Subject: MN: Re: Winning

From: "Wayper, Paul" <WayperP@p...>
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 10:50:07 +1000

On Friday, December 03, 1999 11:49 PM, Dunx [SMTP:dunx@d...] wrote:
> I'm also terribly impressed that we've generall avoided the 'Monopoly
> syndrome' where the sole aim of the game is to collect tokens.

That is a good point; I think of it as the Tom Sawyer principle. (His
church instigated a ticket system for learning bits of the Scripture, and
you traded several low-value tickets for higher ones. Tom Sawyer started
trading tickets for things other people wanted, and in a short space of time
he'd collected the 'first prize' - without knowing one line of the actual
requirements).

> Hmm... Paul - how about your Snoods or Alignment ideas from years ago?
> We could have a handedness index for a Player, which changes when the
> alignment or Snoodness of their Move is non-neutral. If handedness
> exceeds a certain threshold then the Player can open MC (or we could
> call it Spin).

OK, how's this.

The original idea was that each person has two Snoods - Left and Right.
Each left-handed turn you make (VXHL to PMLC is a right-handed turn, PMLC to
STJP via VCTR is a right-handed turn, and BANK to LVST is a left-handed
turn) adds one counter (i.e. index) to the Left Snood, and so forth. The
journey VCTR -> GRPK -> PICC -> LCSQ -> TCRD is R|-|L|L, giving a total of
one counter in the left Snood. Whenever the Left Snood is equal to the
Right Snood, they are both zeroed and they are called Aligned, otherwise the
Snoods are Vagrant.

Now, since you can't have a home station in zone 1 or within six stations of
MC, the only way to get to MC with Snoods Aligned is to be already on the
Northern Line, specifically the High Barnet branch. Perhaps if you could
win by getting to MC with Snoods Aligned and at least one line change
performed?

We'd have to look at what would happen to the Snoods with shunting,
straddling and wild moves, but it looks interesting, anyway.

Paul Wayper -- DPI IS&S ITO Computer Systems Officer
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