but shifting in a different direction, directly from movement mechanics to conquest of individual terras. The featured embodiment of the game adheres to the motto of “only one starbug occupies any terra at the end of any round,” even though this principle is not embodied in any claim. (This is due to an emphasis on the plot compass as the innovative device of the game.) And yet: players may wish to add more than one starbug to any invasion of a terra to add strength in numbers to the conquest of such a terra. To reconcile those two seemingly contradictory impulses, claim 18 ensures that any two or more starbugs allied with the same player targeting and successfully occupying a single terra will “merge,” into a single starbug, at the end of that round.
Thus the preface language of the claim 18 begins: “if one or more starbugs, all from only a single player, plot landings onto an uncontested terra during the same round of play, then: with two steps following. Looking at the Glossary for the language in the claims, the listing for “Uncontested Terra” is defined as “a terra that is the site of only one player plotting one or more landings during a round of Gameboard Piece Movement, resulting in no conflict there that needs to be resolved.” Claim 18 Step a) merges “any plurality of those landing starbugs into a single starbug whose merged plot compass inherits each uneliminated plot direction only once from the collective set of plot compasses drawn from those landing starbugs,” followed by claim 18 Step b): occupation of “that uncontested terra with the resulting single starbug.”
In
Let us begin. In
In
In
In the new plot compass, we show the body of the starbug WeWi still with the missing Up peg in the middle of the body, 5714, consistent with the still-hollow U in the holding bin usually holding the Up direction, 5715. Indeed the only other missing plot direction on WeWi is W for West, 5716, because West became missing on We with the latest plot landing on E3, and West was already missing on Wi from a previous round. Thus the two missing pegs on WeWi are for West and for Up.
In
We note that the new merged starbug WeWi is only missing two plot directions, West and Up, whereas the unmerged starbugs would be missing a total of eight plot directions among them. On the other hand, an N for North and also a SW for Southwest are two pegged plot directions from the set of the two unmerged starbugs that are extra pegs forever lost. Was the strategic move to merge We and Wi into a single starbug a smart or not-so-smart move? Depends upon strategy!
We now move to claim 19, which deals with resolving contested targeted terras between opposing starbugs landing inside.
Claim 19 starts with the situational condition that “if at least one starbug from each of two or more players plot landings onto the same targeted terra during the same round of play, thereby creating a contested terra, then” followed by two possible outcomes for two different groups of players. Claim 19 Step a) states on a straightforward basis how the game resolves such conflict: first, “for each individual player, adding together the number of such allied plotted landings, thereby creating individual player sums.” Claim 19 Step b) then has the game “ranking such individual player sums from highest to lowest as a basis of resolving that contested terra,” followed by “whereby,” and two contingent outcomes.
The two contingent outcomes are, first, in claim 19 Step b) Substep i. for “the player with sole standing as having uniquely the highest sum from counting such allied starbug landings then wins the terra and merges all such allied starbugs within that contested terra into a single starbug that successfully occupies that terra as if it were uncontested.” Thus the resolution for the unique winner with the highest number of landings within a contested terra is simply the merger and occupation of allied starbugs within that terra.
What of the players who have tied sums (with more than one player having a winning sum), or lower sums of such counted landings in the contested terra? Both kinds of outcomes are considered “a losing sum” as defined in claim 19 Step b) Substep ii.: “any player having either a tied or lower sum from counting such allied starbug landings then loses the terra and plots a retreat for each such landing starbug into any empty allied house that is adjacent to that contested terra, but, if such retreat is not possible for any such starbug, the player removes that starbug from the board of play.” The Glossary defines “Viable” during Gameboard Piece Movement as “a piece plot compass direction that is both available on the plot compass and also available on the gameboard map as an eligible space for plotting an action that targets that space . . . ”
Thus any non-unique winners who are tied with each other as having the greatest number of starbug landings into a contested terra must retreat, from that contested terra as if they had all lost. And this simultaneous retreat takes place alongside any players who are not landing the greatest number, those of lesser sums as well must retreat.
In substep i., the “sole standing” phrasing that decides the outcome requires either only one winner of a contested terra, or no winners at all.
Finally, the game in claim 19 Step c) disallows “any slides or voluntary termination for any starbug required to undertake a plotted retreat or to undertake removal from the board of play due to the impossibility of such retreat.” The terras that are aimed for in any plotted retreats must be directly adjacent as neighboring terras to the contested terra, or at the opposite end of the landstrand from that contested terra.
To illustrate the two different contingent outcomes of claim 19, for one unique winner and one unique loser of a contested terra, we will be switching back and forth between
In
The first plot compass shown is for starbug Bi, 5802, which shows only the North, Northeast, and Northwest directions available for constructive plotting. (Down is available but destructive.) The remaining original constructive directions, like West or East, are available only for sliding. The Northeast direction is selected for a plotted landing, and will be eliminated, 5803. To track Bi, we switch to
The second starbug in
Going back up to
We now move to the fourth and final starbug with a plot compass in
Thus there are two Black starbugs, Bi and Bo, entering F7, 5815 in the same round as the two White starbugs entering F7, Wa and Wy. We recall the preamble of claim 19, where the rest of the claim was to be applied “if at least one starbug from each of two or more players plot landings onto the same targeted terra during the same round of play, thereby creating a contested terra.” That scenario clearly applies. Two Black starbugs are plotting into the same terra on F7, 5815, during Round 4, as are two White starbugs. Since the opposing sides are equal in numbers of starbugs plotting landings into the contested terra, the two sides are deemed equal in plot compass strength, and both sides, as per substep ii., having tied numbers of plotted landings there, must retreat all of their starbugs, if possible. We are again reminded of the language at the beginning of substep ii.: “any player having either a tied or lower sum,” which governs our next illustrated actions.
We look at the attempted retreat of all four starbugs, where two starbugs are successful, and two are unsuccessful. For the unsuccessful, the two starbugs unable to retreat are removed from the gameboard. All of this is illustrated in
In
The first plot compass shown in
The second plot compass of
We see the starbug Bo in
In
Plotting a landing is the first type of plotting available to a starbug. Plotting a retreat is the second type of plotting available to a starbug. But a retreat only takes place after a player loses its place within its current terra. Even then, a retreat is possible iff (if and only if) an available plot direction leads the starbug to an empty allied house sharing a side or corner with the contested terra. Portals at the end of landstrands may alternatively be crossed over exactly once during retreats.
A plotted retreat cannot possibly result in another contested terra among two or more players, because allied starbugs can only retreat into their very own allied empty houses. Thus no second conflict is possible after any retreat.
Finally, we may note our distinctive notation for a plotted retreat on a plot compass is a circle for selection, and a simple double-cross within that circle, one in the diogonal direction (from lower left to upper right) and one in the diagonal direction (from upper left to lower right), creating a balanced X, as shown in
After understanding this claim, we find that the process of retreat is costly, because it means that at least two plotted directions must be eliminated in the same round when a starbug lands on a contested terra, but loses the contest to win on a standalone basis to occupy the terra. But a starbug retreat is almost always preferable to the alternative, which is the starbug's permanent removal from the board of play.
We now move to claim 20, which introduces the invention of “plotted support” via the manipulation of a plot compass. This plotting of a support is the third type of plotting available to a starbug, after the plotting of a landing, and plotting of a retreat.
Claim 20 Step a) allows “any player to select an available plot direction from the plot compass of a starbug to plot support of at least one other allied starbug plotting its own landing onto a targeted terra, if such a targeted terra is positioned adjacently to the current terra of such a supportive starbug,” followed by a “but” as a conditional outcome showing up in the second step of claim 20 Step b).
The conditional outcome of claim 20 Step b) establishes that “if an enemy starbug plots a landing onto the current terra of such a supportive starbug, then all support of that allied starbug is broken and thereby nullified,” followed by an “and.” We can witness this situation, in
In
As we turn to
Meanwhile, Black decides to break the (correctly anticipated) support by We, which currently sits in C5, but supports the landing of Wi in C6, by having the starbug Be, 6011, plot a landing into the white tower currently occupied by supportive We, 6012. At the same time, the starbug Bo, 6013, plots a landing into the plain at C6, 6014. We thus have a contested terra at C6, which is contested by Bo and Wi, with Wi receiving support from We, but We's support is pre-emptively broken by the plotted landing of Be departing from D6 in a Northwest direction into the undefended current terra of We at C5, 6007.
We now move to resolving this broken support, by invoking claim 20 Step c), whose result is shown by
In
Where is We now? We remember that We, which was offering support to Wi in
What about the starbugs Bo and Wi contesting a terra, within the plain at C6? For this contested terra, we follow all of claim 19. Since Bo for Black was alone in landing at C6 and unsupported, and Wi for White was also alone in landing at C6 and unsupported (We's support for Wi was disrupted and broken and so nullified by the plot landing of Be into C5), the contested terra at C6 had a tied player sum of 1 plot landing for Black and 1 plot landing for White. Each Starbug from both players thus need to retreat, if possible, into an adjacent empty allied house if an available plot direction points to such a safe haven, but, if not possible, any non-retreating starbugs need to be removed from the gameboard, as is provided in claim 19, Step b) Substep First we examine starbug Bo. We see the only available plot direction for Bo is Southwest, from C6 to D5, as shown at 6018. Since there is a lake at D5, we find that this lake is not a safe haven for retreat. Thus Bo is removed, 6018, and 6021, from the board of play.
Now we examine starbug Wi. Wi has three available directions: North, East, and South, as shown at 6020. But none of these three directions will bring Wi from C6 to an empty white house. Thus no direction is viable. Wi is also removed, 6023. This completes claim 20.
Consider the following scenario. When exactly two starbugs of one player (here Black) plot a landing onto a targeted terra (thus totaling 2 landings and 0 supports), while one starbug of a second player (here White) plots a landing into that very same contested terra, with two starbugs plotting additional support for the same contested terra (thus totaling 1 landing but with 2 supports). How is such a contested terra resolved into a settlement that is fair and square, resulting in starbug occupations, retreats or removals between the two players? For that answer, we look to claim 21.
The conditional preamble to the dependent claim 21 begins: “if starbugs of two or more players plot landings onto the same targeted terra during the same round of play, with at least one additional starbug allied with at least one such landing player successfully plotting support into that contested terra, then resolving such a contested terra, by” which is followed by procedural steps.
The first step, claim 21, Step a) directs “each individual player, adding each allied starbug that is plotting a landing within the contested terra, with each such landing having a value of one, thereby creating the first final addend of obtaining an individual player sum,” followed by “plus,” whatever is directed in claim 21, Step b). In this step, “each individual player, adding each allied starbug that is plotting unbroken support onto that same contested terra, with each support having a value equal to or less than one but greater than zero, thereby creating the last final addend of obtaining an individual player sum.”
Before we go beyond this second step, and calculate our sum, we should first count the number of starbugs plotting any landings in the contested terra on behalf of each individual player in our scenario. Then we should count the number of starbugs supporting such landings in the contested terra—on an unbroken basis—for each individual player in our scenario.
We find, for our scenario, that there are five starbugs, two for Black, three for White. The plot clocks of the five starbugs are shown in
Thus the starbugs for Black landing in the contested terra F5 are two: Ba and Bi, as revealed in the legend of Starbug Plot Compasses, 6101. Ba, 6102, plots a landing by selecting (circling and eliminating with a diagonal slash) a direction on its plot compass, which is Northeast, 6103. Bi, 6104, plots a landing by selecting (circling and eliminating with a diagonal slash) the South direction, 6105.
Thus the starbugs landing in the contested terra for Black are counted as two. Zero black starbugs are plotting support into the contested terra.
All told, the starbugs for White are three: Wi, Wo and Wy. Wi, 6106, plots a landing by selecting (circling and eliminating) a direction on its plot compass, which is Southwest, 6107. (The other two starbugs of White are plotting supports rather than landings, and will not be counted in this first stage of creating a “player sum” of plotted landings.)
Thus the starbugs landing in the contested terra for White are one, with two White starbugs plotting support. Black so far has 2, White so far has 1.
But then we immediately move to claim 21 Step b) which directs: “for each individual player, adding each allied starbug that is plotting support onto that same contested terra, with each support having a value equal to or less than one but greater than zero, thereby creating the last final addend of obtaining an individual player sum.” We can now count the two White starbugs (Wo and Wy) supporting the White allied starbug landing in the contested terra (Wi).
We see Wo, 6108, creating a ripple of support in the West direction, 6109, and also slashing it for elimination. We also see Wy, 6110, creating a ripple of support in the East direction, and also slashing it in elimination, 6111.
The geographic situation on the gameboard is shown in
For Black, in
For White, in
The fractional value of a support “having a value less than or equal to one but greater than zero” can be any number in that range. If the value is not a lower fraction, but 1 itself, then by adding for Black and White the plotted landings and supports together, White clearly wins, 3 to 2. If the value of a support, however, is a lower fraction, then that value is less than 1, and players might prefer a setting whereby the support is either 1) somewhere above 0.50, 2) exactly at 0.50, or 3) somewhere below 0.50. Each of these outcomes is revealed in Tables 7a, 7b, and 7c, each pertaining respectively to
Once the fractional value is determined at the beginning of the game, the sum results of landings and supports for the individual players can be ranked, as per the instructions of claim 21 Step c), which provides that “for each individual player, adding these addends together to obtain each individual player sum, then ranking such player sums from highest to lowest as a basis of settling that contested terra, whereby,” the step continues with two contingent Substeps i. and ii.
We can establish what happens with
What happens next? We discover the result by reading claim 21 Step c), Substep i. and Substep ii. The first substep states: “player with sole standing as having uniquely the highest sum from such landings and unbroken supports, then wins the terra and merges all landing allied starbugs into a single starbug that successfully occupies the contested terra, as if the contested terra were uncontested, with unbroken supporters remaining in place.” Examining the Table 8a, we see that White wins the ranking among the two players contesting the terra at F5, and thus Wi is able to occupy F5 due to White's sole standing as having uniquely highest sum after everything is duly calculated, and Wi being the only Starbug performing a landing there. Also, Wo continues to occupy the white hut at F6, and Wy continues to occupy the white tower at F7, because they were unbroken within their current terras by any landings of enemy starbugs.
In this Scenario One, what of the losing player Black? Claim 21, Step c) Substep ii., states that “any player having either a tied or lower sum from such landings and supports, then loses the terra and plots a retreat for each such landing starbug into any empty allied house adjacent to the contested terra, but, if such retreat is not possible, the game removes the unretreating starbug from the board of play, with unbroken supporters remaining in place.”
Thus Black must retreat its landing starbugs Ba and Bi from F5, to any available empty allied house adjacent to the contested terra. In
We now turn to
In
The next set of table fields and illustrations, in Table 8b, and
In this second scenario, we see that the value of 0.50 for each support, which means that two landing starbugs with no support (controlled by Black) is tied in player score with one landing starbug plus two supporting starbugs (controlled by White). In this scenario, all landing starbugs contesting the terra at F5 must retreat, if possible, into adjacent empty allied houses. If such retreats are not possible, then the non-retreating starbugs required to retreat are removed from the game.
In this scenario the only difference from the previous scenario is the value of each support: a fraction of ½, or 0.50, rather than a larger fraction. The result is that one landing for Black, creating a sub-score of 1, and two supports on behalf of that landing, creating a second sub-score of 1, for a total score of 2 for Black, which is exactly tied with a total of 2 for White. There is no sole standing of any winner having the uniquely highest score. Therefore all of the two Black and one White landing starbugs must retreat, if possible, to empty allied houses adjacent to the contested terra on F5.
We find by glancing at the Starbug Plot Compasses of
Finally we can see what happens in Table 8c if Black wins the Scenario Three, by setting the fractional value of support less than 0.50, set at 0.45. We see this scenario played out in
The only difference from the previous two scenarios is the reduced value of support: a fraction of 4/9, or approximately 0.45 (here in Scenario Three), rather than 4/8, that is 5/10, or ½, or 0.50 (here in Scenario Two) and 5/9, or 0.55, (as in Scenario One). The result in this Scenario Three is that two supports on behalf of White result in a score of 0.9, or a total sum score of 1.9 for White, and a total of 2 for Black.
In this scenario, Black stands alone as uniquely highest among all of the contenders of the contested terra F5. We see the implications of this scenario by examining
The plot compasses show mortal damage to the starbug Wi. Wi is to be removed from the gameboard, with the diagonal slash across its name, 6403. This is because Wi plotted a landing on F5, contending that terra against the two Black starbugs Ba and Bi, but, after losing, could not find a safe haven of retreat. There were no empty white houses accessible to Wi on its plot compass. The two other White starbugs, Wo and Wy, have no extra costs burdening them beyond what they committed to with their plotted supports during this Round 5 of Piece Movement, 6404 and 6405.
We now look upon
We follow up with the rule of claim 21, Step d): “disallowing any slides or voluntary termination for any starbug required to undertake a plotted retreat or to undertake removal from the board of play due to the impossibility of such retreat.”
We next move to a very important claim, claim 22, which takes claim 21, and comprises additional steps that transform a plot compass into a plot clock, similar to that of the plot clock used for creating the gameboard.
A plot clock is created by assigning a numeric value to each and every direction of every possible plotted action. This numeric value is assigned therefore to all plotted landings, plotted supports, and plotted retreats. Beyond those constructive plots, we notice that one plotted numeral is also to be assigned for plot clock termination. The strength of these numeric values are used in claim 23 to resolve any and all contested terra scenarios, on a simple additive basis, that removes a great deal of complexity associated with resolving the conflicts between opposing plot compasses.
Claim 22 Step a) begins “before the first round of Gameboard Piece Movement, counting all of the unique compass directions on each starbug plot compass, but starting with 0 for the first, to 1 for the second, and so on to a highest number for the last, whereby the entire range of ascending numerals from lowest to highest is expressed in the single digits of a created base numeral system.” In
Claim 22 Step b) then assigns “a unique numeral from this base numeral system to each compass direction on each starbug's plot compass, thereby creating each starbug's plot clock, where each numeral is assigned on a pairwise basis to each unique direction.” We see this manifested in
For the second Wa, 6517, the numeral 2 is selected for plotted support in a Northeast direction, 6518. Finally, the third Wa at the right, 6519, has the numeral 2 selected for plotted retreat, 6520. These plot clocks are included merely to demonstrate the other two constructive plotted actions that can take place, beyond plotted landings.
Claim 22 Step c) then follows, “during each round of gameboard piece movement, allowing each player to select a sequence of one or more numerals uniquely assigned to compass directions on each allied starbug's plot clock for:” Substep i. “a plotted landing,” Substep ii. “a plotted support,” or Substep iii. a plotted retreat.” We see one of these selections, a plotted landing, as per 6515, 2-Northeast, (showing both a circle symbol for selection as a plotted landing and a diagonal slash for automatic elimination to follow). Also part of 6515 is the double-underlined 5 direction meaning a double slide South.
An order log is presented next. The legend for the Order Log states that we are in Conquest Round 1 of a new gameboard, named Giotto, 6521. We need not see the actual gameboard to understand the order log. In the order log listing the Gameboard as Giotto, we show that we are in Conquest Round 1, 6522, and we see the starbug in question, under player White, named Wa, 6523. The resident terra is located in the grid location of B5, 6524, and Wa is to slide south, and south again, 6525, thru the terras C5 and D5, where Chaos and a white tower are located, 6526, the later from which Wa will plot a landing two spaces southeast (such jumping capability due to the tower having not one but two stories), 6527, onto B7 where the targeted terra, a black house, is located, 6528. The order log itself reads, 6529, “White Wa: From resident terra at B5, slide South one space to C5, slide South one space to D5, then plot a landing 2-Northeast two spaces onto the targeted terra at B7.” This 2-NE selection of the plot clock satisfies claim 22.
In claim 23, we come to the next claim, which involves the settlement of contested terras among starbugs landing and supporting with plot clocks, by using the unique numerical values attached to all plotted movements. Indeed claim 23, as a dependent claim stemming all the way back to claim 13, dramatizes the featured embodiment of the game for rounds of Gameboard Piece Movement of an already constructed gameboard.
Claim 23 is the game of claim 22 further comprising the revising steps of “if one or more starbugs with plot clocks from each of two or more players plot landings into the same contested terra during the same round of play, with starbugs allied with at least one player possibly plotting additional support,” followed by “then.” Before we go to the next step, we must acknowledge the term “possibly” to mean that there are contested terras that sometimes have plotted supports by one or more contesting players, but this claim covers all cases of all plotted landings, including those with and those without plotted supports for any one of those landings.
With that we go into claim 23 Step a) “for each individual player, adding together the plot clock numerals of all such plotted landings as the initial addend, plus the plot clock numerals for any plotted supports of such landings as the final addend, as all directed upon that contested terra by allied starbugs, to obtain individual player sums.” For these remaining steps of this claim, we go to
In
For the White starbugs, we see Wi displayed, 6606, and the numeral 6 selected for plotted landing, for Southwest, 6607. The next White starbug, Wo, 6608, has the numeral 7 selected for plotted support, for the direction West, 6609. And the last White starbug, Wy, 6610, has the numeral 3 selected for plotted support, for the direction East, 6611.
If we were to assume that all of these starbugs, and no others, were involved in landing or in supporting the landing onto the same contested terra during this round, then we would immediately be able to follow claim 23 Step a) which directs the game to add together, for each individual player with at least one plotted landing in such a contested terra, every single plotted landing and plotted support for that terra by that player. Adding up Black, we see 2+5=7, and adding up White, we see 6+7+3=16. Thus we would know that White has the higher individual player sum, and Black has the lower individual player sum. But we need to complete the remaining steps of the claim, and also need to examine
In
Now we move to
We recall the fact that opposite ends of landstrands bounded on both sides with sea water are in fact portals that act as adjacencies. Thus the plotted ripple from Wy on terra F7 going East impacts the terra on the opposite end of the horizontal landstrand, from East-to-West, starting with F7 and ending with F5. Thus the White starbug Wi plotting a landing on F5 receives plotted support from the West side of the terra, due to the plotted support from the East direction, crossing the landstrand portal, from the starbug Wy on F7.
To the right of the gameboard cross-section we see the individual player sum for “White” as “6+7+3=16,” 6625.
We then move to the next step, claim 23 Step b) which reads, “ranking such individual player sums from highest to lowest as a basis of resolving that contested terra, whereby:” followed by two possible outcomes for an individual player engaged in the contested terra. The first is sole standing in first place, under substep i.: the “player with sole standing as having uniquely the highest sum from such landings and unbroken supports, then wins the terra and merges all landing allied starbugs into a single starbug that successfully occupies the contested terra, as if the contested terra were uncontested, with unbroken supporters remaining in place.”
The second is anything less than sole standing in first place, which includes being tied for first place, under substep ii.: “the player having either a tied or lower sum from such landings and unbroken supports, then loses the terra and plots a retreat for each such landing starbug into any empty allied house adjacent to the contested terra, but, if such retreat is not possible, the game removes the unretreating starbug from the board of play, with unbroken supporters remaining in place.”
The two contingent outcomes are identical in claims 21 and 23, but the means to obtain such outcomes are different. Claim 23 uses the additions of plot clock numerals to obtain individual player sums for all plotted landings and supports into a contested terra.
Finally there is the restriction on the use of slides or of voluntary termination of the starbug plot clock, with claim 23, Step c): “disallowing any slides or voluntary termination for any starbug required to undertake a plotted retreat or to undertake removal from the board of play due to the impossibility of such retreat.”
We can see the plot clock numeral additions, sums, and outcomes for the contested terra F5 in Table 9a, which takes the Tables 8a-c, and modifies it so that its outcomes are indeed based on plot clock numerals alone.
In this Table 9a, we obtain the same outcome as when we compare individual player sums in
Thus White is able to conquer the plain terra at F5, and Wi, which plotted a landing there, is able to occupy it for the remaining duration of the round. Black is forced to retreat its two landing starbugs, if possible. The outcome of this conflict, in
Thus with Basic Plot Clocks, which are used for elementary games of plot clock development, White would prevail in this last illustrated particular scenario. But with certain “scrambled” plot clocks (where such scrambling can be obtained either randomly, or else obtained deterministically via any re-distribution of numerals utilizing the method of claim 12) the outcome of this illustrated conflict can easily turn to the advantage of Black.
We will provide a brief example.
In
These two plot clock templates of
In
The Starbug Ba, 6705, is selecting the numeral 9, which is assigned to the Northeast direction, for a plotted landing, 6706. Bi, 6707, is plotting a landing also, by selecting 8, which is assigned to South, 6708.
Below the Black starbugs we find the White starbugs. The Starbug Wi, 6709, is selecting 4, which is Southwest, 6710, for plotting a landing. Wo, 6711, is selecting 5, 6712, for a plotted support in the West direction. Wy, 6713, is selecting 6 for a plotted support in the East direction. These selected directions for plotted landings and supports are identical in direction to those of the previous Scenario example. The numbers alone are different.
Let us examine this next Scenario from a table perspective before we examine the gameboard map for individual player sums and consequences. We will take the plotted numbers from the individual plot clocks, and apply them to our table, as shown below.
We can see from the Table 9b above that Black has won the contested terra F5, with a sum of plotted landings and supports summing up to 17, which is greater than the individual player sum of White with a sum of 15.
In
In
The result of Black's occupation, on one hand, and White's attempted retreat—failing, and then ending in removal, on the other hand, is accurately shown on an exact basis in the previous
Thus, with
The legend for Dewpoint Isle, 6901, states that it shows a “Hexagon gameboard and plot clocks after Creation, before Piece Movement,” and below the legend there is a map compass 6902, showing a regular hexagon with the eight directions. Below that map compass there are three clocks, two plot clocks for Black and White, and one reaction clock for Chaos, 6903. All of the directions are eliminated by previous selections during Creation.
The gameboard itself shows Chaos, 6904, a black hut with a starbug inside, 6905, a white tower with a tower inside, 6906, a hole with a boat on a shoreline, 6907, a plain at the southeastern cape of the isle, 6908, and a sea aqua, 6909. Table 10 shows all of the moves of the two players, Black and White, to create Dewpoint Isle from a base numeral system of eight digits.
Upon this completion of invention specification, the inventor posits to the examiner that the plot compass in all presented embodiments is novel, non-obvious, and has great utility to the gaming world. More specifically, the inventor posits that the “Three Major Flaws” found in the earlier survey of strategy games like Chess or Go, or other war games, can be effectively banished from the invented game by faithfully following a few key claims of the application.
To recall these “Three Major Flaws,” they are 1) nth-mover potential advantage, 2) the replicated placement of pieces to start on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a repeatable number of predictable starting moves, and 3) the introduction of random chance to determine various game outcomes between opposing parties.
Nth-mover advantage as the first major flaw is eliminated because all player action, whether during Gameboard Creation, or during Gameboard Piece Movement, takes place simultaneously, within rounds of play, as first expressly provided in independent claims 1 and 13.
More specifically, the first major flaw, is banished in Gameboard Creation by the simultaneous play mentioned in claim 1 Step e): when the game allows “each player, during each round of simultaneous gameboard creation, to select a direction of plotting from one's own player plot compass, thereby creating a pathway from the seed tile to an indicated spot,” [Underlined to emphasize simultaneity of movement during each round of play.]
This first major flaw is also banished during Gameboard Piece Movement, by the simultaneous play mentioned in claim 13 Step d): when the game allows “each player, during each round of simultaneous gameboard piece movement, to select one direction from each piece's plot compass, and specify the number of spaces to be traversed, so to move that piece from its resident tile to a targeted tile, thereby creating an ordered movement sequence,” [Underlined to emphasize simultaneity of gameboard movement during each round of play.]
The second flaw, the replicated placement of starting pieces on the same designated spaces of the very same gameboard, causing a frequently repeatable course of starting moves, is vanquished by the extreme variability of the placement of allied player pieces within allied territories within any single irregularly-shaped gameboard, that is one of many millions of unique gameboards. More explicitly, claim 11 Step a) and claim 11 Step b) respectively provide that after all players have terminated their plot clocks, the game counts “any complete set of connected houses sharing the player's mark of only one player as that player's allied territory,” and places “exactly one allied player's piece into each such allied territory.” As will be demonstrated in the specification and especially in
The third flaw, 3) the introduction of random chance to determine various game outcomes between opposing parties, is vanquished by the methods of resolution of contested terras during the same round of play, as found best in claim 23, but also earlier in claim 19 through claim 22. Most explicitly, the resolution process of claim 23 Steps a) through b) expressly provide that after all players add all of the plotted sums of starbugs engaged in plotted landings and supports relating to a contested terra, the “player with sole standing as having uniquely the highest sum from such landings and unbroken supports, then wins the terra and merges all landing allied starbugs into a single starbug that successfully occupies the contested terra, as if the contested terra were uncontested, with unbroken supporters remaining in place,” and any “player having either a tied or lower sum from such landings and unbroken supports, then loses the terra and plots a retreat for each such landing starbug into any empty allied house adjacent to the contested terra, but, if such retreat is not possible, the game removes the unretreating starbug from the board of play, with unbroken supporters remaining in place.” This means that no randomized outcome is necessary to resolving any and all outcomes relating to any contested terra.
The specification of the invention set forth above is not just the description of a strategic board game, but of a strategic board game system, that allows many variants of many different kinds of strategic board game rules to be employed and played on any flat physical surface or a flat computer display, with the same rule-variant flexibility of a deck of cards used to play suit matching games, or that of an athletic playlot, marked in different ways, with different boundaries, to play many different variations of shooting hoops in variants of basketball.
The specification of the invention set forth above is a true disclosure for anyone practiced or trained in the prior art of designing games, and serves as a complete blueprint for anyone wishing to replicate the game system for their own purposes upon the expiration of the patent.
With that said, the preferred embodiment of the invention is the embodiment that follows claim 12 in Gameboard Creation, and follows claim 23 in Gameboard Piece Movement. All claims up to these final claims of each phase of play are evolutions in the plot compass and what can be created by the plot compass, without needing to pay special heed to the arbitrary names or illustrated appearances of the creations of the plot compass.
Finally, it is critical to state that the game can be played on any flat surface or on any computer display, and that the game is “new to the world,” and not in any way a computerized version of an existing game that is already in the public domain. Thus it is critical that the plot compass, as part of a brand-new method or process for playing a board game, including creating the gameboard and moving pieces upon an already-created gameboard, is recognized as a patentable invention by the examiners reviewing the application.
The inventor thanks the examiner(s) for the time and effort undertaken to understand the invented game device, and performing all acts of examination to render a lawful patent application decision.
