Bugs AI for Hive®

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Overview

Bugs is an AI for the wonderful Hive® board game by John Yianni. You can read the official rules for Hive here.

Bugs is currently purely text-based as I focus on developing the AI itself. It uses BoardSpace.net notation, so you should familiarize yourself with that before playing. It is best to play with a real (or virtual) Hive set.

Rules

All standard pieces are implemented in Bugs, as well as the three expansion pieces (Ladybug, Mosquito, and Pillbug).

Additionally, bugs implements the following non-standard (but widely used) rules:

No first move queen

The queen is not allowed to be placed as the first move. This prevents a style of gameplay which tends to lead to draws.

Repeated position draw

If a position is repeated exactly, it is considered a draw. (Note: this is currently only implemented for the shortest possible cycle of a position repeated after exactly four moves.

Negotiated draw (not yet implemented)

A player may offer a draw, which will be either accepted or rejected by the AI. (The AI may do likewise.)

If an error in gameplay is found, please contact me. It is my intention that Bugs be free of bugs!

Web interface notes

The web interface is compatible with at least the Firefox, Chrome, and Safari web browsers. If it does not work for you, please try the latest version of one of these browsers before contacting me.

The status of the game is reflected in the URL in the address bar. This means, among other things, that you may bookmark games, share them as links in forum posts, and navigate through the game using the back and forward buttons of your browser.

AI notes

(coming soon)

Other interfaces

For command-line users, Bugs may also be accessed via Telnet to bugs.pacejo.net. Help is available with the "help" command.

A programmatic interface is coming soon.

Source code

I plan to make the Bugs source code available soon, once I have figured out licensing and cleaned up and documented the code a bit.

Contact/Legal

Bugs is written by Chris Pacejo. You can reach me with suggestions, bug reports, etc. via e-mail at chris@pacejo.net or on BoardGameGeek, where I'm colanderman. If referencing a specific game position, please include the URL (from the address bar) of the game in question.

Bugs is not affiliated with or endorsed by Gen42 Games or John Yianni. Hive is a registered trademark of John Yianni.