CIRCUIT WAR v1.0 Richard Reed ©1989 Enemy CPU's occupy a common grid, but only one can ultimately survive. Only by utilizing a fleet of gridrunners riding on an array of circuitry festooned with various electronic objects, can each CPU bring about the destruction of its enemies. The war is on - the total domination of the Grid is up to you! Circuit War is a 2-4 player strategy game that involves a whole lot more strategy than I remember originally intending it to have! The game requires the victorious player to crush the opposing CPU's by draining their energy levels to below zero, & only a collision with a gridrunner accomplishes this. As this is the only way to kill a player, the entire object of the game is to build circuitry that can get your gridrunner onto an opposing player's CPU or allow a beam shot that will push a gridrunner into the CPU. Before discussing how to go about achieving these two objectives, an explanation of the game basics & objects are in order. 1> THE GRID & PLAYING SCREEN The Grid is a set of points (19 x 12) on which the entire war is waged. CPU's are placed randomly on the edges. On the upper right hand corner, a row of colored blocks appear, indicating the order of sides for each turn. Below that is a number that tells how many actions the player has remaining in the current phase. The colored bars indicate the energy levels of each side. When building units during the build phase, a portion of the bar will darken, indicating how much the selected unit will cost in relation to the total energy. 2> MECHANICS Circuits are the "roads" that Gridrunners traverse - they can't move from one point to the next without a circuit between them. Various other objects can be present on these circuits between any two points, and these objects have different effects on anything going through them. Of special importance is the recognition of the three basic energy levels, WEAK, NOMINAL, & STRONG that a gridrunner can exist in. These energy levels are shown by three distinguishable (hopefully) color intensities. A gridrunner's energy level directly affects its attacking ability and the power of the beam it fires. Gridrunner beams traverse circuitry the same manner as gridrunners and are subject to the same effects through objects gridrunners face, but their main use is to push other gridrunners around (one hopefully into an enemy CPU!). 3> OBJECTS CPU - The Central Processing Unit is the heart of any side. Gridrunners originate from CPU's and most of a side's defenses revolve around it as it is the vulnerable point in its circuitry. A side is destroyed when its energy level is drained below zero (only a gridrunner collision with a CPU can achieve that). CIRCUIT - The circuit is the basic element underlying all Grid construction. A circuit provides a pathway between any two points on the Grid on which either a gridrunner or beam fired from a gridrunner can traverse. Additionally, other objects can be built on a friendly circuit (indicated as the same color as the owning player). When building circuits, they don't have to be connected. You can build them anywhere except next to an opposing player's CPU. Circuits also provide 1 point of energy each energize phase - the more circuits you have, the more power you'll generate each turn. GRIDRUNNER - Nothing much would happen on the Grid without the gridrunner. These are the only mobile units in the game and are created immediately adjacent to the building player's CPU. Gridrunners can only move across circuits (friendly or enemy) and exist only the gridpoints. Gridrunners capture any enemy circuit they traverse, changing it to the gridrunner's color, as well as attack any adjacent circuit, success depending largely on what it is attacking and the strength of the attacking gridrunner, but the strongest point of a gridrunner is its ability to fire a beam through the existing circuitry. Its beam is of a "pressor" nature (it pushes other gridrunners around when it runs into them). Gridrunners also attack other gridrunners by moving onto their grid point. The gridrunner with the higher energy level will ultimately survive such an attack, with the other gridrunner's energy level subtracted from the victor. In the case of both having equal energy levels, there is a 50% chance that the attacker will survive, destroying the defender, or both will explode, affecting the surrounding circuitry as well. A gridrunner that moves onto a CPU will drain the CPU an amount depending upon the gridrunner's power: stronger = more energy loss. If that side's energy falls below zero, that side is dead! RESISTOR - The resistor always dissipates one energy level from whatever passes through it, friendly or unfriendly, ie. a STRONG gridrunner will become a NOMINAL gridrunner after moving through a resistor; a WEAK beam will stop upon hitting a resistor. CAPACITOR - Capacitors are "selective resistors" that hold charge. Any beam or gridrunner passing through a friendly capacitor with stored energy will be charged up one level if below STRONG, the capacitor giving up one of its stored energy points. Any enemy beam or gridrunner passing through will be drained one level, the capacitor gaining one energy point. Capacitors can hold a maximum of 20 energy points and will not drain enemy beams or gridrunners if full. On the other hand, a capacitor with 0 charge will not charge a friendly beam or gridrunner below STRONG. Upon construction, capacitors start out with 10 energy points. Their current energy levels can be checked at anytime during a player's turn by clicking on them. SWITCH - Switches are toggles that allow passage of beams or gridrunners when on(closed), disallowing passage when off(open). They can be toggled anytime during the movement or action phases and count as one action. Any beam or gridrunner moving onto an open(off) switch will immediately be destroyed. Closed(on) switches permit traversal like an ordinary circuit. Switches cannot be blown by beams. DIODE - Diodes are one way constructs that allow passage only in one direction. Anything traversing the other way is immediately destroyed. Passage direction is indicated by the direction of the triangle (the reverse of electronics schematics when tracing current flow). A beam that hits a diode the wrong way has a slight chance of blowing the diode depending on the beam's strength. GROUND - Grounds destroy anything that moves onto them. Enough said. TRANSFORMER - The wildcard object. Transformers affect both the ownership and energy level of whatever goes through it. A strong red gridrunner could move through it and come out a nominal blue gridrunner! 4> TURN PHASES There are 4 phases per turn. All phases albeit the Energize Phase require player interaction that can be terminated at anytime by selecting "End Turn" from the Turn pull-down menu. ENERGIZE During the Energize Phase, each side receives one energy point for each circuit of their color, including circuits with objects, to a max of 150. Approximately one fifth of any energy left over from the previous turn is carried over into the next turn. Any destroyed side's greyed circuitry may either convert to the color of gridrunner that killed that side, decay and disappear, or simply remain, unchanged. Player order is randomly determined for the turn and displayed in color blocks on the upper right hand corner of the display. BUILD Players build their circuitry during the Build Phase. Five things can be built per player per turn, energy levels permitting. Use the Build pull-down menu to select what to build, then click in the appropriate place where you want to build the item. Items that can't be built because of insufficient energy are ghosted. The program will automatically end your turn if you don't have enough energy to build anything and/or have used up all your 5 actions. MOVE Gridrunners are moved during the Move Phase. To move a gridrunner, click on it, then click on any adjacent point connected by a circuit. Switches can be toggled as well. ACTION In the Action Phase, gridrunners attack adjacent circuits and/or fire beams. First select the gridrunner to perform an action by clicking on it, then decide whether to attack or fire. Attacking requires you click on any adjacent circuit after selecting the gridrunner. The success of the attack depends on the energy level of the gridrunner and what its target is. To fire a beam, select a direction to fire from the directional rosette below the order blocks and the number of actions remaining indicator. Then select a flux direction from the same rosette after it changes color. Flux direction influences the direction the beam will take should it run into a T-intersection - it'll most likely take the flux direction if that direction is available at the intersection. 5> PARTICULARS BEAMS - Beams are emitted from gridrunners during the Action Phase. They start out with the same energy level as the firing gridrunner (ie. a NOMINAL gridrunner will fire a NOMINAL beam), and traverse circuitry in the same manner as gridrunners, objects affecting them identically. Beams simply go straight ahead, following a path, until they reach a T-intersection that blocks their current direction, upon which they will move a different direction (never backwards, though). Prone to the effects of range, they also lose one energy level for every 10 circuits they traverse. Pushing along a gridrunner costs a beam one energy level per push. A beam that strikes a CPU disrupts smooth energy flow, causing a percentile loss of energy for that side dependent on the energy level of the striking beam. Being a percentile loss, repeated beam hits will never reduce a player's energy level below zero. Only gridrunners running into the CPU can bring a player's energy below zero. GRIDRUNNERS CAPTURING CIRCUITS - If a gridrunner dies while traversing a circuit, the circuit still belongs to the original owner. Gridrunners can only capture circuitry only if they come out of the traversal at least with a WEAK energy level. WEAK gridrunners cannot capture circuits that would cause them to lose a energy level. BLOWING CIRCUITS - When a circuit is blown through a gridrunner attack, a beam attack(diodes only), or a dying gridrunner, the object, if any, is destroyed first, leaving an empty circuit. An empty circuit that's blown disappears, terminating that connection. GRIDRUNNERS DYING ON CIRCUITS - Any gridrunner that dies on a circuit can blow out that circuit depending on its energy level before dying. ie. a STRONG gridrunner traversing an open(off) switch has a greater chance of blowing out the switch than a WEAK gridrunner in the same situation. GRIDRUNNER COLLISIONS - As previously stated, gridrunners moving onto other gridrunners have adverse effects. Friendly gridrunners running into each other will meld, combining their energy into one gridrunner, the energy level the sum of the previous two (up to the max of STRONG). NOMINAL + WEAK = STRONG : WEAK + WEAK = NOMINAL, etc. Enemy gridrunners colliding into each other will cause the effects detailed in the description of the gridrunners detailed earlier. A mutual explosion will attack adjacent circuitry at 50%-(total energy of both gridrunners)*10% where WEAK = 0, NOMINAL = 1, STRONG = 2. GRIDRUNNERS RIDING BEAMS - A gridrunner being pushed by a beam is pushed across the circuit before the beam, and thus a STRONG gridrunner riding a friendly NOMINAL beam through an enemy capacitor would lose a level to the capacitor, then capture it. The beam follows, resulting in a NOMINAL gridrunner riding a NOMINAL beam (the beam loses a level pushing the gridrunner, but gets charged a level by the now friendly capacitor!) This example of course assumes that the beam doesn't decay due to range. BUILDING GRIDRUNNERS - Gridrunners can only be built adjacent to CPU's on points connected by circuits. If any object exists on the connecting circuit, the gridrunner will be built as if it had traversed the circuit, capturing it if not friendly. Anything that would normally kill a gridrunner (a ground, a diode pointing in the opposite direction) has a chance of destroying the gridrunner, though there is 33% chance that the CPU can successfully transmit the gridrunner across such a connection. Any other gridrunner that has the unfortunate luck to be on the build point will be destroyed and replaced with the new gridrunner. KILLED PLAYERS - A player's side dies when it's energy level falls below zero as a result of a gridrunner collision (ANY - friend or foe!). The player will grey out, its circuitry becoming fair game for anyone who wants to capture the circuits. Greyed capacitors are treated as enemy capacitors. Additionally, the dead circuitry has a chance of converting to the color of the gridrunner that killed that side during the energize phase as well as simply decaying away. 6> TABLES BUILD COSTS item energy cost ------------------------- CIRCUIT 2 GRIDRUNNER 10 RESISTOR 3 CAPACITOR 7 SWITCH OFF 3 SWITCH ON 2 DIODE(ALL) 4 GROUND 10 TRANSFORMER 15 OBJECT EFFECTS(both gridrunners and beams) object effect ------------------------- CIRCUIT no effect RESISTOR -1 energy CAPACITOR -1 energy (enemy) +1 energy (friendly if > STRONG) SWITCH OFF destroyed SWITCH ON no effect DIODE no effect (right direction) destroyed (wrong direction) GROUND destroyed TRANSFORMER energy & ownership randomized OBJECT DEFENSE STRENGTHS gridrunner attack gridrunner dying on circuit object base percentage base percentage --------------------------------------------------------------- CIRCUIT 50% 0%(not possible) RESISTOR 65% 45% CAPACITOR 50% 60%+CAPcharge*2+GRenergy SWITCH OFF 50% 35% SWITCH ON 50% 0%(not possible) DIODE 65% 50% GROUND 15% 25% TRANSFORMER 20% 0%(not possible) *all base percentages have GRenergy*10% added to them where WEAK = 0, NOMINAL = 1, STRONG = 2 7> STRATEGY First off, I'll profess that I'm not a very good player of my own game, but, given the extensive playtesting sessions I've picked up a few strategies. Circuits should be built first, in order to give a good energy base as well as a basic framework on which to place objects. Great care should be taken as to how your circuits are placed around your CPU. A common tactic was to create a few lines branching out of the CPU where gridrunners would appear and have these connect in T-intersections to some sort of loop. A T-intersection resembling such... _______ ------| | | | |-- to CPU | | | ----------- ...is an interesting construct as any beam entering from the left cannot follow the branch to the CPU! It'll just go straight past the branch to the CPU as it's direction won't be blocked in any manner. Circuitry doesn't have to be connected and you can build circuits right in the midst of "enemy territory" as long as there's space. A favorite tactic was to build one or two circuits on an enemy's grid that would mess up the entire configuration (connect loops that weren't meant to be connected, extend paths that weren't supposed to, etc.). Keep in mind, though, that putting a circuit in the midst of "enemy territory" is like giving away free circuits as it's relatively easy for one of your enemy's gridrunners to capture it. Diodes are very handy, especially on connection routes to enemy circuitry, but be careful when you send your gridrunners beyond the protection of the diode. It just takes a beam to push it the wrong way back against it! Never underestimate the value of the switch. In some ways, they are more versatile than diodes on connection routes - they can't be blown by beams like diodes can and are sturdier in that aspect. Use resistors strategically. When your gridrunners start flooding onto enemy circuitry, it'll be a war of energy levels when encountering enemy gridrunners, and only those with the higher levels will prevail. Capacitors are valuable recharge bases for weakened gridrunners. Defend them well - they're easy to capture. A gridrunner just has to traverse it once, losing an energy level, and then move through it a few times to charge up to full strength! Grounds are the final word on any path. Their durability under attack almost insures their deadening finality. A gridrunner riding a beam into an array of grounds is as good as gone. Transformers should be used as last ditch defenses or played as wildcards. Not too many players move their gridrunners through them, but when a gridrunner is pushed through one... and how about its effects on that weakening beam? Moving too slowly during the Move Phase? Try pushing your gridrunners around with your beams - Grid Mass Transit! Mess up your foe's gridrunner fleet - meld them together with your beams! Well, I won't divulge any more... 8> NOTES Circuit War v1.0 is released to the Public Domain mainly for input and playtesting. I'm thinking of releasing it commercially through a disk magazine but need some input regarding its playability. Back home over Christmas Vacation, my playtest group consisted of a group of guys that were invaluable in developing and changing the game to its current version, but now, back here in art school (CCAC), there's really no one around to playtest (we're all just art students after all!!!). There is in actuality a save game feature, but I've disabled it for the Public Domain release (sorry, I know the games can really drag on sometimes). The commercial version, if any, will include that along with a few more refinements. As for a computer player, I don't even want to think about that right now, seems as difficult as writing one for a chess game! Circuit War can be run from workbench by clicking on its icon or from the CLI by typing "CircuitWar". Currently, it looks for Jim Lee's 2001 font in the current fonts directory (the font is displayed on the About message), but will revert to Topaz if it can't find it. Anyway, if you have any comments or suggestions for Circuit War leave me a message on the AAA BBS (415)-222-9416, the FAUG BBS (415)-595-2479, the HomeBase BBS (415)-863-1781, or the WC BBS (415)-845-4812. Any message would be greatly appreciated. Bugs?! I hope not! Thanks, Rick Reed 5270 College Ave. #1 Oakland, CA 94618 (415)-654-7473 Special Thanks to the Diligent Playtesters: Jay Kam Alvin Asakura Ryan Shigetani