HSC Season 3 Week 22: Othello

[vdub_bobby]

Now we're talking. Immediately after losing 8 to 56, I win with 47.

[sku_u]

So does this mean next week, we're playing Freeway or Combat?

[MoonlightKnight]

Hey Ze_ro... mind if I get in on this? I always did like this game... I'd like to give it a go

[supercat]

Now we're talking.  Immediately after losing 8 to 56, I win with 47.

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Well done. I see you got all four corners. My strategy is to give up most of the edges, but bait the computer into taking a corner that will give me the other three corners and three edges. Doing that, I got the 45 I posted and then 42 in another game.

[vdub_bobby]

So does this mean next week, we're playing Freeway or Combat?

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Othello does have 1-player games.

[Christophero Sly]

So does this mean next week, we're playing Freeway or Combat?

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I for one would love it if someone picked Freeway.

[Christophero Sly]

Here is another shut-out.

[vdub_bobby]

Here is another shut-out.

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[sku_u]

So does this mean next week, we're playing Freeway or Combat?

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I for one would love it if someone picked Freeway.

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I like this game a lot. I just don't see how the hell the rankings are supposed to be done since there are two ways to play this: score as many points as possible or shut your opponent out in as few moves as possible. It's also a game that is much more fun if played against another human.

[Christophero Sly]

So does this mean next week, we're playing Freeway or Combat?

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I for one would love it if someone picked Freeway.

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I like this game a lot. I just don't see how the hell the rankings are supposed to be done since there are two ways to play this: score as many points as possible or shut your opponent out in as few moves as possible. It's also a game that is much more fun if played against another human.

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Oh right, I see what your saying. I was wondering about the scoring too, actually.

[video game addict]

Well since Twin Galaxies takes the highest scores first, and this is a high score club, I think it should be highest score first..

 

 

Maybe a bounty rewarded for shutouts, I think that's fair.

 

 

I would also guess a shutout would require fewer moves total, so in a way it is simpler to complete. Maybe no easier that a win of 40 or more, my games seem to be very random, yet I see some similarities between each go round, but a shutout in my mind at least should be easier to accomplish. But worthy of points nonetheless.

 

 

I wonder though after seeing Christophero Sly's first shutout, and seeing the score David Yancey submitted to the TG site, if David's score isn't a shutout itself. He's a good player, and it's seems pretty easy to loose with more than 13, so I've got to believe he submitted a shutout himself. He must of thought it was more impressive than any of his higher scoring efforts.

 

 

I've honestly never played Othello before, video or otherwise so the game is new to me. I don't see a problem having games like this in HSC, I think it's a welcome change to the high scoring, long winded games that you can play for hours like Asteroids going on in the 7800 forum.. I think it's good, even if there's 5 people tied for the #1 score at the end of the week. I honestly don't care about the points either, I just like trying out new games and seeing how I compare to the others here in the club.

[shadow460]

33 was my first win.

 

By the way, 7800 Asteroids warps my rear after 27K.

 

I know I can oull a shut out myself, just gotta practice.

[sku_u]

Well since Twin Galaxies takes the highest scores first, and this is a high score club, I think it should be highest score first.. 

 

 

Maybe a bounty rewarded for shutouts, I think that's fair. 

 

 

I would also guess a shutout would require fewer moves total, so in a way it is simpler to complete. Maybe no easier that a win of 40 or more, my games seem to be very random, yet I see some similarities between each go round, but a shutout in my mind at least should be easier to accomplish.  But worthy of points nonetheless.

 

 

 

If there is going to be a compiled list of scores, there should be two or three for this one, not one. First list could be total points scored. The second could be point differential and the third could be for shutouts. If Twin Galaxies only goes by high score on this one, shame on them for not researching the history of this game.

 

BTW, I don't see why we can't have an HSC without a score list. The whole point is to play games you might not otherwise, right?

[Ze_ro]

Hmm, yes, shutouts do pose an interesting diversion here, and certainly worthy of getting some amount of points although I'm not sure how to score them myself. In theory, since you completely wiped out the other pieces, it could be argued that you should (by default) gain the rest of the squares. At first, I had thought that awarding bonuses for the shutouts with the lowest number of pieces on the board would be good, but then I realized that it's probably much more difficult to get a shutout with MORE pieces on the board.

 

In fact, your 13-piece shutout screenshot would likely make it very easy for some people to deduce the exact sequence of moves you made, thus making it a trivial task like the 4-move Video Chess checkmate.

 

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

 

Hey Ze_ro... mind if I get in on this? I always did like this game... I'd like to give it a go 

Sure, all you have to do is post a score, and you're in!

 

--Zero

[Christophero Sly]

I wonder though after seeing Christophero Sly's first shutout, and seeing the score David Yancey submitted to the TG site, if David's score isn't a shutout itself. He's a good player, and it's seems pretty easy to loose with more than 13, so I've got to believe he submitted a shutout himself. He must of thought it was more impressive than any of his higher scoring efforts.

I wondered the same thing. I think it's correct though because you can't win the game with 13. I'm sure Yancey will show up soon and clarify this for us.

 

I've honestly never played Othello before, video or otherwise so the game is new to me. I don't see a problem having games like this in HSC, I think it's a welcome change to the high scoring, long winded games that you can play for hours like Asteroids going on in the 7800 forum..  I think it's good, even if there's 5 people tied for the #1 score at the end of the week. I honestly don't care about the points either, I just like trying out new games and seeing how I compare to the others here in the club.

I agree. I think this was an excellent pick.

 

Here is another shut-out and a win with 47. It turned out that there was still an open corner in that win.

[shadow460]

Figuring out the seven moves is not easy. The computer moves in the same pattern most of the time, but sometimes it will throw in something random.

 

I think it did that on the nine move shut out.

[Christophero Sly]

48

[supercat]

At first, I had thought that awarding bonuses for the shutouts with the lowest number of pieces on the board would be good, but then I realized that it's probably much more difficult to get a shutout with MORE pieces on the board.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

 

How about providing that in any stalemate win, shutout or otherwise, the player receives 1/2 point for every unoccupied square. Thus, the 47-point win in post #20 would be worth 47.5 points because of the unoccupied square.

[vdub_bobby]

IMO the ranking should be determined by raw score.

 

Give challenge/bonus points to: highest score differential (1 pt) and each player that gets a shutout (1 pt).

 

And maybe supercat's suggestion about 1/2 points could be used for score differential calculating.

 

So Christophero Sly would be ranked by his 48, get 1 bounty if his 32-pt score differential holds up (48-16 game), and 1 pt because he got a shutout.

 

And maybe only give bonus points to each unique shutout, if it proves too easy to reproduce them from looking at a final screenshot.

 

Maybe that's too complicated...I'm just throwing stuff out there.

Edited December 15, 2005 by vdub_bobby

[Christophero Sly]

IMO the ranking should be determined by raw score.

 

Give challenge/bonus points to: highest score differential (1 pt) and each player that gets a shutout (1 pt).

 

And maybe supercat's suggestion about 1/2 points could be used for score differential calculating.

 

So Christopher Sly would be ranked by his 48, get 1 bounty if his 32-pt score differential holds up (48-16 game), and 1 pt because he got a shutout.

 

And maybe only give bonus points to each unique shutout, if it proves too easy to reproduce them from looking at a final screenshot.

 

Maybe that's too complicated...I'm just throwing stuff out there.

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I like this idea.

[MoonlightKnight]

Here's what will probably be my best effort... I don't think I could top this. Expert level is rather difficult, even if you have a good idea what the computer will do next.

 

My Othello score

Edited December 16, 2005 by MoonlightKnight

[Ze_ro]

I don't really see much point in awarding anything special based on point differential... Most games end with all the squares occupied, so the differential is directly related to your score... in a shutout win, the differential is equal to your score... and in the cases where the game ends with some empty spaces, it's rare more than a handful. Given all this, I don't see much purpose in keeping track of this seperately.

 

I'm thinking what I'll do is keep the regular scores as they are, and adding a bonus category for shutouts, awarding scores for the most number of pieces on the board in the win (ie, shutouts with 25 pieces on the board would be worth more than a shutout with 15 pieces).... I'm thinking of awarding points to the top three scores in this category, although as Christophero Sly is the only one to have actually shutout the computer so far, this may be too many.

 

--Zero

[the 5th ghost]

I'll add in my own shutout

[MoonlightKnight]

Man... I don't know how you guys are doing shutouts on expert!

 

I'm jealous...

 

Honestly, I'd say that deserves a special score though... beating the computer completely is even better than owning most of the board.

 

I think Christopher Sly had the lowest score at 13, right?

[shadow460]

Yeah, I'd like to know how a shutout is done. I thought I could pull one, and I might, but I'm not convinced the computer plays fair.

 

I've gotten to the last six or so squares open, only for it to take four turns in a row more than once.

Tell me how that is fair!?

 

I had it beat at one point by well over ten points, and it pulled a last second move that evened the score. Once again, how is that fair!?

 

On top of that, my cart keeps causing the whole screen to flicker, especially right before it takes an edge square. What's to say that it's not changing the color of some of my squares when it does this?

 

I hate games that cheat, and I will probably put this one away before I break it. It's a good looking cart, and I'd hate to see it in a thousand pieces.

In the future, I'll break it back out to play on level one or two--I doubt I'll ever be interested enough in Othello in general to play to expert level.

 

Chess, on the other hand, that's one I play long enough to bring my skills back up to win many many games of.

 

My best tonight was that 32-32 that should have been a lot higher.