tableau trop petit

[isabelle 29]

Bonjour, j'adore ce jeu, mais quel dommage que le plus grand tableau soit 7X5, je m'adresse au développeur, serait il possible de mettre une option avec un tableau de la taille d'un format A4 à petits carreaux comme j'y jouais quand j'étais enfant? Avec les petits tableaux la stratégie a peu d'importance c'est surtout une histoire de chance

[Miwarre]

Hello, the DotsAndBoxes (henceforth DnB) developer here. Sorry for not replying in French, mais ma orthographe française ne vaux pas l'effort de la lire!

Limiting ourselves to sizes with an odd number of boxes (to rule out any possibility of draw), the first size larger than 7x5 is 7x7 and this is already a size not solved, which practically (not theoretically, of course!) means currently unsolvable. When planning DnB implementation, I discussed the sizes to add with the top LittleGolem DnB players (which means among the strongest DnB players available in the world) and they suggested that 7x7 is already a size too large (you may find the discussion in the LittleGolem forum, at this URL: https://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/forum/t ... &topic=209 ).

I have difficulty understanding your statement: « Avec les petits tableaux la stratégie a peu d'importance c'est surtout une histoire de chance», when to me it seems to be exactly the opposite: as in many games, the larger the board, the more difficult is too to plan a strategy (think of Go 9x9 versus Go 19x19!). With DnB the difficulty grows exponentially and presumably already with 7x7 nobody is able to reliably plan chain development and 'read' configuration parity (it is not me saying this, but, I repeat, some among the strongest DnB players).

We can be sure that a board size with 51 x 73 boxes (these are approximately the number of 4mm squares in a A4 sheet of paper) is simply intractable and one would move on it without any knowledge of the consequences of the move (which to me sounds much like randomly!) while, on the other hand, on a 5x5 board, one can, if knowing the mathematical theory behind the game, play on a (more or less) sound ground.

So, even avoiding the technical issues (a board so big would be practically unplayable on a mobile device, which is more and more a relevant support), I myself I am not going to implement a larger board any soon. Maybe, if the practice shows that a number of players have mastered 7x5, I can add 7x7, but this is as far as we can go.

Some links in the DnB page here in BGA shed some light on DnB theory; I humbly would add another, which I found vvvvery deep. Unfortunately the site is no longer on line, but the Internet Archive could mirror it before too late: https://web.archive.org/web/20070825035 ... /dots.html

Thanks, M.

[ponsfrilus]

I understand the strategy statement, but as Isabelle, I played this game at school; it wasn't about strategy, it was about passing time. So we used A4 size squared paper (let's say it's equivalent to US Letter size) which has a lot of squares when using 4mm and we filled up the whole page. The satisfaction to fill the huge zones when the other player has no more choice was awesome! Additionally, the patterns created was kind of artsy, which was also satisfying.

I know this game aim to be played in arena and in competitive mode, but I'm sure a 49x25 board (or 63x49) would be used by a lot of players that just want to have fun and be nostalgic.

I would also suggest to have dot and cross option in the square, I'm sure it will help a lot of people to distinguish the zones.

Anyone, thanks for implementing this game, already did quite a few games and enjoyed it a lot without any issues!