About
	AtomiX is a simple gaim for 0 to 4 players... The game can be played in one of two vairants - either as a two player game or a four payer game. The computer can take the place of any non-human players and attempts to outwit its human counterparts through the use of some sophisticated AI routines... The basic aim in AtomiX is to conquer the board and obliterate all your oponents atoms. These atoms are depicted on the game board as , with a different colour for each player in the game (red, yellow, green and blue). Each player starts of with just two atoms on the board and then takes turns to conquer the board...
How to play...
	Each player takes their go by placing an atom () of their colour on a square on the game board, this board is 12 squares by 8 squares. These atoms must be placed: On either a square neighbouring one of their current atoms (but not diagonally) Or, on a square already containing an atom of their colour If the atom is placed on a square already containing an atom, then these atoms join together and form a more powerful atom... , this new atom begins to have stability problems for the square on the board where it is placed. The squares rely on the neighbouring squares to hold them up and can only remain stable if the number of atoms held on the square is one less than the number of neighbouring squares. So, corner squares can only hold a single atom... Side squares can hold two atoms... And, centre squares can hold three atoms... When the stability of the square is threated, by more atoms being place on the square than the square can natuarally cope with, all the atoms split up and fall off onto the neighbouring squares... With the square reverting back to its best stable state, containing no atoms... These neighbouring squares where the atoms fall are conquered by that atom and the whole square changes colour to the colour of the atom that fell on the square. Again though, if this results in the square holding more atoms than it can stabily hold, then the atoms will again fall off onto the neighbouring squares. This can result in a huge cascade event across the board as all the squares become unstable.
End result...
	As these cascade events take place across the board, the whole board can change hands very quickly from one colour to the next, often wiping out a single player in one foul swoop. The game ends when there is only a single colour of atom left on the game board.
Playing a game...
	From the front screen of the game - select either 2 or 4 player mode. Then select who is gonig to play the players from ther drop down lists... Each player can be played as either a human or computer player... Once your players have been selected, click on Play Game to start the game. If you wish to play against Smart computer oponents, then click on the click box Smart AI. This enables extra predicative procedures in the program which predict the state of the board in a few moves time and attempt to take the game down a route favourable to the player concerned. Once the game starts, the program displays a depiction of the game board, shows the current scores held by the players and how long the game has been playing for. Each player now takes it in turn to select a square to move to, vaild squares are highlighted on the board (if this option is left on) and by the mouse cursor changing to a pointing hand . Clicking on any one of these squares will place an atom down. The computer will then calculate the end result of the board and update everything accordingly... Basically by plotting all the cascades of atoms (if any) around the board, then redrawing the screen. Then it is the next players go. Play then continues until there is only a single player left in the game. That player is the winner, and the time taken to conquer the board is displayed. The scores shown underneath the game board is the number of squares held by each of the players.
Computer AI...
	The computers AI model operates in one of two modes,firstly its dumb/stupid mode is the default mode. In this mode the computer will assign each of the squres that it could move to a score - this score is based on many different variables but basically comes down to how useful the square is to the player. A square containing some atoms is more useful as it could be used to conquer other squares, squares near other players are again useful for conquering those players. The square with the highest score is the square the computer will usually move to. Occasionally, it may decide to go for a different square to see what results or as a spur of the moment decision to do something different - so this way you cannot reliably guess which square the computer will move to. Its second mode is its Smart AI mode - which can be activated by clicking the check box on the front screen. In this mode the computer operates exactly as in its dumb first mode except this time the element of foreard planning is used to weight each square based on the number of squares that will be held after making a move on that square. So a square which causes a cascade event around the board will have a higher weighting than a square which just gives the player a single extra square. This means that the computer will ofen initially set out to obtain quite a few squares before building up piles of atoms.
A harder challenge...
	To have a harder game against either computer or human oponents, turn off the Show Squares check box as this way it can be harder to see all the squares where moves can be made and the player may well miss a good move... When playing with computer players as well, switching the computer to its Smart AI mode will offer a much greater challenge as it will now plan its moves with the basic aim being to conquer the board, instead of just trying to find the best square to go on based on a scoring system.
Other bits and bobs...
	If you want to add AtomiX to your own website - there is a page with instructions on it, which can be found here. If you want more details on the AI models and generally how the game works - click here. Or, to get intouch with the author, e-mail: sam@samhill.co.uk

Copyright © 2000 Sam Hill - www.samhill.co.uk - sam@samhill.co.uk