I have written version 0.04 of my GoMoku game. Over the next few weeks I will re-write this article. Previously version of GoMoku had some flaws in the calculation of the weights. I believe that this version is perfect !!! (or as near as we can get).
With Co-ordinate weighting on - on a blank board the cells are weighted according to the X,Y co-ords e.g. the corners (1,1), (1,15), (15,1), (15,15) all have weights of 2 = 1 + 1. The centre cell 8,8 has a weight of 16 = 8+8.
To see the highest cell weighting, do the following: Press D (for "Don't move mode"), then lay down a snowflake pattern (see below e.g. an asterisk with 8 legs of 4 Xs), and press W to see weights. You can then pick viewing weights for either X or O player.
This is the "snowflake" test pattern.
X...X...X
.X..X..X.
..X.X.X..
...XXX...
XXXX?XXXX
...XXX...
..X.X.X..
.X..X..X.
X...X...X
Assuming Offence First ... (e.g. Offensive move rate a little higher than defensive moves)
For the X player, with the centre ( "?" ) of the snowflake being
8,8, the highest weight will be cell 8,8 is:
= (((5^8)+90)*8)+16 = 3125736 (add 90 because the pieces are Xs and we
are looking at the X move and *8 because there are 8 legs in the snowflake pattern.
+16 because 16 is the rating for the X,Y co-ords for 8,8 e.g. 8+8 = 16)
For the O player, with the centre ( "?" ) of the snowflake being
8,8, the highest weight will be cell 8,8 is:
= (((5^8)-90)*8)+16 = 3124296 (subtract 90 because the pieces are Xs and
we are looking at the X move and *8 because there are 8 legs in the snowflake
pattern. +16 because 16 is the rating for the X,Y co-ords for 8,8 e.g. 8+8 =
16)
On www.planet-source-code.com I was made aware of a bug in my GoMoku program with the way it calculated the weights. As a result I have rewritten completely the "procedure check_any_direction_for_blank" and I have removed the "procedure check_any_direction_for_piece" (and the procedures that called it) -- as these are no longer required. The other changes are: new "procedure check_for_winner" and "procedure count_pieces_in_line" (which is called by check_for_winner).
Also new is the Tactics menu and "Game / Do Statistics Test" (press T) menu. The "Tactics" menu lets you pick from 3 boolean options (for the tactics the computer uses to weight it's moves): (a) Defence First (unless winning) / Offence First, (b) Use Co-ordinate weights (yes/no), (c) Weight 4 Blocked (e.g. whether in OXX_XO the "_" is weighted or not).
To use the Statistics Test press T and pick which of the tests you want to do e.g. there is a max of 8 tests to perform (8= 2^3). And also enter the number of games for each test. Total number of games in the tests = Number of tests to perform x Number of games for each test. e.g. 8 tests x 10 games = 80 games total. A report will be displayed in a richedit memo after the tests have finished.
Please do not use GoMoku versions before this version (as they are buggy) :-)))
